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And we hit the end of the setup!
Well, I've been reminded that English 19th century ladies were much more educated than I am today. But education is relative. They know what people found it relevant for them to know, based above all on their station and the image required of them. Fanny's ignorance, due to her own context, was attributed to her capacity to learn without further thought - and that context justified keeping her more ignorant and less accomplished than her cousins. I don't remember what I thought about Edmund on my first read, but the one who befriended Fanny sounds like someone I would have liked to have in my life at any stage and especially when I was a child.
It was Fanny's job to be the happy and grateful recipient; this was to be demonstrated by obliging and pleasing her relatives. By being inferior. The novel seems a study of good intentions, indifference, self-absorption, and the combined effect on Fanny, the story's center.
Well, I've been reminded that English 19th century ladies were much more educated than I am today. But education is relative. They know what people found it relevant for them to know, based above all on their station and the image required of them. Fanny's ignorance, due to her own context, was attributed to her capacity to learn without further thought - and that context justified keeping her more ignorant and less accomplished than her cousins. I don't remember what I thought about Edmund on my first read, but the one who befriended Fanny sounds like someone I would have liked to have in my life at any stage and especially when I was a child.
It was Fanny's job to be the happy and grateful recipient; this was to be demonstrated by obliging and pleasing her relatives. By being inferior. The novel seems a study of good intentions, indifference, self-absorption, and the combined effect on Fanny, the story's center.
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