Links:
Vol I questions: http://www.thebookrat.com/2015/08/emma-read-along-discussion-questions.html
Vol I response: http://www.thebookrat.com/2015/08/emma-read-along-vol-1-my-responses.html
Vol II questions: http://www.thebookrat.com/2015/08/emma-read-along-volume-2-discussion.html
AIA linky: http://www.thebookrat.com/2015/08/austen-in-august-participation-linky.html
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Completely unrelated: what lipstick is that? It's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteFrank Churchill....I don't think he's as bad as Willoughby, but he's definitely not someone I'd hitch my wagon to. He's duplicitous, and even when he thinks Emma's guessed his secret...he doesn't come clean! A man of good conscience wouldn't flirt openly and in public with her unless HE knew SHE knew he wasn't actually up for grabs. Plus, a man who truly loves his fiance wouldn't torment her just to get a rise. That's such an immature attitude, like pulling pigtails. So we are in complete agreement here about Frankie.
Jane's always struck me as not just shy and quiet, but also a bit cold. Not snobbish, just....staying away from everyone, emotionally. Even in her interactions with people other than Emma. Which is why Jane and Frank's relationship has always been a head-scratcher, to me.
I wouldn't mind horrible things to happen to Mrs. Elton. ;)
She's so controlling, and especially domineering over Jane. She's the perfect foil to Emma because both of them love messing with people's lives, because they're convinced that their interference will make things better for that person. Mrs. Elton, to me, is the mirror held up to Emma. And while we can say "yes, but Emma isn't as bad because she's younger and prettier than Mrs. Elton- and the narrator", looking at it from the perspective of an outsider...even in the Box Hill scene both ladies are verbally rude. Granted, Emma doesn't slight anyone like Mrs. Elton does with Harriet Smith. And Emma doesn't dominate conversation or interpose herself as intimate with people she barely knows ("my dear Knightley!"). But Mrs. Elton feels like the character Emma COULD become, if she ignored the coming wake-up call.
Nars Cruella lip pencil! =)
DeleteHere's why I rank Willoughby above Frank: Willoughby gets swayed by practicality (which, lets be honest, most people do; the heroes of Austen are the ones who take a risk and flout the norm), and you can tell he deeply regrets the hurt he's caused -- including to himself, mind. Now, I don't know that he regrets anything he may have done BEFORE Marianne, which is the only thing that keeps him debatable in my ranking.
Frank, on the other hand, intentionally causes pain, not because it's the only way he can move forward and have the life he's been brought up to, but because he's petulant and impatient, and wants everything to go his way. I'm not okay with that. That's not making the sensible (but painful) choice, that's being an asshat. And thus he slips below one of the best big bads of Austen.
Jane IS cold. A freaking iceberg, that one. Cecilia mentioned wanting to see a Frank & Jane book, and I said I couldn't imagine forcing myself to read it, but actually, I might JUST to see how in the hell that whole pairing came to be. Because what the what?
That's another reason I love (to hate, but also just love her place in the book) Mrs. Elton: she's the most negative extreme of Emma's flaws, so she holds up a funhouse mirror to Emma, and says, look, you don't want to be this, BUT ALSO for the audience, so that we see that all of those little annoyances with Emma are not NEARLY as bad as they could be, and are in fact well-intentioned.
Our Austen, man... she was a good'un.