Before I started writing this blog post, I was freaking out because I hadn’t read any “intellectual” books lately; only sappy Julia Quinn novels (yes, I’m obsessed with Bridgerton, and yes, of course, I’m going to The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience). But after thinking about it for a while, I decided to just be authentic and write about what I do know – and that’s sappy romance novels. I’ll switch it up a bit as time goes on and I get more comfortable with blogging/writing in general, but for now, you’ll just have to bear with romance and Jane Austen references. For those of you who are currently reading the Bridgerton series beware because there may be slight spoilers but if you’re like me and read the last page/chapter of a book first, then by all means, welcome.
To give a little preface as to what exactly will be going on in my blog posts, the first bit will be a short lesson on what psychology in literature is exactly. The word “literature” comes with multiple definitions. The most basic definition that shows up when you toss “literature” into Google search is, “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit.” While this definition is completely acceptable, it doesn’t convey the feelings you’re supposed to have after reading a really good book. If you dig a little deeper, however, you find a second definition that defines literature as, “a record of human consciousness,” the richest and most comprehensive we have.
The novel is arguably man’s most successful effort to describe the experience of individual human beings moving through space and time. I immediately connected more with this definition of literature because it doesn’t define it as “work” but rather as “human memory”. To me, human memory is made up of moments and experiences where you felt an emotion very strongly and deeply. So deeply that it moves with you for the rest of your life and is always ready to be recalled. Just like experiencing a very emotional moment or watching a great movie, a well-written novel should invoke feelings you would get when you live through an event. For example, in the 2005 movie rendition of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, there’s an infamous scene where Mr. Darcy flexes his hand as he’s walking away from Elizabeth. At this point in the movie, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are barely acquaintances but already, you can feel the tension between the two characters and know that there’s something more going on. Nothing is being said and other than that bit of contact, they don’t touch each other, but when Mr. Darcy walks away and flexes his hand, it’s obvious that Elizabeth affects him. The psychology used in that instance pertains to the film’s production and its use of perception, narrative understanding, and cognition. In literature, psychology is most definitely used to make the readers feel a type of way but more often than not, psychology is used to understand the influence of social conditions on the thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of characters. I will also be analyzing different moments in these novels and talking about what theories of psychology are being used on the characters or by the characters.
So far, my favorite Bridgerton novel is the third one, An Offer from a Gentleman. This may be because it is the most humorous out of the four that I’ve read so far (there are nine books total) and that I’ve always been a sucker for a good Cinderella story. In short, this story is like any Cinderella story. It takes place during the Regency era (which is roughly from the years 1811 to 1820) and is full of rules on how to be the perfect lady and wife one day. The beginning of the novel starts by explaining how the main character, Sophie, is the bastard child of the Earl of Penwood. He then marries an evil witch with two horrible daughters that make Sophie’s life a living hell after he passes away. The story then flashes forward to the present day (that the novel is taking place in) where Sophie’s stepmother and stepsisters are getting ready for a ball that’s being hosted for the “ton” (English high society during the Regency era, every aristocrat from the royals to the gentry). Like every Cinderella story, Sophie ends up sneaking into the ball (which is a masquerade ball) and ends up enchanting Benedict Bridgerton (one of the sons of the most influential family at the time). Two whole years pass by before they meet again but Benedict, of course, doesn’t remember her (because she’s dressed as a maid) but he still thinks of that mystery woman from the ball. Unlike Disney’s Cinderella, Sophie is witty, sassy, very smart and she sticks to her principles and values which, at the time, were heavily influenced by society. The moment Benedict sees her, he stops dead in his tracks. This part of the novel is especially well written and a very good example of appraisal theory. Most pieces of literature have this theory woven into their story in some way, shape, or form, but the moment Benedict sees Sophie at the masquerade ball is beautiful. Written in 3rd person, Benedict’s thoughts when he sees Sophie are:
“He couldn’t even tell if she was beautiful…her mask…was…tied securely around her head…But there was something about her that held him mesmerized…she…looked about the ballroom as if she’d never seen a more glorious sight…her beauty came from within…She was utterly radiant and Benedict suddenly realized…it was because she was so damned happy…Happy in a way Benedict could barely remember…This woman knew joy. And Benedict had to know her,”
Before I explain why this is such a good example of appraisal theory, I’ll define this theory. Appraisal theory is the argument that emotion arises from the meaning that an individual attaches to an event. We go through the appraisal process daily. For example, when I worked from home, I was alone all day – and it was terrifying. Since I’m an extremely anxious person, I would jump at every noise that I heard and automatically think that someone was trying to kill me. I would run through different possibilities of what that noise might be and then come to the conclusion that it was just my A/C turning on in the middle of the day. The type of emotions I felt while thinking it was an intruder was significantly different and more extreme than when I realized that it was just my A/C system turning on. The same goes for Benedict at this moment. The moment he sees her, he’s immediately analyzing her. He clearly states that he doesn’t know whether she’s beautiful or not but that there is someone about her that intrigues him. At the beginning of his appraisal, he’s seeing surface-level things like “her hair was a rather ordinary dark blond…” But as he goes deeper and ignores the outer beauty, he realizes that the reason she looks so beautiful to him is that she was “happy to be where she was, happy to be who she was.” Once he realizes that important factor, he decides that he needs to know her and the “he wanted that joy for himself,”; the one that she was feeling and expressing. He knows, through appraisal theory, that if he sticks with her, he too will feel that joy, or at least he hopes that he will. The feelings he felt from that night lingered with him until he met Sophie two years later except she was dressed as a maid and not like Cinderella. To explain the power of the emotions that Benedict felt for this mystery woman, here is an excerpt from later on in An Offer from a Gentleman:
“Two years earlier he’d danced with a woman…and she’d told him that he’d have to pack a lifetime into a single kiss…He certainly hadn’t met anyone since with whom he could even imagine building a life. Until Sophie…and he wasn’t going to let her get away.”
The impact that this “mystery woman” (aka Sophie but after a Princess Diaries makeover) had on Benedict had him comparing her to every woman he had met after. Subconsciously, the way Sophie as a maid is making him feel was the same way that Sophie as Cinderella was making him feel.
Appraisal theory and the power/influence of our emotions is something real; it is something that we all experience in our lives during happy and not-so-happy times. Those judgments that we make right off the bat set the tone for the rest of that specific interaction we are dealing with and the way we feel about it for years to come. Something that was once painful will remain painful for the rest of our lives. It may be a lot duller than it was in the beginning, but like any scar, it is something delicate and once it’s irritated, it brings you back to the moment it happened. The same thing goes with happy moments. A lot of the happiness you feel and experience now is because you have been searching for that high that you have experienced before just like Benedict in An Offer from a Gentleman.
If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me through this sappy journey. I hope you learned something new/cool from this and I promise, it’ll only get better from here!
-Sylvia Szewczyk. Blogger.
Sylvia Szewczyk- Asst. Prose Editor & Blogger: Sylvia graduated in May of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Resource Management and Psychology as well as with a minor in Polish Language and Culture. While at Lewis, Sylvia was a Community Engaged Learning Facilitator, a founder for Lewis’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter as well as a LUMINATE Volunteer leader. She currently works full-time as an HR Generalist and joined Jet Fuel in hopes of following one of her lifelong passions – writing. Her favorite genres to read are historical fiction, sci-fi, and mystery. In her free time, she likes to paint, do puzzles, play the piano, read, rock climb, and hike. She loves to travel and does it spontaneously (but wishes she could do it more often). After getting her Master’s she plans on moving to Poland for a few years to experience work and life there.