Romantic Comedy Blog Spring 2020

Mary Grace Cusumano Professor Sinowitz ENG 255 11 March 2020 Pride and Prejudice and the Bennet's Failed Attempt at Parenting While parents always want the best for their children, sometimes their efforts can be counterproductive. Through Jane Austen’s indirect discourse, the readers learn that “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 3). This universal truth is embodied throughout Mrs. Bennett’s character in the novel. From the very beginning, we learn that Mrs. Bennett’s ultimate goal is to get her five daughters married into a well-established estate, hoping that as parents, her and Mr. Bennet will be supported as well. In the 19 th century, only a male can inherit the family estate, therefore, the Bennet’s fall in an unfortunate situation. However, due to Mrs. Bennet’s obsession with marriage and social status and Mr. Bennet’s absence as a father, they both were unable to give th...

Campbell Montgomery Professor Sinowitz Romantic Comedy March 20, 2020 “Pioneering Feminism”: An Analysis of Elizabeth Bennet’s Self Agency in Pride and Prejudice In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen displays an early form of women’s advancement through her descriptions of marriage. She begins her novel with the quote,   "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Volume 1, Chapter 1). This emphasizes the culture of marriage at the time, and how women are reduced to simply being a wife to a man. As the first sentence of chapter one, it instantly establishes the gender roles within the novel, giving men the power to desire a wife and reducing women to an object that must be sought after. The novel demonstrates how women need to marry men they are not in love with simply in order to gain financial security and a stable future. Although many would say that the concept of marriage in Pri...

Natalia Rueda-Marshall Romantic Comedy March 20, 2020 Reevaluating the Importance of Lydia Bennet: A Closer Look at Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Lydia Bennet is often dismissed as the naive, lustful, youngest daughter of the Bennet bunch within Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by readers of the novel. Her character is overshadowed by her sister Elizabeth who is viewed as intelligent, witty, and strong-willed and even by the passive Jane who gets her own love story within this novel. There is no serious attention given to Lydia until the end of the novel where her character runs off with the much older militia officer, George Wickham. The attention she receives for this is not the good kind as she threatens to hurt her family’s reputation by being with a man alone while being unwed. After this whole ordeal, she is dismissed by her family as being selfish, with the exception of her mother who is thrilled by the marriage of her youngest daughter. Lydia is very much the pr...

Ja’el Thomas March 20, 2020 Professor Sinowitz Romantic Comedy Is Elizabeth Materialistic or Is She Just Human?  In the society in which Pride and Prejudice takes place, wealth is a prevalent theme being that it influences many character’s actions in the novel; it’s the way of their world. However, does this mean that this is also the way of Elizabeth’s world? At the end of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet marries Mr. Darcy, supposedly the biggest catch since he is the wealthiest eligible bachelor in their society. Professor Sinowitz and a few students have said something to the effect that Elizabeth is a gold-digger because she fell for Mr. Darcy after viewing his estate, Pemberley. While Elizabeth recognizes Mr. Darcy has wealth, it does not make her materialistic for marrying him. The realization of finding out who Mr. Darcy really is, gives rise to love and the novel argues that love is what causes happiness, not money. If Elizabeth did fall in love with...

Ivy Sedam March 10, 2020 Romantic Comedies  Professor Sinowitz Was Elizabeth Bennett a Gold-digger? or “My Goodness Doesn’t It Help” Whether or not Elizabeth Bennet wants to marry Darcy because of his money has been brought into question by Micheal Sinowitz. When Elizabeth sees Pemberley she thinks that being the lady of the house would be something that she wants, this is taken as indication that the only reason she marries Darcy is for the estate that comes along with him. In this discussion I believe a scenario played out in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes gives a very  good explanation and a more encompassing view of the situation of a so-called gold-digger. When the lead character is confronted about the idea of her marrying for money she says “a man being rich is like a girl being pretty,you might not marry a girl just because she’s pretty but my goodness doesn’t it help?” Pride and Prejudice's lead character should be thought of with this same philosophy, ...

Hannah Lathrop Professor Sinowitz Tps:Romantic Comedy 11 March 2020 A Woman of Mean Understanding: A Closer Look into The Subversive Behavior of Mrs. Bennet In class discussions, we often criticized the brash decisions Mrs. Bennet makes to get her daughters married. Certainly, Jane Austen never intended for anyone to read the character, Mrs. Bennet, seriously; her dialogue and actions venturing on shameless. However, while there are strong points of criticism towards Mrs. Bennet, she naturally subverts tradition. Her character's motivation to make sure her daughters are financially secure is legitimate. She is outspoken against the entail, constantly questioning why her daughters cannot inherit the property that should be theirs. She is not afraid to speak against Mr. Darcy despite his superior rank. She fully accepts and welcomes Lydia after her elopement with Wickham. While Mrs. Bennet is portrayed with an air of obliviousness to the social conventions around ...