Jane Austen: The KISS Grammar Page "Celia" in Australia, suggested the opening
paragraphs of Pride and Prejudice as an exercise text. It was an
excellent suggestion, since those paragraphs are probably one of the best
known opening lines of any novel. In looking for a suitable border graphic,
I found the illustrations of C.E. Brock, and since I simultaneously found
the Brock illustrations for Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion,
I decided to add the openings of those novels as well.
Notes for the Opening Sentences of Mansfield Park
The opening paragraph
of Mansfield Park is too long to use as an exercise, so I have used
just the first half of it. Syntactically, this exercise should challenge
students, especially because it includes a relatively very rare clause
construction in "She had two sisters to be benefited by her elevation;
and such of their acquaintance as thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances
quite as handsome as Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying
with almost equal advantage." Thematically, it is always, of course, better
to read the entire work, but the opening paragraph of this novel, by itself,
could stimulate an interesting discussion about the relationships between
marriage and money.
The opening paragraph
of Northanger Abbey is also far too long for an exercise, so I have limited
the exercise to the opening sentences. I actually started the de-combining
exercise as a combining exercise, but I couldn't figure out what to do
with the first sentence. That made me realize that the passage would be
an excellent de-combining exercise. As students struggle to break down
that first sentence, they will probably see that many longer, complicated
sentences are much more than simply the sum of their parts. As always,
at least some discussion of the de-combining exercise is important. Students
need to see not only what other students did, but also how other students
react to the differences in style.
I'm not thrilled by the first part of the sentence-combining
exercise -- this is a difficult passage to decombine. You might want to
try having the students decombine the original instead of doing the combining
exercise. In either case, point out Austen's use of semicolons and the
parallel "there" main clauses. One of the important points of the decombining
is that these get lost and the simpler syntax is actually much more confusing
to read. Instead of doing the entire passage, you might want to have students
focus just on the last part, the obituary notice. On the one hand, it is
not a "sentence," but as the analysis key for level three indicates, except
for the missing verb "died," every word in it chunks just as if it were.
Notes for the Opening Paragraphs of Pride and Prejudice
You might want to use the sentence-combining exercise
as a leaden to a discussion of style. Have the students do it in class,
discuss some of their versions, then show them Austen's version and ask
why she organized the sentence(s) as she did. What, for example, is the
difference between her opening sentence and "That a single man in possession
of a large fortune must be in want of a wife is a truth universally acknowledged."
Is it just that one version is more easily understood than the other? Or
is there a difference in emphasis? Does one version sound more ironic than
the other? What reasons do the students have for their answers? (Note that
there are no "correct" answers for these questions, and, in many ways,
one's response to them is difficult to explain. The purpose here is not
to get a "right" answer, but rather to ensure that students are considering
the stylistic implications -- of texts that they read, and of their own
writing.
Source: The Dog-eared Modern Library Database |
