1 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2022
  2. www.janeausten.pludhlab.org www.janeausten.pludhlab.org
    1. She had resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother, but not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother’s unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home.

      This sentence is one of those that should be written in gold: Miss Churchill's possession of will power is undermined by the expectations of a brother who would hold economic and social power over her. This might seem reasonable from our 21st-century perspective, but Austen's narrator does not let us linger much in that complaisance. It is unreasonable to limit someone's will based on class and gender.