Harriet’s Box of Treasures
Personal Memorabilia
Harriet keeps a special wooden box with mementos from her days with Mr. Elton. She has a small piece of cloth that he discarded and the stump of a used pencil. The insignificance of the objects demonstrates the lack of real evidence of Mr. Elton’s attraction and Harriet’s own naiveté. Harriet’s choice to keep the box after she realizes Mr. Elton is not interested in her shows her continued hope, and her choice to destroy the objects signifies that she is no longer secretly longing for Mr. Elton.
Tunbridge-ware
Emma, Jane Austen
Brianna Sumption
Novel
High Cedar Chest
Furniture
On her first evening at Northanger Abbey, Catherine discovers the large heavy cedar chest tucked away in her room. The chest has a tarnished silver lock and broken silver handles. Catherine struggles to open the chest, believing it to hold a dark secret, only to find it full of white cotton bed sheets. This mistaken assumption is the first of many she makes about Northanger Abbey’s mysteries, and though she vows to learn from her mistake and tame her imagination, she does not follow through.
unknown
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Brianna Sumption
Novel