Opening Line
“In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women.
The opening line of the text is a metaphor. Not just any old metaphor, but a very specific type: the Amazons are the subject of the novel and make up overwhelming majority of its main characters. Today, of course, it could be confusing. Amazons in this case are not warrior princesses—at least not in the traditional sense—but rather Victorian-era spinsters.
What is Marriage?
In a novel about a community of unmarried Victorian women, it is only natural to expect that marriage will pop up as a topic now and then. Indeed, to the question of what these women think about marriage, the answer is often couched in metaphor.
“To be sure, marriage was a risk”
“Marriage is a very solemn thing.”
And one man’s view:
“marriage nails a man, as one may say.”
The Lost Son
Peter Jenkyns is what one might call Cranford’s lost son and his unexplained disappearance throws the whole community into emotional turmoil that the time was:
“like a thunder-bolt on the still sunny day when the lilacs were all in bloom.”
The Prodigal Son
When the lost son returns after an extended period of time, he returns with a rousing tale of adventure which the ladies of Cranford find thrilling…but:
“Mr. Peter’s stories might be true…but when I found that, if we swallowed an anecdote of tolerable magnitude one week, we had the dose considerably increased the next”
Character Description
In a work that gains its power from character rather than plot, it is to be suspected that an author will call upon similes to facilitate delineation. And so she does:
Miss Brown: “looked as if the gaiety of youth had long faded out of sight.”
Mr. Holbrook: “looked more like my idea of Don Quixote than ever”
Mr. Mulliner: “looked like a sulky cockatoo”
Because, after all, who wouldn’t mind looking like a cockatoo when it’s not sulking, apparently.
