https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks Relationships between siblings: Consider the different ways Isabella converses with her sisters vs her brothers. What do you notice? en-us 2021-01-15 15:13:17 UTC 2022-03-04 17:29:54 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078326584 To me, Isabella's letter to her two younger sisters in London was a letter with a far more instructive tone, even a stern tone. Meanwhile, with her brothers, I only felt that she was longing to interact with them once again, but not that she was scolding them in any way. Additionally, she wrote to A.B., her sister mistress, and this was a letter of envy. This envy was not harsh or disrespectful, but she certainly was somewhat jealous of the familial setting A.B. was living in and held affection for it. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:21:40 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078326584 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078328052 I mentioned this in my essay but even though there's not much known about Whitney, her poems to her brothers and sisters really show a lot. There are elements of care and concerns to each one of them. She switches a lot between playing the older sister vs the younger one depending on who she is talking to (for ex. with Geoffrey and Anne she is the younger one that admires the older ones). I think it was interesting to see that no matter what came up in their lives, they still had some form of contact with each other and it was obvious they had a lot of care/love for each other. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:22:36 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078328052 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078330399 I noticed that Whitney is a lot more straightforward and formal with her brothers but she has a lot to say to her younger sisters in a more casual tone. Additionally, her letters to her brothers is more jovial and warm, but with her sisters it is foreboding. Lastly, the age difference between her sisters also plays a factor. For her younger sisters, Whitney talks as a superior but for her older sister she has a more demeaning tone and feels as if her sister did not set a good example for her.]]> 2022-03-04 17:23:55 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078330399 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078330965 Whitney has a different relationship with each sibling individually. She longs to be in contact with her two brothers and hope they are successful. On the other hand, Whitney gives advice to her sisters on how to include God in their life and how to have a peaceful life. There is a sense of gender roles included in the epistles to her sisters which is what stood out to me the most. Each epistle tells us a quality of Whitney herself and we learn more of what type of person she is just by her writing to her family. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:24:15 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078330965 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078331391 When I was reading the letters Whitney addressed to her brothers I noticed she focused a lot more on wishing them both health and spoke about their return home. I may have interpreted this wrong, but it seems as though she sees her brothers as more autonomous and independent figures. On the other hand the letters to her sisters were lengthier and I felt that Whitney saw herself  as a sort of protective figure over them. For instance she gives them advice on how to protect themselves and even reminds them to praise God and ask for his protection. I also noticed that she saw marriage as an economic transaction as opposed to seeing it as a relationship beyond that. In her last letter I felt that she kind of wished to be married only so she could have the economic stability that a married woman would have. 
-Miriam. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:24:31 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078331391 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078331838 When I was reading the letters, I felt like there was a clear difference between the way she was writing each letter. Her letter to George felt more friendly and genuine compared to her letter to Brooks to me, because of the structure that it was written in. Brooks' letter had a very structure rhyme scheme, while George's didn't. Another thing I noticed was the tone that she was giving advice to her sisters in seemed almost like she was lecturing at them, compared to the other letters where she was wanting to reconnect and inform them of her struggles. This makes it seem like she wanted to put a lot of emphasis on her struggles to her sisters to save them from going through similar hardships to her. Finally, Anne's letter just seemed similar to George's in that it felt friendly, but with an undertone of maybe longing for the life that Anne had.]]> 2022-03-04 17:24:48 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078331838 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078332141 Te first thing I noticed was the difference in length between the letters to her sisters vs. the letters to her brothers. The letters to her sisters were noticeably longer in length. It also felt like she knew that the brothers would be better-adjusted in society than her sisters, as one of the letters to her sisters is literally "an order prescribed" by her. Although the letters to her brothers feel warmer and more personal, I think there's also a very real possibility that she is quite close with her sisters, and that the stern tone of the letter comes from a place of love, of looking out for them. Additionally, when she writes to her older sister it has more of an envious tone, how she wishes to have her financial stability. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:24:57 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078332141 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078332984 What I noticed with the way Isabella wrote towards her brothers vs her sisters was that with her brothers she was less serious, and was teasing them about the fact that she never sees them or hears from them. This really evident of her older sister role especially toward Brooks. However in the letter to her two younger sisters, it seems that she took the time instead to teach them how to behave or conduct themselves in society so that they don’t have to suffer the same consequences and negativity Isabella probably had experienced and learned from. It is only with her married sister that she is not this way, because probably in Isabella’s and society’s head, since the sister was married and had children she had no reason to worry or anything to “teach” her. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:25:26 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078332984 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078334299 In my mini-essay, I talked about the difference in address between the letter she writes to her brother Brooke and two of her sisters. In the letter to her brother, the topic being discussed is the concern she has for not knowing where he is, or even whether he is alive or not. As opposed to that, the letter to two of her younger sisters focuses more on advising her sisters on how to be proper ladies, and what rules they must follow as such according to their social norms. In that letter, she basically tells them that in order to stay within the public good image of women, they have to follow her advice in order to avoid being ostracized. As women, they have to prioritize their public image, and when compared to Brooke, he has all the male privilege to be out and about without receiving any sort of legal or social punishment. In these two letters, I think Whitney is able to showcase the differences in privileges and priorities for men and women at the time.]]> 2022-03-04 17:26:15 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078334299 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078338202 I interpreted Whitney's family relationships through the epistles as a sort of social performance. When speaking to her brothers, she is flattering and subservient, referring to the two as her "good brothers" even though she hasn't heard from them in months. She does this to demonstrate that she understands proper gendered dialogue of the time, therefore portraying herself in a socially constructive way. Later, in her epistle to her younger sisters, she makes it very clear (literally, it's in the title) that she is the oldest sister, therefore making her frank, semi-patronizing tone socially acceptable. the letters to her sisters are mostly about piety and housekeeping, and she emphasizes this because she knows that piety and housekeeping are what women are expected to excel at. If her readers think she is a socially acceptable individual, it builds her credibility as a writer. ]]> 2022-03-04 17:28:31 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078338202 https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078340404 I think it's interesting that Whitney talks about her writing with her sister Anne, but does not mention it at all in the letters to Geoffrey and Brooke. In those letters, she mostly just vaguely refers to her misfortunes and they have a more gentle tone compared to the sister letters. The message she tries to convey in the sister letters is a lot more clear and direct beyond the usual "good health and fortune" greetings.]]> 2022-03-04 17:29:54 UTC https://padlet.com/catbrassell/Bookmarks/wish/2078340404