I find the way that Amelia's emotions are viewed by Walsingham to be interesting. At the beginning of Volume 3, Walsingham speaks of Amelia. He describes her as having, "...a beautiful sincerity... an unaffected simplicity in her manner, that invited confidence and secured esteem... eyes beaming with sensibility that bespoke the purest and most gentle affections," (261). However, even though he seems to have an appreciation for her and her emotions at the beginning, he describes her as "too dangerous an object for me to contemplate" (265) when she was experiencing emotions. A statement that seems odd considering how emotional Walsingham himself becomes. He only says that he respects and admires her once, "...she appeared to be perfectly mistress of herself," (265).
It seems that sensibility depends upon what a person's gender is. Walsingham goes to great lengths to express his sensibility in both his words and actions. However, when Amelia displays the same, he views it as a bad thing.
Walsingham creates a double standard when he speaks about Amelia's emotions and acts as if he is the only one allowed to demonstrate his sensibility. At the same time, he seems to think that emotional women are dangerous, but what about emotional men? Why aren't the considered to be dangerous?
ReplyDelete