Fear is when your afraid or scared of something. Psychology are key words to your answer
“The cough is a mere nothing. It will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough” this part of the passage is very ironic because he really won’t die of a cough but he is explaining the cough to be nothing for him to be worried about
A connotation is the feeling a word invokes. A denotation is what the word literally says.
Example: If these words were on a trip, connotation would be the baggage, and denotation would be the traveler.