tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post2796714493788296589..comments2024-01-29T03:20:32.291-05:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: Jane Austen’s & Phoebe Baker Hyde’s Parallel Beauty Experiments: Through the Looking-Glasses of Sir Walter Elliot Arnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-57317429589395932142014-08-17T16:15:58.765-04:002014-08-17T16:15:58.765-04:00Great answer! Jane Austen did put those perspectiv...Great answer! Jane Austen did put those perspectives on physical appearance in the mouths of those two older men, one of whom was judging the appearance of the other, but she also puts the harshest judgment on female appearance in the mind of her saintly heroine, Anne Elliot, who gets really upset with Mrs. Musgrove's 'fat sighings', because, I claim, that matron was blocking Anne's view of Wentworth on the sofa. <br /><br />It's very difficult to extrapolate from judgments made by her characters to judgments made by JA herself, but I do believe she reserved most of her irony and moral condemnation for those who earned it by their bad behavior toward others.<br /><br />Out of curiosity, had you read Persuasion before you came up with the idea for your experiment? If so, when? I have a theory that Jane Austen sent 1,000 Trojan Horses out into the minds of her readers, such that you would not even realize that she had prompted an idea, because it entered the reader's mind subliminally.<br /><br />Thanks again for your reply!<br /><br />ARNIE Arnie Perlsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-34555712864851656192014-08-17T14:49:57.484-04:002014-08-17T14:49:57.484-04:00Regrettably, no, I wasn't inspired by those tw...Regrettably, no, I wasn't inspired by those two male observers. But then again maybe yes, in that the construction of femininity (as opposed to femaleness) is such a social thing. Everyone has a hand in its creation, fictional characters in much-loved novels too. I find it interesting that the passages you found are from the perspective of men--they tell us more about the men themselves than the objects of their scrutiny. I wonder if Austen found this particular device of characterization less useful in women, or too mean spirited, or just--sadly-- too commonplace. Phoebehttp://www.phoebebakerhyde.comnoreply@blogger.com