Art and Artifact in Austen by Battigelli Anna;

Art and Artifact in Austen by Battigelli Anna;

Author:Battigelli, Anna;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Delaware Press


Harriet has preserved a valueless item—a remnant of the plaister from which Mr. Elton cut a piece to bandage his finger—as a relic of his body, placing it on cotton and significantly encasing it not only in expensive silver paper but in a tourist trinket. Tunbridge-ware items, like Battersea boxes, were commercially produced, small vessels made from inlaid wood, sometimes decorated with scenes from Tunbridge Wells, and sold as holiday souvenirs of the resort. Here, Harriet’s possession highlights the complementarity between her sentimentality and mass-produced memories, both manipulated by a cynical market. The remnant of the plaster that Mr. Elton applied to his finger at Emma’s suggestion testifies ironically to women’s role as nurse and home-healer in this world of commodified feeling. Harriet’s box also contains a leadless pencil stub once held by Mr. Elton. This item again parodies sentimental artifacts since its utility as a writing instrument vanishes into its meaning as Eltoniana, a sentimental relic of Elton, with the further innuendo of impotence.

A number of things in Austen’s works hold sexual connotations. Harriet’s box, like the cabinet holding a laundry list that Catherine Morland locks in her attempt to open, suggests female enclosure, and both hold worthless items. By contrast, Robert Ferrars’s richly jeweled case for his toothpick signals masculine overcompensation. Scissors appear frequently as instruments of sexual destruction: like Pope’s Baron, Willoughby uses them to cut Marianne’s lock, kisses the lock, folds “it up in a piece of white paper,” and puts it “into his pocket-book” (S&S, 71). The pressing of hair and flowers between the pages of favorite volumes or other receptacles that could be carried on the body was a sentimental custom, but here it hints at Willoughby’s desire to possess Marianne sexually, even to carry her off. The same object thus signals both Willoughby’s aggressive male sexuality and the hazards of Marianne’s sensibility. Similarly, when Edward arrives to explain Lucy’s marriage to Robert and propose to Elinor, he takes up “a pair of scissars that lay there . . . spoiling both them and their sheath by cutting the latter to pieces as he spoke,” the mutual spoliation symbolizing the severance of his burdensome relationship with Lucy and the possibility of his new relationship with Elinor (407). While purportedly instruments of women’s work, these scissors hold traditional sexual associations that underscore the dangers posed to women by both domestic life and sexual activity.27

The prevalence of scissors in women’s “work” throughout Austen’s novels hints at the rich revelation of female character offered by such work. This work includes such accomplishments as screen-painting, netting, crocheting, embroidery, and making clothes, and may serve to reveal moral strength, to protect women in uncomfortable circumstances by providing an occupation, or, less benignly, to advertise feminine virtue. Georgiana Darcy, for example, drafts designs for a decorative tablecloth in Pride and Prejudice, and her skill testifies to her refinement. Such items function as both material “accomplishments” and indices of character and morals. Though Georgiana is admirable, other characters expose less admirable character through their work.



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