In Chapter 9, author Jane Austen begins with a very disheartened Catherine. "The progress of Catherine's unhappiness from the events of the evening, was as follows. It appeared first in a general dissatisfaction with every body about her, while she remained in the rooms, which speedily brought on considerable weariness and a violent desire to go home" (Austen 47).
The next morning, Catherine planned to meet with Ms. Tilney and extend her acquaintance with her brother at the pump-rooms. However a half hour before she planned to depart, two carriages pulled up to the Allen's residence with Isabella and John Thorpe, and her brother, James. They had planned to ride out of Bath for a couple hours drive. Being split up from Isabella and kept in John's close companionship for a little over three hours was definitely not her idea of a jolly good time.
The entire ride, John talked only of himself, how clever he was, and what a good judge of horse and carriage he was. He was very conceited, "the rest of his conversation, or rather talk, began and ended with himself and his own concerns" (Austen 52).
"Catherine listened with astonishment she knew not how to reconcile two such very different accounts of the same thing; for she had not been brought up to understand the propensities of a rattle, nor to know to how many idle assertions and impudent falsehoods the excess of vanity will lead" (Austen 52).
When they finally returned to Bath, Mrs. Allen informed Catherine that she spent a very pleasant afternoon with Ms. Tilney, Mr. Tilney, and Mrs. Hughes, the chaperone. Catherine was very disappointed that she missed such a perfect opportunity to create a new friendship with Ms. Tilney and to get better acquainted with Mr. Tilney.
A Perfect Afternoon Ruined!
ReplyDeleteCatherine's afternoon being ruined is very crucial. First we need to look at how she was pressured into going on a ride with John. It shows how she is easily manipulated and does not stand up to herself.
When she goes with John, his conceitedness is very blunt, Catherine is turned off by it. The self-centered ways of thinking turn her away. Catherine is still very naive in the way that she does not care what people really have, John is trying to show her his wealth and important status, yet she doesn't care. It's his conversation that turns her away, and her has no idea.