SOURCE: Tomlinson, Sophie Eliza. “Too Theatrical? Female Subjectivity in Caroline and Interregnum Drama.” Women's Writing 6, no. 1 (1999): 65-79.

In the following essay, Tomlinson compares Shirley's Hyde Park to a play written by aristocratic women to illuminate the issue of female subjectivity. She finds in Shirley's female characters a developing assertion of the female self and feminine will.

One of the funniest and most affecting moments in Emma Thompson's screen adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1995) occurs when Thompson, as Elinor Dashwood, bursts into what the novel describes as “tears of joy” on hearing from Edward Ferrars that he is yet unmarried. Thompson's performance of Elinor's overpowering emotion gains appreciably from its theatrical display as compared with its narration in the novel. As viewers we have witnessed Elinor's subduing of her feelings for Edward and her resignation to a state of unfulfilment. The sudden reversal of that expectation of...