Pride and Prejudice Journal 4

I have finished Pride and Prejudice! Mr. Darcy might be the cutest most romantic misunderstood character ever. If I could marry a fictional character, it would be him. I liked pride and prejudice much better than Emma. the plot overall captivated me more. I am finding it difficult to find information for my project...turns out there are too many sites that have good information on courting in the 1800s....I will have to consult Mr. Knuth soon for advice.

Pride and Prejudice Journal 2

In my last journal, we had just met Mr. Darcy and everyone has found him to be extremely disagreeable compared to his best friend Mr. Bingley. Mr. Bingley finds Jane very beautiful and seems to have fallen for her. Lizzy is very happy for her. The militia often comes to town and it has been made obvious that the younger Bennets, Lydia and Catherine, are pretty much boy crazy. They love to go to town simply to see the officer. Jane has been offered an invitation to Netherfield by Bingley sister. Jane wishes to take a carriage to the estate due to a chance of rain, but her mother wants her to take a horse. Her theory is that this way Jane is likely to catch a cold and will have to spend the night at Netherfield. Her plan works and Jane falls very ill. Lizzy wishes to go care for her at Netherfield and walks there through the mud, causing the guests at Netherfield to look at her in shock upon her arrival.

                The plot in Pride and Prejudice is much much easier to follow than that of Emma. I find myself enjoying it much more because of the pace. Mrs. Bennet and her techniques to make sure her daughters marry off frighten me a bit and make me very thankful she isn’t my mother. I like how rebellious Lizzy is compared to her sisters. It gives her this edge that makes her a very interesting main character. I have been brain storming ideas for my project, and I think I’m going to do something like a compare and contrast of dating and courting in Lizzy’s time and modern time. It would be very fascinating.

Journal 3

Harriet is spending more and more time at Hartfield now. While she leaves to gather somethings from Mrs. Goddard's, Mr. Knightlty and Emma have a chance to talk for awhile. They begin to talk about Harriet and Mr, Knightly tells Emma Mr. Martin came to him for advice about Harriet. He told Mr. Knightly his intentions to propose to Harriet, and Mr. Knightly helped him out. He believes Harriet and Mr. Martin would make an ideal couple. Emma is surprised at this, but tells Mr. Knightly he had indeed proposed already and Harriet has refused him. Mr. Knightly is very upset about this and blames Emma, saying she must have had something to do with her refusal. Emma says she let Harriet decide, but Mr. Knightly is still very mad ans almost loses his temper and snaps at her. Later, Harriet and Emma are playing around with charades, or riddles. When Mr. Elton comes back from London after getting the drawing framed, he writes a charade for the girls to figure out. Emma takes a look at it and interprets it to mean "courtship". She thinks this is Mr. Elton's way of proposing to Harriet. She tells Harriet this and breaks down the charade again. Harriet is absolutely speechless at this point. Mr. Elton was to join them for dinner at Hartfield that night, but he promised another friend he would eat with them and says he must go. Emma tells him she has figured out his charade and writes it down in Harriet's charade book. The next day, the girls go to visit a poor sick family in an area near Mr. Elton's home. They run into Mr. Elton on the way back and Emma tries to leave Harriet and Mr. Elton alone. She pretends to tie her shoes and drags behind. Eventually she is obligated to join them again. Unfortunately, she discovers they were talking of nothing significant.

I feel like Emma's plan is slowly failing. To think Mr. Elton's riddle was a proposal was a bit irrational and to think it was intended for Harriet was a bit of a jump as well. Unless I totally missed something, I don't recall Emma ever talking to Mr. Elton about it either. She is getting in way over her head. Mr. Elton isn't showing interest in Harriet like Emma assumed he would. I think she totally misunderstood the riddle and it is not going to end well. Also, I have a feeling Mr. Martin will end up talking to Mr. Knightly about his rejection and won't settle for it. It will be very interesting to see where all this ends up in the next few chapters!

Journal 2

So, after Emma made her decision to find Mr. Elton a wife, lots of people showed up at Hartfield for dinner. One of the women is a lady named Mrs.Goddard is in charge of a boarding school. There is an elderly woman there named Mrs. Bates, who has a single daughter Emma believes will never marry. These were the only three people there who Emma paid much attention to. Mrs. Goddard requested that she be able to bring along a Miss Harriet Smith. Her true parents were unknown and she spent much of her time at Mrs. Goddard’s school. Emma found her to be a very beautiful girl and decided to make it her undertaking to teach Harriet how to be more like her, in the upper class. She was going to teach her how to talk, act, and who to befriend. She also decides she will match Mr. Elton and Harriet. Harriet and Emma became very intimate. She spent much of her time at Hartfield and took walks with Emma. She quickly took Mrs. Weston’s spot in Emma’s life. One person Harriet talked a lot about was a man named Mr. Martin. He was a man of no substantial status that Harriet was rather fond of. He lived on the Abbey-Mill Farm. One day, the two girls ran into Mr. Martin and Emma was not at all impressed with him. Emma tells Harriet she found him very plain and ended up getting Harriet to talk about Mr. Elton. Mr. Knightly doesn’t like how close Emma and Harriet have become and voices his opinion to Mrs. Weston. She doesn’t agree. Some day later, Emma draws a picture of Harriet for Mr. Elton and he is all too please. He goes off to have the picture framed and in his absence, Mr. Martin proposes to Harriet. She quickly runs to Emma and begs her advice. Emma wants Harriet to make her own decision, but sort of leads Harriet to decide to refuse him. Harriet blushes when talking about Mr. Elton and Emma knows her plan is working.

            I still enjoy this novel a lot. The relationship between Emma and Harriet makes me think of the song popular from the Broadway show Wicked. Emma thinks she is doing her some great kindness by teaching her the ways of upper class life, but in my opinion Harriet is far too innocent and Emma is shaping her too much. I would have to agree with Mr. Knightly and his opinion of their friendship. I don't think it will end well and I feel very bad for Harrie. I do not like how Emma sways Harriet into refusing Mr. Martin. It just goes to show how much she is falling to Emma’s influences. Emma should really mind her own business sometimes. I don’t think Mr. Martin will leave the story at this point and I am interested to see what will happen with him in the future. Also, I think Emma is overconfident in her matching of Mr. Elton and Harriet. Something tells me it just won’t work out. The next few chapters are sure to be very important now that more is happening in the plot and I am very interested to see what will happen.

Journal 1

For my senior study I have decided I will be doing an author study on Jane Austen. The first book I am reading is Emma. So far in the novel, I have been introduced to the main character, Emma Woodhouse. Emma is a very high class young lady who has been blessed her whole life, but has a tendency to think too highly of herself, making her egotistical. Her mother died when she was very young and her governess, Miss Taylor, replaced her in Emma’s life. Miss Taylor has just gotten married to Mr. Weston and has left Hartfield, the Woodhouse estate. Emma and her father were both very sad to see her go. Emma tried to enjoy the company of her father, but he is anti-change and she hasn’t been able to cheer him up. A man named Mr. Knightly shows up for a visit. Emma’s sister, Isabella, is married to Mr. Knightly’s brother. During their conversation, Emma tells him she thinks herself a match maker since she was the one who pushed along the now Mr. and Mrs. Weston’s relationship. Her next goal is to find Mr. Elton a wife. He lives their village.

I am not very far in the novel, only half way through chapter three, but I like it a lot. The plot is moving swiftly. I have already been introduced to many characters. One thing I like best is that all the characters are introduced with more than a name. For almost every character, I was giving a little bit of background on their lives. I wasn’t left guessing at who all the random people were and how they fit into the Woodhouses’ lives. Marriage and love seem to be important themes in the novel so far, which makes sense since it is set in a time period where being married and well of was an important thing in a woman’s life. I’m interested to see if someone will catch Emma’s eye. She seems like the girl who has enough confidence to chase down someone she is interested in. I hope she doesn’t screw things up with her little match making ideas :] I really like the novel so far and I can’t wait to keep reading :D