|
epitome of incomprehensibility
|
Dear_Jane_Austen, the big question: was the "rears and vices" pun in Mansfield_Park specifically a *gay* pun, or were the rears incidental to the vices?
Explain the joke: Mary Crawford is riffing on the terms "rear admiral" and "vice admiral." But then her admiral father's "vice" isn't gay sex, but unmarried sex. Having a mistress when his wife is still around and disapproving, not cool, but when she's dead...? Different moral codes.
At least Austen applies these morals to men and women equally: later in Mansfield Park, she points out how a woman is shamed for having an affair when the man involved, just as guilty, doesn't bear the same social shame. In Pride_and_Prejudice, Mr. Collins is presented as harsh and overbearing for the way he shames the main character's younger sister; in Sense_and_Sensibility, an eligible man is found to be more eligible since he didn't have a daughter out of wedlock, despite the rumour spread by a gossipy but ultimately well-meaning family friend.
Also, her books are a fascinating look into a time when it was politer to speak with restraint, and indirectly. Sometimes she seemed to go along with the prevailing manners; sometimes she pushed against them or made fun of them.
And the dialogue is often funny. Even the more serious books (Persuasion, Mansfield Park) have goofy side characters.
Sometimes the plot seems lopsided: in Northanger_Abbey it seems to hurry through the abbey section, in Emma to drag. But the fluid, enviable balance of description and dialogue! The way a character's complexity is revealed in a few words! Not to mention the glimpses into ordinary life in a different place, time, and social status (than mine, anyway...did you know I'm not a Regency-era gentlewoman living in England? Weird_confessions, but yes.)
|
250120
|
