Montaigne and Austen Essay

Interconnectedness, the quality or condition of being interconnected or interrelated, creates such a plot that can be easier to understand, yet so complicated to explain. David Foster Wallace's quote on interconnectedness becomes so accurate in a story that intertwines every aspect of plot in order to create a well-developed story. In life many people suffer from the same difficulties that interconnectedness brings when explaining a story or book to other people. In order to explain, there is many aspects to be covered that make it difficult to do when everything connects to each other. For instance, it is already extremely difficult to summarize a 600 page book into one paragraph. Now take a book in which every aspect of the plot relies on each other; this makes summarizing a more difficult process. Although one provides views on the human race and the other shows insight into the difficulty of love and intimacy, Montaigne and Austen are similar in that they use interconnectedness to develop a story,
Montaigne's techniques and topics support the quote of David Foster Wallace, in that Montaigne uses essays that rely on each other to develop the overall view on the human race. One cannot describe the accounts of Montaigne without reading the entirety of the book because he develops his thoughts of humans throughout the book. His topics, which are shown through his chapters, seem to rely on each other in that you could not read one chapter without the other or it would not be of much sense. For example, one chapter is Whether the governor of a besieged fortress should go out and parley which only sets the basis for this particular subject. The chapters that follow explains what becomes of this such as On Liars, On Idleness and On a ready or hesitant delivery. Each of the essays falls from that of parleying, which brings out actions such as those mentioned in later essays. One essay leads to the next in that in the process of writing one essay a thought is formed and creates the next essay.  Montaigne uses techniques of involving himself in the essays to create a clear analogy that the reader can understand. For example, in essay 8 On Idleness, Montaigne explains how he left his estate and hoped that it would remain the same, but of course it was set free and did what it wanted. He explains his own life story in order to show what idleness really is and what usually happens when you set something free. Montaigne also shows the common reaction of a human being, which helps explain that he too does what he doesn't like of the human race.
Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, uses interconnectedness to an extreme. The plot in Pride and Prejudice would not be able to develop or continue without interconnectedness. There is nothing randomly presented in this story. For example, Elizabeth would not keep vacillating whether she wants to be with Mr. Darcy or not if she was not reminded by in him everywhere she went. When she meets Mr. Wickham, she is presented with more news about Mr. Darcy, when she goes to dinner with Mr. Collins and finds out that Mr. Collins financial lady is Mr. Darcy's aunt, and finally when her aunt and uncle take her to Mr. Darcy's house. In all of these cases Elizabeth would have never thought about Mr. Darcy again, but the interconnectedness allows for her to create a relationship with him. Also Jane would have never gotten back with Mr. Bingley if it weren't for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy getting together and bringing Mr. Bingley back. The entire story develops through interconnectedness and would have never came to an ending or had a climax if it weren't for the interrelations.
Although interconnectedness can be very difficult to follow and even more difficult to explain, it is sometimes a vital piece to a story. In Montaigne's book, interconnectedness allows the reader to understand that everyone is apart of the "bad" things the human race does. Everyone will look at the essays and think that Montaigne is extremely right and that a lot of people do the things he says, but most don't take into consideration that they too are guilty of those actions. Through interconnectedness, Montaigne was able to prove this point by using himself as one that "committed the crime" in a sense to allow the reader to think about whether they have or have not. Austen's more extreme use of interconnectedness is used to develop the whole story and a create an essential theme from it. A possible theme of fate will find its way and/or if its meant to be it will be. In this particular case it was meant to be and it found its way through the technique of interconnectedness. This intricate way of writing can be very useful in developing a theme and/or proving a point to what is being said. David Foster Wallace explained something that could never be explained.