Classic To Romantic Quiz 4

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In ELEGY IN A CHURCHYARD, the line "FOR THEE" refers to the poet. The poet is now referring to himself, in the past, he was referring to the graveyard. However, we do begin to wonder if the poet talking about himself or someone else.

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"Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate." Is this the guy that said "FOR THEE" earlier? This guy turns to "Hoary-headed swain." "Hoary-headed" means gray-headed, and "swain" means "old peasant."

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Thus, the man speaking turns to a peasant to tell him what happened to the poet.

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"Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove"--the crazy guy is talking to himself--he is alienated and slightly mad--so mad that all he can do is recite poetry to himself.

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This portrayal of the mad poet is actually the first cliche of a Romantic Poet. This is the invention of the poet as someone outside society who pays for his abilities as a writer by losing his sanity, social graces, and wealth. There was a belief that poets were so caught up in their emotions that they could not be a productive member of society in any way.

In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne could be associated with the Romantic Poet cliche. Artists could sometimes be seen as rebels when sensibility became incorporated in their works.

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"Approach and read (for thou canst read)"--the man leads the peasant to the grave but the poet can't read the inscription--which reinforces a major point in the poem. The poet could not read the inscription because he was denied educational opportunities.

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Jane Austen begins to rise to Academic prominence 20 years ago. She was percieved as a girly novelist before then and was attacked by feminist scholars for her supposedly anti-feminist views (like women in her novels always getting married instead of remaining single.) A 2nd wave of feminism came in, however, and said she proposed radical changes in the tight framework of her time period.

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Austen was born in 1775 on the eve of The American Revolution. She was born in a town called (check spelling) Stebetown--in county of Hampshire. Her father was a clergyman, and her socioecomic class was somewhere between the landed gentry and the rising mercantile business people. Her father was coded as a gentleman because of his great education, but he had little money. Her mother, Cassandra, was better connected.

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In late 18th century England, there were huge discrepancies in wealth. Peasants lived off of 10-15 pounds per year, while someone in the aristocracy might spend 150 pounds on the purchase of the sword--just because they liked the look of it.

In Austen's era, 1 pound would be equal to 125 American Dollars.

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After the death of their father, the 3 sisters are each given 1000 pounds. The women were gentlewomen who could not work because of their station in society. Women had to catch a husband to insure their future well being. Still, having $10,000 dollars was considered very little.

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After her father died, Austen went to live in a cottage with her mother and sister. The cottage was provided by her borther. The family survived on 450 pounds per year--45,000 dollars.

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Austen's brother James went to medical school. Her brother George was mentally retarded and isolated in a place that could care for him. Edward was adopted, by other members of Austen's family. It was fairly common for a large family with little money to allow relations to take one of their children and raise it as the relation's own. Edward becomes tremendously wealthy, possibly because of his adopted family.

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Henry was Austen's favorite brother. He was funny and satirical but failed at real life ventures like banking--he eventually became a clergyman.

Cassandra, Austen's sister, never married. She became a spinster who directed housework.

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Austen became disreputable because she wrote professionally at a time when women were frowned upon for doing so.

Austen has three major books, ELEANOR, FIRST IMPRESSIONS (later it became PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Both ELEANOR and FIRST IMPRESSIONS may have been Epistlary books--letters that became novels.

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Austen used to go to balls and thought about getting married. She was in love with a French cousin of hers, when, all of a sudden, he was whisked away by his parents. He had more money than she did and was also better connected--his parents did not want him to waste himself on Austen.

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Later in Austen's life, a girl marries her brother Henry after making two of Austen's brothers fight for the girl's affection.

Later, a woman named Eliza gives birth to a son whose father is believed to be the most powerful man in India--a British man named Hastings. This is problematic because she was married to a man named Hancock.

Austen dies at age 41 in 1817.

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SENSE--refers to Common Sense, while SENSIBILITY refers to emotions/emotional response. Elinor is SENSE, while Marianne is SENSIBILITY. Elinor is favored by Austen for her sense. Marianne seems selfish, which leads to trouble. To be a person like Elinor--someone who is so in control all the time--you have to be tremendously repressed. Elinor's repression takes form later in the novel when she begins to implode. In the beginning, her interactions with loveless Edward exemplify this.

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In the beginning of the novel, Henry Dashwood, his wife, and 2 daughters move to the estate of a relation who they expect to give the estate to Henry. However, Henry's first wife gave birth to a son who will be the direct inheritor upon Henry's death. Henry hopes to have the estate a long time and produce a long term profit over the short term investments he makes in the, as yet, unprofitable estate.

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In the books first great tragedy, Henry dies after having the estate for only one year. He was unable to make any money off of the estate and his estate goes to John Dashwood--his son from his first marriage. The mother and 2 daughters get 10,000 pounds all together. The interest they receive from their money equals 500 pounds a year--not much for women used to living in luxury.

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However, Henry Dashwood made his son John swear to take care of his wife and daughters. The right thing to do would be to give money to his father's wife and half sisters. Yet, John's wife Fannie wittles him down to nothing and prevents him from being generous. Mrs. Dashwood begins to think her stepson is not going to give them anything, and Elinor becomes attached to Fannie's brother Edward--something Fannie greatly dislikes. Mrs. Dashwood has a relation, John Middleton, who offers them a cottage on the other side of England. Thus a widowed mother and 2 daughter take up residence in a cottage--just like Austen's real life.

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Marianne appreciates Edward as a good human being, but she thinks he is boring, has no romantic flare, and has no ambition whatsoever. Edward wants to be a simple clergyman who would live in a village and minister to the surrounding parrish. He has very humble desires--Edward is too emotionally calm. Elinor says she "esteems" him--Marianne says if they are to be engaged, Elinor must love him, not just esteem him.

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When Elinor and her mother feel bad for leaving the house, Marianne goes over the top in her farewells. Exclamation points indicate overdone emotion. "When shall I cease to regret you! When will I learn to feel a home elsewhere!--From whence perhaps I view you no more!

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Later, as she's leaving, Marianne says " Who will remain to enjoy you?" Marianne is selfish--if she is removed, she believes that no one else will interact with the landsape as she did. Yet, she does not consider the fact that other people are already living there and will enjoy the landscape just as much if not more than she did. Marianne is so focused on her own feelings that she is incapable of considering the feelings of others. Selfishness is associated with Sensibility.

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Barton Cottage does not look like a cottage. The shades are not painted green, and there are no honeysuckles on the wall. Marianne wants the cottage to look like the thatched roof cottage of her dreams. Barton Cottage has a nice of the valley where everything is tidy and beautiful. This shows the influence of Pope--Epistle to Burlington.

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Colonel Brandon is very quiet--either repressed or depressed. Edward is also depressed. Marriane thinks they are both completely boring. Yet, to make things worse for Brandon, she considers him to be both old AND boring.

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Brandon was in the military. He met John Middleton in the East Indies. Later on, he is called away to London to care for his illegitimate daughter. Colonel Brandon is is a gothic character. He is an extinct volcano--Marianne gets his fire going again.

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Later, Marianne falls down a hill, sprains her ankle, and is picked up by Willoughby, who takes her into the cottage.

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Edward is a boring character. The reader doesn't understand what Elinor sees in him. He seems depressed most of the time. He is depressed because he is engaged to a woman he can't stand. He is in love with Elinor.

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p.121, 123. Thompson was a poet of the mid 18th century that wrote "The Seasons." Thompson was a poet inspired by sensibility. Cowper, another sensibility poet, became an evangelical Christian and wrote a mock epic--he is known for his insight into sensibility. Walter Scott was a novelist and a poet known for writing gothic poetry in verse. Scott was very Romantic and popular.

"And books--Thompson, Cowper, Scott--she would buy them all over and over again." Here Edward is being a satirist by making fun of Marianne's sensibility. p.123

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"Old twisted tree" is a sublime reference in Sense and Sensibility. Edward talks of how Marianne loves twisted trees because she loves sensibility.

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Edward admires Pope, especially when he talks of nature combining beauty and utility. In Epistle to Burlington, Pope discusses this very thing. The picturesque was a fad at this time.

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A Pilgrimmage involves going to a place to give homage to God. Tourism is going to a place just to look at things. Tourism was not common until the late 18th century. Before the late 18th century, tourism was TOO DANGEROUS, TOO EXPENSIVE, and was TOO DIFFICULT due to an inadequate road system.

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Edward is a satirist on page 127 when he says he does not like "crooked, twisted, blasted trees...I do not like ruined, tattered cottages," and admits to not like banditti (bandits.) Twisted trees, tattered cottages, and bandits were all part of the gothic, sensibility form of lit.

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Sincerity, Insincerity, and the complexity of both are a major theme in the novel.

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Minor deceptions and false flattery in conversations were quite common. There were also probing and investigative attempts into people who don't want to give info.

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Mrs. Jennings and Sir John want to find out who Elinor's boyfriend is. This type of conversation was stifling to Elinor, but she had to be polite. Elinor is polite, social, and nice, despite being insincere. Marianne is rude when provoked and doesn't try to be fake--she is sensibility.

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Margaret reveals that Elinor's boyfriend starts with an F. This will haunt Elinor.

Marianne is about EXPRESSION, while Elinor is about REPRESSION. Yet, what Marianne does not understand is that, by trampling over people's emotions--she hurts herself as much as she does other people--especially Elinor who always has to cover for Marianne's rudeness.

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At this time in England, there were certain social RULES OF ENGAGEMENT--things that you could not do with a person of the opposite sex at a marital age.

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RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
1. You do not correspond with an unmarried person of the opposite sex unless you are engaged to that person. Marianne's mother wants to know if Marianne follows this principle so she can know if Marianne is engaged. Marianne, though, completely breaks this rule.

2. You don't take a lock of hair unless you intend to marry.

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3. You do not drive in a carriage to a non-public place where people cannot see you. Breaking this rule creates all kinds of suspicions. No one knows what they do when out and about. Marianne also goes to the estate that Will is to inherit. Elinor thinks this is an engagement because Willoughby would not have brought her out to his estate without one. This rule is also broken.

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4. You do not call each other on a first-name basis until you know someone very well and are approaching or have already begun an engagement. Marianne and Willoughby call each other by their first names way too soon.

Should be Miss Marianne or Mrs. Dashwood before the engagement--not Marianne after knowing each other for a short time.

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RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

1. You do not correspond with an unmarried person of the opposite sex unless you are intending to marry.

2. Don't take a lock of hair unless you intend to marry.

3. You do not drive in a carriage to a non-public place where people cannot see you.

4. You do not call each other on a first-name basis until you know someone very well and are approaching or have already begun an engagement.

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Sensibility or sincerity leads to irresponsibility. When it comes to social rules, Marianne glories in in breaking them because, in her mind, it shows that the love she feels for Willoughby is sincere. She felt above rules because of her love, yet, she did not think about how her actions would offend other people.

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Chapter 16--"Her sensibility was potent enough." Marianne stayed up all night to show her grief. She is unaware of how much her actions depress her mother and Elinor. Marianne can't withhold grief because she would not be true to sensibility if she did.

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The Steeles come to town. Lucy is clever, scheming, and smart, but is not well not educated. She is ignorant because she knows how to act but doesn't, and makes small grammatical errors every time she speaks--she is known as vulgar because of this quality and others.

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Lucy and her sister Anne are completely insincere to the Middelton children--they are trying to impress the wealthy Lady Middleton so that she can better connect them with wealthy people herself. Essentially, the Steele sisters are insincere kiss-ups.

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Insincerity is a bad thing. Page 149-150, "upon Elinor the task of telling lies when politeness required it always fell." Marianne refused to concur with Lucy's false admiration of Lady Middleton. Lucy does it for personal gain--an offensive liar. Elinor lies to preserve--a defensive liar. Knowing when to be sincere or insincere is a key part of life.

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Chapter 22. Lucy knows what kind of a threat Elinor poses to her relationship with Edward and shuts her up with a vow of silence and the admission that she (Lucy) has been secretly engaged to Edward for four years. Lucy twists the knife in Elinor and tries to make it hurt as much as she can.--This is her stay-away-from-my-man speech.

Elinor's "astonishment [was] as painful as it was strong." This is an element of the sublime.

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Elinor "felt in no danger of an hysterical fit or swoon." Elinor has too much sense to make a scene with Lucy.

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The miniature painting of Edward is the main piece of evidence regarding Edward's engagement to Lucy. The ring, and Lucy's lock of hair also contribute to the evidence of Lucy and Edward's engagement.

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By the end of the chapter, Elinor is completely crushed. In volume 2, Lucy keeps bullying Elinor. Elinor represses her emotion but says ambiguous things to Lucy that take Lucy aback.

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People on the map Bertlesen gave us live in the nicest part of town. The Jennings are very close to Willoughby--he has to try hard to avoid Marianne.

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Regent Street was a brand new innovation. Prince Regent was an effective monarch--unlike the insane George III who, technically had all power. Regent was recognized by most as the leader of England because of his competence and the insanity of George III. In London, Regent Street was named after Prince Regent.

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The only reason Marianne came to London was to see Willoughby. She recieved no reply to the letters she sent Willoughby. She has a nervous, depressive attitude during this time. Mrs. Jennings says something about Fox hunting and the men being out of town--this greatly relieves Marianne.

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Mrs. Jennings spends a lot of time with her two married daughters. "Excepting a few city friends whom she had never dropped." Mrs. Jennings' husband became an extraordinarily successful businessman who obtained a lot of money. The friends whom Mrs. Jennings refuses to drop are friends she had before she was wealthy.

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Mrs. Jennings does not reject her past--she is still willing to go into the city and see her lower clas friends. This passage is meant to tell us a lot about the goodness of Mrs. Jennings' character.

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Willoughby is at the dance and pretty much ignores Marianne. When ignored, Marianne runs across the room and makes a big scene--Elinor then has to clean up Marianne's mess.

Marianne has the life crushed out of her and is never the same. She is too self-centered and needs to be slapped down--but she does not need to be crushed into a lifeless pulp.

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Willoughby did not write the leters he sent to Marianne, they were written by his new girlfriend Miss Gray. Willouhgby is weak and self-centered enough to not write the letter himself.

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Marianne is crushed and depresssed. She could be bi-polar. Many people in the novel seem bi-polar. Marianne has hysterical highs and lows, Elinor is about to implode from pent up depression, Brandon is silent and moody, and Willoughby drives very fast in his carriage.

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Brandon comes to comfort Marianne by telling Elinor that in losing Willoughby, Marianne is not losing all she thought she was losing. The first thing Brandon did in his youth was fall in love with a girl named Eliza. She is an orphan--in Gothic novels, orphans are common. He was in love with Eliza, yet his evil father (evil fathers common in Gothic novels) forces Eliza to marry Brandon's older brother.

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Brandon and Eliza try to escape from his evil father's tyranny, yet, she is caught and forced to marry Brandon's older brother. His brother abuses Eliza and has many adulterous affairs. Eliza, then decides to have an affair, yet, she becomes pregnant, has a child, and is thrown onto the streets to fend for herself.

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Brandon is in the East Indies at the time and is unable to help Eliza. When he comes back, he finds her, nurses, and tries to save her, but she dies of tuberculosis. Brandon names the daughter Eliza and decides to raise the child himself. He never spoke to anyone about this arrangement for 14 years. Then, his daughter was seduced, impregnated, and abandoned by Willoughby. This is the typical Gothic novel.

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Brandon finds his daughter and puts her up in a better house. Brandon calls Willoughby out for a duel--they both shoot, and they both miss. Thus Brandon the boring is not so boring after all.

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Chapter 13, Volume 2. Edward walks into the room with Lucy and Elinor sitting together. Elinor tries to make small talk and smooth things over, while Lucy goes completely silent. Elinor is trying to negotiate the situation. Then, Marianne comes busting in and Elinor has to smooth things over.

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SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is Austen's first published novel. She writes the scene in which Lucy's secret is exposed from a 3rd hand perspective. Mrs. Jennings has heard of Lucy's troubles from a person who heard it from antoher person. This is done to show how fast gossip flows.

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The Dashwoods favor the Steeles over John's own sisters.

People tend to embellish things in gossip--when Fannie's emotional response is revealed, it is like she had a nervous breakdown. Also, gossip comes with inaccuracies. Mrs. Jennings says the engagement lasted a year, yet, Elinor knows it lasted 4 years.

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Brandon comes over to tell Elinor of his offer to allow Edward to live at Delaford and use it as a living. Jennings, however, misinterprets their conversation and thinks that Brandon is proposing to Elinor. Then, Brandon leaves, and Elinor and Mrs. Jennings speak to each other in ways that cause them both to misunderstand each other--Mrs. Jennings thinking Elinor is speaking of her engagement, and Elinor thinking Mrs. Jennings is speaking of Brandon's deal with Edward. Eventually, they figure it out--Austen is playing with point of view.

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A Living is a position--the director of the parrish. Edward will get 200 pounds a year for his service. Austen's father had 2 parishes. You could have as many parishes as your political contacts would allow you to have.

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MULTIPLE LIVINGS--When a man took care of one living, he could hire a Curate to take care of another living. This person would be paid about 40 pounds a year. This could be a lucrative setup for the man in charge of the Multiple Livings. Since the Curate was educated, however, the system of Multiple Livings was compared by some to a sort of slave labor for educated people--making it very controversial.

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Elinor speaks to Marianne about Edward. Marianne thinks that Edward is like Willoughby and is very much against him. Marianne thinks that love must be pure, emotion filled, and free.

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Marianne says that if Edward meant nothing to her, she won't mourn for Elinor. Then, Elinor hammers Marianne, asking her to "imagine what I've felt for four months." Elinor was kept in pain for four months without the ability to release it. All this in addition to having to care for a very needy sister going through her own emotional crisis--"it [Edward] has not been my only unhappiness." Marianne then says that Elinor has made her hate herself forever--Marianne finally understands why it is important to follow social rules.

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Edward was also sworn to secrecy, just like Elinor, and could not tell Elinor why he would not propose to her. Lucy had trapped them both.

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Edward does not like Lucy but remains true to the engagement because he is too honorable to break his word. When it all comes out, his family tells him to break it off with Lucy because she is poor. He refuses to do so because of his own personal integrity, and is promptly disinherited. He remains true to Lucy despite everything that has happened. Elinor loves Edward for his integrity, but hates what Edward's rightous actions mean for her life--she, too, wants to marry Edward.

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Mrs. Smith disinherits Willoughby when she discovers his secret affair, impregnation, and abandonment of Eliza. She says he must marry Eliza in order to regain his inheritance. Willoughby goes to find Eliza in London, but becomes bored with her. She is attractive, but foolish, ignorant, and poor. He then finds Miss Gray, a woman worth 50,000 pounds, and marries her instead.

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Marianne becomes melancholic and emotionally crushed upon breaking up with Willoughby. The Palmers estate, which she goes to after leaving London, is in Cleveland. Willoughby has a house close to the Palmers in this area.

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Eve of St. Agnus--lots of poets would become Romantic poets. Romanticism grows out of sensibility and refines it. Romanticism brings sensibility to a literature of the 1st class. Romanticism involves EMOTION, the VALUING OF COUNTRY PEOPLE, LOOKING BACKWARDS, SADO-MASOCHISM (pain is pleasurable), and being set in the real Gothic period.

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Gothic stuff appears in prose. This poetry is not high art but sells well. Some Gothic poetry becomes high art and sells well. Eve of St. Agnus is by a poet named Keats--a man of the lower classes who was a livery stable worker.

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Keats becomes a great, self-trained poet. He had no university education to draw from.

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Today, surgeons are highly paid and respected. Yet, in late 18th century England, they were on the lowest tier of respectability. They were basically responsible for cutting limbs off. Gulliver was a surgeion. No university education was required to to become a surgeon--just apprenticeship. Physicians, who had to obtain medical degrees, were much higher on the scale of respectability than surgeons.

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Keats dies of tuberculosis at a young age. If he had continued living, he could have become one of the greatest English writers of all time. If Austen had lived 10 more years, she may have written 10 more novels and would have been much higher in the academic world than she is now.

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The Spenserian stanza was used in the Eve of St. Agnus. Spencer wrote fake medieval poetry. He was consciously archaic. He is backwards looking. Keats looks back to Spenser, who was looking back to the medieval period. The rhyme scheme for Eve was ABABBCBCC--two interlocking quatrains with couplet endings.

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The Eve of St. Agnus was clearly inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The poem is about a man going to see the woman he loves in a house where everyone hates him. The season is winter. The man wants to take Angela, the woman he loves, to his bedroom. The man will commit suicide before Angela's family can get to him--this amidst stormy and cold weather, high tension, and the possibility of death at any moment. This is a very gothic moment.

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In Cleveland, Marianne knows that Willoughby estate is close. When she takes long evening walks--a big storm comes-- rain is soaking her--only, this time, Willoughby is not there to rescue her.

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Marianne has been walking around without heeding the effects of weather. In this area of England, colds killed people all the time. Is Marianne courting suicide or death in her walks at night--trying to fulfill the Romantic notion of dying for love?

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Marianne's illness approaches Gothic intensity--"Is mama coming?" Gothic writers loved to see the imminent death of a beautiful young woman. As Marianne rapidly goes down hill, is she going to die a Romantic death? No, she goes to edge of life and death, but then makes a comeback.

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"The night was cold and stormy--the wind roared about the house, the rain beat against the windows,"--this is a spooky, Gothic scene as Marianne approaches death, her mother makes her way throught the violent storm, and Willoughby mysteriously makes his way into the house.

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Elinor is caustic and mad with Willoughby when he shows up. He is in such a heightened state of emotion that Elinor thinks he is drunk. Yet, he is not drunk. Willoughby wants Elinor to know that he did not concsiously scheme to destroy Marianne--a series of circumstances arose which required him to break off the engagement. Mrs. Smith found out about Eliza and threatened to disinherit him if he refused to marry her.

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Willoughby tries to shrug off some of the blame for Eliza by saying that she forced herself onto him. He says that things turned out the way they did because of the "violence of her passion and the weakness of her understanding."

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Mrs. Smith tells Willoughby that he can still inherit her wealth, but only on the condition that he marry Eliza, a woman he can no longer stand. Instead, he goes to London and falls in love with the very wealthy Miss Gray and decides to marry her.

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Willoughby says he will be tortured by his love for Marianne the rest of his life. Austen is not a Gothic writer--we never get to see a Gothic marriage proposal. In her life. Austen was proposed to, accepted, and then rejected the next morning. We see some of this in the Willoughby love scene.

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"My feelings were very, very painful." Is Austen having difficulty describing what she/Willoughby felt, or is she just trying to write the way she thinks Willoughby would have said it? "A dagger to my heart"--Willoughby seems like an inarticulate boob. "Thunderbolts and daggers...what a reproof she would have given me." Here thunderbolts and daggers are brought in to reinforce the Gothic feel and imagery of the moment.

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During their conversation, Willoughby tells Elinor that Miss Gray, not himself, composed the letters which were sent to Marianne. Elinor then sympathizes with Willoughby despite the fact that he dumped Marianne to marry a wealthier woman. By her sympathy, she also excuses the fact that Willoughby blames Eliza for her own impregnation and abandonment. Yet, Austen wants this to be a sympathetic moment so she can fulfill the Gothic feel she is trying to create.

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On page 350, Marianne says, "Everybody seemed injured by me." Then, Marianne decides to assimilate and become a better person. Yet, is she now a soulless person who gave up her personality to fit in with society, or has she simply become a mature and responsible adult?

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In the end, Marianne becomes as devoted to her husband Colonel Brandon as she was to Willoughby.