Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Dancing
Both Much Ado About Nothing and Pride & Prejudice have a variety of dances/balls throughout their stories. Why (or why not) are these dances significant to the stories? How do the character's relationships change through their interactions at the dances? Please cite specific examples from the text(s) to prove your point.
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Dances are great way to meet people and it's a great place to judge the people you've met. haha. The dances in Much Ado About Nothing can be a metaphor for marriage. As an example, the first time Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, she refuses along with the proposal to marry her. In his first proposal, Darcy was arrogant and wasn't considering the lifestyles of Elizabeth. Elizabeth denied but soon, she began to fall closer and closer to Darcy considering his lifestyle and the way he interacts with people. Later, for the second time, she accepts his second dance and with that, she also accepts his second proposal.
ReplyDeleteAnother example is when Jane sees Bingley and they dance together. Not only did Bingley asked her to dance once, he asked her twice. With that, they hooked up and they indeed get married in the end.
The last example could be Collins dancing with Elizabeth which was unpleasant for her. "THe rest of the evening brought her little amusement. She was teazed by Nr, COllins, who continued most perseveringly be her side, and though he could not prevail with her to dance with him again, put it out of her way to dance with others (I.XVIII.100)." With the unpleasant dance, they were surely not meant for each other which showed the metaphor of dance to marriage.
I agree with Jeremy. ^^
ReplyDeleteIts actually "Pride and Prejudice" in the first paragraph. not much ado about nothing:P
ReplyDeleteIn response to Jeremy's first comment, I would like to point out that he is wrong in that Elizabeth did not refuse Darcy's dance proposal. He asked her to dance after she suddenly ran into him and she accepted.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeremy on the topic of dancing and what it has to do with Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a way to meet people. However, I do believe that balls and dances are more of a way for people to be set up to meet other people. An example of this arises from Mrs. Bennet stating that "She has two nieces of her own" and that "she is a selfish, hypocritical woman" when Elizabeth comments on how Mrs. Long is supposed to introduce the girls to Mr. Bingley (8). This demonstrates that balls and dances are a means by which people are set up to meet other people as seen in Mrs. Bennet comment. She has her daughters go to the ball in order to find a suitable husband for her daughters, which is why she has them going to it in the first place. A similar case is when the Bennet's go to any ball in the novel because of the actions of the mother. Each time they arrive at a ball, Mrs. Bennet is sure to state to her daughters as to how important it is that they try to find husband. She also sits and converses with people that could have potential contacts with people that know suitable husbands with money or status. Therefore, balls and dances are places to meet people but they are mainly places to set up the meetings of people.
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