Jane Austen For Dummies (33 page)
Read Jane Austen For Dummies Online
Authors: Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray
When Elizabeth Bennet, determined to hate Darcy, finds herself dancing with him at the Netherfield Ball, she says to him, “âI have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. â We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room . . .'” (PP 1:18). Darcy questions this. But they continue as verbal sparring partners for much of the novel. Darcy, who enjoys conversation, is certainly tired of dealing with the Miss Bingleys of his world: young women who dance pirouettes of admiration around him because he's tall, handsome, and wealthy (PP 1:6). Elizabeth Bennet is a refreshing change as a pretty, intelligent young woman with incredible self-possession. The two belong together, even though they appear to be in conflict. They complement each other.
Northanger Abbey
's Catherine Morland is another unconscious flirt. She's also a modest flirt. As Austen reveals in the next to last chapter of the novel, where she inserts herself as the intrusive omniscient narrator, Henry's “affection [for Catherine] originated in nothing better than gratitude, or, in other words, that a persuasion of her partiality for him had been the only cause of giving her a serious thought'” (NA 2:15). Her naïve and honest admiration for Henry puts her into conflict with no one except the greedy General Tilney, whose hunger for money allowed him to be taken in by another's lie that Catherine was an heiress. (For information on the narrator and narrative devices, see Chapter 16.)
It's an embarrassing instance when people think others are flirting with them, only to discover this isn't the case. This happens to Elinor Dashwood in
Sense and Sensibility
with Edward Ferrars, who has conveniently neglected to tell Elinor that he's engaged to Lucy. A particular scene highlighting this is the hair ring scene (SS 1:18). Elinor's sister Marianne notices that Edward, who's normally not a ring-wearer, is now sporting a ring, made of hair. (Wearing jewelry made of the hair of one's sweetheart was a common practice throughout the Victorian period. At the home of poet John Keats in London, now a museum, a pin using hair is on display.) When Marianne enquires if the hair is his sister's, Edward “coloured very deeply, and giving a momentary glance at Elinor,” replies that the hair is, indeed, his sister's. In reality, the hair belongs to his secret fiancée, Lucy Steele. So Edward blushes out of embarrassment about his secret engagement to another woman, totally unknown to Elinor or Marianne. But Elinor, who “had met his eye, and looked conscious likewise,” is immediately convinced by his looking at her and blushing that Edward has somehow retrieved a bit of her hair and had it made into a ring. Poor Elinor: She's wrong about the ring and Edward's blushing, which she thinks are his ways of subtly flirting with her.
Austen presents plenty of unscrupulous males in her novels. Whether it's money, vengeance, the mere thrill of the hunt, or any combination, seductive men work their dubious charms on a number of young women in Austen's fictional world.
The morally worst seducers or would-be seducers are the men who win a young lady's affections just for fun. In such cases, the male's ego is at work, while his head and heart ignore the feelings of his victim. Austen has two especially selfish men who work at insinuating themselves into the hearts of young ladies.
John Willoughby:
Sense and Sensibility
's Willoughby has all the tools to be seductive. He's tall, handsome, and friendly; he speaks well, rides and shoots with panache, and dances even better. What a glamour boy! So it isn't surprising that when he happens upon the pretty and naïve Marianne Dashwood, fallen in the mud with a sprained ankle, and carries her home to safety through the rain, that she falls for him. “âThinking only of [his] own amusement,'” Willoughby “âendeavoured, by every means in [his] power, to make [himself] pleasing to [Marianne], without any design of returning her affection'” (MP 3: 8). Because this was a mere ego thing for Willoughby, he knew exactly how to please Marianne's ego: everything she liked, he liked â poems, artists, music. But Willoughby isn't serious about Marianne because he's out for money.
Henry Crawford:
Henry, from
Mansfield Park,
is a complex seducer. At first, the Bertram sisters don't find him handsome or attractive at all. But he grows on them because he's witty, charming, and talented. He also knows how to play up to women, especially those who interest him the most: those who present a special challenge because they're engaged or married. So while he had his sister's London friends falling over themselves for him, they were single, eligible, and therefore un-provocative. But because Maria Bertram â discussed earlier in this chapter â is engaged, he finds her especially challenging. Recognizing that she's seducible, Crawford encourages her interest.
Henry Crawford also tries to win the heart of Fanny Price. Her failure to show interest in him and her apparent determination not to like him â and she doesn't because she has witnessed the way he toyed with Maria and set Maria and her sister Julia opposite each her by initially flirting with both of them â only arouse his spirit of adventure. As he tells his sister, Mary, he “âcannot be satisfied without Fanny Price, without making a small hole in Fanny Price's heart'” (MP 2:6). This, he admits, is for his amusement. But what he doesn't know is that Fanny is safe from his seductive charm, for her heart is secretly true to Edmund. Ironically, a combination of Fanny's unresponsiveness and her display of sisterly affection for her brother William seduce Henry Crawford into actually pursuing her with some seriousness. He's bound to fail, however, because he's seduced by his own love of the hunt into re-seducing the seducible Maria Bertram Rushworth, causing him to lose any chance with Fanny Price.
Captain Frederick Tilney:
The Captain may not be a leading character in
Northanger Abbey,
but he's another cad who flirts with Isabella Thorpe for his own amusement. Unlike Willoughby and Crawford, Frederick's “âvanities . . . have not yet injured himself'” because he has “âa stronger head'” than either of them (NA 2:12). The handsome, flirtatious captain is a better strategist than Willoughby and Crawford. Perhaps his military training has helped him in the battle of the sexes. He knows when to retreat! And his dropping Isabella is no cause for tears because she has been encouraging Frederick while her fiancé, James Morland, is out of town.
Austen's world was no stranger to young men who married, or tried to marry, for money. Living at a time when a gentleman was a fellow who didn't go to work, many young men sought to maintain or attain the nonworking status through marriage to rich young women. Thus, men were wily, too â here are some examples:
John Willoughby:
Sense and Sensibility
's Willoughby toyed with Marianne's and Eliza's affections for his ego's sake, but he seduces the very wealthy (£50,000!) Miss Grey in London into marriage because she's rich, and he isn't. In a way, he has been seduced by her money even as he has seduced her with the way he can turn on the charm. Miss Grey, who's described as “âa smart, stylish girl . . . but not handsome,'” could well have been swept off her feet by this handsome cad. The two marry, and Willoughby gets what he wants: a life made comfortable by money.
George Wickham:
In
Pride and Prejudice,
Wickham is certainly a money-minded seducer. Knowing Darcy's younger sister since she was a child, he preys on her trust, luring her into going off with him. Certainly, Wickham's plan was to force Darcy to pay him to make an honest woman of her. But Georgiana doesn't suffer the fate of Eliza Williams in
Sense and Sensibility,
whom Willoughby leaves pregnant and alone. Georgiana so loves and respects her elder brother, Darcy, that she notifies him, and he comes to her rescue before “anything” happens.
With one failure under his belt, Wickham eventually sexually seduces the thoughtless and flirtatious Lydia Bennet, who has been throwing herself at him. While Lydia isn't rich, Wickham gets the economic pay-off that he wants and needs. Darcy, out of love for Elizabeth, pays Wickham to make the proverbial “honest woman” of Lydia, honors his debts, and purchases an army commission for him.
Notice that none of the wily females or seductive males is a hero or heroine of an Austen novel. Some of her heroes and heroines do a little flirting here and there, but they come together through mutual understanding and respect.
Pride and Prejudice
's Darcy and Elizabeth are Austen's most flirtatious couple, even though they don't necessarily realize they're flirting. Darcy is actually the more active flirter. For example, he suddenly asks Elizabeth if she would care to dance a reel when Miss Bingley is playing the pianoforte at Netherfield, and he walks over to Elizabeth and his cousin Fitzwilliam at his aunt's home, Rosings, when Elizabeth is playing the pianoforte (PP 1:10, 2:8). When Elizabeth offers witty retorts to Darcy's remarks, she is, at least consciously, unaware that she's making herself even more attractive to him, for “there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody” (PP 1:10). While he's attracted to Elizabeth physically, his ultimate attraction to her is intellectual (PP 1:6, 1:8). He admires her for “âthe liveliness of [her] mind'” (PP 3:18).