Mam you are a brilliant professor ❤❤

You and John Keats were excellent companions while I was out on a night walk late one evening in early summer. And I thank you for that.

A very interesting view. Of course Jane Austen is a very subtle writer and it is dangerous to underestimate her complexity. However, here, unusually, I am not convinced by your conclusion. Elinor has every right to believe that Edward is in love with her, in spite of the mistake about the hair. (She is not meant at all to be unfeeling and unemotional and the mistake is quite natural in a person in love.) In fact Edward is in love with her in spite of his potentially disastrous prior engagement to Lucy Steele. My view is that Elinor’s “sense” lies not in lack of emotion or lack of a lover’s natural tendency to self deception but to the control she exercises over her deep emotion in contrast to Marianne’s fashionable hysteria. That is shown in the present case by the composure which she forces herself to exhibit on receipt of Lucy’s devastating revelation. Incidentally, a very interesting video could be made discussing which of Jane Austen’s heroine’s or other characters suffers most cruelly. Is it Elinor suffering in silence when she believes that no relationship with Edward is possible after all? Is it Marianne and her unrestrained and life-threatening. reaction to Willoughby’s caddish and selfish treatment of her? Is it Elizabeth Bennet when she realises too late, she thinks, that she actually loves Darcy? Is it Ann Eliot when she is forced to meet Capt. Wentworth again socially, still loving him, but believing that her own ill advised refusal of years ago has ended any possibility of happiness for ever? Is it Emma, for the comparatively short time after she simultaneously realises that she loves Mr Kniightley and that her own meddling actions may mean that it is the unsuitable Harriet who will marry him and the final happy (for her) resolution? Is it Fanny Price watching from afar, invisibly, Edmund’s potentially disastrous dalliance with the amoral Mary? My heart in fact goes out most of all to Jane Fairfax and her long drawn out apparently futile engagement to Frank Churchill while all the while forced in silence to each his play acting flirtations with Emma. Jane Austen has been accused of cruelty. In general I disagree but if there is any cruelty in the novels it is that inflicted on Jane Fairfax - but again even she is made happy in the end. Why some people are apparently not dazzled by Miss Austen I will never understand.

Could money have been another factor? When Lizzy speaks with Darcy's aunt she says that she is not out of her sphere. Mr. Darcy is a gentleman and her father is a gentleman. But your mother! Evidently Mrs. Bennett may have another allurement.

"No sooner had Eliza entered her dungeon then the first thought which occurred to her, was how to get out of it again. She went to the door, but it was locked." Wonderful!

Stay alive Dr. Octavia

I find Sir Thomas Bertram fascinating. I think if he's had a kind and active wife she would have brought out his better qualities. When he comes back from abroad after being away from his wife and Mrs Norris he acts much more kindly towards Fanny and later realizes his own failings as a parent. It would make an interesting video.

I would marry Mr. Rushworth. Seriously. Not for love, but for comfort and society. 12.000 per year is a lot. I am sure I would look at it differently if I were 18-20. But now, when I am 39 and have children of my own, I appreciate comfort and financial stability. I would have many children with him and would love them, instead of him :)

His behaviour is incivil; he owes others some courtesy even if he does not want to. He simply does not want to socielize because he does give himself the trouble. He feels like he is owed civility when he pays none to other people. And spesking behind a lady's back about her looks is pretty bad.

The second I saw the question I knew it was Mr. Collins. He talks too much and had very staunch opinions about what happened to Lydia.

If you did not pay your taxes you could be prominently branded, had your nose or ear cut off, be flogged like a slave or otherwise physically mutilated - as long as you were a man of course! Look up the War of Jenkins Ear - a sailor had his ear cut off for not paying the required duty on his cargo to the Spanish government! Women, especially the parasitic ones - living off the incomes of rich men, were largely spared the unpleasant sides of existance - working, doing unpleasant activities, going hungry, living in rags, substandard housing etc. It is interesting how the lives of these wastrels are so fascinating to their modern day counterparts!

Great synopsis

You are forgetting about debtors prison! And the impact on subsequent life choices! As You quote the goose tradition was about having sufficient money to pay your debts. The significance of This is that jail was the destination of men who could not p ay their debts! Of course this does not really matter because gentklewomen, like Austin, were immune to these considerations - just one of the male privileges of Couverture, that women later objected to!

Why didn't she go to a female book publisher a female book printer, or a female book distributor? If she had had to wait for these things to be available, would we ever have heard about her? Guess she was lucky men had made these opportunities available to her and others!

11:14 Exactly. This is what I wondered too. Like, he could’ve just had his way with her where they were, and no one would’ve been the wiser. Why did he take her with him?

Mrs. Rushworth reminds me Fanny Dashwood. “Oh a cottage! A cottage is always very snug!” And of the cottage that the Dashwood girls rent from Sir John. I wish that rent translated to today’s money. I could do very well in a whole cottage with three rooms and two servants.

Great! I love Pope, especially his Homer, and most of his his own stuff, like the above. Thanks for sharing your analysis.

Thank you very much for your explanations absout Jane Austen . I get more and more interested in her modern ❤style.

Truly if Marianne had been able to see through Brandon's gloomy mood and constant state of mourning, she would have found in him the passionate romantic that she saw in Willoughby.

The Bingly girls must have been significantly younger than their brother because they may have just known their father to be rich, but not really have known or been involved in how they got rich, where their older brother might have been involved in the business and trained to take it over if the dad hadn’t made his return on investment. Also, it speaks very much to the ignorance of the Bingley girls that they are not more educated on the importance of Cheapside to English society . Without Cheapside and the mercantile class, nothing is supporting the gentry.

Dr Cox is undoubtedly a skilled and learned academic but over a time period of 39 minutes her style becomes distracting. The over use of hand gestures and facial grimaces become increasingly annoying. I also question the need to divulge the death of Heathcliff in the thumbnail.

You can hear Austen’s trepidation for the future. I don’t think she was asking the reader to consider the questions to your point; I think she’s working through this herself. She is not trying to get us to answer the question. People ascribe so much preternatural intelligence to Austen that they forget she was a writer in her time and writers often use their works to help them answer their own questions. As a writer myself, I could easily see her with a pensive, troubled frown as she wrote this, a difficult question in her mind with no easy answer, nor with even any idea that there is a right answer.

I expect that Mrs jenkins let it all out of the bag about Elinor and Edward immediately upon Lucy’s arrival. She and her son in law spent all their time making embarrassing jokes about it. If Lucy wasn’t sure before she got there she sure did was immediately after

Great analysis of classic literature

Very nice, thank you. I appreciate your probing Austen's astute and carefully detailed comments and painting such a good picture with them.

Beautiful little detail this. Thanks for pointing it out.

I love the novel and I love your interpretations- it adds so much

Lydia is a dingbat, like her mother. She’s SO selfish. I often find myself thinking about how much I hate her and I hate that so much. Great writing and great acting.

Despite you are a terrific argumentation for how Lady Bertram doesn't CARE as much about things and even her husband, but is more going through the motions, underneath it, I think one thing that she is showing is that she DOES CARE about Fanny. And she may even care about her husband more than her words. She is distressed and yet doesn't have the emotional depth to show it well. This was an excellent exploration!

Here are my suggestions. I thought I would make them before I properly watch the video to see how they compared with it. Possibly the worst marriage was that of General Tilney and his poor wife, the Prices probably come next. Not because of their poverty but largely because of Mr Price's bad habits that exacerbated it. Mrs Price came across as a neglected grass widow. The next worst marriage would surely be the Rushworths, afterall it ended in adultery and separation. Dishonourable mentions The Dashwoods. They bring out the worst in each other when it comes to greed, but they don't seem unhappy with that. I think the Wickhams would not have a good marriage but they wouldn't necessarily have a dreadfully awful one either. George Wickham would probably soon become very disatisfied, but would seek consolation elsewhere. Whilst Lydia would be oblivious to what a hot mess her marriage and not care one bit that she wasn't good at managing the household budget. I think she would get frustrated as Wickham showed less interest in her, that she would also find consolation in other things. Probably gossip and flirtation. Seen from the perspective that marriage is supposed to be union that offers both parties friendship and companionship the Collinses would probably plod along and have an apparently functioning marriage until they got old. Friendship and companionship with your spouse become a lot more important and needful wheb you get older. I suspect that eventually both of them would realise that they didn't have companionship. That they were not friends. This would be particularly difficult to deal with as friends and family passed away or moved on and age related health conditions meant they had to spend more time together in the same house.

I enjoyed your lecture, Dr Cox, thank you. However, as an educator myself, I would have liked to see more references to his poetry, with perhaps short extracts on screen, to illustrate your points. Students might struggle to remain focused and may not understand the relevance of your talk.

I have watched this video several times. I love this analysis keep up the good work

This makes his comment about the navy bringing persons of obscure birth into undue distinction more silly. Thanks for the thorough explanation. I never get sick of listening to you explain this and give examples of excerpts

Like the commenter below, I too would very much enjoy a video essay on Mrs Clay or Anne and Mrs Smith. This friendship is one of my very favourites in Austen.

Brilliant as always. Thank you. I didnt think it was possible but I love Emily Bronte even more now

Yes we can see in modern day Universities and colleges how educating young women leads to moral growth! Because of this education our society has managed to avoid an epidemic of anxiety and depression among young women! Their experience has led the to successful decades long increase in the metrics of life satisfaction for both young and older women. More and more women are successfully establishing their own families. The sale of wine and cat food are at decades lows. Oh, what - wait... what ... They are all wrong? Women are more anxious, depressed, alcohol dependent and less happy? Can't be! Impossible!

In addition to what you pointed out, I think Wickham spins his tale rather deftly, because he keeps most of the key points entirely factual. He only materially changes one or two crucial points to turn it in his favor. This is partly because it serves his purpose in setting the scene for Lizzy, but more importantly because it gives him credibility. Skilled liars use mostly truth so that offhand comments or incidental tidbits of information their victims may encounter are likely to appear to support their account. He chose to lie only about the parts that were least likely to be made public and contradict him. This demonstrates just how calculated and adept a liar he really is - his stories are not compulsive and nonsensical, but thoroughly meditated and carefully crafted.

8:00 Did we ever get that video on the contents of the rumour?

Yeah I always assumed it was Mr. Collins and Lizzy and Charlotte are friends!

Seems like Collins was afraid to go back to Huntsford without a wife. Also, Charlotte's marriage to Collins is the vehicle for Lizzy and Darcy to meet again, at Rosings.

Brilliant 😊

Brilliant discussion 😊

I have read Emily's Wuthering Hights.

deserved

Brilliant

"hm" - I had always thought the bit about Mary needing advice on Fordyce's was a fib designed to help Lizzy...I didn't really consider that Mary might *actually have asked...

we really want you back 😢

I always thought it was his revenge against Lizzie after she kind of confronted him and let him know she knew the truth of what had happened between him and Darcy

Bottom line is Charlotte Bronte racist writing this about Bertha?

Charlotte Bronte's brother must have been her ideas of a man in turmoil. His life was mostly wasted pining for a married woman. Her homelife influenced her writing about men. It was a strange time to live with arranged marriages for money, etc.