Week 5: Is Arabella a Love extremist?

“By them she was thought to believe, that Love was the ruling Principle of the World; that every other Passion was subordinate to this; and that it caused all the Happiness and Miseries of Life.” – The Female Quixote, p.7

“What all these extremist share is a fear of freedom, of openness, and an overpowering need to surrender to something that will stand for authority. Left to their own devices, they might be ruled by a dangerous side of their personality, suddenly overwhelmed by the openness of life. This is why they would rather capitulate their free-will and follow blindly and unerring guiding hand.” – Introduction (this week’s reading), p.7

Just in case the title is a little misleading, what I really meant to ask is why does Arabella put so much effort into abiding by the romantic laws of courtship she reads about in her mother’s novels? This I think is an interesting question that I’m probably not going to be able to answer to the fullest here, but these two selected passages should give me a sense of direction as to where to look.
                Arabella is such an innocent girl that has been sheltered from practically all social activities, especially time spent with men, and any good looking person she encounters that is looking at her she will presume is in Love with her. Although, instead of expressing their emotions to her, they are supposed to keep it a secret and go through an impossible set of trials and tribulations to prove his love instead of simply declaring it. In a sense she’s right, actions speak louder than words, but she isn’t exactly getting the point. The purpose of those trials are to give the hero a chance to prove himself worthy of his heroine, not because a long series of romantic novels say they are the things one is supposed to do. Although, to Arabella it is exactly that: she finds is overtly offensive when a man professes his attraction to her, and “banishes” him from her sight! There is nothing wrong with profession a love for someone, but she thinks there is because apparently it is not what courtship is supposed to be like.
                The introduction we read this week is about obsession. Obviously, Love – not love as we know it but Love in a fairy tale – is her obsession. She grew up reading all her mother’s novels – whose purpose for reading it was to fill the gap within her heart in the first place, since her life had been full of loneliness (apparently the Marquis was too busy to even say hi in the morning) – and now considers them religious material. The quote above indicates that the reason for Arabella’s cold feet, from the arranged marriage with her cousin, is because she’s been under tutelage her novels for so long that she cannot fathom going about Love in any other way. This correlates to her solitary childhood under her father’s protection that she doesn’t see the world as it really is, and is actually afraid of finding out how it really is, that she uses her obsession of courtly Love to keep herself within her comfort zone. What would happen when this is actually taken away from her? I would love to find out…