Examples Of Promise To Lucy

promise to Lucy. When, Elinor tells Marianne of Edward’s engagement to another woman, and this sparks the conversion in their relationship. Elinor says, “surely you may suppose that I have suffered now. The composure of mind with which I have brought myself at the present to consider the matter, the consolation that have been willing to admit, have been the effect of constant and painful exertion” (198-199). In this quote Elinor finally trusts her sister with her deepest form of pain. Elinor is telling Marianne that she does suffer, but she ‘painfully’ governs her emotions in order to look composed for Marianne’s sake. During most of the novel, Marianne believes her sister has no feelings. However, after Elinor discloses the information to
In this quote, Marianne finally analyzes Elinor’s constant attempts to rein in her sensibility with the single word ‘exertion’. Marianne feels intense regret because while she has been expressing her feelings and vocalizing her emotions, Elinor has been helping her gain control while she also has been suffering from heartaches. Marianne also feels pain because she has doubted Elinor’s ability to feel and is constantly disregarding her eldest sister’s well-being. Marianne is conscious of her sister’s suffering and internal battles and now feels a sense of responsibility for her selfish behavior. She says, “You have made me hate myself for ever- How barbarous have I been to you” (199)! This is a turning point in Marianne’s selfishness. Although she is feeling passionately, Marianne can still acknowledge Elinor’s suffering and not only her
Reinstein supports this argument by utilizing stylistic analysis to examine the language, repetition, and patterns of various implications of the characters. For example, she writes that in the beginning of the novel, “Elinor's prose is balanced, and sentences frequently divide neatly into two equal parts joined by a coordinating conjunction” (271). In the end she writes that Elinor speech has altered because “Under stress she occasionally repeats, accumulates phrases for emphasis, and conveys the breathless, impulsive tone originally characteristic of Marianne” (274). This claim implies that both Marianne and Elinor grow towards a moderation of past characteristics, meaning that Elinor becomes more like Marianne and Marianne becomes more like Elinor in the conclusion of the book. On one hand, I agree with Reinstein about Marianne becoming more like Elinor. However, further reading of the novel actually suggests that Elinor does not grow to become more like Marianne. Reinstein overlooks the original words used to describe Elinor. Austen writes that, “She had an excellent heart;-her disposition was affectionate, and her feelings were strong-but she knew how to govern them” (6). From the beginning, it is