6 Matching Annotations
  1. May 2019
    1. prodigious

      "Amazing or astonishing"

      • A Dictionary of the English Language, Volume 1 By Samuel Johnson, John Walker, Robert S. Jameson
    2. arts

      Arts typically refer to "science, reason and creative imagination" (OED). Elizabeth uses this term to refer to Darcy's imagination or his reasoning.

    3. officious

      "Assertive of authority in a domineering way, especially with regard to trivial matters, annoying, pestering." (OED).

    4. propriety

      "Formal, behavior that is accepted as socially or morally correct and proper. The state or quality of being correct and proper" (OED).

  2. Sep 2017
    1. By portraying Charlotte as a superior helpmeet who is more than Mr. Collins deserves, Austen hints that the distinction Elizabeth makes between full, scripted banality and empty, untrammelled elegance is a false one

      Something a reader should question, however, is the context of Darcy's comment. Does he say this because it's truly how he feels, or because he wants a wife in Elizabeth, as well? Also interesting how because Darcy makes opinion of Charlotte as a wife, it becomes assumed as "correct"

    2. The recognition of mediocrity exchanged by two characters, whom nineteenth-century readers recognized as “of superior order” to common novel characters, transfigures their self-consciously lacking public performances—his bad manners, her mediocre piano playing—into performances of intimacy, rather than class allegiance or simple dilettantism

      Great point. Moe's description of Elizabeth and Darcy's connection through their "modern" misbehavior, as presented through narrative, addresses the points of her argument. However, this is quoted/paraphrased from a text (The Critical Review/Annals of Literature) from 1813, which I do not think is necessarily appropriate or relevant for such a modern (pardon the pun) article.