Lovers' Vows

[elettaria]

What did you think of Lovers' Vows? How did reading it change your experience of the novel? And anything else you'd like to say about it, really.

(Don't forget that posting access is currently open to all members, please do put up discussions yourselves! I might extend the week off from the novel-posting to ten days, I have a friend staying till

Comments

[dhlawrence]

It certainly made it easier to understand what type of play they were planning to put on.

I have to say, it's interesting to see how values have changed since the publication of Mansfield Park. Th play was considered suggestive and shocking back then, but a modern reader just takes it in stride. Children born out of wedlock and casual flings don't make anybody blink any more.

[ocarina]

It made me agree with Fanny FOR ONCE! ;D

It didn't seem at all appropriate and boy oh boy is the idea of Mary Crawford and Edmund reading those lines kind of crazy. Rushworth as Count Cassel, who is simply dismissed by everybody, seemed to be the most blatant comparison. I can know see why it is in so many ways the big moment of the novel. Before it, there was a lot of puttering around, people strolling and talking and horses being ridden, but it's still very passive with Fanny as the viewpoint. The play does actually serve to shake things up, just like all the young people intend. And having read it, I can see Fanny's insistence against it more vibrantly, and Edmund's waffling as so much more of a betrayal to their common mores.

[alonsoelbueno]

What I have noticed having read two acts is that the play may easily be staged according to the principles of modern scenography and very much to it. It is not obsolete at all though made in the XVII c. and that was a nice discovery. I thought it would be impossibly dull.
Also the Count looks like not a bad guy at all, at least with a good sense and not a wet blanket, it is not for nothing that Baron does not like him: he's out of his profile. And Amelia laughs over his citing Greek gods - they're just a pack of country pumpkins, that's what they are!

[elettaria]

If you read the whole play, you'll find out that the Count isn't a good guy after all, and the Baron drops him as unsuitable to marry his daughter once he finds out more about him. He's not boring like Rushworth, on the other hand, he's a silly young man who's behaving immorally with regard to women.

[alonsoelbueno]

Read the whole play. So, it's only about a sinner repenting and a sinner non-repenting. But who would belive an aristocrat marrying a beggar? Of course the viewers of late Illumination theater! With its gradual shift from solely noble characters to popular & middle-class characters. And, by all means, Leo Tolstoi with his ideas of resurrection. Thus, generally speaking, the most amusing characters are Amelia attacking a shy priest into marriage and insinctively-frivolously helping a presumably good-looking soldier on the way and pipperoo Butler as a prototype of many other nicely bizarre figures like him in the future plays (and novels) in many languages. And, as I told, to put it up on the modern stage could bring about a sea of gags and funny findings.
As for better understanding of MP it is still to see, because I have not started it yet. But nevertheless joined the community because I'm very interested in JA though textually am only acquainted with "Pride and Prejudice".

[alex_smollett]

I believe I got the general idea of the play merely from the descriptions of it in Mansfield Park. But it was certainly enlightening to actually read it in all its melodramatic glory. The thing that strikes me is the stark contrast between the rather brutal swiftness of the play and the slow dense prose of Austen. In the play, people may change their minds completely within a few lines, like how the Baron is persuaded to marry Agatha. Compare to how much time and effort it takes for the Mansfield posse to convince Edmund to take a part! I cannot help but wonder if Austen didn't see or read the play, liked the characters, but thought "I can do that soooo much better!" and wrote Mansfield Park.