Well, I am very smart and thought this book was about something else, but oh well. I know Jane Austen writes with a third person omniscient narrator, as the narrator starts out talking about what Sir Walter Elliot thinks and perceives and then switches to Elizabeth. She does not begin the story with only telling the story from one person’s experience, nor does she narrate with only actions and speech. She has a foundation for interior knowledge and writes from multiple views, thus leading me to the conclusion the narrator is third person omniscient.
The setting seems to take place in Kellynch so far. My first impression of Sir Walter is that he seems very superficial and vain. I do not think he is necessarily a bad gentlemen or person, but I think he worries about unimportant things; however, this I think this may be an unfair view because the time period in which he lives in differs from mine. Today, we do not really have social levels and worry about preserving our social status, whereas Jane Austen introduces the importance of social class in Sir Walter Elliot’s pastime of reading the Baronetage. His social importance is defined in part by blood, his Elliot aristocratic lineage, and his estate: Kellynch Hall.
Thusly, he worries about upholding his image and preserving it by leading a luxurious, extravagant, and expensive life. People reading this may think that Sir Walter Elliot is ridiculous and a snob, but I can see how he is only living the way most people would live in their time period. Social status is the center of life in the time he lives in unlike today, so I guess he is worrying about important things. Important things back then differ from what we view as important today. My first impression of Elizabeth is that she seems a little spoiled, but I do feel a bit sorry for her. Elizabeth possesses a sense of self-importance and indifference to Anne similar to her father.
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I can see why she feels important, as she is only acting and doing like her parent just as any child will do. I feel sorry for her in that I think she is beginning to suffer anxiety. I think the author is trying to represent the pressure on a lady to marry by using the repetition of thirteen years, the time in which her mother has been dead; this repetition illustrates her exasperation, and I find it funny the author chose thirteen as her number because thirteen is generally seen as unlucky. I do not understand, however, why she has indifference to Anne.
I know her father has indifference to her, but I feel that she and Anne are sisters, so they should have some connection. They do not though; they do not fight, they do not confide in each other, they do not connect at all really in any shape or form for the matter because Elizabeth literally just sees Anne of no importance. This is why my first impression of Anne is sympathetic. For what the narrator has said, Anne has an elegance of mind and sweetness of character. Any people of real understanding must have placed her high, but her own father and sister overlook her. Her word has no weight, her convenience is always to give way, and her family thinks of her as just only Anne. They only understand beauty, blood, and rank.
It seems as though only Lady Russell, who appears to share similar values of Anne, recognizes the qualities of mind and personality characterize real refinement. The narrator also told us that Anne’s bloom had vanished early, but the narrator did not tell us exactly why, so I wonder what the reason is. Her features do not resemble her father nor does her character, so I assume her heart resembles mother.
I feel with Lady Elliot, the author explores what makes a good marriage. I think she implies that although Lady Elliot married well to rank and land, she did not marry her match in virtue, intelligence, or temperament. Perhaps Jane Austen is trying to say marrying for rank may lead to unhappiness in the end. I don’t really have an impression of Mary because her character was not introduced. I only know that she married. With marriage in this story, I think it is a vehicle for social mobility and financial independence.
I think that when Sir Walter Elliot adds Mary’s marriage to Charles Musgrove to the Baronetage, he thinks he is raising the social standing of the Musgroves more than them helping Mary. Thus, Mary’s marriage is suitable, but with Sir Walter’s hope for a better marriage for Elizabeth, I feel that Sir Walter Elliot cares about elevating the family with an even better connection more than finding an actual suitable person that will make Elizabeth happy. I
do not like Mr. Elliot because I think he is a man without integrity. He made it seem he would marry Elizabeth, but he wound up just not showing up every spring until the news arrived that he married someone else. His actions also reveal to me that he values money over blood. While he could have married Elizabeth of an important aristocratic family, he married a lady of lower birth as a means of attaining financial independence. I am interested in finding out what Lady Russell and Mr. Shepherd suggest and if Anne will be able to help. I also am intrigued to see to what Mary is like and how she lives with her husband’s family. I wonder if her life is different to the Kellynch Hall life.
