Shocking Columbus Day Discoveries

Author: Mary Fagan

One month ago, Columbus Day 2006 hit Western New York hard with a historic storm, the likes of which hadn't been seen in 100 years. Trees, still in full leaf, caught the heavy falling snow, and by morning, they were bent, broken and had downed utility lines affecting more than 380,000 homes. The power was out for days and people had to live as in days gone by. During that time, my family made some shocking discoveries.



1. We need food, clothing and shelter, but we really like heat and running water. Gathered around the wood burning stove (thank God I let my husband play Paul Bunyun in our wooded lot), the family played games and wishfully waited for the power to come on. It was a long wait - five days to be exact.



2. There is a reason for some rhymes, especially, "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." Being on well water, the pump needs juice and no running water was a bit hard to stomach for us 21st Century dwellers. I found out that urine is sterile and has even been used to clean wounds when water is not available. (Gives new meaning to flushing a wound.) None the less, the sound of a working toilet is now music to our ears.



3. We like each other. Who knew? There were board games by candlelight, storytelling, preparing meals, and talking to each other - a real novelty. Nobody blew a fuse, I heard less negativity and this imposed family time made better connections all around.



4. We need each other. We ditched the TV show "Survivor" mentality where it's every man for himself. Survival mode brought out the best in us. Camp cooking on the grill was no vacation but we were lucky to have that. The stockpile of food I keep in the basement "fallout shelter" that I get teased about served duel purposes: to feed us and as a convenient reminder that once again, I was right. After four days, our relatives finally got power so we could go and clean up. That is why we are always nice to relatives - we need them!



5. There is life without the Internet! There was no My Space we had our space, and it was pretty cozy with seven of us around the wood burning stove. I have to admit the adults found no Internet as difficult as the kids. But, they couldn't Google anything we said for to check for accuracy which had its advantages. (See number 6 below.)



6. We don't like whine. A mini battery operated radio was our only link to the rest of the world. Most folks were great and recognized that the government cannot outlaw accidents, acts of nature, time passage, aging and gravity, but... I told my kids about results of a study that I had read just before the power went out that showed in 99% of cases of whine, sitting on the butt increased hindsight, drastically.



One day the kids will reminisce about this historic October storm and say, "Remember the time we melted snow to flush toilets?" and "How about when Mom ran out of chocolate and melted baking chocolate on the woodstove?" or "I went five days without a shower" and the rest of us will answer, "We REMEMBER!" While we're not exactly looking to repeat it, the family got a charge out of being powerless.



The electricity can stay on - please - but let the power of our Columbus Day discoveries keep on going... and going... And make sure to stock up on plenty of C and D batteries.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/shocking-columbus-day-discoveries-74203.html

About the Author:

Mary Fagan has an M.S. in Education and is the mother of three children with the gray hairs to prove it. When not stocking up on food and batteries, she offers lighthearted humor at http://motherwise.us.

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Columbus Day

Negociación de Deudas para Eliminar Deudas de Tarjetas de Crédito

De: Scott Wallitsch

Una de las soluciones más efectivas, pero aun poco conocidas para eliminar las deudas no deseadas de tarjetas de crédito, es conocida como Negociación de Deudas. Muchas veces esta es confundida con la consolidación de deudas. La negociación de deudas puede resultar en la disminución de la tasa de interés, la eliminación de recargos, y la liquidación de una deuda con un ahorro del 40% hasta el 70% del balance actual.



La negociación de deudas es un concepto que se ha utilizado durante las últimas décadas, pero se volvió muy popular durante los años 90 en los EE.UU., debido a reformas en las leyes que rigen a las empresas de tarjetas de crédito. Con la alza de las tasas de interés y de los recargos por sobregiro, cuentas en mora, etc., numerosos consumidores se encontraron en problemas económicos. La negociación de deudas surgió de la creciente necesidad de confrontar el aumento en las tasas de interés y las declaraciones de bancarrota. La teoría detrás de la negociación de deudas es que las empresas crediticias prefieren evitar que un cliente se declare en bancarrota. Así, ellos reciben un porcentaje de la deuda de inmediato en vez de posibles pagos durante un periodo de 3-5 años, o en varios casos nada de lo que se le debe. En este sentido, la negociación de deudas le conviene tanto al deudor, quien ahorra un porcentaje de su deuda mientras evita tener que declararse en bancarrota, que al acreedor, quien evita un procedimiento legal e inseguro, y a su vez garantiza recuperar un porcentaje de la deuda total. Además, el acreedor puede descontar cualquier dinero no recuperado de su declaración de renta, así que en realidad no pierde nada.



En teoría, cualquiera puede negociar sus deudas con los acreedores, pero en realidad el proceso es difícil y confuso. Muchos acreedores en principio no están dispuestos a negociar y pueden recurrir a una cantidad de tácticas muy eficaces para confundir al deudor y así recuperar la deuda. Por eso, hay empresas que se especializan en la negociación de deudas. Ellas se encargan del proceso completo de negociación y en general dan resultados muy superiores a los obtenidos individualmente por los deudores.



En conclusión, si Ud. se encuentra en problemas financieros debido a sus deudas de tarjetas de crédito, le recomiendo indagar profundamente la negociación de su deuda con un profesional capacitado. Podría ahorrarse mucho estrés, problemas, y miles de dólares en deudas.

Origen: Artículos gratuitos de ArticuloZ.com

Acerca del autor:

Scott Wallitsch es asesor financiero de la empresa DebtorSolution. Para mayor información para eliminar deudas de tarjetas de crédito, visite nuestra pagina de web DebtorSolution o escríbanos por correo Info@DebtorSolution.com.

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Reagrupacion prestamos

Reagrupacion prestamos

Reagrupacion prestamos

Reunificar prestamos

El dinero tiene precio

(Texto original: 20minutos).

El BCE ha subido el tipo de interés oficial en la zona euro al 3,50%, pero el precio del dinero de las hipotecas o de otros préstamos es más caro. El banco nos da un toque por el endeudamiento.

Hay cosas que no tienen precio, como este periódico, pero el dinero no es una de ellas. El jueves pasado, en pleno acueducto de la Inmaculada Constitución, cuando el Banco Central Europeo (BCE) decidió subir el tipo de interés oficial del dinero en la zona euro del 3,25% al 3,50% no hizo otra cosa que aumentar su precio. Se trata de un índice que utiliza la banca europea en sus actividades financieras y que se aplica como referencia en los préstamos que estas entidades se hacen entre ellas. Pero ése es sólo uno de los precios que puede tener el dinero.

De las hpotecas, al crédito fácil

Cualquiera que tenga una hipoteca lo sabe muy bien, especialmente si la ha contratado al «euríbor más algo» y es a tipo variable. En cada revisión del crédito, nuestro banco o caja cambia (o sea, sube) el precio del dinero que nos prestaron para comprarnos la casa. Ese precio es ahora un 45% más caro que hace un año en el caso de los bancos y un 38% más en el de las cajas. Lo dicen los últimos datos del Banco de España. El tipo medio de la hipoteca bancaria ha pasado del 3,14% al 4,55% en los últimos doce meses. En las segundas, del 3,39% al 4,68%. Y lo más probable es que siga creciendo si, como parece, el BCE sigue aumentando el precio oficial del dinero: el próximo año sus tipos podrían llegar al 4%. Justo el límite a partir del cual los expertos pronostican que muchas familias tendrán dificultades para devolver los préstamos.

Por lo que respecta a otro tipo de créditos, el dinero de los llamados préstamos al consumo tiene otro precio mucho más elevado:
el tipo medio en los bancos está en el 9,29% y en las cajas, en el 9,76%. No es ninguna broma porque no podemos olvidar que son precisamente este tipo de créditos los que más se han incrementado en los últimos años y tienen el índice más elevado de morosidad, con el inconveniente de que no están soportados por un bien como la vivienda, lo que supone una cierta garantía frente a eventuales apuros financieros de las familias.

Al margen de los precios «regulados», hay otros ‘precios’ posibles. Como los que aplican las cada vez más numerosas compañías que conceden ‘créditos rápidos’, sin apenas garantías ni avales por parte del cliente, pero con unos tipos de interés que en algunas ocasiones pueden llegar a rozar la usura.

O los que cobran los intermediarios financieros especializados en la reagrupacion de prestamos. Se trata de actividades que escapan a la supervisión del Banco de España y que deberían estar sometidas a su control para garantizar los derechos de los consumidores, como reclama la Asociación Hipotecaria Española (AHE)  –que agrupa bancos, cajas y establecimientos financieros de crédito– y la Asociación Nacional de Establecimientos de Financieros de Crédito (Asnef). Este control garantizaría una transparencia de las condiciones que pactan con sus clientes, así como las comisiones que cobra. O como mínimo, permitiría castigar al que actúe de forma irregular. Además, nos podríamos evitar sorpresas desagradables tipo Forum Filatélico o Afinsa.

Al bce también le preocupa El endeudamiento familiar El Banco Central Europeo, además de decidir subidas de tipos de interés como la del jueves, también ejerce de guardián de la buena salud económica de la zona euro. Por eso, en la presentación de su informe de diciembre, alertó ayer de que el endeudamiento de las familias en los países del euro «ha llegado a niveles sin precedentes». Aunque no cita ejemplos concretos, está claro que somos de los que más motivos tenemos para preocuparnos. Sólo hay que fijarse en al aviso que lanza el banco: «La vulnerabilidad de los hogares será mayor en los países en los que los precios de la vivienda han subido por encima de su valor intrínseco, donde el endeudamiento es alto y donde las hipotecas se fijan a tipos variables», que en España son el 97%.

"PRIDE & PREJUDICE" A Novel, Wearing Fetters of Limitations

Jane Austen occupies an ambivalent position in literary history. She is too little a writer of the nineteenth century to be called ‘ Romantic’, too much a person of her time to be called classical. Her contemporaries like Wordsworth and Charlotte Bronte found in her works a want of feeling, passion and imagination. Edward Fitzgerald complains that:

“She never goes out of the Parlour”

The twentieth century however, has seen Jane Austen elevated by critics of diverse hues, to being one of the best female novelists and of the six novels she wrote, all are deemed classics, with at least three of them being counted among the best in English fiction. Among all the novels of Jane Austen “PRIDE & PREJUDICE” & is the greatest work. It shows her greatness, limitations and aesthetical view on different colours and aspects of human life. The novel takes readers to an abstract idea, the idea of pride in one character and that of prejudice in another. So the novel is primarily concerned with ideas. The characters of novel show different kinds of humour, various traits of human behaviour.Mr.Bennet’s a cynic; Lydia a flirt, Mary a pedant, Darcy a character, swollen with pride, Collins a potential conceit, Sir William Lucas a feeble dullard and so on. “PRIDE & PREJUDICE” is the love story of a man and a woman and the man being held back by unconquerable pride and the woman blinded by prejudice. Moreover, it’s a satire upon life in a small village called Longbourn in
the southern England. So, the novel’s important in more than one-way. It’s important both historically and critically. Historically, it introduced a new kind of fiction. Eighteenth century was an age of picturesque romances with splendid places, high towers, and underground passages. It was an age of the stories of terror, horror and mystery. As opposed to such romances, sentimental novels full of tears and sorrow were written. Austen’s “PRIDE & PREJUDICE” struck a middle path between the two. This novel was written after “SENSE AND SENSIBILITY” and “NORTHANGER ABBEY”. This is therefore symmetry, a well-knit form and a unified structure. It may be said to be the first English novel in the real sense of the term. Jane follows none of the traditions of her predecessors. She rightly started her own tradition of fiction, which was followed by other succeeding novelists of England. The very first chapter of the novel contains a note of orchestration. Diverse elements have been subordinated to a well-defined pattern. The chapter opens with the statement:

“It’s a truth universally acknowledged,

That a single man in possession of a

Good fortune must be in want of wife “

And then follows the talk between Mr. and Mrs.Bennet. The sole concern of Mrs.

Bennet in her life is to get her daughters married. The entire novel’s based on the domestic theme. A reader trying to approach for action, quick movement, drama or crises, would be disappointed. The characters seem to take the philosopher’s walk. “Action trivial; movement limited” that’s all we find in the novel.

Hence the characters look devitalized and anaemic, at times devoid of flesh and blood. There’s no firework or dynamics in the story. Jane is a spectator of characters. She puts men and women in a certain environment and continues to study them in detail. She gives alternative readings of her characters, compares them and ultimately finds out the correct method of approach to human personality. This method has been followed in this novel. There’s plenty of contemporary element in the novel. Description of dances, balls and parties is scattered throughout the story. The key point in the book is the study of human behaviour. Jane’s almost like Shakespeare in this respect. There’s evident exclusion of death, coincidence or destiny. None of the characters dies in the course of the story. Elizabeth, Lydia, Jane, Mary, and Catherine all the Bennet sisters are preoccupied with their own personal, domestic problems. None of them is touched by physical agony or ailment.

Similar is the case with Darcy, Bingley, Collins or sir William Lucas. Besides, there’s complete absence of mob, or menace of organized society. It’s a placid atmosphere of quiet country houses and drawing rooms that we find in the novel from the beginning to the end. Longbourn, Hansford or Pemberley has no hurry or busy excitement about it.
“PRIDE & PREJUDICE” was first written in 1797 under the title “First Impressions”. It was later revised and published under the title in 1823. In the novel, first impressions do play an important part, Elizabeth, the protagonist, is misled in her judgment and estimate of both Darcy and Wickham. Her regard and sympathy for the latter and her hostility and prejudice against Darcy are due to first impressions. But when we study the novel deeply and seriously, we can easily see that the title is more apt and more befitting to it. The novel is more about the ‘Pride’ of Darcy and the ‘Prejudice’ of Elizabeth and the change of attitude in Darcy and Elizabeth’s correction of her first impressions.

As far as theme is concerned, Austen’s focal point is marriage and courtship. Marriage was an important social concern in Austen’s time and she was fully aware of the disadvantages of remaining single. In a letter to fanny knight she wrote:

“Single women have a dreadful propensity

For being poor which is one very strong

Argument in favour of matrimony”

Charlotte lucas , an important character of this novel, gives reasons for accepting Mr. Collins, says to Elizabeth:

I am not romantic you know. I never was,

I ask only a comfortable home, and considering

Mr. Collins’ character, connections and situation

In life, I am convinced that my chance of happiness

With him is as fair, as most people can boast on

Entering the marriage state.”

This statement reflects charlotte’s helplessness, owing to her economic inequality, she was compelled to accept undesirable suitor like Collins, through this we can peep into the social life of that age in England, showing miserable plight of female in male dominated society. Marriage was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune. The only option for unmarried woman in Austen’s time was to care for someone else’s children as Jane Austen herself did, as there were no outlets for women in industry, commerce, business or education. The novel comprises of seven marriages, all of them intended to reveal the requirements of a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ marriage. Three couples that of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, charlotte and Collins, Lydia and Wickham reveal the bad marriages and the importance of good judgment and proper feeling in determining a couple’s future happiness. Mutual respect, the basis of a sound marriage is lacking in the Bennet’s marriage. Prudence alone should not dictate, as it does in charlotte’s case, nor should it be disregarded, which is what Lydia does. Esteem, good sense and mutual affections are the right ingredients for a successful marriage as the Darcy Elizabeth marriage indicates. Austen firmly believed that to form a right judgment, one must have a right principles and perception of the nature of other people. One must be able to see through affectation, deception and hypocrisy; one must not be a victim of flattery, must not be carried away by the opinions of other people. Austen’s fiction is steeped in irony both in language and situation. As Prof.Chevalier remarks that:

“The basic feature of every irony is

A contrast between a reality and

An appearance”

Here, in this novel we recurrently find irony of situation, which provides a twist to the story. Darcy remarks about Elizabeth that:

“She is not handsome enough to tempt me"

We relish the ironic flavour of this statement much later when we reflect, that the woman who was not handsome enough to dance with was really good enough to marry. Regarding this novel, irony of character is even more prominent than irony of situation. It’s ironical that Elizabeth who prides herself on her perception is quite blinded by her own prejudices and errs badly in judging intricate characters. Wickham appears suave and charming but is ironically an unprincipled rogue. Darcy appears proud and haughty but ironically proves to be a true gentleman. The Bingley sisters hate the bennets for their vulgarity but are themselves vulgar in their behaviour. Darcy too is critical of the ill-bred Bennet family but ironically his aunt lady Catherine is equally vulgar and ill bred. Thus the novel abounds in irony of situations.

Austen was a moralist, an eighteenth century moralist; in some respects she was the last and finest flower of that century. She was born a few years later than Wordsworth, Coleridge and Scott. When she died, Byron was famous and Shelley and Keats had already published. She belongs to the period known as the Romantic revival or revival of imagination, yet these titles do not suit her the least. Her novels belong essentially to the age of Johnson and Cowper. She is indeed a classic novelist. There’s no unrestrained emotion or excess of passion as in the romanticists. All these are disciplined by reason and intellect. This elegance is as much seen in her dialogues as in the structure. But there’s hardly any description of nature in, Jane Austen unlike in Wordsworth and Coleridge who deified nature. Jane Austen’s novels are also marked by a total concern with upper middle class, which may be attributed to the fact that this was the class she knew intimately. A reading of Austen’s novels shows that her materials are extremely limited in themselves. Her subject matter is limited to the manners of a small section of country gentry, who apparently never have been worried about death or sex, hunger or war, guilt or God.
However the exclusion and limitations are deliberate. Austen herself referred to her work as “Two inches of ivory” this novel like other Austen’s novels has a narrow physical setting. The story revolves around Netherfield Park, Longbourn, Hansford Parsonage, Meryton and Pemberley. There’s no reference to nature itself. It’s one of the ironies of English literary history that at a time when the English romantic writers Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats and others were discovering external nature, austen manages to keep her characters imprisoned indoors. Since her settings are the drawings rooms, ballrooms, parks and gardens of a civilized leisure class, she was unlikely to introduce lunatics, villains or ghostly figures. The greatest villainy that disrupts the evenness of a Jane Austen novel is an elopement of Wickham with Lydia. Austen’s theme was also limited to love and marriage. In all of six novels, there are beautiful girls waiting for really eligible bachelors to get married to. It was the period of the American war of independence, of the French revolution and of the Napoleonic wars. But Jane Austen’s characters are blissfully unaware of these tumultuous events.

In brief, we can say that within her limited range Jane Austen’s art is perfect. She handles, characters and events, dialogue and plot with an exquisite and masterly touch, fusing all the elements of novel into one, weaving and interweaving them so fine, that no strand can be separated. On her “Two inches of ivory” Jane carves with a miniature delicacy to present a polished and refined work of art.

Written by:
EMMA ALAM.

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The Novel "Northanger Abbey"

The novel “Northanger Abbey” is one of the earlier works of Jane Austen, which was published only after her death. “Northanger Abbey” is considered to be a satire on the Gothic novels of that time, which were of a high popularity in 18-19th centuries in England. Particularly it’s considered to be a satire on the Gothic style novels as written by Anne Radcliffe, that describe mysterious castles, scary nights, nightmares, ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. As Coral Ann Howells marks “…There is great deal of common ground between Austen and Radcliffe in general, and in Northanger Abbey Austen investigates the very area of the irrational that the Gothic novelists always claimed as their own, and employs Radcliffian techniques for registering emotion. Austen has demonstrated the truth of the Gothic novelists’ perceptions into the psychology of feeling and the dimensions of human irrationality.” (p.129 Love, Mystery and Misery)

By the words of Jane Austen the novel was a “...work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of the human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humor are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language”.

(Many of the references Austen made in Northanger Abbey were meant to be satirical towards the gothic writing style prevalent in her time. Certain elements of wordplay in her characters’ dialogue will also sound dated to a modern reader. For example, Catherine describes a popular gothic novel as being “Horrible”, which can be taken as “Awful” or that the book was scary, which is a way the word was used in the author’s time.)

The satire is vividly seen on the example of the 17 year old girl Catherine Morland, infant and impressive character, who is described by such the words of Jane Austen at the very begging of the novel: “no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.”

“The first paragraph of the first chapter, in telling us what Catherine Morland was, tells us, with delicate irony, what she was not; dwelling, in every line, upon the extraordinary beauty and ability of romantic heroines.” (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume XII. The Romantic Revival.X. Jane Austen.§ 3. Northanger Abbey)

From the first pages we understand that the atmosphere she was raised in could not give any other alternative in the development and forming of her inner emotional world and attitude towards the reality. Catherine’s father was a clergyman with “a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters”(p.5). Until the late teenage years she was more involved in games and activities with her brothers, as cricket and other games, than in activities common to the girls of her age. Only since fifteen she began to pay more attention to her appearance, reading novels and succeed in that: “To look almost pretty is an acquisition of higher delight to a girl who has been looking plain the first fifteen years of her life than a beauty from her cradle can ever receive.”(p.5) At these age she is developing as a young lady, reads romantic and gothic novels and she basically lives in the world of her imagination, in her own created world, which to the most part has nothing much in common with surrounding routines and hush realities of the real life.

The difference between the inner world of the main heroine and the reality she lives in divides the story into two parts. During the whole story Catherine is trying to somehow find a middle between these two worlds, and may that’s the main problem for her that differs life from reading books. She knew how to read books, she had a success in that, but she nearly always failed in reading life, especially reading life “in between lines, looking through it”, which often put her in not desirable situations. Her inner world was full of romanticism and harmony, but the realities contradicted it.

The story of her trip to Bath and acquaintance with Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor played a role in forming of her maturity. She found that a person of her dream wasn’t a hero of romantic novels, but a young level-head clergyman Henry Tilney. Henry made a lot to her to help her take the reality as it is, not the way she wants it to be.

In the first part of the novel she is introduced to the noble society of Bath, a resort for upper society in England. She spends a lot of time in the parties, meetings, balls and other entertainments, where she gets acquainted with Isabelle Thorpe. The character of Isabelle Thorpe is compared to that of Catherine, in contradiction to Catherine, Isabelle is very pragmatic and prudent young lady, she is more anxious about meeting a rich future husband that will support her and guarantee a position in higher society, than to meet a real love. That’s why she is changing her courtiers during the whole novel, and only at the end of the novel she tries to change something about herself.

As soon as she comes to the Northanger Abbey, she “realizes” that that place had much in common with all the things she read in gothic novels, to the contrast to entertaining city of Bath, was very mysterious and had a lot of mysterious and terrible stories to be discovered. Under the influence of her imagination, based on the gothic novels, she begins to think about general Tilney as about a murder of his wife and she tries to find some evidence to prove that. As a result Henry finds her looking in the papers of their family and everything gets on its places. She feels embarrassed and learns one more lesson from life.

At the end of the story we see her engagement and marriage on Henry Tilney. She is more mature at the end of the novel and we see how character developed. She less and less refers to the world of imagination, formed under the influence of passion for reading novels, and more thinks with her own head. Catherine is not that mature and experienced as characters of other Austen’s novels, but her pure soul, her thoughts, not spoiled by the evil realities and ambitions as well as her education give her enough credit to be a heroine of the novel, and put her infant personality higher than the other characters of the novel.

Even though that Northanger Abbey can not be considered to be a serious novel, still it has a lot of things to present. Showing the difference between Catherine’s inner word and reality, Jane Austen states that the perception of reality is more important than childish fantasies and romantic novels. All Northanger Abbey gives a bright picture of aristocratic society, of all it’s the mood of the aristocratic society, its life, prejudices and social isolation form other classes. It touches the topic of real love and relations between people, shows the triumph of virtue over mercantilism and pragmatism. The satire on gothic novels and vivid realistic narration of Jane Austin is described by Judith Wilt in such words: “Austen’s transformed machinery is activated, energized by dread; turning point of Emma and Northanger Abbey is recognition of dread; idea is not to mock but to raise machinery to its real importance, to make the anxieties of common life serious, high, significant.”

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Views of Women in Pride and Prejudice

Views of Women in Pride and Prejudice
By Mary Arnold

In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen does not portray her female characters in a favorable light. As Mr. Bennet remarks early in the novel, all his daughters are "silly and ignorant" (Austen 2). While he does give Elizabeth "something more of quickness than her sisters," he nonetheless does not exclude her from being silly also (Austen 2). Mrs. Bennet and the Bennet daughters vary in their exhibitions of silliness, but none of them, in the words of Mr. Bennet, have "much to recommend them" (Austen 2). Despite being a knowledgeable woman herself, Austen conforms to the stereotypical views of women in British society.

Mrs. Bennet is portrayed as the proverbial nag plaguing her husband and children with her mysterious ailments of which she never complains, and therefore is "never pitied" (Austen 98). The only employment Mrs. Bennet has is to "get her daughters married" (Austen 3). To achieve those ends, she resorts to many subterfuges, such as sending Jane to Netherfield on horseback when the weather looks bad in the hopes that she will need to stay the night (Austen 25). Instead of being concerned when Jane falls ill from being exposed to the rain, Mrs. Bennet is overjoyed that now Jane will have to remain at Netherfield for several days. Mrs. Bennet also displays bad manners by talking of Jane's engagement to Mr. Bingley at a dinner party before the engagement is settled (Austen 86). And when it seems that the engagement will not take place, Mrs. Bennet remarks that her only comfort is that she "is sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then [Mr. Bingley] will be sorry for what he has done" (Austen 194). Throughout the novel, Mrs. Bennet displays a lack of regard for her daughters' well being, and unconcern for proper social behavior.

The youngest Bennet daughter, Lydia, is described as having a vacant mind, whose primary occupation is "running after the officers" with her sister Kitty (Austen 44). Elizabeth, along with the rest of her family, does not see any problem with Lydia's and Kitty's behavior until Mr. Darcy points out to Elizabeth the impropriety of their actions. Indeed, Elizabeth does her share in this by encouraging Mr. Wickham's attentions to herself (Austen 65). Lydia shows no shame or sense of wrongdoing in her running off with Wickham and living with him before their marriage when she visits her family. Instead she is proud of marrying before her elder sisters and even proposes that they come to stay with her so that she can "get husbands for them" (Austen 269).

The next youngest daughter, Kitty, seems to have no will of her own and instead follows the behavior of whomever she is in company with at the moment. Before Lydia's marriage, Kitty joined in pursuing the officers and displayed the same vanity and coquettish behavior that Lydia indulged in. She is seen as selfish and self-centered when, upon hearing of Jane's engagement to Bingley, she immediately thinks of what the marriage will mean to herself, i.e. in petitioning for Jane and Bingley to have numerous balls (Austen 297). When Kitty removes to living with her two sisters, Jane and Elizabeth, her disposition improves due to being in society "so superior to what she had generally known" (Austen 329). This easy improvement marks Kitty as pliable to whatever hand is in control at the moment, which is no credit to her character.

Mary, the middle daughter also turns Jane's marriage to her own advantage by requesting the unlimited use of the Netherfield library. Mary is characterized as the studious daughter who is always wrapped up in her books. However, her family does not admire her educational endeavors, and she is frequently the brunt of many of their jokes. One example of this is when Mr. Bennet asks Mary's opinion on the importance of the forms of introduction since she is "a young lady of deep reflection" and reads "great books and makes extracts" (Austen 4). Austen writes that "Mary wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how" (Austen 5). In the few instances where Mary does speak in the novel, she is relegated with pompous moralizations (Austen 26, 75, 189, 244). However when Mary is left alone in the house with her parents, she also improves by going out into society more now that she is no longer "mortified by comparisons between her sisters' beauty and her own" (Austen 330). This seems to imply that Mary's self-imposed education was not something she particularly wished to be involved with, but was rather an escape from being found deficient to her sisters.

The eldest daughter, Jane, demonstrates her silliness by her repeated attempts to believe only the best of everybody. When Mr. Bingley does not return from London, Jane would rather believe him guilty of inconstancy than to believe that Bingley's sisters are working to separate the two (Austen 103). In many instances in the novel, e.g. the dispute between Darcy and Wickham, and Lydia and Wickham's elopement, Jane willingly blinds herself to the truth of those circumstances and endeavors to acquit everyone of any wrongdoing.

Even the female protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth, does not escape from her share of silly female behavior. Because Darcy does not rave over her beauty at first sight and calls her only "tolerable," Elizabeth determines to think only the worst of him, without giving him the justice of deferring an opinion until they are better acquainted (Austen 8). She eagerly seizes on Wickham's account of Darcy's character without first trying to determine if it is justified.

Elizabeth displays hypocrisy on many occasions in the novel, for instance when she condemns Darcy for interfering with Bingley's life, while shortly later she does the same with Lydia. She also excuses Wickham's seeking to marry for financial gain, while she berates Charlotte for acting in the same manner. Elizabeth, while speaking out against her mother's and sisters' actions of impropriety, does the same when she appears at Pemberley (Austen 212). She feels that it is wrong, but she goes anyway. It is at this point that Elizabeth begins to consider that being "mistress of Pemberley might be something" (Austen 207).

Whether the female characters are oblivious to the morals and conduct of good society or willing to believe the best, or worst, of everybody, all of the women portrayed in Pride and Prejudice are invariably seen as silly women. Not one of them is characterized in a manner differing from the traditional views of women in Victorian society.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1994.

Mary Arnold holds a B.A. in literature and history.

She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writing.

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Jane Austen - Self Improvement Guru?

Jane Austen - Self Improvement Guru?
By Gordon Bryan

Jane Austen, English author who lived over the junction of the 18th/19th centuries. She wrote about English society around the turn of the, er, 18th/19th centuries.

Her books were filled with lots of lost love, dutiful requirements of men but more so the women, lots of forelorn gazes into the rain. No, we're not talking about my own love life here, blimey if it's comedy you want I suggest Laurel & Hardy...

Pride & Prejudice is probably her best known novel, and it sums up her style - people's natural personalities and desires being crushed but not extinguished by the accepted responsibilities of the day. The fact that the personalities are not totally dead is crucial, as they come to the fore at the end, and self expression triumphs into happiness.

You can probably see where I'm going with this...

I saw a great dramatization of her book 'Persuasion' recently. It was done very nicely, with some modern tv touches thrown in, but not too many, just to add a reality feel here and there. In fact a lot of these types of books are being worked on tv with a totally modern surrounding, and they work even better to put across the message that it's best to follow your passions, express you true self, and you'll be happy.

You don't suddenly achieve a goal of being happy, it's not a finish line you cross, its a state of mind a lifestyle. It seems ludicrous that so many people choose to stifle it, often based on no more than what other people tell them - usually other people who are only too happy to express *themselves*!

Yes, be aware of responsibilities, but do not neglect the responsibilities you have to yourself! The acceptance of happiness being unattainable was perhaps more understandable in Jane Austen's time, but we're 200 years further down the road!

Jane Austen died at 41, the same age as I am as I write this. She wasn't universally popular - Charlotte Bronte said Austen failed to write about passion. I can't agree with that, I think passion is exactly what she does write about!

Mark Twain said that any library was a good library if it didn't have a Jane Austen in it, even if it had no other books! That's harsh, wrong in my view, and not one of your finer quotes Twainy.

I think a good library *should* have a Jane Austen in it, maybe even under the 'self improvement' section?

Gordon Bryan is the author of 'Transform Your Life in 21 Days!' which has been described as 'motivational magic.'
Read about it and grab his free 8 Step Goal Achievement Plan at:
http://www.transformyourlifenow.com

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Jane Austen - Back to Her Roots

Jane Austen - Back to Her Roots
By Lexi Jewlgia

Jane Austen, born in village of Steventon in Hampshire, was one of eight children. Her father chose homeschooling as method of education. He had a extensive library which led to Jane's constant reading. As a child, she and her older sister Cassandra danced and performed plays to amuse themselves. At the young age of fourteen, Jane wrote her first novel, Love and Friendship.

During her twenties Jane Austen wrote the novels that were later to be re-worked and published as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Though she never married, she is said to have been in love once with a gentleman she met at the seashore, however he died immediately thereafter without even leaving his name. There are many who claim her novel, Persuasion was about this mysterious lover.

When her parents were ready to retire they decided to move to Bath, away from the countryside she had grown accustomed to. In Bath, Jane found life pretty difficult. She didn't feel the creative inspiration that she had while living in Steventon. Being surrounded by the busy town and crowded streets made it hard for Jane to write. While living there she accepted a marriage proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither, a wealthy landowner, but she changed her mind overnight. It's said that she may have only accepted the proposal in the first place because she lived in a society where marriage was the only possible goal for a woman.

In 1801 Austen's father passed away leaving Jane's brothers responsible for financial matters. The Austen women had to reside with Jane's naval brother Frank and his wife Mary in Southampton. Jane's creative writing was nonexistant there.

In 1809 Jane's brother, Edward offered his mother and sisters a permanent home on his Chawton estate close to her beloved homeland of Hampshire. The Austen ladies decided to accept his offer and move to the estate. Jane's inspiration seemed to return while residing in Hampshire. In the next seven and a half years, she revised Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813) and published them, followed by a period of intense productivity. Mansfield Park came out in 1814, followed by Emma in 1816. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published posthumously.

While Jane Austen was alive, she chose to publish her books anonymously. "By a Lady" replaced Jane's name on her published works. Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park have all been made into movies.

For many years, Austen struggled with finding the right words, even though she was a very talented writer. She needed the right setting to get her mind moving. It wasn't until she returned home that she was able to rediscover a way to express herself comfortably through her stories.

Lexi is an author on http://www.Writing.Com which is a site for Creative Writing.

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Jane Austen

Jane Austen
By R J A Pettinger

Jane Austen was the author of several enduringly popular English novels, including: Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Mansfield Park.

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire on 16th December 1775. She was the 7th daughter of an 8 child family. Her father, George Austen, was a vicar and lived on a reasonable income of £600 a year. However, although they were middle class, they were not rich; her father would have been unable to give much to help her daughters get married. Jane was brought up with her 5 brothers and her elder sister Cassandra. (another brother, Edward, was adopted by a rich, childless couple and went to live with them). Jane was close to her siblings, especially Cassandra, to whom she was devoted.

Jane was educated at Oxford and later a boarding school in Reading. In the early 1800s two of Jane’s brother’s joined the navy, leaving to fight in the Napoleonic wars; they would go on to become admirals. The naval connections can be seen in novels like Mansfield Park. After the death of her father in 1805, Jane, with her mother and sister returned to Hampshire. In 1809, her brother, Edward who had been brought up by the Knights, invited the family to the estate he had inherited at Chawton. It was in the country house of Chawton, that Jane was able to produce some of her greatest novels.

Her novels are a reflection of her outlook on life. She spent most of her life insulated from certain sections of society. Her close friends were mainly her family, and those of similar social standing. It is not surprising then that her novels focused on 2 or 3 families of the middle or upper classes. Most novels were also based on the idyll of rural country houses that Jane was so fond of.

Her novels also focus on the issue of gaining a suitable marriage. Marriage was a big issue facing women and men of her time; often financial considerations were paramount in deciding marriages. As an author, Jane used to satirise these financial motivations, for example, in Pride and Prejudice the mother is ridiculed for her ambitions to marry her daughters for maximum financial remuneration.

The strength of Jane’s novels was her ability to gain penetrating insights into the character and nature of human relationships, from even a fairly limited range of environments and characters. In particular, she helped to redefine the role and aspirations of middle class women like herself. Through providing a witty satire of social conventions, she helped to liberate contemporary ideas of what women could strive for.

During her lifetime, the novels were fairly popular. One of her strongest supporters was Walter Scott. He said of her novels:

"That young lady has a talent for describing the involvements of feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with."

Jane Austen died in 1816, aged only 41. She died of Addison’s disease, a rare disorder of the adrenal glands. She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.

Richard Pettinger lives in Oxford, where he works as a teacher. He enjoys writing biographies for his site Biography online.

View more: Writers Biographies at Biography Online. http://www.biographyonline.net/

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