Mimetic rivalry (2)

A while ago I suggested that sensibility* is a virtue best learnt by emulating women and, by implication, that women learn it by emulating other women. We have to pick our role models here very carefully and poor Catherine Morland picks hers poorly.

But why does she pick her Isabella the first place? That is to say, before we get to Isabella's failings, what made her so attractive to Catherine? I think the asnwer is two things:

1. Because Isabella deliberately sets out to make herself attractive to Catherine to get closer to her brother James Morland. (And this is interesting because Catherine will follow this example later by building a friendship with Henry Tilney's sister.)
2. Isabella is already a powerful role model for other women as we can clearly see in her relationship with her sisters:

Her eldest daughter had great personal beauty, and the younger ones, by pretending to be as handsome as their sister, imitating her air, and dressing in the same style, did very well.

* Should fess up that I have not come clean about what I think sensibility is yet and don't intend to until I get to blogging Sense and Sensibility. I'll give a bit of a hint in an upcoming post.