Dudgeon is an emotion of personal affront that is felt to such an extent that it is impossible to restrain from displays that are clearly intended to communicate the feeling.
One difference between dudgeon and indignation is that while indignation can seethe, dudgeon rumbles. While indignation steams, dudgeon boils. Indignation rises, but dudgeon seizes a person as if in a fit.
People experiencing indignation may ride it for successful purpose like a surfer rides a wave. Dudgeon rides the person who experiences it. An indignant person may retain some sense of articulate expression. Dudgeon, on the other hand, drives a person to the brink of foolishness. Dudgeon tends to be bit out of proportion to the offense that causes it.
The intensity of dudgeon is reflected by the fact that the emotion is usually referred to as “high dudgeon”. No one ever talks about low dudgeon, or medium dudgeon. When there is dudgeon, it is high, and breaking out of control.
The prototype of high dudgeon is Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice, for the entire morning after his condescending marriage proposal to Elizabeth Bennet was refused. The likely impact of dudgeon is suggested by the fact that Mr. Collin’s dudgeon did not provoke sympathy among most of the members of the Bennet household, but rather, an intense exasperation.
