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 I found myself very interested in the idea that we spoke about at the end of the class today: Alice James' reaction to Bryn Mawr. I don't think I agree with xsoloadsolem and aseidman that seeing Bryn Mawr, a school full of women like herself who were allowed to go after an intellectual education which she herself was not allowed to, would pain her. I can understand where the idea comes from, that she was so weak and frail and that the sight of a dream that was taken away from her might be too much to bear, but I think that Alice was stronger than that. I think that, like jrlewis said, she would have been overjoyed to visit Bryn Mawr, finding a place that she would have been allowed to live her life on her terms. I do not think she was bedridden because she didn't feel that the world could not hold a place for her, but because she had been kept away from that world by her family. 

I also found it very interesting that Peggy was so much like her aunt, and it spurred a thought in me. What would William's reaction have been if he were aware of the similarities? Was he aware? I find it interesting that while he did not like his sister he raised a woman much like her, the difference being that Peggy was allowed to live in such a world. Was part of William's disgust possibly towards his father, for was it for Alice not standing up to her father and showing him that there was a place in the world for smart women?