Week 15 Joy and Happiness

Quote 1: "In all Austen's novels, but especially Pride and Prejudice, pursuing happiness is the business of life. Austen trots character after character before our attention so that we may consider what pleases, or conversely, what vexes and mortifies them, thus inviting us to assess the quality and durability of their happiness" (Johnson, 349).

Quote 2: "As soon as Jane had read Mr. Gardiner's hope of Lydia's being soon married, her joy burst forth, and every following sentence added to its exuberance. She was now in an irritation as violent from delight, as she had ever been fidgety from alarm or vexation. To know that her daughter would be married was enough. She was disturbed by no fear for her felicity, nor humbled by any remembrance of her misconduct" (Austen, Ch. 49).

Sympathy and Dehuminization

Quote 1: "Writers have been using descriptions of their characters' behaviors to inform us about their feelings since time immemorial... We all learn, whether consciously or not, that the default interpretation of behavior reflects a character's state of mind.." (Zunshine, 4).

Quote 2: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters" (Austen, Ch. 1). 

Quote 3: "To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love; and very lively hopes of Mr. Bingley's heart were entertained" (Austen, Ch. 3). 

Madness and Melancholy

Quote 1: "There is a disappointed merchant, a disappointed heiress, a betrayed wife, a classical commentator who 'has lost his wits inquiring whether or not the ancients wore perukes'; there is an unsuccessful lottery speculator whose plans for a beautiful wife, a magnificent coach and a 'villa on the banks of the Thames' are replaced by 'these melancholy lodgings', and a successful lottery speculator 'who, obtaining a very large and unexpected sum, could not stand the shock of such sudden good fortune, but grew mad with excess of joy'" (Ingram, 80).

Quote 2: "On Sleep intruding do'st thy Shadows spread, gloomy Terrors round the silent Bed, And crowd with boding Dreams the melancholy Head" (Finch, 23).

Reason in Robinson Crusoe

Natasha Mehta

Final Research Proposal

ENG 364

Reason in Robinson Crusoe

For my final research project, I am going to focus on the displays, and lack thereof, of reason and objectivity in Robinson Crusoe. A major theme of this novel is Crusoe’s tendency to act against the voice of reason, which is represented mainly as his father and religion. A lot of Crusoe’s idea of reason comes from religion and he believes going against his father is his original sin, and this leads to him judging his own actions based on his religious beliefs and is displayed through his repentance throughout the novel. This is the basis of his reason, which he does not always act in favor of, thus eventually causing repentance when he is hallucinating and sees the angelic figure saying, “Seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die.”

Robinson Crusoe wonders about the basis of his actions by reason throughout the novel. In the beginning, his father discusses his will to leave, as Crusoe describes, “He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father’s house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure” (Defoe, 5). Here, his father is clearly showing all very rational reasons for him to stay, yet Robinson still wants to leave. This is an example of him going against reason, which I will compare and contrast with examples of him acting in reasonable ways, and how this affects him and the story.

Week 11 quotes

Natasha Mehta

Week 11 Response

ENG 364

Quote 1: “That wretched little Carcass you retain; The Reason is, not that the World wants Eyes; But thou’rt so mean, they see, and they despise. When fretful Porcupine, with rancorous Will, From mounted Back shoots forth a harmless Quill, Cool the Spectators stand; and all the while, Upon the angry little Monster smile” (Montagu, line 75).

Quote 2: “It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves,- the only way women can rise in the world,- by marriage. And this desire making mere animals of them, when they marry they act as such children may be expected to act:- they dress; they paint, and nickname God’s creatures” (Wollstonecraft, 261).