On Thursday, Dec. 14, English teacher Melissa Adams’ hosted a tea party for her AP Literature classes in the Media Center during lunch and periods five, six, and seven. The students are currently reading the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The tea party was held to immerse students into the world of Pride and Prejudice as a way for them to analyze the manners of the time period in which the book takes place.
Adams hoped the tea party experience would encourage her students to see past the stigma of the text as just as romance and be able to recognize the commentary on gender and socioeconomic disparity contained in the story. She feels that too often the Hollywood portrayals of the novel focus too much on the romance, rather than the societal critiques hidden in the story.
Senior Samantha Balderas said, “I thought that it was a creative activity that exposed students to the social expectations during the time period of Pride and Prejudice. It also allowed us to collaborate on a presentation about the central concepts of the book. Overall, you could tell there was lots of time and effort put into its planning and it was a fun afternoon!”
The decor of the party was symbolic and deliberate. Each table at the party was decorated with different colored teacups: pink, yellow, and purple. Each cup had designated etiquette rules that the students were asked to follow for the afternoon. The actual gender of the students was not taken into account as the assigning of the roles was random. Gentlemen and ladies were, for the party, terms used to describe the people at the table, regardless of gender.
Senior Sydney Short said, “The tea party helped me further understand the rigid societal rules that were placed on men and women at the time period. It also strengthened my understanding of Pride and Prejudice’s societal and cultural impact on society.”
Students were asked to model certain behaviors such as placing napkins on their laps, holding the teacups by pinching the arm of the cup and stirring the tea with a spoon but remembering to take the spoon out when finished.
In addition to the tea party, the students had to complete a creative project towards the end of the afternoon. The creative project provided three options: a research paper/presentation, a rewrite of a “bad romance” film to include complex character and commentary, or an analysis of the influence of Pride and Prejudice on modern movies and literature.
Senior Arjun Nair said, “Other than the food, the creative project we got to make towards the end was very exciting. It allowed us to connect the novel to contemporary films that we are more connected to in order to underscore the timeliness in the themes Jane Austen conveys.
