intro paragraph

In 1813 England, courtship and marriage were almost entirely determined by gender and class. This was so because property could only follow male lineage and everybody wanted to ‘marry up’; this institution was called entailment. Austen uses Collins’ speeches of entailment in order to satirize the dominance of rich men in relationships due to entailment, a practice Austen thought of as unfair. Austen also utilizes Wickham’s attempts to make money off of entailment as an attack on the power that men had over relationships and money, regardless of their deservedness. The wild words of Mrs. Bennet, juxtaposed by those of more realistic characters, show the reader how ridiculous Austen thought entailment, with all of its inequalities, was. Through discussions of entailment, Austen uses her ever-present satire to show the unfair weight that class and gender had in determining courtship and marriage.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHAEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUTLINE

Intro: talk about marriage back then and Austen's life and whatever
Thesis: Austen uses discussions of entailment to blah blah blah through satire
First: my main idea will be how Collins' discussions of entailment combine with his ridiculous nature to show Austen's opinion of entailment. One quote will be from his proposal, another from his conversations about Lady Catherine, and another will be from his letter to Mr. Bennet
Second: My main idea will be about all of the sympathies and stuff the Bennets get from people who rank higher than they do about their entailment...obvious satire. There was one from LCDB, another from Gardiner, and i think one from Miss Bingley; if one of those is not really real, I'm sure there are more that i can find.
Third: how ridiculous Mrs. Bennet is and all of the things she says about entailment and how she doesnt understand it and what she does with her daughters. Quotes: the one where she doesnt understand it, where she is okay with "killing" Jane, where she tries to push Lizzy into marriage with her cousin (especially with the dose of normal that Mr. Bennet gives to that whole situation), and where she is talked of as crazy/calls herself crazy for being so dedicated to marring-off her girls.
Conclusion- conclude

My self-made question: How does Austen reveal her opinion on the role of class and gender in courtship/marriage through discussions of entailment?
My task: to write the greatest essay ever, get an a, get a full ride scholarship to Harvard, and save the world.
My plan: my first paragraph will discuss Mrs. Bennet's relationship with entailment, her confusion about it, her dedication to martying off her girls, and the crazy things she does to get her daughters married. The next paragraph will be about all that Collins says about entailment, because he says some pretty funny things and is a significant caricature. The last paragraph will be about the pov of the bennets' entailment from people other than the Mom. These will probably be not in that order.
My grade: 100%

Whoops, did the blogging assignment before seeing the details online.

1) Disagree
2) Mostly agree
3) Agree
4) Disagree
5) Agree

I think I covered the bottom part of the assignment

D. W. Harding assignment thing

D. W. Harding's argument is that the population who has not read Austen believes that she is a harsh satirist who openly criticized the virtues and values of her society. When he read her books, Harding realized that she is critical of society because she needs to vent her dissatisfactions with it (not for pure hatred and attacking), and in a way that was acceptable to the people around her. What was acceptable was caricatures of people who interact with realer and realer people eventually leading to a real person with whom people can be compared. She also presents real criticisms of people she knows but with the mask of "this is just a caricature like the other characters, not meant to harm."  He also realizes that even in these exaggerated people who attack only "small" flaws of people whom she knew, there is a deeper underlying attack of society as a whole that her contemporaries did not see because of the attacks of others that were civil enough to be laughed at but not offended by. Then, he concludes by denouncing his argument by saying that he is just pointing out the good parts (and acknowledging the bad parts) of Austen's writing to reduce the "haters" of her writing.

I agree with his argument that she satirizes carefully with caricatures and things like that, and that there is always an underlying attack on society as a whole. I also recognize that Austen does not attack purely out of malice, rather a need to show the world all of the bad things she saw in society. It makes sense, too, that he would think of her books as a way for social outcasts and critics to escape the real world.

I disagree with the notion that Austen is always subtle with her criticisms. When you read her books, you know exactly what/who she's attacking and when she is doing it. Yes, she does use the techniques mentioned earlier, but she also directly criticizes people by attacking their main flaws. For example, she attacks social rules with the ridiculousness of Collins' nature outright just by having him speak in the story. Her attack on society as a whole is not purely out of malice, but there is a little bit of it. Also, it is not only a way for social outcasts and critics to escape the real world, it is also a means by which they can attack society. so really, contrary to Harding's argument, it is a harsh satire. And, he provided an argument against his own, which means (for me) that not even he fully agreed with his main points

ipads and collins videos

the ipads could be good if they were used better

If students didnt play/imessagwe/imgur etc. all throughout class and actually used the ipads for their sharing capabilities that would be good.

If kno were better. I dont know how to improve it or what is bad with it (neither would be usefut to put in this blog), but i know that it is certainly not perfect and would make the reading experience better if it was.

ipads are distacting by nature--- i know i cant only read when i set out to read. whereas with a book i could read it all without diverting off

Nobody told us why ipads would be so great, so we are left with our naturally cynical and negative teenager view of them with little positives other than that they are fun. we were also not asked if we wanted them--not a good thing with teenagers

human psychology and neurology dictate that when you do a certain action over and over with a certain object, you become less able to do another task with the same object. this applies to the ipads because all we do with them is play, socialize, and procrastinate; and when it comes time to actually work, we cant because it is ingrained in us that "when i hold this device, i am playing."

the colluns activity was really good because it promoted bonding between the class, made the material relatable, made us understand the section, and sparked interest in the rest of the novel.