How is Arabella's Mind So Absorbed in the Ideal of the Romance Novel?

Natasha Mehta

Week 7 Response

How is Arabella's Mind So Absorbed in the Ideal of the Romance Novel?

Quote 1: “I cannot sit and think. Books think for me” (Lamb).

Quote 2: “But the greatest and purest pleasures were those of the imagination,

feelings provoked by imaginative literature and the fine arts. They were therefore capable of having a powerful effect: Addison in the Spectator remarked 'how great a Power ... may we suppose lodged in him, who knows all the ways of affecting the Imagination, who can infuse what Ideas he pleases, and fill those Ideas with Terrour and Delight to what Degree he thinks fit’” (Brewer, 105-6).

Quote 3: “But, not seeing any Signs of extreme Joy in the Face of Glanville, who was silently cursing Cleopatra, and the Authors of those Romances, that had ruined so noble a Mind; and exposed him to perpetual Vexations, by the unaccountable Whims they had raised…” (Lennox, 186).

Quote 4: “Upon my Soul, Madam, interrupted Glanville, I have no Patience with that rigorous Gipsy, whose Example you follow so exactly, to my Sorrow: Speak in your own Language, I beseech you; for I am sure neither hers, nor any one's upon Earth, can excel it (Lennox, 187).

            In this week’s reading, the absorption Arabella is in with her romance novels becomes even more apparent. She expresses her desire for a love as the one Cleopatra had, and Glanville realizes he must entertain her desires if he wants to marry her, no matter how ridiculous they are. Quote 3 describes Glanville “silently cursing Cleopatra and the authors of those romances,” which Arabella explained to him as being the type of romance she wishes for, and that she truly believes it is the only appropriate way to go about their matters. This ties in with the first quote from  “Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading.” Glanville thinks that these romance novels have ruined Arabella’s mind, and while it may not be ruined, her mind is definitely revolved and wholly absorbed in them. Her thoughts about love and romance are not her own, they are of the books she has read. The quote from Brewer also tie in the ideas from last week’s discussion of obsession and absorption. He describes the greatest pleasures of the imagination as feelings provoked from literature, which can definitely be seen in The Female Quixote. As the quote above explains, the power of literature can affect someone’s mind to apply the ideas they read to their own lives to any degree that they wish. This is certainly a condition of Arabella’s, who applies the romantic ideas from the novels to the greatest degree in her love life, wanting everything to be exactly how it is in the novels. She even goes on to use the words of Cleopatra to explain her feelings to Glanville, which seems to frustrate him as he asks her to use her own words. However, this is a problem for Arabella, who once again cannot think for herself, and thus uses the novels as an example of how it should be.