candidcommonplacing

[candidcommonplacing]

“Beware how you give your heart.” (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey 190)

James Morland writes this to his sister Catherine in a lettew towards the end of the book. He has been rejected by Isabella and is warning Catherine (who has fallen for Henry Tilney) to avoid the same fate.

This quote can have a lot of impact for Catherine beyond just the one view of her giving her heart to a romantic relationship. One way is that she had given her heart and trust to Isabella as her close friend. Isabella has betrayed her friendship as well by rejecting James for Captain Tilney - what she said she would never do. Catherine now cannot be so trusting going into relationships. Also, Catherine has been careful in the past not to just freely give her heart away. She avoids doing to with John Thorpe, despite the pressure from others. She also gives her heart to a lot of ideas without much thought, like her belief that her world is one large gothic novel. Finally, there is the clear heart that she wants to give away to Henry but now has to deeply consider this choice. Catherine is learning that being in society means guarding her heart.

[candidcommonplacing]

“The person, be gentleman or lady, who has no pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey 102)

Henry Tilney says this in response to Catherine when she says she assumes he has never read Ann Radcliffe due to being a man and therefore against novels. She has only had the experience of men like James and John who speak of novels of not being clever and something for women. In this moment Catherine is finding equal footing with Henry and he is supporting her love of reading gothic novels. She is away from societal scrutiny when she is walking with Eleanor and Henry in this scene.

This is the moment I knew Henry is my favorite male Austen character. While he ultimately is far from perfect, he also supports Catherine in a way she has yet to experience from other men . Catherine is being validated! She is also finding true friends in the Tilneys, another thing she has yet to truly experience. This moment also speaks to the female reader of Northanger Abbey in her pursuing novels by showing her that is does not make her less than a man, and both a fictional male and female character are supporting this. Henry is pointing to the novel not being a low brow or feminine way of reading, but a genre that can benefit both sexes equally.

[candidcommonplacing]

“But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.” (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey 18).

This quotation comes during the very beginning of Northanger Abbey. It not only introduces us to the mindset of Catherine Morland, but the overall themes and plot of the story to be read ahead.

I have mixed feelings with this quotation. On one hand I love it and how In encompasses the story of Northanger Abbey so well. It shows that nothing can stop a heroine from being a heroine. This is the way Catherine herself thinks, she sees herself as the heroine and protagonist of her own story. Through this quotation it also shows girls and women alike that society cannot and should not stop them from pursuing being heroines.

On the other hand, I don’t like this quotation because it does the opposite of what I said above. This moment also implies that in order to be a heroine, a woman needs a “hero”, or more broadly a man, in order to help them make their way through their “story”. Obviously, this is because Henry ultimately is Catherine’s hero later in the story and balances her fanciful thinking with reality at times, while not putting her down. However, I think this quotation is stating how even heroines have to conform into society in some way, in this case through a relationship with a man.

[candidcommonplacing]

“The pain is suspense, and the irresistible desire of satisfying curiosity, when once raised, will account for our eagerness to go quite through an adventure, though we suffer actual pain during the course of it. We rather choose to suffer the smart pan of violent emotion than the uneasy craving of an unsatisfied desire.” (Anna Letitia Barbauld and John Aiken, On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror, 521)

This quotation serves the purpose of why individuals would read and enjoy gothic novels or novels that heavily feature the idea of terror. It shows how it is the emotion and curiosity of the reader that causes them to read these books despite the darkness of the content itself.

This quotation REALLY resonated with me! To me the draw to reading/watching gothic or horror stories. It’s like an adrenaline rush but of curiosity. I crave to know what wild things are happening within the stories and to see what the resolution will be. The scenes of terror just help propel that curiosity further. Also this quote uses the word “adventure” when describing these novels! It truly is an adventure following the hero or heroine through their journey in trying to escape or defeat the villain of the story. It’s great to escape within the pages to run through dungeons, decaying castles, and forests. I rather be horrified or unsettled than not know what happens within the book or the movie - I have to finish them no matter what. This quotation just perfectly encapsulates my love of spooky things!

[candidcommonplacing]

“When, after millions slain, yourself shall die: / When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, / And all those tresses shall be laid to dust , / This Lock the Muse shall consecrate to fame, / and ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name.” (Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock 525)

These are the final concluding lines of the mock epic poem. They follow the battle of the sexes that ensues after Belinda loses her lock of hair. These lines attempt to come up with a Happy Ending to the poem following something that could scandalize and ruin Belinda’s reputation.

This ending, to me, felt very forced and uncomfortable given the severity of the situation for Belinda. The ending essentially comes to the conclusion that all should be forgiven between the sexes after this pseudo war, and that hair is just hair and doesn’t matter. However, this ruins the idea of ruining one’s honor that was earlier mentioned within the piece. The hair is representative of Belinda’s innocence, chastity, and/or virginity. By saying the baron taking forced ownership over it, it is saying these aspects of a woman’s being shouldn’t matter, even if they are unwillingly taken from them. It is also problematic that Pope earlier addressed this piece to a woman that this situation essentially happened to and by writing this ending is saying basically “get over it.”

[candidcommonplacing]

“For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease / assume what sexes and what shapes they please. / What guards the purity of melting maids, / In courtly balls, and midnight masquerades.” (Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock, 510)

This moment comes within the first canto of the Heroi-Comical poem. It is the initiation of the description of the role of the fantastical Sylphs in a young woman’s life. It establishes them as a form of guardian.

The Sylphs come in any sexes or forms so work as a non-binary guardian angel or fairy of sorts for young women or “nymphs”. In this description they are clearly protecting a woman’s purity and/or from being taken advantage of by men or society in general. They work as a moral compass for the woman who is very passive in her own life. Primarily they protect women at major events in which they can come in contact with prospective suitors or individuals who may wish to cause them harm. These Sylphs are reminiscent of deities protecting heroes going into battle or venturing home (ala The Odyssey). However, these Sylphs are tasked with specifically protecting Belinda’s hair from being taken by the Baron. To me, while this is meant to be comical with it being a lock of hair, it is highly symbolic of protecting a woman’s virginity which is symbolized by her hair. This is also placing a powerful, otherworldly connotation on the idea of virginity while also satirizing it as well.

[candidcommonplacing]

“Though no repose on thy dark breast I find, / I still enjoy thee - cheerless as thou art; / For in thy quiet gloom the exhausted heart / is calm, though wretched: hopeless, yet resigned.” (Charlotte Smith, To Night 56)

This is the third Elegiac Sonnet featured in this book’s collection. It keeps the melancholy tone that is held throughout these sonnets. This particular one discussed the role the Moon plays in the narrator’s life despite its sober light.

This section from “To Night” shows the reader the affect the moon has upon the melancholy narrator. While it does not cure her depression, it provides a sense of inner peace nonetheless. It calms her exhausted heart, though not removing the cause of exhaustion. The moon too is referred to as being female who as well is mournful. This creates a sense of friendship or someone to commiserate with in times of depression or sorrow for the narrator. It’s a sense of belonging and connection without having to say one’s feelings outloud. The moon is providing a sense of safety and understanding just by being present every night in the narrator’s life. I just in total found this pierce achingly beautiful and it resonated strongly with me. The night sky is both depressing and peaceful at the same time. I also really enjoyed this characterization of the moon being ethereally melancholy as opposed to other views of the moon as being something joyous.

[candidcommonplacing]

“In fact, if we revert to history, we shall find that women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.” (Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 236)

This quotation is from second chapter of Wollstoncraft’s work. Wollstonecraft discusses the concepts of beauty, virtue, gentleness, and morality in the sense of the male influenced societal expectations with how these concepts relate to a woman able to have an education.

Wollstoncraft writes how my strengthening her mind, a woman would be capable of being independent of their husbands. However, I read this quotation as being a direct statement for the women who are reading this piece. The women who may not consider themselves beautiful or gentle in a society telling them they have to be so. In this statement Wollstoncraft is saying that they are capable of being distinguished or accomplished regardless of how they fit into the societal schema of things. It’s inspiration for women who want to achieve an education or those who want to be involved in their various pursuits outside of the domestic sphere. It is validating women about something outside of their beauty or gentle persona.

[candidcommonplacing]

“In either sex the appetite’s the same, / For the love of power is still the love of fame. / Women must in a narrow orbit move, / But power alike both males and females love. (Ingram, An Epistle to Mr. Pope 651)

This moment comes in the beginning of Ingram’s response to Alexander Pope’s Epistle 2 To a Lady. Specifically the moment in which Pope states that women only seek power and pleasure. Ingram then writes this portion of the poem addressing this statement.

Ingram is showing the idea of equality - that men and women are the same in their motivations. Both men and women desire power and fame and pleasure. Ingram then points out that women just have to go about achieving these desires through different means than men due to societal expectations and mores. They have to “move in a narrow orbit” since they are not able to directly go for their goals like a man is capable in society at this point in history. Women had to work within the domestic sphere or other occupations they were involved in in order to gain power and pleasure. This poem also associates power with the female gender, note solely the male gender.

[candidcommonplacing]

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, / Look on my World, ye Mighty, and despair.” (Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 791).

This one of the most iconic lines of poetry that I can think of. It takes place towards the end of the short poem. These words are inscribed on the pedestal of the trunkless legs found in the desert.

Shelley is making a biting remark against certain governmental leaders in a way that is subtle and allows him to have plausible deniability. This can be seen as being directed towards King George III, whom Shelley was also extremely critical of in other works due his actions towards the British people. Ozymandias can also be representative of Napoleon as well. Shelley is using a seemingly mythical story set outside of modern England to discuss his beliefs about the politics and governing forces at the time. By saying “look on my works, ye mighty and despair” is the most sarcastic statement in the piece. While the leader may be saying that to show their power, Shelley is using it to show that the actions these leaders are taking are horrendous.

[candidcommonplacing]

“Darlking I listen; and, for many a time/ I have been bald in love with wasteful Death, / Call’d him soft names in many a mused rhyme, / To take into the air my quiet breath / Now more than ever seems it rich to die, / To cease upon the midnight with no pain, / While thou art pouring thy soul abroad / in such ecstasy!” (Keats, Ode to a Nightingale 978)

This moment comes in the sixth stanza of “Ode to a Nightingale”. The narrator is escaping their tuberculosis pain through an imaginative flight as a nightingale. The narrator sees this as a coping mechanism.

This portion of the poem really illustrates the concept of escapism through imagination. This imaginative flight is enabling the narrator to temporally mentally escape the pain they are experiencing. They now have “a quiet breath” in contrast to the coughing and soreness typically associated with tuberculosis. The narrator is finally at peace within this imaginative nightingale state of being. They are finding a way to cope apart from other typical coping mechanisms. While it still discusses the topic of death, it is in a much more peaceful sense than what is expressed prior. This poem shows the power of art and how it can provide momentary escapism.

[candidcommonplacing]

“A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear, / A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief, / Which finds no natural outlet, no relief , / In word, or sigh, or tear — / O Lady!” (Coleridge, Dejection: An Ode, 485).

Coleridge writes these lines in the second stanza of his Dejection poem. He is essentially writing these lines to Sara Hutchinson.

This moment really describes the feeling of so many things. Literal grief, depression, anxiety, heartbreak, dejection, etc. This moment Coleridge is working through his feelings in regards to Sara, the “Lady”. He is mourning the loss of a relationship that never really happened. He is essentially being haunted. Opposed to Wordsworth discussing immortality, Coleridge is writing about grief which defines mortality. This moment is exceedingly human in its feeling or, in this case, void of feeling.

[candidcommonplacing]

“Once more I am a wanderer, a pilgrim, through the world. But what else are you!” (Goethe, Sorrows of Young Werther, 51).

Werther writes these two sentences as a single letter to Wilhelm after he leaves The Prince he had been the companion of. He is again, going off to venture on his own and is justifying his actions of leaving two good-paying jobs to Wilhelm and through that ultimately himself.

I love this quotation so much! It shows that Werther is trying to literally move on through his life (except he doesn’t) and is trying to experience all that he can. However, the second sentence is my favorite part. Saying “But what else are you!” Pulls both Wilhelm and the reader into the perspective of Werther. Everyone is venturing through the world as a wanderer trying to take in as much as they can and to get as many new experiences as possible. To me, this moment was Werther at his very best before his dramatic decline after returning to Walheim.

[candidcommonplacing]

“Woe unto those,” I said, “who use their power over the human heart to destroy the simple pleasures it would naturally enjoy.” (Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther, 21)

This moment is at the point of the story is when Werther and Charlotte are visiting Fredrica and Herr Schmidt. They are all walking together and they get in a discourse on ill-humored people - whom Werther thinks are the worst kind of people. He and Herr Schmidt get into an argument over it while Charlotte mentions she likes gardens, which proves to be not helpful. Werther goes on a long speech about why he dislikes ill-humored people.

Werther’s stance in this moment intrigued me since Werther, himself, is typically ill humored. However the more I thought about it, I came to two conclusions as to why he takes this stance. 1.) Werther doesn’t like himself and often calls himself a “wretched” creature when in a depressive episode. While Werther believes everyone else likes him, he struggles with his own self image. He is the ill humored individual who is destroying his own pleasures. However, 2.) Werther often inadvertently blames others for his own bad moods. He blames Charlotte, Albert, The Ambassador, The Prince, etc. Perhaps he views them as the ill humored people that have the power over his heart.

[candidcommonplacing]

“While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped / Through many a listening chamber, cave a ruin, / And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing / Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. / I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed; / I was not heard - I saw them not. / ... Sudden thy shadow fell on me; / I shrieked, and clasped my hands in extacy. (Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. 189-190)

This moment comes in “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” in the fifth stanza. Shelley is writing of going into the woods as a boy in search of answers from a higher power, like that of traditional religion. He does not receive this answer or “frail spell” (as he states earlier). However instead he discovers Intellectual Beauty and its sublimity.

I really liked how this stanza explains the “backstory” to Shelley’s, at the time, scandalous reputation of being an atheist. The greater force he tried to talk to didn’t answer him back. I also liked the image of a young boy wandering through the woods trying to find ghosts or otherworldly beings. This in and of itself feels both sublime and gothic. Then the scene turns completely to the sublime and gothic when the spirit of Intellectual Beauty makes itself know to the narrator. This entire section, to me, shows that it’s possible to have a personal belief, religion, or spirituality separate from the traditional forms. This piece makes the sublime its own religion of sorts to the beholder.

[candidcommonplacing]

“But oh! That deep romantic chasm which slanted / down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! As holy and enchanted/ As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted/ by a woman wailing for her demon lover!” (Coleridge’s Kubla Khan 465)

This scene occurs in the second stanza of Coleridge’s fragmented dream. It is further describing Kubla Khan’s Xanadu to the reader.

While Xanadu is now connected in the cultural zeitgeist with ideas of pleasure and emotion, this passage also hints at darker undertones. While using words like “enchanted”, “romantic”, “holy”, Coleridge also uses the words “chasm”, “savage”, “haunted”, “wailing” and “demon”. By having this vast juxtaposition, it makes the setting of Xanadu inherently a gray area in the minds of the reader. It is no longer completely idyllic. It contains a darker, shadowy side to it which gives a sinister tone to the story as a whole. It no longer feels like a dream, it becomes more of a nightmare scape. However the sinister and the beautiful blend into one another so well that it still feels very unreal and imaginary to the reader, like a new world just out of grasp.

[candidcommonplacing]

“Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good is Heaven. Evil is Hell.” (William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 160).

This moment occurs in the third plate of the Marriage of Heaven and Hell. This plate discusses how a New Heaven (Reason/Passivity) has begun and along with it, a New Hell has been created (Energy/Active).

This quote describes how Reason is now “good” at this point in society while acting on emotion is viewed as “evil”. Blake is refuting philosophers, like Locke, in the idea that Reason is the best way to interact with the work. Blake writes of Reason as being “passive” which is typically a negative connotation in most respects and “active” a positive trait in one’s character. This piece turns it on it’s head by making passivity in one’s life worthy of Heaven and playing an active role as being worthy of Hell.