DW Harding

Summary of one point/disagree: The one important point that DW makes is that the book was actually written by Austen and intended to be read by the people that Austen actually detests.  DW makes this point because in the novel, DW concludes that Austen must have been the opposite of someone like Mrs. Bennet or Mr. Collins and thus Austen must have detested those figures in society.  As DW continues, he states that he believes that the people reading the book would have been blind to the caricatures and the exaggerations of the characters.  Suggesting that the audience would die of laughter but not fully understand the message that Austen was trying to give.  This is contradictory and I effectively disagree with because if Austen intended the readers to be the people who she detested, but DW states that these people would have been blind and not realized the message.  I believe that Austen effectively utilizes caricatures and these caricatures and exaggerations are clear and illustrate the flaws of society in the 1800's.  I believe that the audience would have seen and recognized the "lesson" internally maybe not externally.

Agree: I agree that this book is a book of relief and escape as stated by DW.  During the 1930's and 1940's,  people were not only going through the worst depression ever in the history of the United States but also a war was about to start and people were anxious and weary and uncertain.  This was a very negative time period without a lot of laughter and excitement.  I believe that this book effectively was an escape from reality and into a the reality of a dysfunctional family that brought laughter and excitement into the boring and stressful lives of the people in the 30's and 40's.  Ultimately as DW states a sense of relief and thankfulness as this book rises the sprits of the reader.