tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post1863740501550283477..comments2024-01-29T03:20:32.291-05:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: Darcy’s stunning (& cunning) vindication of his own right…to re-educate Elizabeth!Arnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-89006710993540226922016-07-16T14:45:00.930-04:002016-07-16T14:45:00.930-04:00Perhaps you've seen this one already, but a se...Perhaps you've seen this one already, but a search of your blog shows that you haven't posted about it before.<br /><br />There's a clear allusion to Wollstonecraft in "Persuasion" when Mrs. Croft is talking to Captain Wentworth about the issue of taking women on Navy ships:<br /><br />"But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days."<br /><br />Wollstonecraft uses the phrase "rational creatures" eight times in AVOTROW (according to my search of the text on bartleby.com). The first appearance is in the introduction; perhaps this is the passage that Mrs. Croft is meant to be recalling:<br /><br />"My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their *fascinating* graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone."<br /><br />I found this because a student this term was interested in what Mrs. Croft says here and the phrase "rational creatures" sounded like it might come from somewhere else; a hunch led me to look at Wollstonecraft (whom I read back in the mid-90s). Unfortunately, the student did not end up writing the essay about "rational creatures" after all.Andrew Shieldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02804655739574694901noreply@blogger.com