Jane Austen Quote of the Week- Week 87 by Linda

With all this talk lately about the new “Emma” production, I was enticed to reread “Emma” again, mainly because it had been several years since I had first read it. So I will start with Chapter 2 where we find this after a description of Mr. Weston’s character and finances:

"He had never been an unhappy man; his own temper had secured him from that, even in his first marriage; but his second must show him how delightful a well-judging and truly amiable woman could be, and must give him the pleasantest proof of its being a great deal better to choose than to be chosen, to excite gratitude than to feel it."

Here he is speaking of Miss Taylor as his ‘second’ wife. This gives us a clue as to what a man looks for or, should I say, what we ladies should be. I might add that though he does the ‘choosing’, it hopefully goes without saying that he loves the lady too.

Now, the completely opposite of this situation is found in the very next paragraph where the brother and his wife of the first Mrs. Weston is discussed. You will recall that they are the ones who adopted Mr. Weston’s son, Frank as a child and even gave him their name, thusly we have Frank Churchill. We find this about the Aunt:

"The aunt was a capricious woman, and governed her husband entirely;"

Wow, what a difference! What is truly amazing is that just this weekend I was able to watch the TV series “The Barchester Chronicle” – all 7 episodes. The Bishop’s wife was just such a woman as Mrs. Churchill. Hm, I wonder if Trollope ‘borrowed’ something from our dear Jane Austen.

Linda the Librarian

Pic: Pemberley Images