P&P post 9

The conversation between Miss Bingley and Mr. Darcy on page 229, starting with "I remember when we first knew her in Hertfordshire"....to "for it is many months since I have considered her as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance."

This conversation seems to close once and for all the prospect of Mr. Darcy marrying Miss Bingley. Miss Bingley is a fairly terrible human being, and this moment seems like Elizabeth's just triumph, even though she wouldn't have appreciated it at the time if she'd seen it. Miss Bingley clearly understands Darcy's feelings toward Elizabeth, but she will fight them until the last second. Prior to this quote, she spends a page tearing down any mark of Elizabeth's beauty. Here the narrator comments that "angry people are not always wise". This rings very true in Miss Bingley's case. In her attempts to raise herself in Darcy's eyes, she has, in actuality lowered herself even more, by insulting the object of his great affection. Miss Bingley know this too, and this is what makes her decision to continue her tirade unwise. Darcy finally offers the death blow with his comment on Elizabeth's beauty, showing Miss Bingley that she has long since fallen out of favor with him.

Pride & Prejudice status posts

-Just made everyone admire my quiet intelligence. Score.

-Still waters run deep. That’s something I would say, because I make occasional deep remarks while upholding my outer façade of childlike beauty.

-Lms if you like my piano playing!!!!

-Behind that book lie eyes that are watching you and ears that are listening. Beware.

-It’s totally not fair that Lizzy gets all the men. She’s not even that pretty. And I play the piano better than she does.

-I feel like the forgotten sister. My sisters all have moderately charming defining characteristics, but all I have are my books. And the piano.

-Learned a new song on the piano today!! I’ll play it for everyone at the ball tonight!

-No one liked my song. Why didn’t anyone like my song?

-I love my sister Jane SOOOOO much. Mr. Bingley is stupid and doesn’t deserve as wonderful a person as her!!!!! Oh, and Elizabeth’s love life sucks too, but maybe if she weren’t so picky she’d have someone to speak of.

-Elizabeth’s relationship Mr. Darcy is the DEFINITION of “it’s complicated”. Let it go Elizabeth, we all know you like him.

P&P post 6

Although this post does not subsist as any form of plot analysis, I thought it time to be adressed. Throughout this book, (and I've noticed it in Jane Eyre as well) dashes are used in mysterious places. In both pride and prejudice, there are mentions of a "---Shire". In tonight's reading, there was mention of "Lord---", the father of Colonel Fitzwilliam. At first I thought these words held a pretense of being specific to the english language at the time. However, I began to wonder if there was any more to these impertinent dashes that haunt my reading every few nights. So, in accordance with today's method of research, I set to googling. And I found nothing. Not even a Wikipedia page. I suppose the internet has failed to measure up to Jane Austen's classic. There's probably a metaphor here, somewhere.

Pride & Prejudice post 5

"So, Lizzy, your sister is crossed in love I find. I congratulate her. When is your turn to come? Here are officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you credibly" (118).

This quote provides the perfect description of Mr. Bennet's alacrity to play on his family's nerves. Although Mr. Bennet's character is, as a rule, rather laconic, the occasional statements and solutions he offers of the girls' problems carry their weight in gold. Here, Mr. Bennet makes light of Jane's bruised heart. The women of the family all have distinct personalities, but none of them offer the comic relief that Mr. Bennet provides. The women have a propensity for serious attitudes, and even Elizabeth's logical explanations of Jane's situation can't compare to the laugh Mr. Bennet provides by making fun of it. It's hilarious how gleefully Mr. Bennet unravels his wife's plans of marriage for their daughters. He put their happiness before their family's rank, and therefore their pride. That a father figure would put his female daughters' happiness before his family's pride was unheard of in this time period. This further proves Mr. Bennet as a very atypical father figure.

Post #2.5

So, the funny thing about writing blog posts at horrific hours is that it tends to incur a propensity for: a. Spelling,grammar, or general readability errors, b. Ending up sounding like a blog written at 2:55 in the morning, and most importantly, c. Making the writer forget to add in half of the actual assignment. And the really hilarious part is that this whole ordeal culminates in said writer suddenly remembering the missing part of the assignment and consequently spending inordinate amounts of time typing out a blog post on her iPod with the intention of using 6 vocab words to describe her predicament, only to realize that her vocab list, like her laptop, is having a nice quiet evening, 3 states away.

Pride & Prejudice post 2

"[Mr Darcy] was divided between admiration of the brilliancy which exercise had given to her complexion, and doubt as to the occasion's justifying her coming so far alone." (Austen 27)

This quote is one of the first looks we get into Mr Darcy's mind. His status as a proud and haughty man is confirmed by his grudging compliment to Elizabeth which is soon voided by the critique of her judgement for making so long a trip when her sister would be fine. In this quote, we begin to see the inner struggle in Mr. Darcy not to fall for Elizabeth. Clearly, he will eventually lose. This will leave it up to Elizabeth to torment him for a while, before ultimately falling for him too. Mr. Darcy is a very interesting character because his inner thought genuinely reflect others' opinions of him. Often times when a character has such an unlikable personality, their inner thoughts are quite different. In Mr. Darcy's case, however, he's a genuine rotten tomato all the way through, at least for now.

Pride & Prejudice post 1

After reading Heart of Darkness, Jane Austen's writing style is SUCH a breath of fresh air. She uses vocabulary that is older, but I use a lot of the words she writes in my every day conversations. I connected to the characters immediately. Most people probably view this as a "girl" book, because (thus far) the story centers around the 5 Bennet girls. I know Elizabeth will end up being my favorite of the sisters, but my favorite character overall is the father. He's absolutely hilarious. He plays with his wife's nerves, and clearly has a reputation for joking around. This makes him very different than the other stereotypical father figures we see in this era. Another interesting thing is that the mother has such a large pull in the family. Although we are looking at the family through the social and homemaking eye, and not the professional one, I still think the mother has more leverage in the family than was typical for the time. She certainly has a better relationship with her husband than was typical.

Heart of darkness post 5

"'Do you call [the ivory trade] unsound method?' 'Without a doubt' he exclaimed. 'Don't you?' 'No method at all,' I murmured" (Conrad 143).

Throughout the book, Conrad eludes to the incompetence of the ivory trade and the imperialist regime. The communication between leaders is terrible, the workers blow up cliffs for railroads unnecessarily, and the regime doesn't provide the materials needed for the English imperialistic endeavors. When Marlow is aquianted with the "flabby red eyed devil", he is learning the devil of incompetence. By saying that the ivory trade has "no method at all" Marlow is relating this lack of structure and method to the entire imperialist movement.

In the book, Conrad uses this blatant lack of plan to mask the moral pitfalls of imperialism. He condemns Imperialism, not because it destroys native culture and kills innocent people, but because it is unorganized, wasteful, and thus futile. He mourns the loss of English lives, time, and materials. The loss of natural materials (such as ivory) are what Conrad emphasizes in his book as the most tragic casualty of Imperialism.