Persuasion

I've been so busy with school lately that I've almost all but forgotten this blog. Finding the time to update while actually reading the novels has been difficult. I've finished both Persuasion and Mansfield Park and am going to get some entries in for them this weekend. We're starting Emma soon, so I'll be moving on to Pride and Prejudice since I got to Emma this summer. There will be many entries to make up for my neglect since I'll have the time (fingers crossed!).

Persuasion is one of my favorites, perhaps because I can relate to Anne so much. Unrequited love that is kept for years is, unfortunately, something I can sympathize with. I always feel so much for Anne.

Discussions in class naturally brought up Captain Wentworth. So many of the girls (and yes, the class is all girls save for one boy) didn't like him. I believe someone called him a "stuck up jerk" for treating Anne the way he does through basically the entire novel (I think they would have rather wanted him to just forgive Anne in the very beginning, but then where would the story be?). I have to disagree with them. Yes, he did ignore her in the beginning and remained quiet about his true feelings, but he was always looking out for Anne. He suggested that she go with his sister and her husband in their carriage not so that he could walk the rest of the way home alone with Louisa but so that Anne didn't have to exert herself. There were so many instances like that, and no one in the class saw it that way, which obviously made me debate with them. It was so obvious that he still loved her. Wentworth is one of Austen's most sincere and caring heroes (Brandon is up there with him), and I would honestly pick him over Mr. Darcy any day.

I melt a little every time I read the letter he writes Anne at the end. Writing a letter with your true feelings and giving it to them without them initially knowing it's addressed to them is so romantic. Perhaps it does seem a little manipulative that he was wrote the letter nearby as Captain Harville weaseled her true feelings out of her, but in context the situation makes it not so. "I can listen no longer in silence... You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope." Those lines alone, if not the whole letter, make my heart cry. I honestly think that Persuasion is some of Austen's best writing.

Ah, I can't think of anything else. I'm going to make this an open discussion. What would you like to comment on-- your favorite part, favorite character, or how funny Mary is? The sky's the limit. I'd love to hear your thoughts about Persuasion.

Sense and Sensibility: Volume III, Chapters 6-14

I finished Sense and Sensibility the other day, and I find that all I want to talk about right now is Willoughby, so please bear with me.

I have never until this time reading it felt so incredibly sorry for Willoughby. Of course his coming to Elinor in the middle of the night to set the story straight and have her be the messenger to Marianne does not absolve him from the pain that he had caused Marianne, but how can one not pity him (I ask myself this because it never really hit me this hard)? Regret is a terrible thing, and seeing Willoughby suffering from it makes me almost want to weep. And the fact that he knows he did wrong makes it all the worse, that he should say that Marianne should never forgive him. I can only imagine what kind of pain comes with realizing that you love someone when it is far too late.

"If, however, I am allowed to think that you and yours feel an interest in my fate and actions, it may be the means--it may put me on my guard--at least it will be something to live for. Marianne, to be sure, is lost to me for ever. Were I even by any blessed chance at liberty again--"

Oh, it breaks my heart.

My professor mentioned something interesting about Sense and Sensibility a few weeks ago in class. He said that one of the first versions of it was an epistolary novel, written as letters from Marianne and Elinor to Margaret, but when the reworking changed that, Margaret had hardly any purpose. So that explains why she's just a character that's just there!

I started Persausion yesterday. We're flying through it for class, but I really want try to talk more about it than I did withNorthanger Abbey.

Northanger Abbey: Chapters 16-31

We talked a lot about the Tilney's in class the other day when we finished discussing Northanger Abbey. It was kind of interesting to sit there and listen to everyone pretty much bash General Tilney into the ground. I stood up for him. I said that he shouldn't be painted in a bad light just because of one thing (i.e. turning Catherine out). What he did wasn't necessarily wrong. I mean, yes, he was obviously money-grabbing Catherine for Henry, but it was in the interest of his son. He was trying to help Henry find a life where he would be well-off because he knew that all the inheritance would go to Frederick. General Tilney cares greatly for his children. Does that make what he did right? No. His actions of throwing Catherine out of the house on the spot was wrong, but his intentions for her being there were right. I'm not saying that he should be viewed as a saint simply because he loves his children, but he shouldn't be called completely terrible because of it.

Sometimes it's so weird to be one of the only people (if not the only one) in the class who have read the books at least once before and knows a great deal about early 19th century English life. Of course it give me the advantage of that it makes it so much easier to talk, but sometimes I feel like I might come off differently. I don't know. I'm digressing here.

I mentioned last time that I like Henry Tilney. I have always loved how he isn't afraid to say something that might offend Catherine. The whole journal bit is one of my favorites:

"I shall make but a poor figure in your journal tomorrow... Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings--plain black shoes--appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense... Shall I tell you what you ought to say?... I dance with a very agreeable young man, introduced by Mr. King; had a great deal of conversation with him--seems a most extraordinary genius--hope I make know more of him. That, madam, is what I wish you to say."

I love his sense of humor so much (and Catherine does too!). The topic of whether he really loves Catherine came up in class, to which I say yes. He does say he only began liking her because she clearly was interested in him, but I think his love grew out of that. Fellow classmates, along with the professor, think that he only asks her to marry him because it is expected, that he needs to fulfill Catherine's exceptions or else be deemed a cad. I don't think so. I feel that he genuinely has romantic feels for her and that his marriage proposal is sincere. What do you think though?

Northanger Abbey: Chapters 1-15

We are flying through Northanger Abbey for class, so this one might be a little lengthy, and there will probably only be one or two more entries for it. All of which makes me a little sad (what makes me even more sad is that we're going through Persuasion just as quickly next week).

I always enjoy reading Northanger Abbey because of the writing style Austen uses. She addresses the reader so often, and you don't get that hardly at all in her later novels. Her comments are so satirical; it keeps everything very lighthearted. It's almost as if she's reading the story to you, and then when she thinks of something related it's as if she says, "Speaking of which, I want to tell you my opinion of other novelists and their heroines really quick."

In class on Friday last week, my professor posed the question of what a heroine is. People gave standard textbook definitions, and then I raised my hand to say that with Catherine Austen is trying to prove that you don't need to have this extraordinary character to have them be a heroine. And that's what I love about Catherine. She's just this teenage girl on a trip to Bath, who eventually encounters interesting events. It makes me feel like I'm a heroine too.

As I got to the end of chapter fifteen, where Isabella tells Catherine of her engagement to James, I started to think more about Isabella's motives for becoming friends with Catherine. I truly believe that she considers her as a real friend, but I think her ulterior motive was to use her to get closer to James. My evidence: how she, John, and James were manipulative with Catherine to keep her away from the Tilney's twice, and how she met James before Catherine (the way she gushes about how she fell in love him the moment she saw him is a big red flag to me). The Thorpes are supposed to be the "villians," in my opinion, and I'm surprised I didn't pick up on this the first time I read it (John is obviously the easier of the two to point out as the nastier).

I really like Mr. Tilney, always have. I'll talk more about him in my next entry because I want to address something else really quick before I get back to reading for class today.

Does anyone else feel like Austen is poking fun of Bath society the entire time? I know the Austen loathed Bath whenever she went there, and it makes me wonder if she set Northanger Abbey there rather than in London or another popular cosmopolitan city to sort of vent about it. Obviously one would not pick up on this if they themselves though Bath to be heaven on earth or didn't know that Austen hated it, but I can't help but wonder.

Sense and Sensibility: Volume III, Chapters 1- 5

I figured that if I take this last volume in smaller chunks, then maybe it would finally get done.

I can't help but feel so incredibly terrible for Elinor at this point. Finding out that Edward is going to marry Lucy is heartbreaking enough, but to have to tell him herself of Colonel Brandon's offer of the vicarage must have been one of the hardest things to do. I couldn't help but put myself in her shoes as I read that chapter and felt my own heart hurting. Covering up your true emotions for the sake of another person is one of the hardest things to do. Reading it this time around, I've realized how similar my own personality is to Elinor's, and it makes me sympathize with her more than Marianne now.

One can only imagine what Edward must have been feeling during that as well. At that point he's broken off the engagement with Lucy, right? I'm guessing so because he seems rather confused at Brandon's offer, though I can't remember if he mentions later or not when he and Lucy separated (the last time I fully read Sense and Sensibility was at least five years ago).

I have to bring up the Steele sisters again. I apologize. As I talked about in my last entry, Lucy Steele: pretty annoying, but not as annoying as her older sister. When Elinor meets her in the street and she tells her all about what happened at Fanny's house, I really wanted to just smack her (this seems to be a running theme with each novel so far, doesn't it? Me wanting to slap at least one character?). The way she explains everything is just like acid burning a hole through a piece of wood. I don't know if that simile truly makes sense, but she's terrible is what I'm trying to say. You really listen at doors to get your information, Miss Steele? How old are you again? Ugh, it makes me sort of cringe thinking about if she was a real person that I knew.

Oh! I just got why Lucy's last name is Steele! Because she steals Edward from Elinor. Or at least I hope that is what Austen was aiming for, which I can see because it is pretty clever. Oh, Jane, you never cease to surprise and amuse me.

I had my first class on Wednesday, and he gave out the schedule of reading (yes, a man is teaching the class. I really can't wait to get a male's perspective on everything. It should be, hopefully, interesting and refreshing). We're starting off with Northanger Abbey, so just for a little bit there might be a few entries for that mixed in with these. I've read the first six chapters so far, so probably a little later there will be an entry for that (maybe after class today; I haven't decided yet). I am going to try my hardest to have Sense and Sensibility finished by tomorrow so it won't get too confusing discussing two books at once.