Eliza is searching for something more. She wants to be free to "date" as she pleases without the influence of others particularly the influence of her parents. After her first suitor an old man chosen by her parents dies due to illness she is excited to explore her options. Many express interest in her intellect, beauty and flirtatious nature yet, Stanford (the pimp) tries to seduce her and eventually succeeds. Boyer is a nice option, pious and gentle yet he has a motive of his own. Boyer is interested in finding a wife because he wants someone to love and have a family with he is in every way, ready to settle down. Eliza displays opposition to Boyer's claim of love because she does not want her freewill to be tied down in a marriage. Due to her desire for freedom Eliza makes a huge mistake in falling for Stanford's flattery. His flattery destroys her goodhearted qualities and leaves her void of herself.
This is a story of the struggle of passion and of social conformity. Conformity is often based on social rules of society, no matter how ridiculous those may seem at the time everyone is expected to conform in order to be considered 'normal'. Eliza resisted conformity when it came to her own relationships and her own ideals about social networking. Eliza like many of the protagonists of literature was far beyond her time. She like Emily Dickinson did not want to be stuck in a social conformity cloud. She was in a constant struggle of what was right and wrong vs. what was right for her.
This reminds me of the power of manipulation that we saw in Puritan society. How easy it is to get caught up in something appealing, menacing and evil? How easy is it to chose evil when what is seen as good is so boring and seemingly lacks insight? How hard is it to hold onto what is good and comfortable and pious when we can turn to the exciting, indulging things/people of the world?
Eliza struggled with wanting freedom from the opinion of others and not knowing how to decide for herself without the influence of others. Imagine how vastly different Puritan society would have been without the extreme importance of the opinion of others? How often did the people do organically what they thought was right without letting the ideas of others crowd their mind and alter their true feelings? Look at this in comparison to culture today: How many of you girls out there choose a guy without looking for a wink of approval from a mother/sister/bestfriend? How many of you guys have chosen a girl with out looking for a nod of approval from your dad/buddies/brother?
Too often we base the decisions we make on the opinions of others, the approval of others or rather the disapproval of others. When do we say enough is enough? When do we follow the decision that is true to ourselves? How do we decide what is true when the opinions of others are constantly interfering? Isn't the decision to follow our hearts/ our own intuition the most important decision we can make? These are the struggles Eliza faced and the decisions we face with each new challenge of life.
Eliza was most likely written as a symbolic version of what to do and not to do in this era. She was a woman who wanted the worldly things yet at the same time wanted nothing to do with it. She broke the rules. She resisted conformity.
Very interesting connection between Eliza and the Puritans' search for something more interesting and less dull. You raise some interesting points about making decisions which are true to oneself. I often have made decisions without taking anyone's advice and the consequences of the decisions usually come back to bite me... But I have also taken advice and made the decision based on that advice although I did not think it was the best decision and those outcomes have also come back to bite me! It's all about getting advice and weighing it against your intuition.
ReplyDeleteI also like your connection between Eliza and the Puritan society. Taking advice and not taking advice are really sticky situations, it all depends on the situation, and the outcome. You cannot really know whether to take advice or not until you actually decide to because you could be in trouble either way. I agree that following our hearts and basing our decisions off of intuition are the best options for society - you cannot rely on others and others cannot rely on you until you are able to rely on yourself.
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