Jane Austen For Dummies (53 page)
Read Jane Austen For Dummies Online
Authors: Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray
Austen's angriest characters are women, and they're ladies of wealth or at least financial comfort and position. But material comfort doesn't promise happiness. And these women show their unhappiness by lashing out at others:
Aunt Norris:
Aunt Norris is an active child abuser, who continues to abuse the heroine of
Mansfield Park,
Fanny Price, into her young adulthood. Whether sending Fanny to walk repeatedly between Mansfield Park and her home in the hot sun, stipulating that Fanny's room is never to have its fireplace lighted (even in the coldest weather), or verbally humiliating Fanny in front of others by telling her that she'll always be the “lowest and last,” Aunt Norris frightens Fanny and treats her with unreasonable cruelty.
Mrs. Ferrars:
In
Sense and Sensibility,
when Mrs. Ferrars can't convince her elder son, Edward, to marry the wealthy Miss Morton, she becomes so angry that she cuts him off completely â financially and personally.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh:
In
Pride and Prejudice,
Lady Catherine de Bourgh plans to unite the wealthy de Bourgh estate with the even wealthier Pemberley estate by having the heiress to the first (Lady Catherine's daughter) marry her cousin, the owner of the other (Darcy). Greed again rears its ugly head! Lady Catherine's anger at Elizabeth's possibly marrying her nephew Darcy leads her to threatening and insulting Elizabeth, talking
at
her, and telling her that she'll pollute Pemberley (PP 3:14). Catherine may be a Lady, but she's no lady.
Gluttony in any area (money, power, or control) is the opposite of moderation: gluttony is excess and out of balance. We normally associate gluttony with eating. While Austen never offers dieting advice, she does mention two characters, in particular, who are heavy:
Mr. Rushworth:
Austen describes Rushworth of
Mansfield Park
as “a heavy young man, with not more than common sense” (MP 1:4). Other characters see him as “stupid,” “inferior,” and “ignorant” (MP 1:4, 2:3).
Mr. Collins:
Collins, of
Pride and Prejudice,
is “a tall, heavy-looking young man,” with the “Self-conceit of a weak head” (PP 1:13, 15).
Physical size, of course, has no connection with mental ability. But Austen suggests that there is one for Collins and Rushworth.
Jealousy in Austen's novels most clearly appears in matters of love. That was also true in Shakespeare's
Othello,
where jealousy is called a “green-eyed monster” (III:3:1816â1817). Indeed, the jealous can become monsters!
Lucy Steele:
When Lucy meets Elinor and gets a reaction out of her by mentioning the Ferrars family, Lucy is “eyeing Elinor attentively,” giving her a “side glance,” and “fixing her eyes upon Elinor” (SS 1:22). Jealous of Elinor as competition for Edward Ferrars, who has clearly mentioned Elinor favorably to her, Lucy, “her sharp little eyes full of meaning,” forces Elinor into a game of mutual hypocrisy that causes Elinor to exert painful self-control (SS 2:2).
Miss Bingley:
She shows her jealousy of Elizabeth as a competitor for Darcy â a competition of which Elizabeth is completely unaware as she claims to hate Darcy (PP 1:18). (But as one of my students reminded our Austen class a few years ago, the opposite of love is not hate; it's indifference!) Miss Bingley consistently makes cutting remarks about Elizabeth to Darcy, and they frequently backfire. For example, at Sir William Lucas's party, Darcy finds himself admiring Elizabeth's face, particularly how “it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes” (PP 1:6). Miss Bingley comes over to him, remarking on the dullness of the evening and asking what he has been contemplating. He replies, “âI have been meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty woman can bestow.'” Miss Bingley “immediately fixe[s] her eyes on his face,” and asks to whom he's referring. “âMiss Elizabeth Bennet,'” is his firm answer. You can almost “see” the fire leaping from Miss Bingley's eyes.
Sloth and unawareness can lead to unpleasant, even dangerous results. One duty of parents was to instill and model moral behavior for their children. Austen focuses on a few instances of lazy and neglectful parents who fail to meet their responsibilities to their daughters.
Mr. Bennet withdraws from his family into his library so that he can escape them. As an absentee father in his own home, he hasn't exercised parental duty in raising his daughters, particular the three younger Bennet sisters. We can speculate that he was a more involved, dutiful father when the two elder girls, Jane and Elizabeth, were growing up. For they are mature and responsible young women. But he clearly neglected the three younger daughters, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. The youngest, Lydia, who ran off with Wickham, certainly needed more guidance from both of her parents.
While Mr. Bennet withdraws to his library,
Mansfield Park
's Lady Bertram reclines on the sofa in the drawing room, either sewing useless fringe or dozing off. As noted earlier in this chapter, she played no part in the raising of her daughters, leaving that to her obnoxious sister, the angry Aunt Norris, who spoiled her nieces. Lady Bertram's laziness and lack of involvement extend to Aunt Norris's bad treatment of their niece, Fanny Price.