First off, I want to say ask...did anyone else find it hard to focus while reading this type of text?
Maybe it's just me, but I thought that along with all the commas, pausing, and 'terms' that this novel was quite difficult to read (I used the online version.) However, it was quite interesting and very satirical, which made it more enjoyable.
I would have to say that I definitely appreciate the Glossary at the end of the story because without it I would be quite confused. Nonetheless I will still try to convey what I got from the novel.
From my knowledge prior to reading this, I knew almost nothing about Ireland (besides the whole potato famine) and its customs. I googled the terms Ascendancy (though at first I only got results for a video game and rock band album), 1798 uprising, and the Act of Union 1800 as suggested and found that it helped a bit towards my understanding of what exactly was going on in the time period that this novel was written in.
Frankly I enjoyed the character of Thady Quirk, and thought that his character told the lives of the Rackrent owners through an eccentric perspective which leaves me to wonder if the people of Ireland to this day live up to some of the things he described. Maria Edgeworth did a fantastic job of creating a likeable character and keeping up a personality throughout the novel. Little things she wrote, such as Thady's narrative line, "One of the three ladies showed his letters to her brother, and claimed his promises, whilst another did the same. I don't mention names." I found that to be quite charming to be put into a narrative--it gives him personality.
One scene that I found quite humorous in this novel (besides the drunk Sir Patrick) was between Thady, Sir Kit, and his bride when they are walking the morning after they came to the castle. His bride finally speaks but all she has to say are questions that are quite common-sense questions but expose her ignorance leaving Sir Kit somewhat embarrassed even though Thady shows no response to it, save his position. I also find it both sad and quite comical that Sir Kit puts up with it all just for his bride's wealth. Talk about gold digging. However when she doesn't pull through, he finds her worthless and bothersome and locks her up which brings a picture to mind of a princess locked away in a tower. Perhaps those fairy tales are based on real events! At least, this is how I look at it.
The final outcome of the story, however, is quite ironic. With the castle being owned by four generations of different ‘Sirs,’ it shifts to being owned by the son of a long-time serving Thady. The process in which this happens though isn’t just and though it may seem like it had been a long-time coming, I am not a fan of using conniving towards getting what you want. But that’s how a lot of things work in the world, so I guess I can’t blame Jason for being so witty.
I hope what I got out of this is at least somewhat similar to what everyone else got out of it.
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Lucky,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you posted on that particular scene where Sir Kit and his wife are walking the bogs (this is on my page 78). I think here we see a great example of what Henry Louis Gates would call "signifying." The term comes from a fable called "The Signifying Monkey," (which is also the name of Gates' book). The story goes like this (I'm going to copy and paste from this link http://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/myers/signifying.html for the sake of time):
The Signifying Monkey takes its title from what Gates argues is the central metaphor, "the trope of tropes," in Afro-American literature. There is, according to Gates, an entire series of oral narrative poems about the "signifying monkey" in the black tradition. In its general outlines, the monkey’s story goes like this. Although the lion claims to be king of the jungle, everyone knows who the real king is: it is the elephant. The monkey, fed up with the lion’s roaring, decides to do something about it. He insults the lion publicly and at length—his "mama" and his "grandmama, too"—and when the lion grows angry, the monkey shrugs that he is merely repeating what the elephant has been saying. Furious, the lion heads out to challenge the elephant, who impassively trounces him. The monkey either gets away with his deception or does not (there are differing versions), but in any event he is a success at "signifying." (Myers "Signifying Nothing").
If we reread that passage on page 78, do you think Thady is really being "the dumb Irishman" here, or is there an element of performance in this section with all the repetition of "Allballycarricko'shauglin" etc, etc? Do you think there is a part of Thady that is actually trying to exasperate the problems between Sir Kit and his new bride by playing off on her ignorance?
Consider this statement in the middle of page 78 where Thady, after repeating a bunch of silly Irish names, states, "Now one would have thought this would have been hint enough for my lady, but she fell to laughing like one out of their right mind, and made me say the name of the bog over for her to get it by heart a dozen times...Sir Kit standing by whistling all the while; I verily believed she laid the corner stone of all her future misfortunes at that very instant; but I said no more, only looked at Sir Kit." What does this statement reveal about Thady? Is there a certain degree of "conniving" going on here? Why is Thady so ambivalent about Sir Kit locking up his bride? It doesn't seem as though he does much to intervene. I suppose all these questions could be summed up into one: Is Thady just a dumb Irishman, or does he reveal himself to be more than that in certain places in the text? Where?
It's interesting to read both of your approaches to the bog scene and the interaction between Thady and Sir Kit’s wife. I have to admit that I completely overlooked this part but reading your insight definitely makes me see things from a different perspective. I really like the way that Colleen related this to a different text. What a different way to view Thady through this lens in the particular bog scene. So was Thady deliberately trying to draw attention to the lady’s ignorance? This scene really does make you think that maybe Thady isn’t as clueless as he may seem. Perhaps acting like the ‘dumb Irishman’ makes life easier. I also made note that Thady doesn’t seem to intervene when the lady is locked up. When I first read, I sided with the lady because how awful to be locked up for seven years. But maybe I was just feeling sorry for her and the fact that she didn’t have enough strength to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the way that Thady told the story through an “eccentric perspective.” I also liked Sir Patrick and I think it’s because of the humorous way that Thady described him. I wonder how the story would be told through Jason’s perspective. How would Jason describe his father? I think this is interesting to consider. I wonder if Maria deliberately used Thady as a narrator so she could transmit hidden messages through such a “dumb Irishman” perspective, hoping that people wouldn’t catch on…or maybe that they would?
I just got your comment on my blog and decided to see what you had gotten from the reading since we seemed to have shared similar experiences. I think the hardest was finding a time to draw a breath, those sentences just dragged didn’t they?
ReplyDeleteI also tried looking up those key terms but didn’t really draw anything from them, I wonder what you got out of your research, you say that it helped you understand a little better. Did you find those events relatable to the goings on in the book itself?
I found Thady to be such a busy body! He seemed to know everyone’s everything and I also loved it. Edgeworth definitely created a likeable character in him, maybe this was by making him talk himself up so much, saying that he was just “Poor Thady.” Nonetheless he was the most prominent character and a likeable one at that.
I also loved the fact that you brought up the bog scene, I actually read this book out loud every night with my boyfriend and we were both laughed pretty hard at this part. The fact that until that point Thady had thought that she didn’t speak English and when she finally does she asks the most ignorant of questions.
To Colleen’s question I reply that I think that Thady is much smarter than he seems to give himself credit for and that his discrediting is part of his ploy. He takes advantage of the fact that no one seems to think much more of him than just a house hand.
"I think here we see a great example of what Henry Louis Gates would call "signifying." The term comes from a fable called "The Signifying Monkey,"
ReplyDeleteI am also familiar with Gates' term "signifying." It is interesting that not only does Thady seem to do this throughout the novel, like the examples Colleen provided, but Edgeworth seems to deliberately be doing this to "the ignorant English reader" with the footnotes and in the glossary (although it be toungue in cheek). I am not sure what Edgeworth feels about being Anglo-Irish. It is hard to say what exactly she is saying about whether Thady is an admirable character or whether his son was better. There really is no clear resolution at the end. I'm not sure whether Edgeworth is making class or economic statements or if it has more to do with the complexity of the idea of ownership in a land that has been under colonial rule for so long. The Irish are a hybrid of discourses especially after being under British colonial rule and a history of intermarriage. Like I said in a different post, it is impossible to say who actually has entitlement to the land with such an intertwined history and colliding discourses.