How is 相手 working here?


I came across 相手 in this paragraph:

「どうしていいか分からないな！」と、スクルージは笑いながら、同時にまた泣きながら喚いた。そして、靴下を **相手**
にラオコーンそっくりの様子をして見せたものだ。「俺は羽毛のように軽い、天使のように楽しく、学童のように愉快だよ。俺はまた酔漢のように眼が廻る。皆さん聖降誕祭お目出度う！
世界中の皆さんよ、新年お目出度う！ いよう、ここだ！ ほーう！ ようよう！」

How is it working inside the sentence?

In the sentence 「そして、靴下を **相手** にラオコーンそっくりの様子をして見せたものだ。」I think it is saying
something like 「He showed the appearance of Laocoon by making his socks his
partner」

Is my translation ok? Would it be ok if one omitted 相手?




It appears you looked up the meaning of `相手` and found that it can mean
`partner`. It has that meaning sometimes, but in this case it is better to
think of it as meaning `the person (or thing) that you are interacting with`.
So in the example sentence when it says `靴下を相手に`, Scrooge is
interacting/dealing with his socks. With that in mind you could make the
following literal translation:

> He showed the appearance of a Laocoon in dealing with his socks.

Having said that, are you aware that you are reading a Japanese translation of
a book that was originally written in English? The original English excerpt is
the following:

> “I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same
> breath; **and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings.**

As you can see in the original, it only uses "with his stockings", but I
believe the Japanese uses `を相手に` to emphasize there was more of a concerted
effort (struggle) involved. Also, keep in mind this book is from 1843, so its
is a Japanese translation of English from the 19th century...

