Blog Post #3 (Chris Autry)

This week we've seen the reverberating impacts that space and time can have one one's social life. In both readings, Emma and Miss Brill, these reprocussions are felt in the character's lives. In Emma, mail plays a vital roll in interpersonal communication. It is also safe to assume that Miss Brill wrote the occasional letter as well. At the time, letters were a proxy in lieu of a visit. This is similar to the tools we have today such as Skype, text messages, instant messaging, and social networking. Letters provided a time invarient way of communicating with distant relatives, friends, and romantic interests. I mention that these technologies are time invarient because the mode of the communication remains the same, with technology rapidly increasing the speed at which these messages travel. Complexity has also been added over the centuries, with voice, then video messaging appearing much later.

Provided their class, both Emma and Ms. Brill would not have thrown the gatherings found in high society and the aristocracy. These gatherings had major social repercussions. One only has to be familiar with Austen's Pride and Prejudice, where balls were the nucleus of social interaction and courtship. The Bennet and the Woodhouse families both landed in similar places within the middle class, unlike Miss Brill who was both older than Jane and Emma. As mentioned in class, once older, single women lived particularly lonely lives. Having this looming over one's head further constrains the social role of women in the 1800s.

Ms. Brill's circumstances in particular had confined her to a restrictive space. Taking account the time period, it's safe to assume Ms. Brill had no available transportation, both public or private. Her travels in the essay consisted of trips to the public gardens, the school where she taught, and short distance errands. The restricted space, as well as her age must have evoked an extraordinarily constricting feeling within Ms. Brill. In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet sought to have her daughters avoid this fate by seeing them 'married off', to a higher social standing, when possible. Similar to how Mrs Bennet tries to make matches for her daughters, Emma herself is a matchmaker.

Works Cited:

Mansfield ,Katherine “Miss Brill” Stories 1956. New York Vintage 1991 298-302. Print.

Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice

Kern, Stephen. The Culture of Time and Space. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print.