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She will make him a very proper wife -Pride218-
Does it mean she will become a proper wife? Or she will make him turn into a woman(wife)?
I think that the sentence above goes like this:
He quit smoking cold turkey. This could mean he quit smoking + he was cold turkey.
So, cold turkey describes the man.
I guess also the given sentence in which "a very proper wife" is embedded has the same structure as the example I provided.
Are those right?
"I like her appearance", said Elizabeth, struck with other ideas. "She looks sickly and cross. -- Yes, she will do for him very well. She will make him a very proper wife."
At this point in the story, Elizabeth is being a bit mean. She's talking to herself and has heard that Miss De Bourgh was intended to marry Mr. Darcy from their childhoods.
She's not particularly fond of Darcy's actions towards her older sister, Jane, and thinks that he deserves to have someone who has the seeming of propriety (her esteemed family background and inheritance) because it seems to be all he cares about (over the actual feelings the two people have for each other).
So, what she's saying is that, based on his preference for matching people (in marriage) who are of the same social stature, and his mean nature (in her eyes at the time) Miss. De Bourgh will be an appropriate match for his sensibilities and personality.
It's sort of her saying "He'll get what he deserves" because she's angry and doesn't want him to be happy.
I would take this sentence to literally mean:
She will be a good wife for him.
To describe something as 'proper' can by synonymous with 'excellent' or sometimes even 'apt'.
In this case, 'very proper' serves as an adjective describing 'She'.
The use of the verb 'to make' is typical of UK/British english to be synonymous with 'will be' when used in this context.
Also, good luck for reading pride and prejudice. I have stopped reading it many times, despite my best intentions.
Others have explained your proper wife sentence, but we need to clarify the cold turkey sentence.
The phrase cold turkey is a two-word adverbial expression meaning "abruptly".
So, the sentence:
He quit smoking cold turkey.
does not mean "he quit smoking + he was cold turkey." Rather, it describes the manner in which he quit smoking. I could say, for example:
Bob quit smoking gradually, by smoking two less cigarettes per day every few days, until he was down to zero. But his friend Frank quit smoking cold turkey.
That means Frank just stopped smoking one day, and never smoked again.
It means "She will become a very proper wife."
make is the synonym/has the meaning of become in his context. make and become are synonyms in a particular context.
