epistemological confidences

Let’s consider Austen’s characters as “epistemological postulates”: modes of observing, perceiving, processing, and judging the world, especially the social world and other characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Consider each of the characters below as a distinct type of “thinking machine.” For each character, answer the questions following and be prepared to give textual evidence (suggested pages to examine are provided, though you can look at other passages):

• Louisa (pp. 116-7)
• Captain Wentworth (pp. 98-99)
• Admiral Croft (p. 151)
• Anne (pp. 111-113; many other suitable passages)
• Mary (p. 108)
• Captain Benwick (pp. 129-30)

1. Who or what is this character’s attention most drawn to? What type of information or source of information is most important for him/her?

2. Is this character more involved in thinking, feeling, or some combination of the two?

3. What kinds of judgments does this character arrive at (e.g., cognitive, practical, moral, aesthetic)? Does the character make judgments about him- or herself, others, the world at large? What is the object of his/her judgments?

4. What judgment does the narrator seem to make about this character and his/her thought/feeling process? Consider the character’s possible alliance with the narrator or his/her placement in the “satiric field.” Also consider the character’s ultimate fate in the novel.

5. How does this judgment connect to Austen’s larger purpose in the novel (as satire, social commentary, comedy)?

(adapted from Catherine Winarski)

sample theses

sample from Class 11/26:
"The importance of these changes is that in the second ending, the level of interiority for each character is greatly increased, allowing the reader to identify more strongly with each character and become more interested in the eventual outcome of the story."

Commentary:
the evaluation: shows/tells which ending is better (good, subtle implication)
the focus: what the "issue" is (in this and in most WD's this will need further development)
induction: tells what new thing the writer has discovered about the issue (this claim does not do this yet. it merely tells us: "the resolution was good." this part should make some argument about how "the issue" of focus is resolved).

From Linda Bree, in the introduction:
"By bringing other characters to Bath, and creating two key scenes at a hotel where various characters can come and go, meet and overhear, miss, or misunderstand each other, Austen is able not only to resolve the romance between Anne and Wentworth, but to embed this personal relationship firmly within the larger themes she has been developing: of the importance of spontaneity over calculation, and friendship over family, and of the roles, conventions, and choices of men and women in the early years of the nineteenth century."

Commentary:
the evaluation: shows/tells which ending is better (subtle, descriptive)
the focus: what the "issue" is (here: all these themes--interesting, generative, too numerous for 4-page essay)
induction: tells what new thing the writer has discovered about the issue--does Bree tell us something about how the issue(s) are resolved?