User:Ashleyalawi/sandbox

The novel as a whole is about a girl who doesn’t want to marry who her aunt wants for her so she leaves. With no money to support her status in finding a good match, her adventures paint a fascinating picture of the life of an intelligent yet naïve 18-century woman. Henrietta can come off as quite aloof to situations, but the novel provides enough to make her an interesting protagonist.

Plot summary:
Henrietta is a young, spoiled girl in the 18-century whose father provides her with a well-rounded education and everything she needs to become successful. Her aunt wants her to marry someone she picked, but Henrietta being young and somewhat of a romantic didn’t want to have an arranged marriage decides to say no. Her aunt insists, so she leaves to begin her adventure. She meets different women throughout the novel and stays at different houses, but each poses a different issue. She stumbles upon her brother towards the middle-end of the novel, and is forced to make a decision regarding her overall lifestyle.

Characters:
Henrietta, the main character of the book is profoundly naïve, and trusts people too easy. Although opportunistic, she ventures off on her own with barely anything to her name and is faced with different problems that allow her true side to come out. Although she trusts easy, she’s very persistent in what she wants and sticks with her beliefs. Mrs. Eckles is somewhat of a madam. She tries in indirect ways to unite people “together. She owns a place that is similar to a hotel, but because she’s a madam the intention of the actual place isn’t what you would think it is. Lady Manning is another character in the book that is the daughter of a soap boiler. Her title was bought, and because of that she is very hypocritical because she thinks only people of high class are worth people’s time.

Structure:
The structure of the novel of a whole is its formatted into two different volumes, but put into one book as a whole. To be more specific, there are two books in the first volume, and three books in the second volume. Each volume is like a break down in Henrietta’s life, for example the first book focused more on her, whereas when her brother was introduced in the second part the narrator directed the readers’ attention to him for awhile. This book is considered a comedy of manners.

Perspective:
The way the novel is written varies from different parts. Most of it is written with dialogue between characters about what’s going on at the exact moment, what already happened or what may or may not happen. There are times where the narrator comes into play, but most of it is dialogue.

Theme:
One of the themes of the novel is love. Something so simple actually portrayed a huge role in Henrietta’s decisions. Love is an overall force that overcomes large obstacles and is slowed down by small ones. Henrietta went through numerous encounters and hardships while trying to find herself and experience life on her own without any help, that in the end she was reunited with who she wanted to be with, and after not having enough money that problem was solved too.