Dance Toward Happiness

8 Pages 2023 Words

to others. Anne thinks about Louisa and Henrietta, who are carefree, “living to be fashionable, happy, and merry” (43). Yet she does not desire to trade places with them because “she would not have given up her own more elegant and cultivated mind for all their enjoyments” (43). Anne very much values her education and musical training.
The marked contrast between Anne’s and Elizabeth’s relationship to music also helps to reveal the depth of Anne’s character. Anne appreciates music while Elizabeth simply uses it. Elizabeth sees music only as a way to further her own social standing. For the last “thirteen winters” she has “open[ed] every ball of credit which [their] scanty neighbourhood afforded” (13). In Bath, Elizabeth trails Lady Dalrymple into the concert room, enjoying herself as she tries to “be of all the consequence in [her] power, draw as many eyes, excite as many whispers, and disturb as many people as [she] could” (175). While both Elizabeth and Anne are “very, very happy” (175) at this concert, it is for vastly different reasons. Elizabeth is centered on herself, while Anne is centered on the music. She has “feelings for the tender, spirits for the gay, attention for the scientific, and patience for the wearisome; and had never liked a concert better” (176). The music takes Anne out of herself; its beauty transports her. Anne opens her heart, but Elizabeth only opens balls.
Although music is a used as a status symbol by some, for Anne it is a means of connection to other people. While at Uppercross, An...