Lovers' Vows

            I am not sure if the rest of you were as confused as I was by the supposed “impropriety” of play acting, but I had difficulty understanding what the big deal was. Edmund was certainly thoroughly irritated by his siblings’ decision to put on the production before so admirably (sarcasm intended) deciding to join them to spare the family further humiliation. I was compelled to look up the plot of “Lovers' Vows” to see if that would help shed light on the situation… which it certainly did.

            According to Wikipedia, “Lovers' Vows” deals with “sex outside marriage and illegitimate birth.” No wonder why Edmund was so disturbed by the thought of his sisters and Miss Crawford portraying such unsavory creatures! I was slightly proud of the young women for insisting they be involved (much more than of Fanny’s irritating habit of agreeing with Edmund almost completely). The most interesting part of the whole scheme was how the “adults,” Mrs. Norris and Lady Bartram failed to do anything about it. Mrs. Norris’ suggestion that they simply omit the improper parts would fail to do anything when the entire plot would have been improper. As for the rest of them, it seemed unlikely they were unaware of the impropriety of their selection. My suspicions that they were reveling in doing something bad were confirmed when Sir Thomas returned home early and they all felt ashamed (with the exception of Mr. Yates) of their involvement. I am left wondering, how bad were their actions really? Who gave them access to this play to begin with? Why was Sir Thomas so angry when Lady Bertram and Mrs. Norris did not seem to mind?