As I do not believe Jane Fairfax is pregnant,I took her increased bloom to be because Frank Churchill is nearby. That is before she is treated badly by hm. Nancy On Mon, Oct 21, 2024 at 7:14?AM Liz Anne Potamianos via groups.io <lizannepotamianos@...> wrote: Arnie, I interpreted Emma's comment, "There, not to be vulgar, was
distinction, and merit.", to mean that Emma thought that no one in Highbury
had any elegance, and that few were not vulgar.
I also identified Jane's "fuller bloom" as referring to her pregnancy. It
would be amusing if Austen was referring to the royal dalliances, the
illegitimate children (i.e. Fitz- ) with this statement. It also ties back
to the charade in Chapter 9:
"It was a style of beauty, of which elegance was the reigning character,
and as such, she must, in honour, by all her principles, admire
it:¡ª*elegance*, which, whether of person or of mind, she saw so little in
Highbury."
"My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings, Lords of the earth! their
luxury and ease.Another view of man, my second brings, Behold him there,
the monarch of the seas!But, ah! united, what reverse we have!Man's boasted
power and freedom, all are flown;Lord of the earth and sea, he bends a
slave, And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone. Thy ready wit the word will
soon supply, May its approval beam in that soft eye!"
Liz Anne
On Monday, October 21, 2024 at 01:31:47 AM EDT, Arnie Perlstein <
arnieperlstein@...> wrote:
[Jane¡¯s] eyes, a deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eyebrows, had never
been denied their praise; but the skin, which she had been used to cavil
at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no
fuller bloom. It was a style of beauty, of which elegance was the reigning
character, and as such, she must, in honour, by all her principles, admire
it:¡ª*elegance*, which, whether of person or of mind, she saw so little in
Highbury. *There, not to be vulgar, was distinction, and merit."*
As Emma contemplates Jane shortly after Jane's arrival in Highbury in Ch.
20, she grudgingly acknowledges the elegance of Jane's style of beauty, and
feels she must admire it, in comparison to what she sees in other females
in Highbury.
Why does Emma then think, "not to be vulgar", that this constituted Jane's
"distinction and merit". Is it Emma's sense that Jane is no great shakes to
stand out in Highbury, because there is no real competition? If so, then,
Emma is in effect, undercutting her admiration as soon as she thinks it,
because in fact, she is jealous of Jane's elegance but hates to admit it?
Or
is Emma, in her snobbery, characterizing her thoughts as "vulgar" for some
other reason I am missing?
ARNIE
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