As stated in my last blog Arabella's mind has been twisted by being held in such seclusion by her father's doing. All she had to do was read and study romance books, and that she did, to the point that her perception of reality is distorted. I already stated that she pulled a major embarrassing stunt on poor Mr. Hervey, now her next crazy and arrogant assault would be carried out on the marquis' gardener.
" When she walked in the garden, had frequent opportunities of seeing this young man, whom she observed with a very particular attention. His person and his air had something, she thought, very distinguishing. When she condescended to speak to him"-22
So when she roamed the garden, the garden im sure he labored over to make beautiful, she would watch him "with a very particular attention". So she was paying him close attention, more than he paid her. Somehow she took this situation and twisted it into a crazy scenario of obsessive love for her.
"She remained perfectly convinced that he was some person of quality, who disguised in the habit of a gardener, had introduced himself into her father's service, in order to have an opportunity of declaring a passion to her which must must certainly be very great, since it had forced him to assume an appearance so unworthy of his noble extraction"-22
So she thinks that he only took this job because he was so in love with her! How full of herself is she?
"She often wondered, indeed that she did not find her name carved on trees, with some mysterious expressions of love"-23
Arabella is so far gone into her books that she thinks he will resort to such childish antics to express himself. Arabella's head is so far up her own tail that she thinks the garedener should fall ill because he can't express his love for her openly. She has her mind made up that she must reject his offer of love, the offer of love that he hasn't even offered her. Before the gardener even held a real conversation with Arabella she has decided that she will "banish him from her presence."-23 because he may think that in time he will be able to have her. I just found this so comical. I don't know if Lennox is poking fun at the over acting found in romance novels, or she is just using these encounters to show that Arabella is self centered. I'm sure by the time I finish the book I'll know.
I find it funny that she has gotten so ingrosed or engrossed in these books that her life is no longer plain and boring. Now she is surrounded by choices she originally couldn't make before. But I say let her have her fun because she'll have to wake up eventually.
ReplyDeleteI think she is definitely cautioning against the literal interpretation of novels that many were worried would happen, especially to women because they are poor fragile creatures that are not capable of accurately or successfully interpreting texts. This is an echo (like we talked about in class last week) of the Tattler and Spectator about cautioning against reading practices and who should and shouldn't be reading certain texts. In this case, its women and novels.
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