July 28, 2018 by L.

Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

A conscience is a very important thing. Without it we would make bad decision after bad decision.

But unfortunately, not all of us are tuned into our conscience. Some of us just go about doing what we want without thinking of others.

Hopefully those people have someone who will help keep them in check. Someone willing to point out their errors and how best to fix them. Someone…well someone like Mr. Knightley.

Yes, Emma was one of those people who doesn’t think of others.

It’s not that she tries to be cruel, she was just raised getting whatever she wants so she only focuses on her needs and desires. This can cause issues as she doesn’t always behave the best way.

Luckily Mr. Knightley is on the case to bettering her, whether she likes it or not.

“Mr. Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them…”

Yep, Mr. Knightley is the only one making sure Emma doesn’t turn out to be a selfish person. While Emma may not like having her faults pointed out:

Mr. Knightley is only trying to do his duty as her friend. Yes, friends are there to support and encourage you:

But to also call us out on the stuff we are doing that’s not right as well.

A lot of people see this as mean, but it is just the Austen version of:

After all real friends are there to help you grow.

And whether it is tough love, supportive love, encouraging love, etc:

For more on Emma Woodhouse, go to You Cannot Think That I Will Leave Off Match-Making

For more on Mr. Knightley, go to Book Club Picks: A Common Life, The Wedding Story

For more on Emma, go to Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating

For more bible verses, go to Book Club Picks: The Illustrated Man

January 21, 2015 by L.

Sisterly Roles

Ah sisters.

The joys and sorrow of having a sister:

You love them, you hate them, you love them again. Those who have sisters know the ups and downs. Those who don’t, take my word that the above song is pretty accurate.

Now I could go on about my sisters, but that’s not what this post is going to be on. Instead I am focusing on the sisterly bond between the Dashwood sisters.

With the Dashwoods we have three sisters: Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret; although Margaret doesn’t play as big a role as Elinor and Marianne.

Elinor Dashwood

Elinor is the eldest and she is the sense in the title. Elinor is only nineteen years old, but she is wise beyond her years and incredibly mature. She is level-headed, cool in judgement, and always thinks through very clearly on any decision being made. She’s pretty much the sensible older sister that has been copied and used in books, movies, TV shows, etc.

When Fanny comes in and is completely rude to the entire family, Mrs. Dashwood is eager to move out. But Elinor is able to stop her as she can keep a strong hold on her emotions as they need to stay there longer. Now she isn’t completely cold-hearted or an ice-queen. It’s just that she is a closed book.

“She had an excellent heart: her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong but she knew how to govern them…”

She has sense and knows when to say something and when not to.

This is something that no one else in her family does. Now it is true that keeping feelings in can be wrong.

But on the other hand that isn’t always the best thing. Having your feelings out in the world can also cause a world of hurt.

So let’s move onto the middle sister:

Marianne Dashwood

Now Marianne isn’t just some stupid or light-hearted, fluff type of girl. She is beautiful, kind, generous, etc. The only thing is, her feelings were never held in moderation. That is, never keeping them in check. If she is happy, everyone knows. And if she is sad everyone knows.

Pretty much she’s walking around with no filter.

More like feelings than thoughts.

But such is sisters. I did a paper on sisterly roles in college for my family psychology class. When you have sisters, especially those close in age, they tend to gravitate to opposite traits in order to create their own identity, be unique, and carve a role for themselves in the family.

So we have here Sense in Elinor and Sensibility (feelings) in Marianne.

Therefore one that strives for sense as that gives her support and makes her feel completely stable in life. The younger sister sees that her older one is extremely sensible, which makes her want to be the opposite and governed solely by feelings. Also Elinor is the eldest so she also feels more of having to be dependable and responsible for the family.

Just another case of being a sister.

For more on Sense and Sensibility, go to Promises Were Made to Be Broken

More on Coco Chanel, go to Women in Black

For more on White Christmas, go to 25 Films of Christmas

For more of my favorite songs, go to It’s Fantastico!

For more of my favorite quotes, go to I Have A Problem

December 1, 2014 by L.

A Sense of Sense and Sensibility

So those of you who have been following me for a while are aware of a challenge I made a year ago. You see 2013 was the 200th anniversary of Pride & Prejudice being published.

I was going to do this whole series of posts on the book, books based off of it, films, etc. You know, the whole nine yards. (Go here to read more about it). Unfortunately…

Life happened and got me off course. (Click here to read more about it). But I promised to continue to reread the book, watch the films, read the inspired fiction, etc until I had completed it all. It is a very long process and I have yet to finish it. However, as I was making these posts, I started thinking about how all the other books were being ignored. That made me sad, so I decided that I would read all her books, inspired fiction, film, etc.; at the same time and review them!

Yay that’s a lot, but it’ll mean that all her books will get a voice. Especially the widely ignored ones like Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park.

So the next book I’m going to start doing a lot of posts on is Sense and Sensibility.

Sense & Sensibility was the first Jane Austen book to be published. Before Sense & Sensibility Jane Austen had written Pride & Prejudice and sold it to a publisher. Unfortunately, that company didn’t publish it at all, but just sat on her work.

Jane Austen bought the book back and instead went to work on another one Sense & Sensibility. She sent this one to a different publisher and the work actually went through in 1811. So this book was the one that really set her up as a writer, and developed fans, making the publishing of Pride & Prejudice in 1813 feasible and accepted.

So all you Pride & Prejudice fangirl and fanboys better say a hearty thank you to Sense & Sensibility because without it, Austen might have become so discouraged that she never wrote anything else. And who could picture a world without her in it?

Here’s to another 200 years!

What also makes this book special is that it is the only one to have two main characters, Marianne and Elinor. Persuasion is all about Anne, Northanger Abbey focused on Catherine, Emma is Emma’s story, Mansfield Park‘s attention is on Fanny, and Pride & Prejudice is all about Elizabeth. Yep, this is the only story that two characters are equally represented. You know what else that means? Double the Austen Heroes.