not so posh at all

posh

As much as this is repeated, it's beginning to make me feel that she won't win at all, even if she gets what she wants

Wow. That is a STRONG simile

Now though, these men are defined by Mrs. Mooney. She has become the determiner, not the determined

While her being 'determined' almost leads us to believe that she's an emancipated or freewill woman, structurally and formally, she's still defined by the men in her life. She is first her father's daughter, then her husband's wife. In fact, both these determining sentences enclose the one personal characterization of her, trapping her person and her personality within them

Prayer here signals that Eveline has reverted to the familiarity of that which she knows, as dull as it is. More paralysis

potential parallels between Eveline leaving home and Joyce leaving Ireland?

I've always found this story deeply depressing. The boy's wishes and hopes for excitement are slowly beaten down by his dull surroundings, like the boy in The Encounter. The darkness closes over the bazaar just as it closes over all the other aspects of his life, and he resigns himself to monotony. I also think it's no coincidence that the bazaar, supposedly a site of newness and excitement and exoticism, is ultimately only filled by a few Englishwomen. As if the English are precluding the possibility of fulfillment for both the boy and the Irish more broadly

This description is very evocative of religious ecstasy, but its subject is the girl. I feel Joyce often uses this device: flipping religious devotion on its head by making it secular

Powerful mental image. Everything else in this scene is cloaked in darkness, except for the girl, ringed in light

I really enjoy Joyce's personification of the street here. As much as Dubliners is about the people of the city, it's also about the city itself. Dublin is a main character in these stories, and here we sense that viscerally

This, as well as his references to Lytton, gives me the impression that he is definitely well-educated and quite possibly Protestant. But, if so, then why has he become a vagabond?

The Pigeon House was an old barracks turned power station on the coast of Dublin, you can see the smokestacks from anywhere along the coast. They decommissioned it thirtyish years ago, but now there's a sort of monument/faux power station in its place that billows water vapor. I guess it's a testament to the importance that the original Pigeon house had in the Dublin landscape

Everything here is described so passively, none of the characters have any agency

The priest and the narrator switch roles here.. The priest is now the one confessing to the boy

This is the major street on the Northside of Dublin, after the rebellion they changed it to Parnell street, along with most of the British symbology

This comparison, death/imprisonment and the church, is notable

Because Mr. Neave eavesdrops for a moment, he is able to briefly observe the world and behaviors of the women in his family when he is not there. He doesn't recognize this female world

Third paragraph out of four that ends in an ellipse. Why? Maybe it mirrors how each of these paragraphs starts with tangible descriptions and then slips into Mr. Neave's imagination

What does the ellipse signify here? Something that can't be articulated, some feeling that can't be written because it only exits in dreams?

this passage also reminds me of Laura's epiphany about death in the Garden Party

A lot of the imagery here works to create a sort of avian personification of the people at the ball? They're very sprite-like

Like in the garden party, we're seeing the instillation of an upper class habitus in youths.

I love this sentence. There's something about the way Mansfield subverts/flips all the typical descriptors on their heads that's so amazing -- pastries, powderpuffs become lethal and dangerous

Jungian Psychology: sea/water as an ever moving feminine flow, a maternal baptism, allows women to access primordial images

Mansfield jumps from perspective to perspective seamlessly. Modernism!

not for their own sakes

Here again we see grief as a voluntary act, a performance. Both here and in the Garden Party death becomes not an end to life, but a part of it. It's less grave

This mirrors the song Jose sang earlier.. but what a shocking passage

a whole WEALTH of flower imagery. I want to look up their messages/meanings in The Language of Flowers

As much as we can critique the Sheridan's insensitivity, I feel we're witnessing something more than that. We're witnessing how class ideology is instilled and internalized, in Laura. Her conscience is trampled by those around her. It's no coincidence that she's the youngest. This is her education

in sharp contrast to the roses and dappled sunlight of the Sheridan's garden

One of the things I love most about Katherine Mansfield is the sharp division you can feel between female and male spaces. She doesn't even have to articulate this divide, but still its almost tangible

I like this. Collins is both indirectly criticizing similar works of his contemporaries, and asserting that The Moonstone is a better, more accurate work, because it allows for human error

shots fired

it's almost like Betteredge has found a way to transcend his status by working through it. He is so obedient that he's almost disobedient, almost disagreeable, but because he's operating in this framework of servitude, he can't be faulted for it. In this way, he's able to both express his opinions and take control of situations

I won't try to grasp for autobiographical material that might not be here at all, but I will suggest that there could be a connection made between this position and Collins' own. Perhaps he also feels that he can create, through writing, a happiness that is not his own. He states that this love 'breaks its way through the stoutest formalities of pen and ink', so one might infer that this fictional love he has written becomes a true romance, one that transcends the page, one which he is responsible for.

I'm so curious about Jenning's depictions of opium addiction, because from what we know about Collins' own addiction, I'm assuming there's a certain degree of autobiographical detail here. So we might be able to gleam not only details about opium addiction, but details about Collins' personal understanding of it. And, considering that Jennings is the author of this section, perhaps some details about how addiction affects authorship

Of course, the only explanation for his status as a social pariah is his 'impure' heritage

Interesting choice on Collins' part to narrate Franklin's incrimination in Franklin's own voice. It certainly complicates our understanding of his possible wrongdoing

:')

OVERT civilizing mission rhetoric -- religion as justification for imperial violence

This evangelicalism is almost sadistic, I get the sense that Collins is indeed admonishing these sort of beliefs

It seems Collins is setting up some very timely, contemporary commentary. The mid 19th-century witnessed a huge clash between scientists and theologians, especially after Darwin's ideas started to spread. I.E. The 1860 Oxford Evolution debate

The contrast between Betteredge's and Clack's views on Rachel is shocking

Here Miss Clack literally characterizes sins (evil passions) as Oriental nobleman. It's interesting how her Christianity coincides with her xenophobia to make her even more maliciously Orientalist than Betteredge

Wow... a footnote burn. While Blake may not rewrite Miss Clack's narrative, he still feels the need to write over her

I'm interested to see the differences in the ways in which Betteredge and Miss Clack discuss class/money. While Miss Clack may be technically higher ranking than Betteredge by birth, I'm getting the sense that she's somewhat financially destitute. While Betteredge takes pride in the role he serves in the Verinder family, Miss Clack seems more aware of the economic reality of her situation. Is this because she's a woman and has little opportunity to earn money, or because of her decline in class/status? Either way, her candid mentions of money seem like the type of behavior that Betteredge would condemn her for

pathetic fallacy alert. I haven't been focusing too closely on the weather, aside from the storm the night of the dinner party, but has anyone else noticed instances where the weather is indicative of the mood?

I wonder if this will prove to be foretelling

the depiction of the loss of 'her jewel' seems almost like a rape, an assault of sorts, a violation.

thinking for herself? oh no! dreadful!

more orientalist rhetoric -- suggestion that eastern religions are demonic/evil

pretty meta stuff here. interesting, considering that the realist movement was reaching its peak around the mid nineteenth century, and trying its best to prevent readers from recognizing narrative devices

I was going to comment on the staggering amount of foreshadowing in the story, but then, I suppose it makes sense when you consider that the novel was serialized. The end of each chapter has a sort-of 'next time, on The Moonstone' moment.

Typical of many nonrealistic works -- like J. Sheridan le Fanu or James' Turn of the Screw -- to open the text with a claim of verisimilitude. Can an assertion of realism actually foreground nonrealism?