Category: Essays

Austen and Shelley:  Humanity’s Universal Connection and Its Struggle with Alienation and Loss in the Romantic Era

On By dotluvs2writeIn art, Beauty, College Cares, Cultural and Political, Essays, Fiction Writing, humanity, Musings, Nature, Past Life Activities, readingLeave a comment

My University Essay, October 11, 2015

During the Romantic Era, the upper class of English society was a patriarchal one in which women had to rely on male family members or their husbands for them to have security, food, and shelter.  In Lady Susan, Austen presents Lady Susan as a widow seeking a weak man to marry, so she can carry out her destructive actions.   Her deceptive and flirtatious personality wreaks havoc on her family and friends, which alienates her from others.  

Shelley’s main character, Lionel Verney, in her work, The Last Man, is an orphan and a widower.  His family died years before, and the companions for whom he sailed with in the storm at sea, drowned, their boat destroyed in the crashing waves.  

Both Lionel and Lady Susan experience alienation and loss in their relationships, but the latter purposefully distances herself from others through her manipulative actions, whereas Lionel’s connection to his family and friends is torn from him through a deadly disease and the powers of Nature. 

Lady Susan’s disregard for people’s feelings and their intimate and familial relationships shows her inability to have healthy relationships in either family or romantic love because she does not display a capability to love, but only to manipulate and deceive.  This is evident from the beginning of the story in which Lady Susan, while staying at her friends, the Manwaring’s house, manages to interfere with the courting of Maria Manwaring and Sir James Martin, as well as cause a rift between Mr. and Mrs. Manwaring, because of Mr. Manwaring’s interest in Lady Susan, and Lady Susan’s finding him “uncommonly pleasing” (Austen 481).  This interference she causes with Mr. Martin and Maria Manwaring, she claims is to match up Mr. Martin with her daughter, Frederica.  Her lack of compassion and maternal love for Frederica is evidenced in her calling her, “the greatest simpleton on earth,” (Austen 481) and “born to be the torment of my life” (Austen 481).  

Lady Susan informs her friend, Alicia, with regards to the Manwarings, “The females of the family are united against me” (Austen 481), which is due to her flirtations with Mr. Manwaring and Mr. Martin.  She has no consideration or compassion for her friend, Mrs. Manwaring, or for her daughter, Maria Manwaring.  Breaking up a friendship does not concern or upset Lady Susan, because she is ruled by her appetite for deception and power over the men she flirts with and the family members for which she feigns love and affection.

Catherine Vernon, Lady Susan’s sister-in-law, mentions to her mother that Lady Susan didn’t want her to marry Charles, the brother of her deceased husband, and believes Charles to be too lenient toward the lady.  Catherine says, “Her behaviour to him, independent of her general character, has been so inexcusably artful and ungenerous since our marriage was first in agitation, that no one less amiable and mild than himself could have overlooked it at all” (Austen 484).  

Additionally, Catherine warns her brother, Sir Reginald DeCourcy, of the powers of Lady Susan through her beauty and clever language, and says, “I’m sorry it is so, for what is this but deceit?” (Austen 484) Lady Susan reiterates her interference in Charles and Catherine’s initial engagement, saying to her friend, Alicia, “To be sure, when we consider that I did take some pains to prevent my brother-in-law’s marrying her, this want of cordiality is not very surprising” (Austen 483).  This pattern of driving a wedge between both married and courting relationships is prevalent throughout the story. 

Having been warned of Lady Susan’s destructive and deceptive behavior by his sister, Catherine, Sir Reginald initially heeds her warning, but it is forgotten once he meets her in person; he becomes captivated by her.  Conversely, Lady Susan enjoys garnering his attention and upsetting her sister-in-law, but she decides she is not interest in marrying Sir Reginald, which was suggested by her friend, Alicia, telling her, “I cannot easily resolve on anything so serious as Marriage; especially as I am not at present in want of money, & might perhaps, till the old Gentleman’s death, be very little benefited by the match” (Austen 487).  She recognizes Sir Reginald’s abilities to question her behavior toward her daughter and does not feel he will be compliant enough for her.

Lady Susan is interested in her desires first and foremost, with little consideration for the needs or wants of others. Literary critic, Michiko Soya, reiterates this point by saying, “She gives first priority to the pleasure of deceit, and as a result, she eventually becomes the object of love,” (Soya) as seen in Reginald’s falling in love with her.  

Lady Susan’s scheming and flirting give her power over her victims, but only for a while – until she is found out.  Sir Reginald eventually discovers the true nature of Lady Susan through the Manwarings, and he sends her a letter stating, “The spell is removed” (Austen 506).  Lady Susan does not pursue him, but only answers his two letters, closing their relationship, with a feeling of indifference toward his pain in the fact that he loved her.  

She continues to try and push on her daughter the match with Sir James, but her daughter is vehemently against it, and eventually, Lady Susan marries him herself, because she has exhausted all avenues of marriage possibilities by causing one man to cut off their relationship and the other to do the same because her schemes were exposed.  True, loving, and mutually respectful relationships are seemingly foreign to her, as she does not pursue this at any time.  Instead of embracing her family, friends, and male suitors, she distances herself from them through her desire for power, flirtation, and deception.

In Shelley’s work, The Last Man, main character, Lionel Verney, having been an orphan, already experiencing loss and alienation early in his life, grows up in childhood poverty for which he blames the king, who was supposed to have been a friend of his father’s, was indifferent to him.  He grew up with bitterness and resentment for the rich, the monarchy, and nearly everyone, but he changes when he finds love.  Yet, when he and his companions are caught up in a storm at sea, not only is he a widower, having lost his wife years before and survived his children, he is left vulnerable and at the mercy of Nature in his struggle to survive the rocky tempest. Determined to beat Nature, he said, “I breasted the surges, and flung them from me as I would the opposing front and sharpened claws of a lion about to enfang my bosom.  When I had been beaten down by one wave, I rode on another, while I felt bitter pride curl my lip” (Shelley 886).  

When the Plague stains humanity with its poison, and Lionel’s sailing companions perish at sea in the storm, he is left alone with no connection to humanity in the flesh for the third and last time in his life.  Lionel feels the rain joins him in his mourning, for which he states, “even the eternal skies weep” (Shelley 886).  His grief is heavy as he reflects on his companions who have perished, saying, “I shall never see them more. The ocean has robbed me of them – stolen their hearts of love from their breasts, and given over to corruption what was dearer to me than light, or life, or hope” (Shelley 889).  He thinks about his wife and children, saying, “I had not forgotten the sweet partner of my youth, mother of my children, my adored Idris” (Shelley 889).  He saw her in his youngest son, Evenlyn, and when he died, he “lost what most dearly recalled her to me” (Shelley 889).  He then kept her memory through seeing her in her brother, Adrian, who died, along with Clara, in the storm.  With profound sorrow, he says, “They were all to me – the sums of my benighted soul, repose in my weariness, slumber in my sleepless woe.  Ill, most ill, with disjointed words, bare and weak, have I expressed the feeling with which I clung to them” (Shelley 889).  

Lionel treasures his family and friends, and love penetrates his heart for them, as critic, Betty Bennett says, “…through love, which is true power; and he metamorphoses into an educated, sensitive, human-sized heroic figure…” (Bennett).

He wanders the empty cities of Italy and enters many houses where he tries to find some relation to humanity. Desperate for companionship with the living, he tries to befriend a goat family, but after the male goat charges him, he instinctively wants to hurt the animal for this, but doesn’t have the heart to do so. As they scurry off through the woods to seek protection from him, he cries, “I, my heart bleeding and torn, rushed down the hill, and by the violence of bodily exertion sought to escape from my miserable self” (Shelley 893).  He envied the animals with their dens and burrows and nests of families.

Believing the Plague carried out its obliteration of humanity in England and France first and Italy last, he says, “Reason methought was on my side; and the chances were by no means contemptible that there should exist in some part of Italy a survivor like myself – of a wasted, depopulated land” (Shelley 891).  While searching for people, he comes upon white paint and decides that he will write with that paint: “Verney, the last of the race of Englishmen, had taken up his abode in Rome.” This minute act brought about some comfort for him, and he added in his painted message, “Friend, come!  I wait for thee!” (Shelley 891) Hope is ever present inside him.

In entering a saloon, he did not recognize himself reflected in the mirror on the wall.  His meek existence left him in tattered clothes, and much growth of hair on his face and on his head.  But with the spark of hope in him that there may be some surviving people somewhere, he cleaned himself up a bit.  He found writing utensils and papers in the study of an author of the house he came upon, and decided, “I also will write a book” (Shelley 897) and said, “I will write and leave in this most ancient city, the ‘world’s sole monument,’ a record of these things.  I will leave a monument of the existence of Verney, the Last Man” (Shelley 897).  

After a year, Lionel still endured, saying, “…loneliness is my familiar, sorrow my inseparable companion” (Shelley 897).  He cries, “Without love, without sympathy, without communion with any, how could I meet the morning sun, and with it trace its oft repeated journey to the evening shade?” (Shelley 895) But he does find a companion in the form of a shepherd dog that “left his fold to follow me, and from that day has never neglected to watch by and attend on me, showing boisterous gratitude whenever I caressed or talked to him” (Shelley 897).  He decides to depart on one of the boats tied to the pier, and to take books, supplies, and his dog with him to sail wherever it takes him in which he says, “restless despair and fierce desire of change lead me on” (Shelley 898), so that he feels he has a purpose in the remaining years of his life, always with a perseverance, strength, and hope for what lies ahead.  Literary critic, Timothy Ruppert, says as much when he argues The Last Man means, “…a prophecy of hope justified by the regenerative power of the human imagination” (Ruppert).

Through Austen’s portrayal of Lady Susan and Shelley’s depiction of Lionel Verney, both characters have relations with family and friends, but both find themselves cut off from them and their communities. Lady Susan produces ostracization from others through her selfish and conniving behavior, while Lionel lost his connection to his family and friends as well as all humanity through the circumstances of death, in which he had no control. Austen and Shelley teach us through their characters’ experiences with desolation, loneliness, and destructive behaviors, that human unity and kinship in our lives is vital to our health and wellbeing.

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Works Cited

Austen, Jane.  Lady Susan.  The Broadview Anthology of British Literature:  The Age of 

Romanticism.  2nd ed.  Broadview Press, 2010.  Print.

Shelley, Mary.  The Last Man.  The Broadview Anthology of British Literature:  The Age

            of Romanticism.  2nd ed.  Broadview Press, 2010.  Print.

Soya, Michiko.  “Lady Susan:  A Game of Capturing the Last Word from Lady Susan to

            Jane Austen and Then…”  Jane Austen Society of North America.  Winter 2003.

Web.  15 October 2015.  http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol24no1/soya.html

Bennett, Betty.  “Radical Imaginings:  Mary Shelley’s The Last Man.”  Romantic Circles.

            Summer 1995.  Web.  15 October 2015. 

https://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/mws/lastman/bennett.htm

Ruppert, Timothy. “TIME AND THE SIBYL IN MARY SHELLEY’S THE LAST MAN.” Studies in the Novel 41.2 (2009): 141-56.  Web.  18 October 2015.

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/212636355/fulltext?accountid=3783

That is Not the Civilized Way…

On By dotluvs2writeIn blogging, Cultural and Political, Essays, humanity, Life, News Events, war2 Comments

Growing up in America and in Western culture, I have swum in the ideals and worldview of many well-known American and Western historical figures. The perspective from this Western lens formed my pre-teen, teen, and adult years until over a decade ago.

Example 1: Throughout elementary, junior high, and high school history classes, I learned that Indians, as they were called at that time, were all blood-thirsty savages. They were barbarians and dangerous. They attacked new American settles moving to the west without cause. And look how they killed people? So savagely. In such an uncivilized manner. Scalping people, tearing open their chests, slicing the skin open on their arms, arrows all over their bodies. How totally barbaric! They were nothing more than animals was the message I got throughout those years.

Example 2: For the last 40 years, I was told there were terrorists in the world, and all of them were located in the Middle East. That anyone who wore turbans or head headcoverings, flowing clothing/robes, had tan skin, and believed differently than us were extremists and terrorists.

Back when I listened to mainstream media and was gullible, believing anything they said and broadcasted, when 9/11 happened and within a couple of hours, the murderers were named without any investigation, I swallowed it whole. There wasn’t any reason, in my thought process then, to think we should wait and see.

All the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. I remember being afraid sometime around 2004 or 2005 that the killers of the journalist, Daniel Pearl, were somehow going to fly over to my country and hide under my bed, waiting to lop my head off while I slept.

It’s embarrassing to admit that, but I think it’s important to admit these types of thoughts and fears because I’m sure I wasn’t alone in this and that many people feared this post 9/11. Let’s not forget the daily alert charts with colors: Blue = Guarded; Yellow = Elevated; Orange = High; Red = Severe.

Did this do anything but keep the public in constant fear? No. I think that was all it did.

So, I believed for many, many years that every Arab was a terrorist, and that included Palestinians. After all, we didn’t really get views from both sides on the Israel/Palestine conflict that has been going on for many decades.

Again, I took what was spoon-fed to me by the media and government officials.

By 2009 I became disenchanted with the Republican Party and realized after coming closer to Christ at that time that I was beginning to disagree with some of their stances, such as capital punishment, environmental issues, never-ending wars, and the importance of social programs for me and my fellow citizens. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party that I looked into following this revelation grew to be just as bad and even worse in some circumstances from my perspective.

I discovered many lies the media and our government have been telling for nearly a century. Perhaps I’d finally grown and came to understand the world, people in power, and the old sins of pride, greed, and lust for power.

For all my life and reading through history, the rulers of the West, which I concentrated on since I live within this, were often saying that the ways those with little and sometimes no power fought back was considered “uncivilized”. Their warring tactics were not civilized like us civilized, progressive people of the West.

But there was a huge irony and plain absurdity in this.

All the while the Western leaders, especially my country’s, were spouting off these arrogant words, it was my country’s government leaders who dropped two atomic bombs.

Somehow, atomic weapons, tactical nuclear weapons, huge many-ton bombs, and biochemical weapons are the “civilized” way to kill people.

I don’t see how white phosphorus is in any way a “civilized” way to kill people. Neither do I see the total annihilation of hundreds of thousands of people with one atomic bomb is “civilized”.

Listening to a you tube channel’s interviewer talking with Colonel Douglas Macgregor a couple of months ago, I found this information incredibly important and valid.

When asked about the slaughter going on in Gaza, the colonel, who has always supported Israel, used this comparison in how decades-long oppressed and horribly-treated people will sometimes react and lash back at their oppressors.

He said, “Bear with me. In 1227, an English army was sent to Scotland by Edward I. The army met a Scottish force in the vicinity of a place called Sterling Ridge. Ultimately, the English army was destroyed, defeated. It wasn’t simply defeated. The Scots proceeded to murder everybody in the organization. Very few people managed to get back to the border of England and escape with their lives.

“The hero of Scottish history, Sir William Wallace, got a hold of the two leading knights who commanded the army, skinned them alive before he killed them. And then had belts that he wore for the rest of his life made from their hides.

“Now, why? Because Scotland and the Scots had been subjected in the previous hundred years to horrific treatment by invading English forces. So they exploded with rage and anger, and the violence was outrageous, unbelievable.

“Today, we look at that and are just shocked. How could you make a man your national hero that skins people alive and makes belts out of their hides?” (courtesy you tube video here)

So I’ve learned that when one group of people has power and oppresses another group of people through torture, killing, and restricting access to water, electricity, and the like, the oppressed people will become traumatized, depressed, and outraged and eventually, if they get the chance, revolt against their oppressors.

Shouldn’t we try understanding and coming in peace when encountering other people on the planet?

There are things people do in remote parts of the world that are not the “norm” and what we Westerners would consider “uncivilized”, like tribes people eating their grandfathers. I learned about in my Cultural Anthropology class when I was in college a few years back. Reading the magnificent book, Things Fall Apart, shows how some people in areas of Africa live and how their beliefs and customs mold them. I had a hard time completely understanding. However, even if I don’t understand completely the reasons why they do certain things that upset or appall me, I must recognize that their lives are different from mine and my traditions and customs and accept that, as well as the fact that they, too, are human beings.

Therefore, the overall lesson I’ve learned the past several years is to show courtesy, care, and tact for people you learn about in person, via books, or media that live in different parts of the world.

So many “enemies” we have now were due to our actions in their part of the world. Read our and world history and you’ll see this. Rarely do some people in one group hate another group of people in another country for no reason.

Although we live in a fallen and broken world, I wish my country’s leaders would learn to do just as I said above.

Matthew 5:9 (NIV) “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

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U.S. Housing Wages Numbers… Say What??!

On By dotluvs2writeIn Cultural and Political, Economy, Essays, humanity, Life, Musings, News Events2 Comments

I was listening to a young woman’s podcast I sometimes catch, and there was a portion of her show where she was talking about today’s minimum wages and the cost of the average two bedroom apartments in each state.

First off, what is the minimum wage in each state, you may be asking?

Well, of course, they vary in each state.

So I’ll throw out a few states with their minimum wages.

THEN I’ll share the average median income of 50% of households in their area, and finally the minimum amount of income you must make in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in said state. These are all 2023 numbers.

I’m going to start with my state:

Colorado:

Minimum Wage: $13.65/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,452/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $32.13/hour

New Jersey:

Minimum Wage: $14.13/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,545/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $33.50/hour

Louisiana:

Minimum Wage: $7.25/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $945/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $19.39/hour

Texas:

Minimum Wage: $7.25/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,150/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment(Fair Market): $25.06/hour

Washington State:

Minimum Wage: $15.74/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,486/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $36.33/hour

New York:

Minimum Wage: $14.20/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,331/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $40.08/hour

Pennsylvania:

Minimum Wage: $7.25/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,255/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $23.61/hour

Missouri:

Minimum Wage: $12.00/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,140/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $18.54/hour

California:

Minimum Wage: $15.50/hour

Median Income of 50% of Households: $1,429/month

Income in Order to Afford a 2-Bedroom Apartment (Fair Market): $42.25/hour

You can read all the states’ information here.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t make anything near $32/hour here in Colorado. Most jobs I’ve looked at since I’ve job searched from 2021 to present day don’t offer anything close to that amount. The most I’ve seen, at least in my field (well, my old field of office work) was around $20/hour.

Considering most individuals don’t make the amount needed to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment, how do they eat, pay utilities, and perhaps pay a car loan or student loan in addition to that?

I realize from reading several years ago that wages have stagnated since the mid-1970s and haven’t kept up with the cost of living. But I didn’t realize it was THIS BAD.

Do you remember when Bernie Sanders was running for president and was advocating for a $15/hour minimum wage? Although, that was across the board and didn’t account for each state having different minimum wages and costs of living.

I recall a few years back, pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges saying truly the average minimum wage should be more like $22/hour. That seems more on point for many of the more medium to expensive states.

In any case, I know the couple of decades I have left to work, I’ll never be making what is expected and those expected incomes will likely go up in the subsequent years. When do costs ever go down?

In my opinion, this is horrible and not right. Because wages haven’t been keeping up with cost of living, so many people can’t afford to ever buy a house on their own. Meaning, in order to survive in this terrible economy, a multitude of people/family members must live together with multiple incomes to pay the rent and utilities of an apartment. I know this from firsthand experience, as that’s what the situation is in my family.

So, what are your thoughts on this? Are you one of the few lucky people to be able to afford to live in a house, have a high income, or are you somewhere in between? Maybe you’re struggling like most of us. Share your thoughts. Thanks!

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Works cited:

“Out of Reach 2023: The High Cost of Housing.” National Low Income Housing Coalition, June 14, 2023.