Just Desserts

Tomorrow is my last Jane Austen class. I had over 100 pages left of Emma to read. It felt a little daunting at first until Tyson decided to match me and he read 105 pages of his own. A couple of hours later we finished and decided to celebrate our accomplishment with banana splits. YUM!

Hold On Jane...

picture from stepheniemeyer.com

Today, during our break in my Jane Austen class, we chatted about having seen the new movie, Eclipse. We bantered back and forth about how exciting it was, whether it was better or worse than the other two movies, and then we got down to business discussing the characters. There is always a good debate between Jacob and Edward. One intriguing point drawn up by my classmate was that she despised Edward because he was cold and controlling, manipulative, and seemed to push the crazy patriarchal position of the mormon author. Being mormon, her comment struck me quite forcibly. Wow! Is that really how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (aka Mormons) are seen? I do know that there are some cold, controlling and very manipulative men around, but I believe they are found in and out of all religions including those who are agnostic.

Most of the mormon men I know are actually pretty respectful and encouraging of women and I, by no means, feel controlled by our "patriarchal" culture. I hope I stand as an example that women have a voice, independence, and even a right to help mold the world around them. I have never felt that my religion has ever even tried to dissuade me from these views.

Perhaps one fascinating fact, relevant to this argument is that Utah (the majority of which was and is Mormon) was the second territory (eventually state) to grant women the right to vote. Follow this gov link to read more. Women are not cowed and taught exactly how to think and act in our religion and it is insulting to have people continue to believe it.

Ok...off the soapbox and back to the ever-enduring, wonderful novels of Jane Austen. Thanks for your patience.

Fanny Price Makes a Good Point

"If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient-at others, so bewildered and so weak-and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond controul!-We are to be sure a miracle every way-but our powers of recollecting and forgetting, do seem peculiarly past finding out."

taken from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

The Favorite

Last week we discussed Pride and Prejudice...I just haven't had a chance to post anything until now. Isn't Pride and Prejudice the favorite for most people? I'm still undecided.

Anyway, the class particularly discussed one passage in the beginning of the third volume where Elizabeth visits Pemberley. Elizabeth finds herself in front of Darcy's portrait. She contemplates his power and position:

"How much of pleasure of pain it was in his power to bestow!-How much of good or evil must be done by him! Every idea that had been brought forward by the housekeeper was favourable to his character, and as she stood before the canvas, on which he was represented, and fixed his eyes upon herself, she thought of his regard with a deeper sentiment of gratitude than it had ever raised before; she remembered its warmth, and softened its impropriety of expression."

The wording of Elizabeth "fix[ing] his eyes upon herself," brought up quite the discussion. Elizabeth, who is such an independent character seems to place herself in Darcy's power by placing herself in his gaze. What do you think?

Is she really placing herself in his power, manipulating his gaze (retaining control), or perhaps just placing herself under his gaze to acknowledge that she has been capable of attracting such a powerful man?

Perhaps this is too much. Zac just rolls his eyes at all this crazy interpretation of literature. Perhaps he's right-it's just meant for entertainment. Hmmm...

Conclusion

Marianne represents sensibility and Elinor is the character with sense. According to one of the definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary, sensibility is defined as: "In the 18th and early 19th century (afterwards somewhat rarely): Capacity for refined emotion; delicate sensitiveness of taste; also, readiness to feel compassion for suffering, and to be moved by the pathetic in literature or art."

Marianne's character fits perfectly with that description. There are many definitions of sense (also in the Oxford English Dictionary) but one such definition includes the exact same definition mentioned above for sensibility. It seems that a person with sense can also have a certain amount of sensibility but be able to balance it out. I'm not sure how much sensibility Elinor exhibited, but I do believe that overall Austen tried to show that a good balance between the two is always best.

What I did find interesting is the combination of sense and sensibilities in the marriages. With Marianne and Brandon it is definitely one of each (sense and sensibility), however, with Edward and Elinor they both seemed to be strong in the sense department. Balanced? Maybe it worked because as characters of sense they also carried their sensibility but with much more restraint than Marianne.

My last few ramblings on the subject...
I started to think about which trait I would come across as having more of. I've decided although I think I have an abundant amount of sense, my lack of a "filter," as Zac likes to call it, probably makes me more in tune with my sensibility side. Zac is definitely all sense.

I'd love to know which of the two my friends think they are.

The Difference Between Sense and Sensibility

I never realized there was much difference between the two words. In fact, I had the the two words almost backwards in regards to their actual definitions. Today we spent most of class time discussing the differences/similarities between the two. Seeing as Jane Austen's novel is titled Sense and Sensibility it is important to have a good idea about what the two words mean and interesting enough, her two main characters, Elinor and Marianne, each exemplify one of the two words. Can you guess which character is sense and which character is sensibility?

Summer School

Tomorrow I start my summer class. I'm pretty excited. The class studies four of Jane Austen's novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. It's a super condensed class. A whole semester of work squished into four short weeks, but, I get to read Jane Austen for credit! Anyone want to read along with me???