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Plot Summary

Charlotte Ramsay Lennox English Writer

In “Henrietta”, by Charlotte Lennox, Henrietta Courtney plays as the protagonist within the novel. The novel begins where it reveals Henrietta has ran away from her aunt to escape an arranged marriage she has no interest in. During the journey when running away, she comes across a stranger and becomes acquainted with her. Henrietta goes in search for a guardian that can provide protection. After being sent to a wrong millener suggested by Miss Woodby, Henrietta’s aunt, Lady Manning, accepted her and became her guardian for the time being. Henrietta later learns Lady Manning true intent was just to gain fame and reputation by trying to convince Henrietta to marry an individual of lower class, Mr. Jones. After refusing the ultimatum Lady Manning suggested, Henrietta left and Mr. Damer became her guardian temporarily. Henrietta finds out that Mr. Damer has a wife after have feelings for him and terminated Mr. Damer’s role as a guardian. Henrietta soon tries to regain her aunt’s, Lady Meadows, approval. After failing to win back Lady Meadows’ approval, Henrietta declines Lady Meadows’ recovery offer and obtains a couple jobs to support herself. Soon she find herself a true guardian, her brother, that would provide her protection.

Characters

Lady Manning plays as one of Henrietta’s aunt in the novel. Lady Manning was the daughter of a soup boiler and married a rich brewer which obtained knight status. Her greatest concern is family honor/pride. Lady Manning value rank and family reputation so she tries to convince Henrietta to marry a staid man to bring down her class ranking. Henrietta is the main protagonist in the novel. She runs away from her aunt to avoid the participation of an arranged marriage and becomes in search for an alternative guardian. She relies on a guardian to protect her and feel safe. After Lady Meadow stop acknowledging her as part of the family, she got jobs to support her own. She wanted to prove to her aunt that she can in fact take care of herself. Celinda is one of the characters Henrietta meets during her journey away from her aunt. She engages in this “violent friendship” with Henrietta and supports Henrietta throughout the novel.

In the novel, Charlotte Lennox creates this outline which displays Henrietta’s search for a guardian. The novel is sectioned in a sequential order into who takes on the role of Henrietta’s guardian. Lennox creates this structure within the novel to show readers how she end up with her true guardian, her brother, towards the end of the novel. The outline of the novel shows how Henrietta is accepted several others as her guardian and finally trying to show Lady Meadow that she is responsible by taking care of herself. Lennox presents a step-by-step process in which Henrietta takes to end up with her brother.

In “Henrietta”, Lennox writes in a style that displays a more modern diction. She uses names that are commonly used in modern society such as Henrietta, or Mr. Jones, until of names that are a little more exaggerated like Fantomina. This marks the point within the eighteenth century where authors style of writing changes to consist of something with a bit more normality and real. The names used in the novel is a little bit less mischievous as well. In addition, Lennox mostly uses women characters in the novel. She may be supporting the emergence of feminism and womanly powers. Within the novel, she gives all the women the roles that has a lot of power or reputation but gave male characters low, unfavorable status. It is like Lennox is writing to alter the hierarchical structure of society.

Theme

One theme that may pertain to this novel is that family honor and class is important. It can be explained through Lady Manning’s contempt towards family reputation and pride. She had accepted Henrietta as one of her own because of her thirst for power and a higher rank. Her goal from the start was to marry Henrietta off to a person of lower rank, a steward, so she can advance in ranking and obtain more family power among their family. In a similar situation, Lady Meadow was worried that Henrietta’s action would taint their family reputation so she disowned her. She values the family's’ reputation more, and anybody affecting its title would not be recognized.

Overview

Henrietta was an orphan who was taken in by her aunt, Lady Meadow, after her parents died. Lady Meadow is a woman of high status that is very rich and fortunate. She arranges a marriage for Henrietta but Henrietta did not abide to her aunt’s proposal. Henrietta runs away and engages in a journey through London in search for a Guardian to look after her. All the guardians she ended up with turned to have selfish desires so she began working to earned a few dollars by herself. Henrietta’s brother happens to be Charles Courtney, and does not get revealed until the end of the novel

Notes

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