LIFE WAS TOO SMALL TO CONTAIN HER

She was American, he was English. Both very sensitive, both very good poets. But he was lucky, he was a man in the 50s. She, instead, was stuck, entrapped, in the cliché of the female role of the 50s- well it was STILL the long-lasting stereotype inherited from very ancient times. He was a heartthrob, she felt like "a horse in a world without race-tracks". Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes. Two of the greatest poets of the 20th century. The two met at a party in Cambridge in 1956 and got married in the same year. They had two children, Freida and Nicholas. However she was unsatisfied with her life, she desperately wanted to find time for her poetry but her house and her children sucked all her time and her energies. Her life turned into hell one night when she lifted the receiver and overheard a conversation between her husband and his lover, a common acquaintance, Assia. Her turbulent marriage wrecked though their bond of love remained unbreakable.
Sylvia had suffered from depression as a teenager and had even tried to kill herself at 19. She was rescued and treated with electro-shock therapy. A terrible period of her life she wrote about in THE BELL JAR, her splendid, deeply touching autobiographical novel. Her fascination to death ( "blackness and silence") became her favourite subject in her poetry, nearly an obsession, and grew on and on till she decided to try again: she gassed herself, she succeded in committing suicide, on the 11 of February 1963. She was 30. In that last troubled year, she wrote her most beautiful lines, Ted Hughes would later on published.

Sylvia Plath is one of my favourite poets but also a woman whose life has always fascinated me since I first read THE BELL JAR, her only novel. Her poetry, known as confessional poetry, is terribly dark, tragic but so...deeply touching. Here are some lines from "The Moon and the Yew Tree" (Ariel):

This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary.

The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.

The grasses unload their griefs on my feet as if I were God,

Prickling my ankles and murmuring of their humility.

Fumy, spirituous mists inhabit this place

Separated from my house by a row of headstones.

I simply cannot see where there is to get to. (...)

This is instead the letter Ted Hughes wrote to Sylvia's mother after some time from her suicide. Can you imagine his sense of guilt? How difficult could it be to write such a letter? It's extremely moving... LISTEN TO IT. HERE.

(Has any of you recognised the voice reading the letters? Who guesses will win ... MY CONGRATULATIONS!)

In 2003 Christine Jeffs directed an amazingly powerful beautiful film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, SYLVIA (in my DVD collection). I know very few people must have seen it but it is a terribly good portray of the two lovers and poets. Critically acclaimed and very moving, it is a must-see movie.

RELATED POSTS AND SITES Ted Hughes: A Talented Murderer March 2009: Sylvia and Ted's son committed suicide My video on Utube: Richard Armitage reads Ted Hughes's letter to Sylvia's mother

...CATCH THE WINDS OF DESTINY WHEREVER THEY DRIVE THE BOAT

Poetry is one of my favourite shelters to reflect, meditate, listen carefully to the deep sound of life...

Last night I was working on some of my students' papers: they are preparing their interdisciplinary essays for their final exams, we call them "tesine" or "percorsi". The school leaving examinations will start next week, on 25th June. They are all very anxious ( me too!) because they will be also examined by 4 external teachers and will have to do very difficult tests coming from the Ministery of Education. For their oral examination, they can usually choose a topic and then try to link as many subjects as they can to it. They are writing very interesting essays and choosing very beautiful literary works. So, last night, I bumped into GEORGE GRAY - a very grey person indeed in his life - in one of their essays. I like these lines very much and often read them to my students. They are taken from SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY (I started this blog with a poem from this collection. Do you want to have look? HERE) by Edgar Lee Masters. The poem can be connected to Horace's idea of "seize the day".

In Spoon River all the characters speak after death - but they are so vividly alive! -leaving to all of us their special will: precious teachings to fully appreciate life.

George Gray


I have studied many times

The marble which was chiseled for me—

A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.

In truth it pictures not my destination

But my life.



For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;

Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;

Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.

Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.

And now I know that we must lift the sail

And catch the winds of destiny

Wherever they drive the boat.

To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,

But life without meaning is the torture

Of restlessness and vague desire—

It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

SO LET'S TRY TO BE LIKE THIS ...

AND NOT LIKE THIS ....

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!! MG

MY FAVOURITE WALK

As I wrote in my previous post, I'm looking forward to having more free time to go for long relaxing walks. So, just to make you envious and myself even more longing for that time to come, I'll show you some of the pictures I took one of the last times I went for ...my favourite long walk. It usually starts from here: can you see the cars parked down there in the picture above? I park my car there (two-minute drive from home) and start walking up the hill. The road is quite steep and winding but the place is all peace and tranquillity, surrounded by beautiful high mountains. The site above is what remains of Emperor Nero's Villa near the river Aniene.

Did I tell you the place I live is named Subiaco, a small ancient town in the centre of Italy? Maybe I did. But I didn't tell you it is famous for its two Benedictine Monasteries and for being Gina Lollobrigida's native town, did I? Does anybody remember her in the beautiful Italian comedies of the 50s with Vittorio De Sica or with famous American stars like Humphrey Bogart or Rock Hudson? Well, it was long time ago. Let's go back to my favourite route. Walking up the hill after a while, you pass this historical and architectural site, one of the oldest monasteries founded by St Benedict (Ora et Labora was his motto, that is, Pray and Work). It is dedicated to his sister, St Scholastica, and it is also an important section of our national library where the first book printed in Italy is kept. Going along this road, once you pass those arches over there, you find yourself in a small quiet grove and, climbing on a bit more, you turn back and this is what you see ...
Among the trees, you can catch a glimpse of St. Scholastica's monastery and its Romanesque bell-tower. Impressive, isn't it? At this point of the walk, the temptation to sit down on the side wall and watch the breathtaking view is great but it's not yet time to rest. Let's go on then...

What is extraordinary in these winding steep roads among the mountains is their ... silence. Yes, extraordinary, because we are losing the real meaning of this word and to listen to this kind of REAL silence can make you astonished... Anyhow, this is one of the main reasons why I love this walk.

My final destination is another monastery, a peculiar impressive architectural wonder, we know as the Sacro Speco (sacred cave) because the place is said to be built around the original cave where young Benedict - not yet St. - started living as a hermit in the 6th century.It is such a beautiful place, it is worth the effort of walking up there. Here are for you to admire some pictures of it from different points of you ...

What do I do once I'm up here? I sit and rest and enjoy the beautiful view ...

Isn't it like ... FLYING HIGH?

RELATED SITES

MONASTERI BENEDETTINI - SUBIACO

MEDIOEVO. ORG

TAGGING OR ...CHEATING? THIS IS THE QUESTION

I have been tagged … again … and just when I was complaining about “numbers” I got a meme with lots of 8s! Not a bad number, though. Thank you KATHRYN at LIFE IN ITALY! I’m ready to go.
This is an '8 Tag' meme - the rules being you have to mention who tagged you, you have to complete your lists of 8's and have to tag 8 other bloggers.

8 things I am looking forward to
- having more spare time

- having a new dream
- travelling to England again
-reading more
-watching new good films
-going for long walks
-going to the seaside
-having my flat restored

8 things I did yesterday
- stayed at school from 8.30 a.m. till 7.30 p.m.
- had a good quick lunch in a beautiful place in the countryside with some colleagues
- wrote a lot of papers
-yawned a lot (well, I tried not to)
-gave lots of good final marks to my best students
-gave lots of bad final marks to my worst students
- listened to my headmistress speaking for hours (that’s the reason of my yawning)
- felt guilty ‘cause I was completely neglecting my family


8 things I wish I could do
- improve my Spanish and English
- teach to people who really want to learn
- live in a different age for some time
- live and work abroad for some time
- learn new things each day
- become a superwoman, that is a perfect mum, wife, housewife, teacher
- take life with more …”leggerezza calviniana” (I’ll explain when I improve my English or when I have more time)

8 favourite fruits
- cherries
-strawberries
-peaches
-apricots
-raspberries
-kiwi
-pineapple
-watermelon

8 cities I've visited
-London
-New York
-New Orleans
-Munchen
-Brussels
-Norwich
-Madrid
-Barcelona

8 places I'd like to travel to
- Australia
-New York again
- Ireland
- Scotland
-Cornwall
-Canada
-Spain again
-Lots of places in Italy I’ve never been to!

Now ... this tagging question can be really hard sometimes! May I just say to anybody dropping by "If you feel like, do the same on your blog. And, well, let me know so that I can have a look!"
Is this cheating? Just for once ... let me do it.
FLY HIGH!HAVE A GOOD TIME!

WONDERFUL ... BUT A BIT MELANCHOLIC

I'm having a break. I've been filling in papers with figures, percentages, final marks all afternoon. Figures, figures, figures...This school-year is finishing and my mental energies too. I need some fresh air. I'm at the back of my flat, in the big -better to say long - balcony, I'm sitting on a bench with my laptop on my knees and a very looong coffee next to me (not really Italian, I know). Above you can see the view I've got in front of me. Few days ago I showed the view from the small balcony at the front of the house to you. Do you remember? This is my native town and the town I still live and work in: Subiaco, 72 km from Rome. Not a big one, only about 9,000 inhabitants, but not so bad for someone who loves peace and tranquillity like me.

As I was telling you, school is finishing: this morning I had my last lessons with this year classes. Three of them, 57 of my students, will be at university next year. From June 25th they will start doing their school - leaving exams and I will be there with them as an internal teacher. It'll be hard for all of us since we will be at school till mid-July. Do you know what? I'm quite sad thinking of what I've been doing this afternoon: all my work and my students' efforts had to be summed up in numbers ... figures...I've always hated numbers, I've always thought words were better. Not only because I'm not a genius at Maths, but because I'm sure they are not ...enough, they are not fit to convey the sense, the meaning, the aim of all our efforts, mine and theirs. Well...it's just a sensation...maybe I'm only sad or melancholic as always when at the end of something.

I need some music. A cheerful song possibly. Let's see ... this will help me. 3 minutes , then soon back to my boring number-writing task! WONDERFUL!!! (It's the title of the song)

JOHN KEATS : ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER

Among the films taking part in this year Cannes Festival there was also Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR. Do you remember her? She's the director from New Zealand who won the Palme D’Or in 1993 with her wonderful THE PIANO. As I heard about it, I promised myself this film will be part of my DVD collection as soon as it will be released (with YOUNG VICTORIA, another costume film released this year, which I’m eagerly waiting to see).
The movie tells the story of the tragic romance between JOHN KEATS, one othe English Romantic poets of the second generation, and Fanny Brawne. Keats has now become one of the most popular poets in the English language, but in his life, though he managed to publish his works, he wasn't either famous or rich.
Keats, played by Ben Whishaw, met Fanny, Abbie Cornish in the movie, at his friend Charles Brown’s house in 1818 and soon fell in love with her. She was 18 and he was 23. He had already lost his mother for tuberculosis and his brother Tom would soon follow her, just when John himself started showing the first symptoms of the terrible desease.
The screenplay is based on the letters that the poet wrote to his beloved, letters which were published only after Fanny’s death.
Keats had abandoned his studies in Medicine to dedicate his life to poetry but could hardly live on it.So Fanny’s mother, at the beginning, didn’t approve him as her daughter’s wooer. Despite his health troubles, Keats was a cheerful person, full of life, and with the passing of time Fanny started to return his love. The two lovers got engaged, but their happiness was definitely short. In February 1820, on a cold evening, Keats got back home feverish and started coughing blood, an undeniable sign of his next end.
After a while, sure of his approaching death, he wrote to Fanny suggesting to break their engagement but she firmly refused and he couldn’t hide his relief. After seeing his terrible health conditions, Fanny’s mother hosted him in their house where he lived for three months. But his doctor and his friends stirred him to go to Italy where the mild climate might have helped improve his health.
He had seen his mother and his brother die for that illness and, maybe, he didn’t want to give Fanny the same terrible sorrow he had suffered, so he accepted the proposal of leaving England for Italy. She gave him the paper to write to her and a marble oval, used at that time to cool high temperature. He left with his friend, painter John Severn, but he was quarantined for several days at Naples port so when he finally arrived in Rome his health was seriously compromised. He lived at “La Casina Rossa”, next to the Spanish Steps at Piazza di Spagna for about 3 months, dying there on the 23rd of February 1821, at 25. He never wrote to Fanny nor read her letters but wanted them to be buried with him with a curl of her hair. On his grave, at Testaccio Protestant Cemetery in Rome, no name nor date were written, just these words: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water”. From the letters Fanny later wrote to her sister, we know she remained deeply in love with the poet. She accepted to get married only after 9 years from his death and had three children. She kept Keats’s letters till her death - secretly from her husband.

The title of the movie is taken from one of Keats’s poems, a sonnet, dedicated to Fanny:

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art—

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—

No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

RELATED POSTS AND SITES BRIGHT STAR 2009 - OFFICIAL SITE THE GUARDIAN CO.UK REVIEWKEATS AND SHELLEY MEMORIAL HOUSE IN ROME
A SHORT CLIP FROM CANNES FESTIVAL EXCERPTS

A BLEAK HOUSE TRANSFORMED BY HUMAN LOVE

In my Senecan attempt not to waste my time ("Life, if well lived, is long enough"), I usually watch my favourite movies and DVDs while ... ironing. Due to the fact I live with three sports boys (husband and sons), I have got a huge pile of clothes to be ironed at the end of the week. So I've transformed this time consuming - but boring - house activity in an occasion to improve my English (since I try to watch movies and TV series in the original version) and to entertain myself.
While sweating on my husband's shirts and trousers or my sons T-shirts and jeans, I've recently re-watched BLEAK HOUSE (BBC 2005). I had already seen it as soon as I got the DVDs from Amazon UK, but it is such a complex but exciting mystery story I wanted to see it once more.
The 15-episode series is based on Charles Dickens's mature novel published in 19-20 instalments between 1852-53. His long, well-narrated, exciting stories published in monthly journals substituted , in the Victorian Age, our modern TV drama and made Dickens widely-popular and extremely rich. London theatres were crowded of enthusiastic readers who paid to see and listen to Dickens reading his novels on stage. He was a VIP in the 40s and 50s of the 19th century.

This is - very briefly - the story you find in the book and in the TV series. Bleak House is a mystery story in which its heroine Esther Summerson, discovers the truth about her birth. She is brought up as an orphan by her aunt whom she believes to be her godmother; Mr John Jarndyce, the middle-aged hero of the novel, becomes her guardian and pays for her education. Once she's grown up Mr Jarndyce brings her to his home, Bleak House, as a companion to Ada Clare, his ward and one of the heirs and heiress to the Jarndyces' will.
There are lots of characters and sub-plots in this complicated novel which make it so gripping. But, since it deserves to be read - if you love reading, there are more than 1,000 pages waiting for you - or at least to be watched as a TV series, I don't want to give you too many spoilers. Well, just a hint more...The question of whom Esther will marry contributes to the plot interest and her illness (smallpox) which leaves her face disfigured - but her moral beauty unimpaired - provides one of the story's dramatic and sentimental crises. I MUST STOP NOW, otherwise I'm going to tell you too much!

If you want to know more about Dickens's novel CLICK HERE . If you are interested in the TV series CLICK HERE. If you want to buy the DVDs CLICK HERE.

Now I'll leave you with a nice video made up of the several proposals Esther Summerson receives by different wooers: a funny clerk, Mr Guppy, generous mature Mr John Jarndyce and charming Dr Allan Woodcourt. If you see it till the end, you'll find out who the winner is. Do you agree with Esther's choice?

Warning: Of course, there are spoilers in this video.

RELATED POSTS

BLEAK HOUSE 2005 at IMDb

CHARLES DICKENS on LEARN ON LINE

AN ANIMATED BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DICKENS

BLEAK HOUSE AT MASTERPIECE THEATRE

APPRECIATING PRECIOUS LITTLE THINGS ...

Growing up with my lovely, wise grandmother I learnt to appreciate small little things and do you know what? It helps a lot to face life. For example, usually people plan great things for their weekends and long for the end of the working week. I usually hate Saturdays because mine are very often frantic: the housework & the ironing I have very little time to do during the week are there waiting for me! But today I managed to spare some time for me and that's a big conquest. It was only 5.45 p.m., my sons were going out for a pizza with friends, and I had, unexpectedly, some free time! Too early to cook dinner for two, my husband and I. So I sat on my small balcony in the fresh air and just watched the view surrounding me and listened to some music.

This is the view...

And this is the music ...

These two little things already made me happy and relaxed. So I decided to read a little. And I did it for about an hour. I'm reading a novel by Charlotte Bronte , SHIRLEY. I like it but I'm not keeping the pace I would like to 'cause I've been very busy these days. School is going to end, lots of final reposts to write and final tests to mark. But not today.

Then I cooked a quick simple supper for two, we ate salad and meat, cherries, and drank some good wine and now... he is finishing watching a movie (don't know which one) in the living room and I ... again... I'm trying to enjoy the little pleasures life can give... blogging is one of them, why not?

I've found two new blogs I like and in one of them THE BOOK GOBBLER there was a nice tag:

Try to recall in 15 minutes 15 books which will always stick with you. Do it in no more than 15 minutes. Nice isn't it?

Well, here are my 15 in 15:

1. L. May Alcott LITTLE WOMEN

2. J. Austen PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

3. J. Austen SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

4. J. Austen PERSUASION

5.C. Bronte JANE EYRE

6. E.Gaskell NORTH AND SOUTH

7. I. Allende PAULA

8. O. Fallaci UN UOMO

9. T. Terzani LETTERE CONTRO LA GUERRA

10. J. London MARTIN EDEN

11. R. Bradbury FAHRENHEIT 451

12 .S. Plath THE BELL JAR

13. J.D. Salinger THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

14. P. Mastrocola LA BARCA NEL BOSCO

15. A. Baricco NOVECENTO

But I've got many more! And it took me much less than 15 minutes!

Now, what are your 15 in 15? You don't have to think too much and must say the first 15 titles that come to your mind. Don't cheat....

Happy weekend... Lots of lovely enjoyable little things to all of you... My husband's movie is over...

THE PHONINESS OF THE WORLD

It's been, as usual, another very busy day off. I've been studying English with my niece all day through, she's got her first English Language Exam at university tomorrow, so she wanted to be reassured by this old ex-ex student. By the way, good luck, Mari!

Then, after preparing some stuff for my classes - reading some pages from Orwell's "Animal Farm" and Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway" as well as preparing a Reading and Writing Test - here I am to my blog/s and my mates on line.

I've just had a look at some of the blogs I follow and in one of them I've found a short post about Jerome David Salinger fighting back to defend his own "creature", Holden Caufield, from being improperly used in silly sequels. The authoress of the post wondered what might happen if Jane Austen were alive since her characters and plots have been used in sequels, adaptations and similar stuff thousands of times. You can have a look at the post at JANE AUSTEN TODAY.
Well, I'm not going to write about our beloved J.A. tonight but just about young Holden Caulfield, a complicated, sensitive 16-year-old boy I've loved since the first time I met him in the pages of Salinger's cult novel "THE CATCHER IN THE RYE" ( Il Giovane Holden) , several years ago.

Teenagers are not easy to cope with ... and he is no exception. Only, he is so special I could even love being his mother or teacher. Mind, I know it wouldn't be easy at all since he tends to be expelled from schools and collect bad marks, but I'm sure I could get on with him.

What about you?

Read this conversation between he and his sister Phoebe when he comes back home after escaping from the last college he had been expelled from and after wandering around New York City for a few days... "Old Phoebe", 1o years old, wants to know why he escaped from school and disappeared for a few days and if there is anything he likes in his life, because he doesn't seem to like anything...

"You can't even think of one thing"

"Yes, I can, I can"

"Well do it, then"

"I like Allie", I said. "And I like doing what I'm doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking , and thinking about stuff, and - "

"Allie's dead. You always say that!If somebody's dead and everything and in heaven, then it isn't really -"

"I know he's dead! Don't you think I know that? I can still like him though, can't I? Just because somebody's dead, you don't just stop liking them, for God's sake - especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that're alive and all"

Old Phoebe didn't say anything. When she can't think of anything to say, she doesn't say a goddam word.

"Anyway I like it now," I said "I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just chewing the fat and horsing-"

"That isn't anything really!"

"It is so something really! Certainly it is! Why the hell isn't it? People never think anything is anything really. I'm getting goddam sick of it."

"Stop swearing. Alright name something else. Name something you'd like to be. Like a scientist. Or a lawyer or something."

"I couldn't be a scientist. I'm no good in Science."

"Well, a lawyer - like Daddy and all."

"Lawyers are all right, I guess - but it doesn't appeal to me," I said. "I mean they're are all right if they go around saving innocent fuys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge, and buy cars and drink martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys's lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys' lives or you did it because what you really wanted to do was to be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren't being a phoney? The trouble is, you wouldn't."

I'm not too sure Old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she's only a little child and all. But she was listening, at least. If somebody at least listens, it's not too bad.

"Daddy's going to kill you. He's going to kill you," she said.

I wasn't listening, though. I was thinking about something else - something crazy. "You know what I'd like to be?" I said. "You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?"

"What? Stop swearing".

"You know that song ...'if a body catch a body comin' through the rye'? I'd like -"

"It's 'if a body MEET a body coming through the rye'! " Old Phoebe said "It's a poem. By Rpbert Burns."

"I know it's a poem by Robert Burns"

She was right, though. It is 'if a body meet a body coming through the rye'. I didn't know it then, though.

"I thought it was 'if a body catch a body' ", I said."Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the ede of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're goingI have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy".

I'd love to meet a 16-year-old boy or girl who'd like to be a catcher in the rye or something like that. But more and more of them just want to be "veline" (Italians know!They are sort of not very good, half-naked, female dancers on prime time TV in the evening) or rich footballers. Fortunately, I know lots of teenagers, since I teach them English, and they're not all that bad. Then, I go on reading them this page from Salinger's novel ... Who knows? Maybe few of them might choose to be ... catchers in the rye ... We might need them in this careless world.

A HEROINE, HER ANCESTOR AND HER HEIRESS

Catherine Morland

Northanger Abbey was one of the first novels Jane Austen wrote but it was only published in 1817,  after her death,  by her brother Henry . Though still amusing today, would have been amusing in a rather different way to its first readers, because it was written as a deliberate parody of the very popular “horrid” novels of the period – what we now call “thrillers” – some of which Isabella Thorpe has listed in her pocket – book and recommends to Catherine Morland: The Italian,The Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, The Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, Horrid Mysteries. Under Isabella’s guidance, Catherine starts by reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, and later on she begins to imagine that General Tilney is just such a wife- murderer as the sinister Signor Montoni in that story.
The juxtaposition of fiction to reality will provoke her distorted vision of people and facts, her incapacity to judge them properly, her blunders and several misunderstandings.

Jane Austen’s portrayal of Catherine is humorous and ironic, Catherine is realistically portrayed as deficient in experience and perception, unlike the heroines of Gothic and romance novels. All the heroines of this kind of novel are of high birth, angelic beauty, extreme virtue and sensibility, and although usually orphaned and invariably growing up in poverty on some lonely foreign mountainside, nevertheless are so naturally gifted as to possess all the female accomplishments without ever having any formal tuition.
Catherine, instead, was plain, had a thin awkward figure, a sallow skin without much colour, dark lank hair and strong features; she was noisy and wild, hates confinement and cleanliness, enjoys boys’ pastimes...
Catherine fails to recognize the obvious developing relationship between her brother James and her friend Isabella; she fails to recognize Isabella's true nature until long after it has hurt her brother; she accidentally leads John Thorpe into thinking she loves him; and most significantly, she embarrasses herself in front of Henry Tilney when he finds out she suspects his father of murder. While Catherine is an avid reader of novels, she is inexperienced at reading people, and this is what causes many of the problems she encounters. By the end of the novel, she has become a much better judge of character, having learned from her mistakes with Isabella and General Tilney. She is also, perhaps, a bit more cynical about people, as Henry is. Ultimately, it is her integrity and caring nature that win Henry's heart and bring her happiness.


Would you have ever said that she had an ancient, noble, world-wide famous ancestor from Spain? Do you remember him? He too was an avid reader of tales and he too confused reality and the images in his mind, those heroic images taken from the wonderful romances he had read in great quantitities. YES!

Don Quixote de la Mancha !
Don Quixote ( 1605 ) is a parody of the romances of Cervantes's time. Don Quixote rides out like any other knight-errant, searching for the same principles and goals and engaging in similar battles. During these battles, he invokes chivalric ideals, regardless of how ridiculous his adventures may be. On another level, however, the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the novel's First Part attempt to describe a code of honour that could serve as an example for a Spain that was confused by war and by its own technological and social successes. Cervantes applies this code of values to a world in which such values are out of date.
Don Quixote is a gaunt, middle-aged gentleman who, having gone mad from reading too many books about chivalrous knights, determines to set off on a great adventure to win honor and glory in the name of his invented ladylove, Dulcinea. Don Quixote longs for a sense of purpose and beauty—two things he believes the world lacks—and hopes to bring order to a tumultuous world by reinstating the chivalric code of the knights-errant. Initially, Don Quixote's good intentions do only harm to those he meets.

Well, Catherine has also got a fascinating French lady among her descendants. Any idea? Not a clue? Ok. I’ll help you: Emma, better known as MADAME BOVARY (1857).
Like Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey parodies Gothic heroines, in Emma Bovary Flaubert uses irony to criticize romanticism and to investigate the relation of beauty to corruption and of fate to free will. Emma embarks directly down a path to moral and financial ruin over the course of the novel. She is very beautiful, as we can tell by the way several men fall in love with her, but she is morally corrupt and unable to accept and appreciate the realities of her life. Since her girlhood in a convent, she has read romantic novels that feed her discontent with her ordinary life. She dreams of the purest, most impossible forms of love and wealth, ignoring whatever beauty is present in the world around her. Flaubert once said, “Madame Bovary is me,” and many scholars believe that he was referring to a weakness he shared with his character for romance, sentimental flights of fancy, and melancholy. Flaubert, however, approaches romanticism with self-conscious irony, pointing out its flaws even as he is tempted by it. Emma, on the other hand, never recognizes that her desires are unreasonable. She rails emotionally against the society that, from her perspective, makes them impossible for her to achieve.
She starts mixing fiction to reality and to wish her life to be just as it is in the novels she loves reading …She doesn’t go crazy like don Quixote, but, even worse, she dies.

So among the three characters Catherine’s fate is the luckiest and happiest

. Do you remember what happens to her at the end of Northanger Abbey?

What could the end of my post be? A suggestion not to read too much because it might become dangerous? Not at all. It's an invitation to read more and more, enjoy reading and meet amusing, moving or fascinating characters like THESE.

Have a nice relaxing weekend.

MG

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