A Report On A Brisk Wind Run

The culture of set societal rules and conventions urges Catherine to be with Edgar, compelling her to be ‘the greatest woman of the neighbourhood’ due to them being relatively firm in their gentry’s status. This suggests the importance of her social status against the nature of her love for Heathcliff stating, ‘we would be beggars’, through employing the word ‘beggars’ the reader crafts the idea of her belief that she won’t survive without her status. Catherine admits ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him’ Thus implying a swelling sense of her vanity and pride; enough to enjoy the position she gains from being married to Edgar despite her admiration for Heathcliff, being ‘more than (herself) than (she is)’and

The steam from the kettle had condensed on the cold window and was running down the glass in tear-like trickles. Outside in the orchard the man from the smudge company was refilling the posts with oil. The greasy smell from last night’s burning was still in the air. Mr. Delahanty gazed out at the bleak darkening orange grove; Mrs. Delahanty watched her husband eat, nibbling up to the edges of the toast, then staking the crusts about his tea cup in a neat fence-like arrangement.

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author who was best known for her novels that commented on social issues and class, and Northanger Abbey is no exception. Austen’s social commentary is apparent in this novel’s plot, as the reader follows a seventeen-year-old protagonist, Catherine Morland, as she matures and forms intimate relationships with fellow characters in an England town called Bath. Marriage between characters in the novel is heavily based on wealth, and because of England’s unstable economy at the time, marrying into wealth meant maintaining a high social class and economic stability for the characters. The importance of economic prosperity and social rank heavily influenced marriage in 19th century England, and this idea bourgeoisie classism and marrying for wealth is contradicted by Austen in her novel, Northanger Abbey.

Catherine is forced to do lady tasks that she thinks are unbearable. "I can stand no more of lady-tasks, endless mindless sewing, hemming, and doctoring" (10). This quote shows

The dusty woven curtains at the end of the hall flapped halfheartedly in the breeze. The window was open, letting in any random bug that happened to pass by, since it had no screen. Margery’s doing, probably. She was Queen of the Hot Flashes. Stopping in front of her apartment, I was annoyed to see ketchup smeared under the brass numeral two.

In the poem ‘ Ordinary Life ’ and the adapted excerpt from ‘Lives of Girls and Women’, Barbara Crooker and Alice Munroboth respectively display an ordinary family life of two families living in different life styles. Both families live in harmony. However in terms of reality, Garnet’s family living style in the excerpt is more likely to take place in the real life than the family in ‘Ordinary Life’ .

       As the tale begins we immediately can sympathize with the repressive plight of the protagonist.  Her romantic imagination is obvious as she describes the "hereditary estate" (Gilman, Wallpaper 170) or the "haunted house" (170) as she would like it to be.  She tells us of her husband, John, who "scoffs" (170) at her romantic sentiments and is "practical to the extreme" (170).  However, in a time

In addition, the novelist provides us with many diverse roles of women. Women did not have careers, simply marriage offers. We are soon introduced to Harriet Smith, who is an illegitimate orphan, with no options but to hope for a marriage proposal. She does not seem to have a great personality, has a bad background, and no dowry whatsoever, so it is a strange case when the young farmer, Robert Martin, proposes to her.

Lady Catherine’s reaction demonstrates the crucial importance of marriage in the society, but also for women.

Catherine is so wrapped up in her fictional world of reading that she becomes ignorant of her real life issues with Henry Tilney, for whom she has been love-struck since their introduction. She entertains herself with wild imaginings about his life and family. Catherine's imaginings foreshadow her eager desire for mischief as Austen's story develops. Catherine is endowed with a vivid imagination, but she has not yet learned to use it in concert with her perception, especially in understanding the interactions between people.

Soon after her own arrival in Bath, Catherine is followed by her brother James and Isabella’s brother John Thorpe. At the initial meeting with the boys, Catherine is mistaken on two different points, still being ignorant in her perceptions of other people. Although slightly thrown off by John’s manners, Catherine is unable to formulate her own negative opinion of him, too affected by the opinions of Isabella and James, and “her judgment was further brought off by Isabella’s assuring her…that John thought her the most charming girl in the world” (Austen 48). For Catherine, it is easier and more natural to accept the opinions of someone like Isabella, a mentor figure. Also, in the same scene, Catherine makes the assumption that her brother James has journeyed “so far on purpose to see me” (49). Catherine hastily jumps to this false conclusion, not having the experience to detect James’ continuous questions and compliments of Isabella as a sign of his true motives for coming to town: to visit the “prettiest girl in Bath” (49).

Alongside Isabella, Catherine begins to learn the ways of the world, though never losing her simplicity or honesty. She discovers that countless people are defined by their wealth and status. Many of the characters that Catherine interacts with are preoccupied with material possessions, such as General Tilney, father of Henry and Eleanor. The General wants nothing more than for his children to marry into wealthy families and continually asks Catherine to compare his own home and gardens to those of Mr. Allen, “With a triumphant smile of self-satisfaction, the General wished he could do the same, for her never entered his (gardens), without being vexed in some way or other, by its falling short of his plan” (167). Austen points out how General Tilney must compare himself to someone inferior to him in order to boast to Catherine about his own majestic gardens. During her stay in Bath, Catherine discovers the intricacies and ennui’s of high society and marriage. She learns that it is not proper for a woman to be seen riding in an open carriage with a man who she is not engaged to and that often, women marry for money, rarely for love. Money often determines social and economic class. Class in 1798 England is central to the overriding marriage concerns which govern society. In order for Catherine to maintain her reputation and in time, attract a man to be her husband, she must learn to read the character

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is a novel that features vibrant character development but the biggest development is that which occurs in Catherine Morland. Catherine’s character nearly develops in all components of her being and she is able to evolve from the unorthodox “heroine” that she is initially described as. In the novel, Catherine starts out as an incredibly naïve and inexperienced girl who confuses all facets of the real world as the plot in a Gothic novel. Catherine develops as a character through her social interactions with those around her as it helps her gain experience with how to correctly perceive the world. With her newly gained experience of her surroundings, Catherine develops and is able to see the real world through a social lens rather than her own subjective lens or that of a Gothic lens.

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett depict a projection of the views of life and society in late 17th Century Elizabethan England, a narrow lens that concentrates on a small set of values and results in distress in their children’s’ lives. Mr. Bennett is distant from his family, preferring to mock and make witty comments about them, rather than protect them as a true father figure. Mrs. Bennett is noisy and foolish, lacking social graces and consumed with marrying her daughters into wealth. These two parents are polar opposites, one distant and removed, the other overbearing. Both appear unable to maintain meaningful relationships with their children, and as a result, their interactions become transactional and shrewd.

Marriage and courtship play a valuable and frequent role in Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen incorporates 18th century methods or processes to represent the characters’ ways of finding a suitable spouse. Affluence is built through family relations. For example, Isabella aspires to find a wealthy husband and utilizes many techniques that will help her receive attention from suitable men. She accomplishes this by wooing James and disregarding General Tilney after she marry’s James. Concerning Catherine, John, Isabella’s brother, desires to marry Catherine. He informs everyone in Bath that Catherine possesses tons of wealth, even though she comes from a family of very modest wealth, in order to form a good reputation for himself in the wealthy resort