How far would you defend Austenâs fiction, and on what grounds, against one of the following objections?
a) âHer business is not half so much with the human heart as with the human eyes, mouth, hands and feet; what sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study, but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of Life and the sentient target of deathâthis Miss Austen ignoresâ (Charlotte Brontë).
b) â[V]ulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrowâ (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
c) âIt makes me most uncomfortable to see | An English spinster of the middle-class | Describe the amorous effects of âbrassâ, | Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety | The economic basis of societyâ (W. H. Auden).
Sample Solution
determine irrationality of a suicide if there was no way possible of the individual knowing; it can only be judged if there was no attempt to get it from reliable sources (Battin 137-138). I think that Battin is inferring that not having the correct information could mean they are unable to participate in rational thought process. Another assumption of suicide not being rational due to this criterion is caused by internal factors, such as depression where they can unknowingly suppress certain information (Brandt, cited in Battin 1995, 138). She counters this by stating that you can still have adequate information because the future may be already negative, even with a smaller view (Battin 138-139). Therefore, from her counterargument, she is countering any claims of narrow views that the opposition would try to argue by stating that an individualâs health status does not matter. Battin states that some would claim that suicide would be irrational if one committed it because of an unlikely future, but states t>
determine irrationality of a suicide if there was no way possible of the individual knowing; it can only be judged if there was no attempt to get it from reliable sources (Battin 137-138). I think that Battin is inferring that not having the correct information could mean they are unable to participate in rational thought process. Another assumption of suicide not being rational due to this criterion is caused by internal factors, such as depression where they can unknowingly suppress certain information (Brandt, cited in Battin 1995, 138). She counters this by stating that you can still have adequate information because the future may be already negative, even with a smaller view (Battin 138-139). Therefore, from her counterargument, she is countering any claims of narrow views that the opposition would try to argue by stating that an individualâs health status does not matter. Battin states that some would claim that suicide would be irrational if one committed it because of an unlikely future, but states t>
