breeds of animals
Posted by P. Bingham on January 17, 1998 at 13:24:08:
In response to The Newfie is why Henry is a superior being....;-), written by Caroline on January 17, 1998 at 01:01:11
] Newfies are big, heavy, clumsy and sweet....
I like how you noted Tilney as having a nice house and keeping his sense of humor. I needed to deal with Catherine's imagination, I would think.
] Did they have toy poodles then or just the big ones?
I don't recall but I can check that for you.
] Willoughby's Pointer..well, Pointers are bird-dogs.So he would have been a duck/pheasant/grouse man,or want to appear that way. Part of the Willoughby image... along with the mare called Queen Mab!And he wouldn't let Sir John have one...was she that valuable that he wouldn't part with the puppies? Or was he planning to sell them at an extortionate rate to the bucks of Bond Street?
Willoughby was a fake. I think he needed that image you speak of. Maybe he was planning on selling him but I don't recall him needing money... wasn't that old lady on the hill leaving it all to him? Perhaps Jane wasn't thinking about that at all but merely wanted him to appear tight-fisted or small with his things. That might give the reader a hint into his character and that all would not be sweet for Willoughby and Marianne. That it was not what it appeared to be...
] Interesting that dogs were so breed -specific. Does it show that they were considered more as useful animals than as pets?(Apart from Pug, of course!)
I'm not sure if the usefulness would be appropriate for a novel other than to show a character with common sense with a useful dog. There are various things that would prompt Jane to give a character a particular dog. The same happens in life, I think. People find the dog that would best suit their personality (for a pet) and their need (for a working dog). Either way it always says something about the person owning the dog. Also, the dog is a man's best friend, at pet as well as a worker, not the horse. The dogs often lived in the house... which would bring him closer to the family than any other animal other than perhaps a cat. But cats are fickle...
] And why doesn't she give this kind of detail about horses? Apart from Willoughby's mare, and Fanny's old pony, and Edmund's mare , there horses are treated in a much vaguer manner. Horses don't seem to have breeds at all.
Perhaps Jane was not knowledgeable there... Or, as I think most likely, Jane was a short, exacting writer who chose things very carefully. There is more to show from a dog about a man than there is a horse, unless a character was a horse fanatic, hated horses, or Jane wanted to draw attention to the carriage by revealing the details of the horses. In contemporary diaries and such, men are usually more descriptive about each other's horses, especially if in the racing field or the breeding field.
Also, regarding breeds, There was a specific breed of horse for each type of use, of course, so Jane would probably assume the reader knew a character had a riding horse, a working horse, a carriage horse, etc. The next item she might consider would be the color and that is not nearly as interesting. Jane was more interested in describing people and the type of dog they were most often with would definately reflect on the character's personality... our nature is like that. I think dogs were more useful to her in the respect.
Much too long, sorry!
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