Winning Essays for 2002
2002 Essay Topic:
One of the signs of Austen's authorial brilliance is that her novels offer riches for interpretation in many areas, including social, domestic, and political themes. Pick one theme to discuss from this list:
- The impact of class distinctions on characters and events in Persuasion, Emma or Pride and Prejudice
- The role of wills and entailment in Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice
- The concept of women's education in Mansfield Park or Emma
- The significance of manners or dancing to courtship in any of the novels
- The debates over the nature of and prerequisites for marriage in Pride and Prejudice or Persuasion
- The significance of friends, patrons and/or extended family in Mansfield Park or Pride and Prejudice
- Potential routes for improvement of social status in Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Persuasion or Emma
- Transformation of English society from agrarian to industrial and commercial in Sanditon
High School Division
First Prize Winner: Alexandra M. Baird, Toronto, ON
Essay: The Apt Scholar: Concepts of Women's Education in Mansfield Park
Mentor: Professor John Baird
Second Prize Winner: Alice Ann Spurgin, Dallas, TX
Essay: Etiquette, Irony, and Courtship in Emma
Undergraduate Division
First Prize Winner: SJanice E. Mullally, Hamilton, ON
Essay: JOIN THE NAVY! - Mrs. Croft's Subversion of Class and Gender Roles in Jane Austen's Persuasion
Mentor: Dr. Anne Milne, Professor of English, McMaster University, Hamilton
Second Prize Winner: Ashley L. Combest, Greenville, MS
Essay: Mr. Knightley: "Very Busy Over Parish Business"
Graduate Division
First Prize Winner: Stephanie M. Eddleman, Marianna, AR
Essay: The Family of Dashwood: The Effect of Wills and Entailments on Family Connections in Sense and Sensibility
Mentor: Dr. Susan Allen Ford, Delta State University, Cleveland, MS
Second Prize Winner: Haley F. Fishburn, Hopkinsville, KY
Essay: "Should not I now begin to teach you?": Inchbald's Amelia as Model for Women's Sexual Education in Mansfield Park