Sense and Sensibility

This week we watched an adaptation of one Jane Austen's novel, "Sense and Sensibility". Like "Pride and Prejudice", the novel is centred around human characteristics, this time rationality (sense) and sentimentality (sensibility). The central characters representing these aspects of human nature are two sisters-Elinor (sense) and Marianne (sensibility), whose father has just died. They have to move from their beautiful mansion to a small cottage, since their father's property was entailed to their half-brother, John.

To summarise, we see how Elinor's patience and suppression of her emotions leads her to being able to marry Edward; and how Marianne learns that handsome young men who read poetry do not always make ideal husband-material. During the course of the novel, she learns to control her emotions and eventually realises that it is better to marry reliable men with good hearts, such as Colonel Brandon.

Austen has been criticised for repeating herself, and in a way we can see some parallels between "S and S" and "P and P" - young women's emotional trials, learning to realise one's faults, and the characters Wickham and Willoughby, for example. Their are differences, however, Mrs Bennet gives importance to money in a marriage, Mrs Dashwood thinks it necessary to marry for love. Marianne's lack of propriety, while it may resemble that of Lydia in P and P (the sister who ran off with and eventually married Wickham), is different in that she sees the outward expression of emotions as central to human existence. Lydia is just silly. Darcy is proud of his position in life as noble, and he has to get over this pride in order to win Lizzy's love. Edward Ferrars, on the other hand, is a shy, diffident young man who feels a sense of duty towards Lucy Steele, though he really loves Elinor, and is not particularlybothered about losing his fortune.

As always, Austen satirises the vain elements of English society of that time in a gentle and humorous way.

....a single man of good fortune must be in want of a wife...

Now, a lot of people are suriprised to hear that Jane Austen is not considered to be a Romantic writer, after all, she writes about love and marriage. We must remember that Romantism has no relation to romantic love, it is related to the expression of deep emotions in poetry. Jane Austen's style, on the other hand, resembles more closely the technical perfection of the early 18th century writers such as Swift and Dryden. She satirises her characters, but not with the vindiction of Swift. Rather, she uses a gentle irony to make us laugh at the ridiculous nature of some people. Just think of the opening dialogue between Mr and Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Recall also the marriage proposal of Mr Collins to Lizzy, and how you laughed at the former's failure to understand that Lizzy could possibly refuse him.

Pride and Prejudice is considered to be perfection in the novel form. The way Austen develops her characters; how the events unfold and relate to one another; the sequence of events in the rising action which cause Lizzy to hate Darcy, but Darcy to love her; how, Lizzy's refusal of Darcy's proposal causes him to reflect on his own pride and its consequences; how Darcy's actions in the falling action make Lizzy reconsider her prejudice of him, and allow her to eventually fall in love with him. When Darcy asks her to marry him again at the end of the novel, they have both undergone a significant amount of reflection allowing them to change their ways and see each other on equal footing. Lizzy finds a partner she can love and respect - and he's also handsome and rich!

Water, Water everywhere...

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner...

Coleridge's narrative poem captures the Romantic interest in the supernatural, with an ancient sailor wandering the earth telling his story of mysterious curses, ghost ships, sea creatures, spirits, angels and a Hermit.

The framework of the poem fits around the Christian idea of SIN-SUFFERING-REPENTANCE-REDEMPTION-PENANCE.

SIN - the mariner kills the albatross for no reason.

SUFFERING - after the bird is killed, the mariner and the crew are stuck in the middle of the ocean in the blazing heat of the sun without water. A ghost ship with Death and Life-in-Death playing a game of chance appears, Life-in-Death wins. The crew all die, and the mariner is left alone with their corpses on the ship.

REPENTANCE - first, the mariner curses the sea snakes for being alive. Once he realises thier beauty he is able to pray and express his regret for killing the albatross. The curse is lifted and it starts to rain. The corpses of the dead crew are temporarily brought to life to steer the ship back to their hometown. A man, his son and a hermit set out in a small boat to meet the ship. However, the curse starts back up again and the boat sinks, and the pilot drowns.

REDEMPTION - the mariner begs for forgiveness, and the Hermit, a holy man living in isolation away from society, redeems him.

PENANCE - however, the mariner must give penance for his crime, and the Hermit tells him that he must wander the earth telling people his tale so that they must love all God's creatures if they love God himself.

The style Coleridge's uses recreates the atmosphere of medieval ballads, with repetition, alliteration, internal rhyme, extensive simile and deliberate use of archaic language.

The Romantic Revival

Sorry for being a bit late this week.

This week we saw how the Romantic revival went against everything the Neoclassicists stood for. Out was reason and order, in was Imagination, Intuition, Irrationality, Idealism and Individuality. Typical Romantic themes include nature, the supernatural, the exotic, revolution and mysticism.

We looked at a few poems from Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, which he wrote to illustrate the two complementary sides of the human soul - the optimistic and the pessimistic. He belived that in order to attain true goodness, one had to face with the experiences of life.