Frances Burney The fascinating conversations with my students about father-daughter relationships and Frances Burney’s Evelina continued yesterday. The class had a range of reactions to how Evelina should respond when her guardian tells her to override her growing affection for Lord Orville. He has a number of reasons to be nervous. Lord Orville (they both […]
Tag Archives: Relationships
Writing Letters to Daddy about Boys
Fanny Burney I have been having a wonderful time teaching Fanny Burney’s 1778 novel Evelina, written when she was 26. The novel was an instant success when it first appeared and it still resonates. This in spite of the fact that it is written in letters and reflects a society far more formal than our […]
Extreme Jealousy, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
William Wycherley As I’ve been writing recently about Restoration and 18th Century couples comedies, allow me one last post on a brilliant but cold play, William Wycherley’s Country Wife (1675). I gained new insight into it when my student Stephanie Gonzalez noted that the jealousy theme in the play is one that she is very […]
Bumpkin by Day, Enchantress by Night
Yesterday I talked about Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer (1773) and male shyness. Today I discuss another Neo-Restoration comedy, Hannah Cowley’s The Belle’s Stratagem (1780), and how it addresses an equally thorny relationship problem: low self-esteem. In the play Letetia and Doricourt are to marry, even though they haven’t seen each other since they […]
She Stoops to Circumvent Inhibitions
Oliver Goldsmith Discussions in my 18th Century Couples Comedy class are proving to be a lot of fun because, almost seamlessly, we move between the 18th courtship scene, challenges faced by young people today, and contemporary movies and television shows. Comedy rushes in where wise men fear to tread, giving us a way to talk […]
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Aphra Behn, Relationship Counselor
I’ve been reading essays for my Restoration and 18th Century Couples Comedy class and, as always, am finding new dimensions in the works as I look at them through the students’ eyes. Aprha Behn’s comedy The Rover has proved particularly illuminating. Three essays written on the play focused on its romantic relationships. Florinda and Belvile […]
