Letter the First
Isabel to Laura: “You are this day 55. If a woman may ever be said to be in safety from the determined Perseverance of disagreeable Lovers and the cruel Persecutions of obstinate Fathers, surely it must be at such a time of Life.”I love this! What do you think it says about age, especially women’s age, in Regency England?
I think Isabel was taunting her! By 55 a woman would be "damaged goods" who couldn't expect to remarry, so her past was safe to reveal.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Laura came out of all of this in triumph because she was married, so she gets the $400 a year and the respectable widow status to see her through her lifetime, whereas she couldn't have set out on a similar course single without having been socially ruined.
Yeah, that's a curious comment, because it definitely means what cl says, and I also thought it hinted at a certain freedom from male oversight that women only achieved around that age, when their fathers were likely dead or decrepit and their husbands were dead or long bored with them. (Interesting that JA uses the word "lovers," not "husbands" here, though. Reminds of when the Marquise de Merteuil informs the hopelessly naive Cecile: "You don't marry your lover, silly.")
ReplyDeleteI read that JA's father was liberal with his daughters, and encouraged their creativity, even when it tended toward the risque as in JA's juvenilia. Happy for us.
There's also the sad possibility that JA was being ironic by suggesting that women in her society are EVER free of male "perseverance" and "persecutions," even though the fantastical Laura had apparently lucked out.
Yes, I like both your posts. Definitely taunting, cl, and I also thought like kc that it was ironic - Laura's now safe because she's too old to be attractive or make her father anxious. If you're pretty, you're dangerous - but if you're old, you're free! Either way, you can't win.
ReplyDeleteIn the vein of your "risque" comment, kc, I found it interesting that JA made Laura the "natural daughter of a Scotch Peer by an Italian Opera-girl" - again a hint that this 14-year-old knew of the ways of the world! (or had read too many novels...)