Propriety, etc.
Posted by The Mysterious H.C. on February 13, 1998 at 03:55:13:
In response to Confused, written by Lesley on February 13, 1998 at 01:50:25
] I had the urge to read Persuasion and I've come across some things I don't understand. In Bath, when Anne meets Admiral Croft looking at a the picture in the shop window, JA mentions that she left Lady Russell in the lower part of Bath in order to walk home. She is unattended. However, Emma2 drew some heat bc it shows Emma driving around Highbury alone. I thought this was wrong, as well. So, why is Anne unattended
Lesley -- it isn't really the case that women had to be chaperoned every second of the day; though there were definite limits, they tended to be more complex and subtle than you might think -- not necessarily simple rigid absolute prescriptions. (I have some notes about propriety here.) I'm not even sure that Paltrow's pony cart would have been beyond the realm of possibility -- though it would probably have been considered somewhat "rustic" and eccentric...
] And then, when Anne manipulates the situation so she can sit at the end of the bench she "compares herself to Miss Larolles, the inimitable Miss Larolles." Who is this person?
A character in Fanny Burney's Cecilia (the novel that gave us the phrase "Pride and Prejudice") -- I only had access to a copy of Cecilia for about a week, and didn't get beyond the first few chapters, but Miss Larolles already had made an appearance...
- Link Lesley 21:26:59 2/13/98
(0)
Posting followups to old messages is disabled; instead go to the main index and post a new message which mentions this one.
