Lucy Steele’s letter

Lucy Steele is 21-22, attractive, feisty, a gold-digger. She has beeb secretly engaged to Edward Ferrars for four years but now he has been cut off (lost his money) she has married his younger brother instead, and is writing to tell him so:

~

“DEAR SIR,
“Being very sure I have long lost your affections, I have thought myself at liberty to bestow my own on another, and have no doubt of being as happy with him as I once used to think I might be with you; but I scorn to accept a hand while the heart was another’s. Sincerely wish you happy in your choice, and it shall not be my fault if we are not always good friends, as our near relationship now makes proper. I can safely say I owe you no ill-will, and am sure you will be too generous to do us any ill offices. Your brother has gained my affections entirely, and as we could not live without one another, we are just returned from the altar, and are now on our way to Dawlish for a few weeks, which place your dear brother has great curiosity to see, but thought I would first trouble you with these few lines, and shall always remain,

“Your sincere well-wisher, friend, and sister,
“LUCY FERRARS.

Sense and Sensibility, chapter 49

Watch the scene, performed by Morgan Black.

Teacher resources:

This document contains a large bank of tasks, intended to bring the enjoyment of Jane Austen’s works into your classroom. We suggest a pick-n-mix approach: choose the activities that will best suit your students and remove the rest! Some of the GCSE resources may suit more ambitious KS3 students and, in turn, some GCSE students may relish the challenge of tasks in the A Level section.

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