Blog Post #1 Harkins

"The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject and I will only add in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire any thing more in woman than ignorance" (Austen, 106).

I chose this line because it is Austen showing the reader her thoughts on women's position in comparison to men at the time. It is a sarcastic and sly comment on how women were supposed to be well taught, but men enjoyed when women lived in ignorance in order for the man to feel superior to them. To men ignorance was a charming quality for women to uphold. It gives an insight into the gender dynamics that were current during the time the book was written during the nineteenth century.  In the quote Catherine was ashamed for not knowing as much as Henry Tilney but Austen adds that women were supposed to uphold the idea of ignorance and the man was adding to their knowledge.