Walking may often be taken for
granted by the capable pedestrians who exercise their ability every day.
However, walking (i.e. strolling, sauntering, power-walking, drifting) is an
important pillar of society, especially in the Austen economy of Pride and Prejudice.
Walking forms an excuse for
socializing with officers and aunts in town. For visiting ill sisters at
neighbor’s estates. For proposing a second time. You begin to see the import of
this very human pastime.
The BBC’s
1996 version of P&P opens with Elizabeth trotting down a lane and walking
home. Unlike our walking today, pedestrianism for characters such as Elizabeth
Bennet and her sisters presented an exercise of freedom. It proved an opportunity to quit the domestic sphere of the sitting room.
So
tomorrow—or rather later this morning as we hailed the New Year just one and a
half hours ago—some dear friends and family and I will exert our freedom to
walk by adventuring on our traditional New Year’s Day hike. And though our
annual institution may not have originated in Jane Austen’s honor, I shall
rejoice that today we can walk without petticoats and floor-length skirts.
Guest edited by E. Smith.
No comments:
Post a Comment