Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Who are these characters from Cranford from left to right? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UlktOOKx1NUe-eTeQAhV1f1o7WSCjowbBY6_DmRTNVw/edit?usp=sharing

I can't promise to give an absolutely definitive answer to this question, as the illustrations do not give much away! However, we can look at the various identifying features in each illustration to try and work out which Cranford lady is represented.
The first picture, on the left, depicts a woman in middle age or older, wearing a somewhat haughty, dignified, snooty expression. Immediately my feeling is that this is a depiction of Miss Deborah Jenkyns. Deborah, Miss Matty's elder sister, thinks a lot of herself and carries herself as if she is rather above everyone—she "had the knack of always looking as if the latest fashion was nothing to her."
The next picture shows a woman in spectacles. This would seem to give it away—take a look at the beginning of chapter 7 in the novel, and you will find a description of Miss Matty being "flurried" as usual and without her spectacles.
As for the last picture—I think this is perhaps the most difficult to pinpoint. What do you think her expression is trying to convey? She looks to me as if she's listening but also quite pleased with herself. Which of the Cranford ladies would fit this description? One of them in particular considers herself more au fait with what is going on beyond Cranford than others (Miss Pole). But you may disagree with my assessment of this drawing—is it a younger lady, perhaps? Is she supposed to look sweet, rather than a little smug? Think about Cranford's protagonist and how she relates to the older women in the novel. Could it be her?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?

In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...