Jane Austen For Dummies (49 page)
Read Jane Austen For Dummies Online
Authors: Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray
Cutting causes pain in
Sense and Sensibility.
At a London party, Willoughby sees Marianne â the last person he wants to see as he's about to be married to another woman â and so he curtly bows to Marianne and then immediately ignores her (SS 2:6). She can't understand why he has cut her, responding in such a formal and mechanical way after the affection he expressed toward her earlier. Similarly, at the concert in
Persuasion,
Frederick Wentworth, jealous of Mr. William Elliot's attentions to Anne, plans “only to bow” to Anne and “pass on,” when Anne's graciousness causes him to stop and chat. Meanwhile, Anne's father and elder sister, who disapprove of Wentworth, finally make, respectively, a “simple acknowledgement of acquaintance” (probably a curt bow) and “a slight curtsey” (P 2:8). Another dutiful acknowledgement of acquaintance occurs in
Pride and Prejudice
when Darcy and Wickham see each other in Meryton. Wickham “after a few moments, touched his hat â a salutation that Mr. Darcy just deigned [forced himself] to return” (PP 1:15). Witnessing this minimal acknowledgement of each other's presence, Elizabeth wonders what “the meaning of it” was: Each nearly cut the other, indicating that they're acquainted (otherwise Wickham wouldn't have touched his hat to Darcy), but obviously not friends anymore.
Recognizing that everyone has lighter moments of humor and idle talk, society still expected conversation to be substantive or at least intelligent, informed, and if appropriate, clever. But not all of Austen's characters talk politely and pleasantly. In fact, Austen uses their conversation as signs of their personalities and moral values. The following list gives you some examples of how characters converse:
Speak in poor taste:
When it comes to poor taste,
Sense and Sensibility
's Mrs. Jennings wins this award hands down. The nosey and somewhat vulgar Mrs. Jennings teasingly presses Elinor for the name of her beau, so Lady Middleton suddenly mentions “âthat it rained very hard,'” an interruption for which Elinor is grateful and which she believes proceeds from “her ladyship's great dislike of all such subjects of raillery as delighted her husband and mother” (SS 1:12). Sensing Elinor's discomfort, Colonel Brandon continues to talk of the weather, to Elinor's relief.
Shock genteel listeners with rude or suggestive comments:
Mansfield Park
's Mary Crawford is guilty of just such behavior. Mary puns on the various admirals' ranks in the navy and the sodomy for which the navy was infamous when she says, “âCertainly, my home at my uncle's [and admiral] brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of
Rears
and
Vices
, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat'” (MP 1:6). Hearing this, the highly proper and moral Edmund “looks grave.” Austen's giving Mary this pun is the novelist's way of showing Mary's blemished character. To enforce her point, Austen has Edmund ask Fanny in the next chapter, “âBut was there nothing in her conversation that struck you Fanny, as not quite right?'” (MP 1:7). The innocent and proper Fanny replies that Mary “âought not to have spoken of her uncle as she did. . . . An uncle with whom she has been living for so many years, and who . . . treat[s her brother] . . . quite like a son.'” Edmund concurs, not even referring to the bawdy pun that Mary shockingly made.
Break decorum by being overbearing:
Being pushy, loud, and boastful was also frowned upon, as was monopolizing a conversation or interrupting others.
Emma
's Mrs. Elton displays all of these characteristics and couldn't be more vulgar:
⢠She interrupts Emma.
⢠She constantly brags about her brother-in-law and sister's (significantly named Mr. and Mrs. Suckling!) spiffy carriage and estate.
⢠She manages always to turn the conversation to herself.
⢠She drops hints for compliments.
⢠She has a loud voice.
Likewise, Mrs. Jennings (surprise, surprise) has a loud voice and promotes gossip, especially about Colonel Brandon, another
faux pas.
And while Lady Catherine de Bourgh is the daughter of an earl, she brags, monopolizes conversations, speaks like a know-it-all, and even interrupts a conversation occurring across the room between Elizabeth Bennet and Colonel Fitzwilliam.
Austen clearly saw beyond appearances. And she expects her readers to be able to do this, too. Sometimes even other characters â often the hero or heroine â are fooled by a person's good manners. But Austen expects us to be on our toes. To help her readers discern those who
appear
good from those who
are
good, she frequently uses manners as a signal.
A genteel person, like an educated person today, should speak in a grammatically correct way. So when Austen has grammatical errors tumbling out of a character's mouth, she's warning us that all is not what it seems. For example, when the Steele sisters arrive at Barton in
Sense and Sensibility,
it doesn't take long for either Elinor or the reader to hear that Lucy Steele is poorly bred:
Showing Elinor a miniature portrait of Edward in order to discourage Elinor's interest in him and show that he's already taken, Lucy talks of having her own portrait painted for him: “âI am determined to set for it the very first opportunity'” (SS 1:22). Her use of “set” instead of “sit” is an immediate tip that Lucy may well not be a suitable match for the educated Edward.
A few lines later, as Lucy attempts to work her charms on Elinor, she says, “â[A]s soon as I saw you, I felt almost as if you was an old acquaintance.'” Again, Lucy's failing to use the correct verb form â “were” instead of “was” â emphasizes her lack of gentility. Even dull characters whose conversations are meaningless speak with correct grammar if they're truly genteel.
Another example from Austen's fiction is Harriet Smith from
Emma.
Harriet Smith is a poor advertisement for the grammar skills she was supposed to learn at Mrs. Goddard's school as seen early in her acquaintance with Emma. She tells Emma that Robert Martin's sisters “âare quite as well educated as me'” (E 1:4). Her lack of grammar prowess is exceeded by her lack of confidence and lack of ability to make a decision. She can neither figure out a riddle nor determine where to send goods purchased at Ford's store without Emma's help. And so it's not surprising that later in the novel Emma can talk Harriet out of marrying the man she really loves because Harriet can't make a decision to save her life. Such characteristics should warn Emma that Harriet isn't the gentleman's daughter that she believes her to be.
Frequently, the lesson that Austen's heroines must learn is how to see past a character's manners in order to find the truth about a person. Encounter-ing people who are not really at all what they appear to be is an everyday occurrence.
Jane Austen reflects this experience in
Emma
's Mr. Knightley in two ways: in terms of differentiating between manners and conduct and between the French word
aimable
(to “have very good manners and be very agreeable”) and the English word
amiable,
which he defines as “having delicacy toward the feelings of other people” (E 1:18).
Even Castiglione in
The Book of the Courtier
says that the courtier should be considerate of others' feelings. Those who aren't considerate of others think only of themselves. See the sidebar “Reading your way into manners” earlier in this chapter for more information on Castiglione.
Austen's novels have a number of characters who are what Mr. Knightley would call
aimable
as opposed to
amiable.
Frank Churchill:
He's the man of the graceful bows. He's a charming conversationalist, a polite companion, and a good dancer. He's just about everything
aimable,
but he draws Jane Fairfax into a secret engagement â a social no-no â because he fears that his adopted mother, who controls his purse strings, won't approve of his marrying a young lady with very little money. He manipulates Jane, his father, his new stepmother, his aunt and uncle, and Emma so that things go his way. And he gossips with Emma about Jane and Mr. Dixon â Jane's friend's young husband â simply to throw Emma off the “Jane and Frank” scent. The gossip flatters Emma's ego, but it's unbecoming to a gentleman. And his insisting that Jane maintains the secrecy of their engagement puts a great emotional and physical strain on her, causing her headaches and tension. Frank lies and makes another lie: He is anything but “frank.”
George Wickham:
Pride and Prejudice
's Wickham initially wins over Elizabeth Bennet by flattering her ego. On first meeting her, he draws her into a conversation about Darcy right after saying to her, “âI have no right to give my opinion . . . as to his [Darcy's] being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge'” (PP 1:16). Having said he won't give his opinion of Darcy, Wickham then perverts the truth about Darcy, making Darcy look like a vengeful and unfair man. But Elizabeth at this point is too blinded by prejudice because Darcy hurt her pride to notice the discrepancy between Wickham's talk and behavior. Besides, Wickham is attentive, polite, and friendly â everything that Darcy wasn't when he insulted Elizabeth at the Meryton Assembly.
Henry Crawford:
Mansfield Park
's Henry Crawford is also a charmer: He's a persuasive talker, a man of much information, a dancer, a horseback rider, and a polite escort. And when he says he loves Fanny, he plays the role with great flair. But just as he was challenged to attract Maria Bertram's interest when he learned she was an engaged woman and challenged to make “a small hole in Fanny Price's heart” because she seems impervious to his charms, so too, he's challenged to return to the newly married Maria and have an affair with her. He ruins Maria's life.
John
Willoughby:
In
Sense and Sensibility,
this character walks out of a fairy tale â at least he appears this way to Marianne Dashwood. After rescuing her from a bad fall and carrying her home, he seems like a knight in armor. He's well read; he knows music and sings; he knows poetry and reads it well aloud; he's polite; he dances up a storm; and he's friendly to all the Dashwood women. And his behavior to Marianne makes her fall in love with him. But his armor isn't shining. It's tarnished by his lies and seduction of another young woman who's pregnant with his child, and he's a financial egoist.
William Elliot:
Austen's charmer in
Persuasion
is the heir to Sir Walter Elliot's baronetcy and estate, and he once ignored Sir Walter, causing a breach in the relationship â a relationship that has no bearing on inheritance laws that make William the heir whether or not he and Sir Walter like each other. When he resurfaces, he's respectful to Sir Walter, courteous to one and all, clever and witty in conversation, and kind and attentive to the heroine, Anne. But William Elliot's whole demeanor is a cover for his plan to keep the widowed Sir Walter from remarrying so that Sir Walter Elliot II Jr. doesn't appear, thus keeping the inheritance from him.