Emma Woodhouse’s Instagram

Here it is! I tried to encapsulate Emma Woodhouse with this assignment. I used hashtags on each post since that's the way you gain followers and popularity on a platform like Instagram, and we all know Emma would be obsessed with this facet of modern social media. I tried to think of a few quotidian…

[PLANNING] Possessing Fanny Price: The symbolism behind the jewelry of Mansfield Park

Fanny Price and her jewelry acting as both symbols and plot devices in Mansfield Park All physical representations of the most important people in her life All symbols of Fanny’s social indebtedness to others Cross from William Symbol of lower social class due to lack of chain to go with cross William couldn’t afford a…

A Homebody Gentleman’s Menu (inspired by Emma)

Woodhouse Weekly Menu Sunday Roasted lamb, root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnip, mushroom), freshly baked bread, apple tart, wine Monday Egg atop a bed of roast root vegetables (left-over from Sunday roast), left over bread, custard, wine Tuesday North Wiltshire, Stilton cheese, boiled potatoes, boiled eggs, wine Wednesday Fish soup, freshly baked bread, boiled oats and…

A Deserving Mother

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?” Mr. Bennet replied that he had not. “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.” Mr. Bennet made no answer. “Do you not…

People, Places, and Social Things

Mansfield Park is ripe with instances in which place names and physical locations are referenced and hold significant weight. One instance near the beginning places the two young Miss Bertrams in front of their aunt, Mrs. Norris, claiming, “She [Fanny] thinks nothing but the Isle of Wight, and she calls it the Island, as if…

Information in Conversation

One of the most notable instances in Pride in Prejudice, for devoted fans and first-time readers alike, is that of Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet and her subsequent reaction. Through their reaction, the audience is finally able to garner information regarding Mr. Darcy’s feelings for Elizabeth, whereas, previously, it had been gossip from…

Separate but Bundled

  Initially my search for items/practices present during the time in which Austen wrote was situated around marriage. Soon, I discovered a practice that made me laugh out loud: the bundling board. Essentially, when the parents of a courting couple during the eighteenth century wanted to test the compatibility of their children’s relationship, the couple…

Entailing inner intentions

Entail (as sourced from the Merriam Webster Dictionary): to restrict (property) by limiting the inheritance to the owner's lineal descendants or to a particular class thereof to confer, assign, or transmit (something) for an indefinitely long time: to confer, assign, or transmit as if by entail to fix (a person) permanently in some condition or…

Sensibility is falsity

In Love and Freindship, Austen presents her audience- originally her family members- with seemingly conflicted definitions of sensibility. To be sensible, one must be intelligent, without flaunting their brilliance, aware of social cues, have manners, be composed, without being notably emotionally compromised in response to any given event, and demonstrate sympathy towards others despite justification…

On “The Way of the World”

At the end of the first act in Congreve’s The Way of the World, Petulant declares, “Then let ‘em show their innocence by not understanding what they hear, or else show discretion by not hearing what they would not be thought to understood.” Here he is responding to Mirabell’s challenge, aimed to satiate his desire…