#And it would have made so much more sense than Eliza's seduction

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Still thinking about this.

If you put 35 year old Tilney in the role of Brandon, so many things in the novel hit extremely hard, even for me, who has been a Brandon fan since forever. Maybe S&S would work best as a seq- *gets shot*

[gwydionmisha]

Persuasion

NOTE: I was never an English major and am certainly not an Austen scholar, nir have I studied any of these in a school setting since P&P in HS in the '80's.  I just like the books.

Some of you may know that Persuasion is my favorite Austen book.  I fell in love with it the first time I read it, and I just love it more each time I reread it.  This may seem odd, given how much I dislike Mansfield Park.  After all, Persuasion has some of Austen's sharpest social criticism along similar lines as Pride and Prejudice, but has a gentle, understated heroine, more like Fanny from Mansfield.  It would surprise no one that I adore Eliza Bennent, but I also love Catherine from Northanger and Elinor Dashwood from Sense an Sensibility (The writing is a bit sluggish in S&S, which means I don't reread it often, but the bones are good).  My point is, that these are three different character types who I am perfectly capable of enjoying.  I would argue that my beloved Anne is another atempt at some of the things she was trying to convey with Elinor and to a certain extent with Fanny, only written at the height of her skill at the end of her life.

I have always had trouble explaining why exactly I adore Persuasion the way I do.  I mean, sure, it's overtly feminist in spots.  (I'd argue all her writing is feminist, it's just a lot of it is less overt, than say, the exchange in which Anne points out at that all the books being cited are by men and thus biased). Anne is far from the first heroine trapped in and constantly punished by gendered expectation and manners in her society, but Persuasion really brings that to the fore.  This isn't exactly it though.

Tonight I finally put my finger on it: It's a queer culture thing.  Bear with me.  I'm not claiming this is what Austen was intending.  People have made arguments for queer subtext around certain of the men in Persuasion, but I'm not talking about that.  I'm talking about Anne and Wentworth.  Yes, it's very clearly a straight relationship.  I'm talking about a deeper resonance, and it's a struggle to put it into words.

Modern dating apps and social media and queer liberation and all the rest have made LGBTQIA+ dating easier, but it's a recent change and in some places it's still like it was.  For a lot of the last millennium or so in European culture, courtship, seduction, etc., had to be underground.  Subtle things conveyed in silences, in looks exchanged over innocuous sounding conversations with double meanings, in body language, in coded clothes and secret passwords.  Outside of sex work, the way a lot of people connected was a careful, often slow business, involving feeling each other out and the suppression of more overt displays of interest while people tried to work out if the other person felt the ame.  It's been pointed out that this is why the image of hands hesitantly touching and than grasping each other more firmly when the other person reciprocates is such a prominent image in queer cinema and now TV.

Touch is still so often dangerous.  It can attract homophobic harassment and violence.  Particularly for transfolk, though for queer folk in general there is always a chance that the person one reaches towards might beat or murder one.

Touch is dangerous, but it is so powerful.  It is liberation, it is love.

So back to Anne, loving and desiring Wentworth so intently without any hope, being treated as sexless and a useful convenience by people who should value her.  Back to Anne who is only really SEEN by the select few with the discernment to look.  Most people only see the surfaces, and she is fundamentally at the mercy of those judgements from the undecerning for most of the novel.  she has a fine appreciation of music, books, and poetry, that most people in her circle don't share.

Once Wentworth realizes he is interested in her, the courtship is done under everybody else's radar.  They are at the mercy of other people's whims, of social constraints, of societal expectation.  They snatch moments to exchange a few inadequate sentences and telling looks.  They are in constant peril of never understanding each other becaue of gossip, because those snatched moments and cryptic messages are inadequate to convey what they feel.  They are both deathly afraid of being rejected and irreparably hurt if they declare to the other one something of what the want too boldly first.  What if they read the hints wrong?  What if Wentworth believes all the gossip?  What if Anne is reading him wrong in Bath?  For how many centuries have queer couples danced this dance in one form or another.  They are very straight, but this feels like a queer courtship.  the dilemna is resolved because he overhears her in conversation with another character and reads the signals right.  Finally.  He declares his feelings clearly with his pen.  Finally.  When she's handed off to him casually in the street to take home and they finally, finally connect...  Damn.  It's earned, it's so earned, and it feels like magic.

I am nothing like Anne.  My oldest continuous friend has referred to me in my heyday as Sexzilla, for fuck's sake.  I did now and then play with subtlety because I could, but for the most part, I decided who I wanted and ethics and orientation permitting, I went hunting and generally caught who I aimed for.  In my youth I didn't need much patience or finesse.  I came from a place and culture and time where flirtation needed to do the heavy lifting of trading disease status and sexual interests, and I have likened it to contract bridge, though it also happened to be very sexy.  there is no choice in waisting time with someone who wasn't serious about condoms and who didn't have enough overlap in taste to be worth the effort.  Better to move on and find someone else.  Now in the long twilight celibacy of my disability I have had to learn to bank my flames, but I was a bold thing once upon a time.

Anne still speaks to be on some fundamental level, some ancestral queer cultural resonance perhaps, or maybe it's a generational thing: the way plague shaped half of of us into people cautious of making that first move because the stakes were so high and the other half into risk takers trying to grab what joy we could before it all got snuffed out by bombs or virus.  I was never an Anne, but we all have known some.  Those pre-stonewall men I hung out with for a while still had a lot of those habits of carefulness, of slowly feeling things out, of flirtation that could be brushed off as no such thing if not reciprocated.  They'd lived through more than one revolution, but you could see echoes of the terrible world before the year of my birth in their eyes, in their manners, in their references, in the way they flirted with me and each others.  there was something similar in the late in life trans women I used to hang out with.  It was so alien to the younger transfolk that the other Xer and I used to have to translate back and forth between the Boomers on one hand and Millenials on the other.  Their cultures and frames of reference were so far apart it was like the divide between middle and modern English.

I have said often, I'm terribly glad we've moved on.  I have always wanted something better for those coming behind us, but I come from a culture and a time and a place, and Anne has spoken to my heart from the first day i met her in the pages of Persuasion. I suspect she always will.

[46ten]

Do you believe that Hamilton cheated on Eliza more than once? I really hope not and choose to believe he didn't. But I would like to hear your opinion on the matter.

I’m not even sure he cheated with Maria Reynolds! But since he claimed to have done so, let’s hold in this post that AH did indeed have an affair with Maria Reynolds that he truthfully described in the Reynolds Pamphlet.

I approach this matter with two questions:

1. What is the evidence for other extramarital affairs?

2. What can we discern/opine about AH’s attitude/proclivity towards extramarital affairs? 

—————–

Evidence for other extramarital affairs:

There is no solid evidence  - no one ever claimed to have had an affair with AH, as far as I’ve seen in the historical record. No one who talked to someone and had them tell the story claimed to have had an affair with AH either. There aren’t claims of other children fathered by him after his marriage (except for him as the father of one of Angelica Church’s children, but that gossip dates from the late 19th century). In contemporary accounts. there’s gossip about AH as an adulterer - though more commonly general character slurs - but it’s very difficult for me to determine whether that gossip predates knowledge of the Reynolds affair (late 1792) by AH’s political enemies. How often was he alluded to as an adulterer before that time? I don’t know - if someone else does, please share.

This is what Callendar writes about AH in 1797:

The accusation of an illicit amour, though sounded in notes louder than the last trumpet, could not have defamed the conjugal fidelity of Mr. Hamilton. It would only have been holding a farthing candle to the sun. On that point, the world have previously fixed its opinion. In the secretary’s bucket of chastity, a drop more or less was not to be perceived. The History of the United States for 1796, p 222 (discussion of Hamilton starts at p. 206). 

Most of the strong accusations come from people who sharply differed from AH on other matters. Of contemporaries of AH, John Adams is the person from whom the most serious accusations flow of “fornications, adulteries, and incests.” and so on. Is Adams credible? Considering that he waited until AH was dead to make these accusations, and also accused AH of being an opium addict, I’m not inclined to take his charges seriously. 

By the way, Chernow points out that John Beckley, copier of the Reynolds letters who was likely the person sharing copies letters with Jefferson and his co-horts so that information about AH’s affair was widely known by his political enemies within weeks of his 15Dec1792 confession, labeled AH a “double adulterer,” and then Chernow states he was presumably talking about AH having had affairs with both Maria Reynolds and Angelica Church. I guess that Chernow doesn’t know that the definition of a double adulterer is a married person having an affair with another married person - one is committing adultery with a partner also committing adultery, hence the “double.” It’s not having extramarital affairs with two people. So whenever Beckley stated that, he was referring to the affair of AH with MR. 

So was there really that much gossip that AH was an adulterer, or was it gossip about how much of a flirt AH was? I have seen a lot more of the latter.  For example, Troup writes to King (May 1799):* 

Though not yet in the field of Mars he maintains an unequalled reputation for gallantry -  such at least is the opinion entertained of him by the ladies.  When I have more leisure, I will give you the history of Baron [Ciominie*] & Mrs. Church as published by our Gallant General.

Look at how AH writes to Suki Livingston: 

Of all delinquencies, those towards the Ladies I think the most inexcusable. And hold myself bound by all the laws of chivalry to make the most ample reparation in any mode you shall prescribe. You will of course recollect that I am a married man! AH to Susanna (Suki) Livingston, 29Dec1792 [And he was writing this two weeks after offering a confession of a nearly year long extramarital affair!]

And that tends to be the pattern with any accounts of AH, as they are: he is in a social setting - dinner party, ball, etc - perhaps liquored up a bit, and is flirting with upper class women who know his wife (and are even related to her, as with Angelica). This is “safe” behavior from a man who prides himself on being chivalrous and a gallant - in the quote above, AH knows that Suki (who he has known for nearly two decades and is a distant cousin of his wife’s) isn’t going to take seriously that he’s offering her sexual favors.**

As for Angelica, I think others (Brookhiser and Cooke among historians, runawayforthesummer and aswithasunbeam here on tumblr) have covered how unlikely an affair between her and AH would have been, besides the common-sense argument: would you really sleep with your sibling’s spouse/spouse’s sibling? (Though let’s not mention a couple of Hamilton grandkids when it comes to that.) There’s so much that has been assumed that the historical record argues against - how much time AC actually spent in NYC in 1789; the shoebow/garter story…I’ll just yell my own complaint: JOHN B. CHURCH EXISTS! I also seem to recall that one of the first mentions of “incests” in the record, perhaps through Adams, noted that he’d had affairs with his wife’s sisters (plural). This is a comment on his closeness to his wife’s family (and possibly meant as a stab at the larger family’s political ambitions). I wish I could remember right now where that quote came from, but I don’t, so don’t quote it! 

—————————

AH’s attitude towards extramarital affairs

This is entirely my opinion, which I think is reasonable: I do not think AH had other affairs because I do not think he thought of himself that way.*** He prided himself on being honest, good-hearted, and disciplined. He writes about the importance of domestic tranquility and happiness (the latter he frequently states as the most important thing to him). 

AH was fully aware of the alternatives to sexual chastity within marriage. Growing up in the West Indies (and with his parents), AH would have known sexual relationships outside of marriage were very common. AH knew about Gouverneur Morris’s habit of seduction and affairs (usually with married women) - he jokes about it to him!  Having a mistress was not uncommon among men in his social class; and prostitution was common in Philadelphia. But AH was a thinker and an analyst, and I think he weighed these activities against what he thought was best and proper socially for himself. I have written before that one of the aspects of the 1780 letters to ES that I find most striking is how carefully he’s weighing - and being explicit to ES about - what kind of marriage he wants, in accordance with the expectations about marriage for that time. He makes it very clear that eroticism and sexual intimacy are very important to him, but then speaks of it as part of sacred bonds and ties sanctioned by God: the “unrestrained intercourses of wedded love,” “delicious caresses [that] marriage sanctifies,” etc. [See here for a post I wrote about AH’s expectations for marriage.] Briefly, I think a husband having affairs contradicted the way he saw himself in his relationship and working within the world. And the one time he attempted to have a formal mistress, it failed spectacularly. (And I think his naivete and just plain clumsiness speaks to his inexperience with at least a prolonged affair.) 

You can read my collection of some of his public statements on marriage here, but certainly the most frequently quoted is this: 

…to speak figuratively, he will regard his own country as a wife, to whom he is bound to be exclusively faithful and affectionate, and he will watch with a jealous attention every propensity of his heart to wander towards a foreign country, which he will regard as a mistress that may pervert his fidelity, and mar his happiness.  Gazette of the United States, March-April1793. [Note that this is published after his affair with MR has ended.]

When it comes to his own affair, here is what he states: 

This confession is not made without a blush. I cannot be the apologist of any vice because the ardour of passion may have made it mine. I can never cease to condemn myself for the pang, which it may inflict in a bosom eminently intitled to all my gratitude, fidelity and love….

[A man] would know that [a conjugal infidelity] would justly injure him with a considerable and respectable portion of the society—and especially no man, tender of the happiness of an excellent wife could without extreme pain look forward to the affliction which she might endure from the disclosure, especially a public disclosure, of the fact. Those best acquainted with the interior of my domestic life will best appreciate the force of such a consideration upon me. 

…there is nothing worse in the affair than an irregular and indelicate amour. For this, I bow to the just censure which it merits. I have paid pretty severely for the folly and can never recollect it without disgust and self condemnation. It might seem affectation to say more. Reynolds Pamphlet, 1797

So again, it’s infidelity as disrupting his happiness - and as a result of his failing. I simply don’t think serial adultery fits with his way of perceiving himself in his marriage and in society. 

*I haven’t seen this original letter to verify if this copied text is correct. 

**One could argue that EH didn‘t mind about AH’s affairs, but I don’t find it convincing. I think both AH’s letters to her - his references to never making her blush, his “most faithful” sign-offs - along with his very clumsy handling of his affair (he throws a lot of money at James Reynolds, with the only threat being “I’m going to tell your wife”), both speak to a strong disapproval of infidelity. Everytime I glance over his account in the Reynolds Pamphlet, I want to scream “just gaslight your wife, Hamilton!” The fact that he instead goes along with the blackmail makes him a better person than I! 

***I’m old(!) and experienced enough to define cheating as follows: lapse in judgment meets opportunity. It has almost nothing to do with the value or state of relationship or affection for one’s partner.

[janeaustentextposts]

So I just watched the Sense & Sensibility BBC mini series and I was kind of shocked by how they portrayed Willoughby as, I don't know, almost predatory. I've always seen Willoughby as someone who is careless and self-serving but never cruel or calculating. Kind of the prep school boy who goes on vacation to hook up, get drunk, and spend his parents money type. This adaptation seemed to be painting him in a more Wickham light. At least that's how I saw it, was just curious what you thought.

I mean, I have a lot of issues with how that adaptation tried to Sex Things Up with the addition of the prologue with (FIFTEEN YEAR OLD) Eliza being seduced by Willoughby, but not because it happened at all, but because of how it’s portrayed. (Just never try to ‘sex up’ anything that involves exploiting a minor.)

Willoughby is predatory. Eliza is a vulnerable young girl, and even when this is pointed out to Willoughby, he treats her with contempt, because she is comparatively stupid enough to have trusted him. His defense of his actions largely consists of “um yeah okay what I did was bad but that doesn’t make her a saint! and consider it was colonel brandon who said all of this like obviously the guy just hates me and cannot give an unbiased account of what happened! and I didn’t know I’d forgotten to tell eliza where I was going when I abandoned her...”

His aunt would have forgiven him and given him back his inheritance if he’d done right by Eliza and married her--Willoughby preferred to take his chances with an heiress in London, abandoning Marianne, too. When Elinor asks him what he said to Marianne before leaving Barton Cottage to go and find his heiress to marry, he claims he can’t even remember. So much for his true love.

He’s just so selfish he can’t even be arsed to think of decent excuses or admit it when there is no excuse for his behaviour. It wasn’t a one-off affair. He hid away with Eliza for at least half a year before he wandered off and ‘forgot’ to tell her where he was going or when he’d be back, and by then she was pregnant and alone with no money or friends or way of living, and wrote to the Colonel in desperation, fully eight months after she’d disappeared without a trace and left everyone in a panic. (As Brandon finds her near her due-date, she must have gotten pregnant within a month or two of running off with Willoughby, and so when he left her she would have been at least four months along, and it’s highly unlikely he would not have known she was expecting.) Either Willoughby is seriously stupid, or he is that callous and cruel. Wickham at least got paid off to marry Lydia after many weeks. Willoughby was made a similar offer by his aunt, to marry Eliza, and refused, and seems content to let others worry about what happens to her and his own child.

Willoughby is, as written, worse than Wickham. Yes, he truly fell in love with Marianne for the first time and shocked himself, but he ruined so many lives due to his lack of principles or constancy. Wickham’s a douche, but you can negotiate with him. Willoughby is a loose cannon.Re-reading a few passages of S&S just now to fact-check a couple of things, I was also struck by Willoughby’s attitude, and how it would have been a familiar one to Austen’s contemporaries. Of course we all know the sexual double-standard wherein men like Willoughby can fall from grace and recover their standing in the world in the space of five minutes, whereas a woman’s ruin is eternal and much more easy to accomplish. At the time there was this strange understanding of female sexuality that treated it as a kind of Pandora’s box--and once a woman had experienced any form of sexual contact, she was presumed to be an irredeemable wanton who would be a completely immoral nympho with any fellow that came within twenty feet of her. Whether it was seduction, ‘forced seduction’ (guess what that’s a terrible euphemism for,) or simply being caught in a compromising situation, the On/Off switch of the female libido would be considered Flipped, and there was no going back. She wants the D, now. Always. There are shades of this thinking in Willoughby’s defense of himself by blackening Eliza Jr. for her own ‘part’ in her allowing him to seduce her. (For a guy who is quick to point out that Colonel Brandon might be a biased and unreliable narrator in The Story of What Happened Between John Willoughby and Little Eliza, he doesn’t seem to realize that he, himself, is likely to be an even less reliable narrator after the shit has hit the fan.)

That she was silly enough to be persuaded by him seems to be his chief condemnation of her character, and he speaks as if this ought to be enough to exonerate him, as clearly Eliza has zero character and ought not to deserve anybody’s pity or support. All other elements of her circumstances don’t matter to him one bit, and Elinor and Brandon’s continuing sympathy for the girl despite all that’s happened seem to represent a more moderate way of understanding such a situation, which I take to be Austen’s own general view of such things. Humanity is not so starkly divided into good and evil as it often is in fiction or in popular sentiment, and Jane Austen knew this very well, perhaps in part due to her upbringing as a clergyman’s daughter, who might have borne witness to the varied crises of poor behaviour which occur in all communities. A measure of compassion for the complexity of a young single mother’s situation seems more rational than an outright condemnation of her, and chiefly/only her, as Willoughby would have it.As Austen wrote in Emma, “Seldom,very seldom does complete truth belong to any human disclosure;seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, ora little mistaken...” and I think it indicative of her approach to human characters--perfection in our interactions is impossible, and a little flexibility and understanding serves us better than to go at things with rigid determination. Those characters who are most unwilling to change, bend, or accept the flaws in themselves are the unhappiest--and that includes the selfish, predatory, blame-everyone-but-me-because-ow-my-heart Willoughby.

[misscrawfords]

Sparkling like granite?

So ITV is making a new adaptation of Pride and Prejudice which is going bring out its “darker tones”.

Here are my thoughts at considerable length (which nobody asked for) about this adaptation (which nobody asked for).

My initial response was mixed. On the one hand, I’m actually not averse to a new adaptation of P&P. Sure, it’s over-adapted and there are lots of novels which deserve a multi-part adaptation more than P&P. (Mansfield Park? The novels of Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott?)  However, P&P is one of the world’s most popular novels and there hasn’t been a straight TV adaptation of it in over 20 years. Adaptations of P&P often say as much about the time in which they are made as they do about the source material and a good adaptation, even if one doesn’t necessarily agree with the choices made, can make you see the book in a new light and provoke discussion. I’m not averse to that.

So there’s that response of muted interest. That warred with deep misgivings about the “darker tones” of Austen’s “adult” novel which is “much less bonnet-y” in an adaptation by someone who has apparently never watched an adaptation of the book, despite loving it. Really? Has she been living under a rock? P&P is so much part of popular culture that it seems impossible to adapt it in a way that does not pay homage consciously or subconsciously to previous adaptations. Can one avoid a “post-modern moment” as Lost in Austen so delightfully made explicit? I’m deeply sceptical. (Does one even want to? Intertextuality can add so much... but that’s a discussion for another day.) Anyway, back to the “darker tones”. My instinct is to say that this seems terribly wrong. Of all Austen novels, P&P is the most light-hearted, the most sparkling, the most comforting. Why oh why, would you want to mess with that? For goodness sake, let us have our romantic comedies and laugh out loud satire and implausible happy endings! Why must everything be marred with the brush of making things grim and dark and equating that grimness with gritty reality? Reality may be sometimes grim and dark but it is also sometimes hilarious and warm and full of love. Why must the former be prioritised? I have a massive problem with reinterpreting texts to “make them dark” as if that is a naturally good thing. But that’s probably also a discussion for another day.

So, mixed feelings. But naturally the purists are up in arms about this idea (and a part of me certainly wants to join them) and that makes me desperately inclined to take a second look and examine the possibilities of this adaptation and some of the potentially intriguing things the writer has said. 

“Darker tones”

Okay, so firstly what does this mean? Does P&P even have darker tones? Surely you have to squint? Weeeeeell, yes and no. It’s a mistake to assume Austen never wrote about the nastier aspects of human nature and experience. The more obvious examples (leaving out Mansfield Park’s troubled potential references to the slave trade) are the fate of Colonel Brandon’s ward, Eliza; the decline of Mrs. Smith; the condition of the Prices in Portsmouth; the fate of Maria Rushworth; General Tilney’s treatment of his wife - and of course Wickham’s role in P&P. Just because Austen doesn’t write rape, seduction, abuse, death etc. explicitly on the page and just because her novels end (mostly) happily doesn’t mean she lives in a fantasy world untouched by these things.

Let’s look at Wickham. He attempted to seduce a vulnerable 15 year old girl who knew him and trusted him and used a woman in a position of authority to her to gain access to her. To use modern terminology, how long, one wonders, had he been grooming Georgiana? The elopement was prevented but only just. And while Darcy clearly thinks his sister’s reputation is intact (and her virtue), is it? Could Wickham have persuaded Georgiana to sleep with him before the elopement? I don’t personally think so - I think she would have somehow told Darcy if that had happened - but it is a possible and interesting idea, even if I don’t know where you would go with that except to show what an awful person Wickham is... which we know.

Wickham then successfully elopes with another 15 year old girl in a vulnerable position away from her family a year later - this is looking like a pattern of a rather unhealthy interest in underage girls (again to use modern theory, which is dangerous as an interpretation but sometimes useful). He’s the same age as Darcy after all - 28. Not an unheard of age gap in those days but still creepy considering the vulnerable positions of the girls in question. Lydia is ruined and by proxy, so are her sister’s chances. Wickham causes a LOT of problems by this one act. And all to get revenge on Darcy for refusing to give him money after he spent all his.

There is, moreover, the Meryton gossip: “He was declared to be in debt to every tradesman in the place, and his intrigues, all honoured with the title of seduction, had been extended into every tradesman’s family.”

Is this true? Has he been seducing (raping?) respectable girls in Meryton? Who knows! This is the wisdom of Mrs. Phillips after all. But they are talking about it openly in the text, there is rarely smoke without fire and it would hardly be out of character.

Is this sufficiently dark? It’s certainly not exactly a riotous comedy. Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of a Meryton tradesman’s daughter who loses her virtue and her father his money would be a very different novel. Georgiana’s history bears close examination. As with Eleanor Tilney’s story in Northanger Abbey, a real Gothic tale right under Catherine’s nose which she doesn’t even notice, there’s something pretty horrible going on in P&P if you care to look. 

Perhaps this is what the writer Raine means by “actually a very adult book”.

What else could that refer to? (Because I give her sufficient credit to assume she’s not going to add in random pornographic scenes for the sake of it. Honestly.)

Jane Bennet. Jane is basically depressed for the duration of the novel. Elizabeth constantly worries over her low-spirits and concern for her affects her own happiness. In fact, Elizabeth herself is miserable for a lot of the novel. She goes on a journey of self-discovery but that comes at a cost. She is affected by Charlotte’s marriage, Jane’s disappointment, her own disappointment in Wickham, the effect of reading Darcy’s letter, Lydia’s elopement and finally realising she loves Darcy and will never have him. That’s a lot to throw at even the most resilient, good-humoured and optimistic person. Just because Lizzy loves to laugh doesn’t mean she is not unhappy in some way or other for a lot of the novel. For example:

After disappointment re Bingley and Wickham: 

“Oh! if that is all, I have a very poor opinion of young men who live in Derbyshire; and their intimate friends who live in Hertfordshire are not much better. I am sick of them all. Thank Heaven! I am going to-morrow where I shall find a man who has not one agreeable quality, who has neither manner nor sense to recommend him. Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all.”

“Take care, Lizzy; that speech savours strongly of disappointment.”

(I am always struck by the great bitterness in Elizabeth’s humour in that scene. It’s often overlooked IMO.)

After reading Darcy’s letter: 

...it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.

The only other use of the word “depressed” in the novel also applies to Elizabeth.

When Lydia has returned with Wickham:

Elizabeth could bear it no longer. She got up, and ran out of the room; and returned no more, till she heard them passing through the hall to the dining parlour.

You’ve got to be pretty much at the end of your tether to run out of the room at the age of 20 because you cannot bear to hear your sister talking any more.

Elizabeth is not happy. Jane is not happy. Mrs. Bennet is certainly not happy. Sure, it’s a comedy and Elizabeth has the delightful ability to laugh at herself and others and Jane tries very hard to overcome low spirits and always sees the best and Mrs. Bennet absolutely must be a caricature or else the humour is lost and everything becomes terribly heavy and not like the novel at all, but we feel triumphant with Elizabeth at the end precisely because she has actually suffered so much along the way in very human ways - romantic disappointment, losing a friend to a lifestyle choice she can’t understand, family troubles... These are not the things of epic but that doesn’t make them unimportant. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries conveys this aspect of the characters so well without losing the comedy. It is possible. Certainly I don’t think any other period adaptation has succeeded so well and I would love to see an adaptation that does. It’s not graphic sex, but I would describe this as in the realm of adult themes.

“Much less bonnet-y”

Okay, I don’t really know what this means. I suspect it’s a dig at the period dramas of the 1980s and 90s with beautiful aesthetics and no dirt and everyone speaking very properly. I thought we got the reaction to that overwith in the 00s and I really don’t want more sackcloths and pigs in the corridors, please. Ladies in that period wore bonnets. Get over it. This strikes me as the most provocative statement in all the things that were said, but it is also largely meaningless without more context. Productions like Poldark and Victoria have made an effort with costumes and sets so I don’t see why this would skimp on them. Will it be set in the 1790s this time with more of a rompish Georgian feel than a neo-classical Regency tone? Time only will tell!

"I hope I do justice to Austen’s dark intelligence – sparkling, yes, but sparkling like granite.”

Now this intrigues me! This is what makes me curious and also hopeful. Because Austen pulled no punches and had a very good understanding of dark impulses and the awful ridiculousness of human behaviour - and she absolutely skewered it.

In Paragon we met Mrs. Foley and Mrs. Dowdeswell with her yellow shawl airing out, and at the bottom of Kingsdown Hill we met a gentleman in a buggy, who, on minute examination, turned out to be Dr. Hall — and Dr. Hall in such very deep mourning that either his mother, his wife, or himself must be dead.

Or

Mrs. B. and two young women were of the same party, except when Mrs. B. thought herself obliged to leave them to run round the room after her drunken husband. His avoidance, and her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both, was an amusing scene.

Or

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

Or

How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!

You get the point. All expressed in very nicely balanced phrases and a genteel tone and they are very amusing - but what sentiments! In short, I think Raine’s description of Austen’s wit and intelligence actually very apt. Similar things are found in P&P as in her letters. Consider Mr. Collins.

You ought certainly to forgive them, as a Christian, but never to admit them in your sight, or allow their names to be mentioned in your hearing.

Ouch.

“She had better have stayed at home,” cried Elizabeth; “perhaps she meant well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one’s neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied.”

A nice thing to say about your friends and neighbours...

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of, and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably.”

“Thank you, sir, but a less agreeable man would satisfy me. We must not all expect Jane’s good fortune.”

“True,” said Mr. Bennet, “but it is a comfort to think that whatever of that kind may befall you, you have an affectionate mother who will make the most of it.”

Such kind parental support!

Mr. Bennet’s sarcasm, Mr. Collins’ pomposity which is eventually revealed as truly cold-hearted, Elizabeth’s biting and often undeserved satire, Mrs. Bennet’s foolishness - all of these are funny and the adaptation must make them funny. The dialogue must glitter and shine or you lose the absolute light-hearted sparkling joy of the novel and everything becomes heavy. But there’s an edge to the humour, there really is. And you treat like the stereotype of Sunday night bonnets and swoonable men jumping in lakes to romantic soundtracks at your peril.

You know what, I’m willing to give someone who describes Austen as “sparkling like granite” a shot. Love and Friendship for the first time presented an Austen adaptation that took absurdity, satire and caricature as its starting point in adapting Austen and I would love to see an adaptation of P&P that did the same, with all the greater subtlety that this novel requires over several hours, considering that it is a beautiful love story as well.

Will this adaptation deliver? Who knows? And there are a lot of things to be concerned about in this endeavor. But it might be really quite interesting.

tl;dr Austen is uncomfortable funny, she has a dark side, but they can’t make the adaptation dark and grim because that misses the point.

[nurturingflame]

Week in Review - 52

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Dinner, Dancing & Delectation 37-42

Miles away, deep underneath New York City, a presence stirred from it’s still observance of the night. A crooked smiled emerged under bandaged eyes. The small warm bodies surrounding it began to fidget as they sensed their master’s excitement.

“Well, well, my old friend.” The voice creaked in the darkness only to be answered by the chittering of a thousand voices, “I have not felt this particular emotion from you before. We shall have to investigate.”

A bony and withered hand brought a single white rat up so that it was level with a sunken face. “Perhaps Aristotle, there is something new that we can offer our brother after all.” Pink eyes began to glow as the white rat looked over it’s shoulder towards the far away lair. “ Hmmm… Yes. I see now. Very interesting… very interesting indeed.”

“Go.” The figure extended a mangled finger and a swarm of small bodies flowed past him in a never ending wave. “We cannot let this opportunity pass us by. Stay hidden and wait for my signal. Then bring her to me.” The rats ran with the cackle of their King following them. “Bring them both, and I shall have my knight and my queen.”

Splinter had not been surprised at the edict that they all dance, he knew from the way the night was going that it would come to this at some point.  But he would not make it easy.  No.

Mikey had been the first to come and pull at him, quite physically to get him onto the dance floor.  "Pllleeeeeaaase, Sensei!"  He used those huge guilt, inducing eyes that he had mastered at a very young age.  They always, without fail, pulled at Splinter's heartstrings.    When Donnie and Leo joined in, he was almost overcome...almost.  He was used to standing up to his boys, despite their pleas and begging.  Oh, he'd give in, but not until the time was right, and it was not right yet.  He had to work to hide an amused smile.

What did surprise him was when The Phoenix wiggled her way in between the boys,  not a great feat in and of itself with her size.  She laughed and reached for his hand.  Her felt the pressing of her chi against his, she was expansive and high, obviously, on both alcohol and music. Her breath smelled of the high quality sake she'd unceremoniously downed before joining the other females in their little display.  It was pleasant, warm and mixed with her smell of herbs, oil and honey.  A jolt went through him when she touched him, as if a bubble popped between his energy and hers, though she didn't seem to notice in the least.  She laughed and pulled at him, much in the same way Mikey was doing, "Yes, come one, Sensei!"  Her voice was teasing and so were her bright green eyes.

No, it was not the time to capitulate yet. It was going to something greater than mere pulling to cause him to concede.  And if he wished, he could out last any of his sons.  He was quite sure, if wanted to, he could outlast the little healer, also. Her grip slipped off of his fingers as she tugged gently, and he felt a smug satisfaction that he didn't even budge and more so when she came back to tug at him again.

Then the smell of musk and honeysuckle combined with herbs, honey, and sweat, and Eliza was in front of him, having bumped his son and the healer out of the way. Her teasing warmed his chest, he liked when she was happy, when Gwyn was happy.  He liked that they were all going out of their way to get him to dance, to join the festivities.  They were his, Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, April, Casey, Eliza, and Gwyn.  His friends were here, new ones, who were proving to be friendlier than he had anticipated, and old ones, who had brought fine sake to a fine celebration of friendship.

Eliza leaned into him, and it wasn't possible not to see at least some of her ample curves.  It was one of the first times he'd considered, Grant mustn't have had a chance in the world...and his feeling of amusement grew so that his smile ghosted his lips.

But then, she'd issued a challenge.  A real challenge. For a moment, he bristled internally, there was a difference between a challenge and a playful coaxing  But then he reminded himself, this is a party, and she is teasing.  But the confrontation brought into focus that simple dismissals were too low an ante.  A feral feeling, akin to the thrill of a hunt, crept up from his gut.  "Are you saying that I am afraid?"

He heard Phoenix giggle next to him, as Eliza shrugged and replied.

But it was Murikami who came to save his honor at having to concede defeat.  "You are outnumbered, Splinter-san," he said.  "Surrender before you are overrun."

"Your friend is a smart man," Phoenix said, jumping to her feet.

The tip of one side of Splinter's lips raised as his smile threatened to burst forth.  He took Eliza's hand, a warm, comforting feeling enveloping him, but released it almost immediately once he was up.

In a flash, he was in the middle of the dance floor, as if he'd just appeared there,  his face stern and his heart soaring.  "Michelangelo," he said.  "If you please."

In a move that mimicked his father's, Mikey appeared suddenly at the turntable, irreverently spinning a record in his hands.  He placed it down, dropped the needle, and "Soul Train" began to blare.

Splinter twirled, his tail whipping behind him, his legs twisting and turning as he did, to end with his head down, his arm upraised, and a finger pointing to the sky.   The single move sent the room into whoops.  The children all smiled impressively, The Phoenix jumped up and down laughing and clapping her hands like a small child, and Eliza popped her hip out, placing her hand on it and smiling smugly.

He did nothing to hide his own smile now.  They thought this was good?  No, he hadn't even started.

As Splinter took center stage Eliza had to admit that he was rather impressive. His dancing was far more acrobatic than she would have thought possible in a robe, she  wished that he were wearing pants, bellbottoms would have been appropriate, so that she could see his legs and footwork better.

After Splinter’s solo performance everyone else joined in and it wasn’t long before they were all joined together in a twisting ‘train line’ dancing its way through the dojo. She was towards the middle of the pack with Murikami in front of her and Acros with a firm handle on her hips from his place behind her. After one circuit around the room and a loop past the tree the line formation broke apart, people and mutants dancing in smaller groups or signally.

Murikami was scooped up by Medusa, who then joined Casey and Raph. Eliza was about to shimmy her way over to Splinter, Phoenix and Leo when she felt a tug on her hips and found herself pulled back against a fuzzy chest. “No fair Mrs. V.,” Acros rumbled in her ear and she felt the vibrations through her back. “I haven’t had a dance yet.”

“You’re right, Teddy Bear.” The ferret woman teased, using the nickname she had over heard Phoenix use. “I wouldn’t want to be accused of choosing favorites.” She smiled as she leaned into him more, moving her body sinuously. The music continued with a mixed disco beat and Eliza lost herself in the rhythm. At some point Aretha Franklin’s rendition of 'Respect’ came on and she twisted in Acros’ grip so that she was facing him.

Now muzzle to muzzle she began to sing to him. The words leaving her in a slow seductive tone as they danced close together. As the song built she backed away from the circle of his arms, letting her voice soar louder and unrestrained, unaware of the others who were now observing her performance. She didn’t care, she was free, higher than the notes that erupted from her and bounced off of the vaulted ceiling.

The room watched as Eliza put her elongated neck up, threw her triangular head back and belted out "R-E-S-P-E-C-T, tell you what it means to me!" Arcos laughed, his teeth showing in a predatory fashion. "I have nothing up the utmost respect for you, Eliza," he rumbled. He'd gotten much too close a look at those pretty eyes just under those pretty little ears to let something that scrumptious go so easily.  With his arms still out, he danced toward her, as if what she had done was choreographed between the two of them.

Splinter made a move to intervene, once Eliza's show was dojo-wide, but the bear's mother, put her hand on his forearm.  "Let them have fun," she said.  Her eyes twinkled in a way that made him sway.  He blinked, not sure if it was her, the music, or the drink.  "She'll be here when she wakes up in the morning."

"Of course she will," Leo replied.

While the innuendo was lost on his eldest son, it was not lost on him, and  indignation flared in his breast. "She's making a fool--"

"Let her have fun," Phoenix interrupted him, and the indignation turned to anger.  She took a step toward him, so they were very close together, and her look became knowing.  "She's dancing.  We all look like fools when we dance.  That's part of the point."  She pulled at his arm, as if tugging him down to her level.  She was a smidgen shorter than April, but no where near as built.  However, the strength in her tug was surprising, more so in that he found himself bending slightly.  "When was the last time she had fun?"  He squinted at her scowling, her breath still smelling like warm sake.  Her jade eyes returned his stare with her own, "When was the last time you had fun, Yoshi?"

The sound of his name from her lips almost bowled him over.  It shouldn't have, he knew it shouldn't, she'd heard Eliza say his name only a few minutes before.  He hadn't given her permission to use his name, he wanted to tell himself, but that wasn't what struck him.  It was the ultimately familiar way in which she said it, as if she'd been calling him that from the get-go, that caught him.  He should be angry at her for doing so.  But he wasn't.  He glanced back over at Eliza, who was consciously trying to look like she was unconsciously avoiding Arcos' arms.  

Phoenix tugged at him again.  "Song's over, Fancy Feet," she teased.  "No more respect."  A slower song came on, and the little healer let out a whoop, had both of his hands in hers before the first bar was played, and was pulling one of them to her hip.  "Dance with me!" she commanded with a laugh.  He chuckled, taking up position in front of her, realizing there was little else he could do.  As Murikami had noted, he was outnumbered, it appeared.  It also appeared he was being overrun.

Eliza ducked and weaved teasingly but without any real attempt to escape being recaptured by Acros. It was inevitable and she giggled at his antics when she was firmly cocooned in his arms once again. His massive paws held her firmly, one on her back just below the shoulder blade and the other impressively half encircling her more than amble hip. When a slow song came through the speakers Eliza gave a little push against his chest, her natural inclination to go and check on Gwyn, but the bear did not budge. Instead he began to sway and the ferret mother had little choice but to follow his lead.

"You do realize," she said, her tone light, "that this constitutes as three dances?" Without realizing it she dug her fingers a little deeper into his pelt, the tips of her filed claws grazing the skin underneath as she looked up at him through her eyelashes coyly. "Now you've had more than your fair share."

Acros laughed under his breath, the sound was deep and vibrated through both their bodies. "Not sure if I care too much about being fair anymore if the scales are tipped in my favor."

Eliza laughed out loud and wriggled her arms free so that she could swat at him. The young man just smiled, with those soft expressive lips that Eliza had come to envy, and twirled them around the floor. The ferret put her hands on his broad shoulders to stabilize herself. As the song progressed she became more relaxed eventually her fingers found themselves interwoven behind his neck and her head resting on his shoulder and chest, bringing the dancers closer than she would have normally allowed. But there was something so comforting about being embraced, for that's what they were doing more than dancing by the time the song came to a close, by someone bigger than herself. It was not a sensation that she had been privy to regularly after losing Grant. She didn't want to think about it too much, just wanted to tuck the feeling away for days when the loneliness became too real. She was grateful but couldn't bring herself to verbalize it. Thankfully Acros was warm and silent when she pushed away from him slowly, just smiling at her kindly, though his eyes twinkled with an inner amusement as they separated.

Eliza smiled back at him shyly but was saved from any awkwardness by a bouncy Gwyn appearing at her side. "Mom! Mom!! Guess what?!"

"What?" the mother responded brightly.

"Everyone heard you singing, your A was flat bytheway, and started talking about karaoke!" the girl was hardly taking a breath in her excitement to pass along her news. "I said I love singing too and then Mikey said that he did and I said we should do karaoke and April said we could do lip sync battles and Donnie agreed and I asked everyone else, well I mean everyone cept' the adults, but I'm asking you now, and they said that it was cool. So that's what we're doing next and Donnie is setting everything up. Will you do the first one, cause I don't want to go first, but Leo said he would sing Aladdin with me!! Isn't that great!"

Eliza laughed, genuinely happy for her daughter. "That is great Bugaboo! I'll sing, just let me grab something real quick." Eliza rubbed her stomach to emphasize the point. "I'm feeling a little peckish."

Acros, who was still at her side, leaned in, worry on his features. "Are you ok?" He made to place a paw on her abdomen but thought twice about it and let his arm fall to the side. "Do you need to rest?"

"Oh I'm fine." Eliza waved one hand in dismissal while the other settled on the rise of her stomach, the gesture instantly recognizable though there was little to outwardly distinguish any new curves from her naturally plump frame. "All that dancing has finally caught up to me. I just need a snack. The buffet is still in the lab. I'll just grab a plate and be right back to enjoy the show."

"If things get set up early let someone else start Gwyn," The girl made to protest but Eliza silenced her with a look. "I promise that I'll take my turn. Go. Have fun." She shooed them both towards the dj table before heading towards the exit and the lair beyond. Focused on her suddenly voracious appetite she did not see the shadow that followed her into the lab.

"Are you alright, Mrs. V?" Leo's voice drifted through the darkened room as the ferret woman fixed herself a plate of the remaining kinds of chicken from the buffet.

He'd seen her make a hasty exit, and expected she need to go to the restroom.  But then, both his father and Phoenix looked the way she'd gone with slightly concerned looks on their faces.  They were about to separate in their dancing when he had nodded to his sensei.  There was a pregnant pause, where his father and the little healer will still touching in their dance, before his father nodded back at him.

Eliza startled and had to do a little juggle to keep her plate of BBQ chicken and potatoes from tumbling to the floor. Looking over her shoulder the darker fur of her natural mask crinkled between her eyes in agitation as she saw Leo. Freakin' ninjas.

"I'm just fine." She heard the annoyance in her voice and took a small cleansing breath. She knew the hostility was unwarranted. "Thank you Leo." She said much more amicably as she took her plate to the table near where he was standing and taking a seat. "I got a little hungry is all."

She smiled at him before tucking into a thigh, chewing thoughtfully as she evaluated the teen. She and Leonardo didn't always see eye to eye but she had noticed that over the last week he had made a more concerted effort to be accommodating. Though sometimes she felt overwhelmed by his occasional hovering. As she was scooping a forkful of seasoned potatoes another thought crossed her mind. Eliza paused her meal as she felt a genuine affection for the teen bloom within her. "You didn't have give into Gwyn like that," She looked up from her plate and meet his gaze. "but I'm really grateful you did. That song means a lot to her, to both of us."

He smiled, basking in the praise.  He was his father's son, hovering and the love of praise were two things that had definitely inherited from the rat.  "It was nothing," he said.  "She doesn't seem to be too into the dancing.  I want her to have a good time, too."  The girl, while usually very out spoken and upbeat, had not participated in the festivities earlier in the evening.  He had assumed she was simply waiting for the right time, but when Mrs. V had left the dojo, then come back in to announce and all girl's dance, he'd realized, after getting back on the dance floor, that Gwyn was trepidatious about dancing.  He couldn't see why.  She'd done just fine on the floor.  Granted, she wasn't going to win any dancing competitions, but she was just a joyous as everyone else, and Leo knew that was what a celebration was about.

And wasn't this a celebration?  Albeit, he wasn't entirely sure what the celebration was about, specifically, but is a fabulous one nonetheless.  The food was good, the drink was good, the companionship was good, the dancing was good.  He liked having so many people dancing together.  It was a much different feeling than just them and April.  It almost made the experience more exhilarating.  He wondered if that's why people went to dance clubs.  Seeing his father dance had been a delight.   Oh, he knew Sensei would get up on the floor eventually, but it was a hoot to see everyone cajoling him.  Seeing him slow dance with Phoenix was disconcerting, though.  It was as if he shouldn't be doing something like with anyone.  Tang Shen was too important in their lives for him to desecrate her memory that way.  He knew in his head it wasn't a desecration, but in a way, it felt that way.

He eyed the ferret mutant.  She'd escaped the others just after her rather...tight...dance with Arcos.  "Are you having a good time?"

[janeaustentextposts]

How did women learn about the whole sexual attraction thing? Like, that men sometimes only wanted them for you-know-what?

It might really depend upon the individual, their position in society, and their own parents’ approach to education. (Their mother, in particular.) To a certain extent, I think Georgian and Regency families were rather more practical about things compared to Victorian levels of rigorous shame, though well-bred ladies were certainly still expected to adhere to standard guidelines of modesty for behaviour and conversation. Among themselves, married women who were closer friends might more easily discuss such things.

With novels like Tom Jones upon the bookshelves and Sheridan’s wickedly funny plays upon the stage, anyone with access to that 18th century media would have certainly found examples of the perfidy of men (and women) and the pitfalls (and pleasures) of sexual allure. Of course to some extend very young girls would be protected from the most blatant of these things, until they were perhaps older and wiser, and had had things well-explained to them by a sensible mother or governess.

Again, as it’s such an intimate and variable thing, it’s near impossible to make generalizations about this for the whole of women in the era. A family’s position and expectations could have a significant effect on a girl’s education. The ‘fallen women’ in Austen’s novels are varied creatures, but they generally all seem to lack a sensible mother/woman’s guidance and caution. There are generally two types of these girls who find themselves involved with men on shaky ground: the unaware girls, who are rather more preyed upon; and the savvy girls who seem more than aware of their powers, and use their charm (clearly including physical appeal,) to further their own aims (i.e. a desired marriage.)

First we have the naive, motherless girls. Georgiana Darcy is only spared by the force of her trust in her brother, her sole surviving immediate relation. Eliza the elder is a ward of Colonel Brandon’s father, and evidently has lost her own parents, and is entirely at the mercy of those who should have protected her, and instead manipulated her and ultimately drove her off into a life of sin and misery; Eliza her daughter is put into school, but even trusting her to the care of teachers is not enough, and she is seduced away by Willoughby. Harriet Smith is the illegitimate daughter of somebody–and while she’s still a sweet-natured girl, there’s definitely a sense that she will never rise above a certain level in society, despite what Emma may think, and that she is better off respectably married to a farmer, living out her days in happy obscurity in a country village, where even her attachment to Miss Woodhouse is lessened by the distances between their stations after their married lives begin, and Emma’s cohorts largely see this as a good thing. Even those who are the result of illicit sexual relationships, though no fault of their own, are left a little on the sidelines in Austen’s society.

Interestingly, the girls who tend to use their sex appeal as active agents sometimes have mothers/chaperones who either don’t care or else seem likely to encourage their behaviour in pursuit of men. (And honestly I’m not judging. Poverty and spinsterhood can and could be miserable things.) Lydia runs away when her parents and Mrs. Forster should really have spent a lot more time examining and explaining why this was a terrible idea. Mary Crawford has been brought up amongst morally-lax men and her half-sister Mrs. Grant is a largely ineffectual chaperone. Mrs. Clay has already been married once, and is now back in her father’s house, so she’s made a match before (implied to not be THAT great, however,) so she’s learned some lessons and is now out to do her best with Sir Walter (and ultimately, Mr. Elliott, when she becomes his mistress and it’s clearly stated in the text that it is her intention to use her sexual prowess to persuade him into marrying her, himself.) Lucy Steele evidently has an uncle who looks after her to some degree, but handily manages to finesse her way into exactly the sort of position and wealth she desires–and while she gets away with it, her methods are hardly to be recommended to all young ladies. (One might argue that because Lucy is so canny, she manages to hold onto her ‘virtue’–barely–through a long and secret engagement, and then an elopement with another man, until she is secure of the Ferrars heir.) Isabella Thorpe’s mother is either a blind fool, or (more likely) just as secretly sly as her children, and condones Isabella’s grasping methods of trying to flirt her way into an advantageous marriage. Women like Mary, Mrs. Clay, Isabella, and Lucy certainly are aware of sexual allure, and its effect on men. Lady Susan Vernon takes this to extremes.

Every novel has some varying example of a woman whose sex appeal places her in a precarious situation, and while the savvy thrive and play the risks to their unrepentant advantages, the naive tend to be much more easily brought low by the consequences of catching a man’s eye on a primal and physical level.

If a young woman has a relatively liberal-minded, sensible, and caring mother-figure, she may be given adequate knowledge of scoundrels and the pitfalls of seduction enough to be on her guard against such persuasions. Depending on their own character and circumstances, however, they might just as easily take that knowledge and apply it in order to give themselves leverage in finding their way to a marriage to the man (and money) they want.