Monday, April 18, 2011

The Umpteenth Reading of Sense and Sensibility


I honestly don't know how many times I've read Sense and Sensibility. I know I first read it after I finished Pride and Prejudice when I was in about 7th grade. I know I read it in a hospital waiting room while my mother had colon surgery 20 years ago. I know I read it at least a couple of times in college--I was an English major and Austen was one of the authors that I was examined on for graduation. Since joining JASNA about 25 years ago, I've read it whenever it was the topic of the AGM. So what is there new to say or think about S&S?

Last time I read it, I remember being struck by how funny it was. It made me laugh out loud in places, and it did this time around again, of course.

I don't remember as many phrases and passages from S&S in the same way that I do from P&P--P&P is like an exquisite polished diamond on which every surface is perfectly honed and completely memorable. S&S is not quite as polished, but I did find some passages that I must've simply skated by every time because they were fascinating and yet I don't remember thinking about them before.

Here's my favorite, from the end of chapter 17, in which Edward is talking with Elinor and Marianne during his short visit to Barton Cottage:

"Marianne is as stedfast as ever, you see," said Elinor, "she is not at all altered."

"She is only grown a little more grave than she was."

"Nay, Edward," said Marianne, "you need not reproach me. You are not very gay yourself."

"Why should you think so!" replied he, with a sigh.

"But gaiety never was a part of my character."

"Nor do I think it a part of Marianne's," said Elinor; "I should hardly call her a lively girl; she is very earnest, very eager in all she does -- sometimes talks a great deal and always with animation -- but she is not often really merry."

"I believe you are right," he replied, "and yet I have always set her down as a lively girl."

"I have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes," said Elinor, "in a total misapprehension of character in some point or other: fancying people so much more gay or grave, or ingenious or stupid than they really are, and I can hardly tell why, or in what the deception originated. Sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge."

"But I thought it was right, Elinor," said Marianne, "to be guided wholly by the opinion of other people. I thought our judgments were given us merely to be subservient to those of our neighbours. This has always been your doctrine, I am sure."

"No, Marianne, never. My doctrine has never aimed at the subjection of the understanding. All I have ever attempted to influence has been the behaviour. You must not confound my meaning. I am guilty, I confess, of having often wished you to treat our acquaintance in general with greater attention; but when have I advised you to adopt their sentiments or conform to their judgment in serious matters?"

"You have not been able then to bring your sister over to your plan of general civility," said Edward to Elinor. "Do you gain no ground?"

"Quite the contrary," replied Elinor, looking expressively at Marianne.

"My judgment," he returned, "is all on your side of the question; but I am afraid my practice is much more on your sister's. I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural aukwardness. I have frequently thought that I must have been intended by nature to be fond of low company, I am so little at my ease among strangers of gentility!"

"Marianne has not shyness to excuse any inattention of hers," said Elinor.

"She knows her own worth too well for false shame," replied Edward. "Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy."

"But you would still be reserved," said Marianne, "and that is worse."

Edward stared -- "Reserved! Am I reserved, Marianne?"

"Yes, very."

"I do not understand you," replied he, colouring. "Reserved! -- how, in what manner? What am I to tell you? What can you suppose?"

Elinor looked surprised at his emotion, but trying to laugh off the subject, she said to him, "Do not you know my sister well enough to understand what she means? Do not you know that she calls every one reserved who does not talk as fast, and admire what she admires as rapturously as herself?"

Edward made no answer. His gravity and thoughtfulness returned on him in their fullest extent -- and he sat for some time silent and dull.


There is so much to talk about in this passage.

First off, I love Edward and Elinor's analysis of Marianne's demeanor. I used to think of her as lively, but E&E are right--she is eager, earnest and animated (at times) but rarely merry, and never frivolous. While I did enjoy the recently published The Three Weissmanns of Westport, I think Cathleen Schine misread Marianne by having her version of the character so shallow. I once heard Marianne described as the most intellectual and truly talented of Austen's heroines, and I agree with this.

I love Elinor's insightful comment that she often has a "total misapprehension of character in some point or other...Sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves, and very frequently by what other people say of them, without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge." This is true of readers as well, being misled by what characters say of themselves, what other characters say of them, and sometimes even what the author says about them.

In fact, Marianne's misunderstanding of Elinor's character is captured in her saracastic comment immediately following Elinor's observation:
"But I thought it was right, Elinor," said Marianne, "to be guided wholly by the opinion of other people. I thought our judgments were given us merely to be subservient to those of our neighbours. This has always been your doctrine, I am sure."


I believe that she is saying that because Elinor observes and respects the conventions of propriety she subsumes all of her opinions to what is conventional; whereas Elinor is insisting in her subsequent statement that her actions and behavior don't necessarily have to reflect her opinions in order for her to retain self-integrity.

The conversation then moves to Edward and I think he provides a key clue to what has baffled readers for 200 years--how on earth did Edward ever end up engaged to Lucy Steele? In talking about his debilitating shyness, he says "I have frequently thought that I must have been intended by nature to be fond of low company, I am so little at my ease among strangers of gentility!" I think Edward ended up engaged to Lucy because her uncle's house was one of the few places where he didn't feel awkward and hence shy. Chances are that sense of ease gave him a sense of relief that must have been intoxicating.

Finally, I find it telling that Marianne finds being shy worse than being reserved. To Marianne, shyness is an affliction, but being reserved is a choice. A reserved person chooses to keep private some part of themselves. In a novel that turns on lies, misrepresentations, and miscommunications, you have to wonder where discretion ends and lying begins.

12 comments:

  1. A wonderful excerpt and analysis, Jane. I wonder I didn't remember that piece- it really is so revealing as you say of both Marianne and her opinion of Elinor.

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  2. Thanks for pulling out such a telling section of dialogue! To be honest, I've always thought Marianne to be a bit...flightly and frivolous myself. Now that you've pointed it out, though, I'm wondering how much of that opinion has to do with what the other characters (and she herself) say about her, as well as what the professor who taught me the book thought about her character. It's a great lesson in closer reaidng and, perhaps, closer understanding!

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  3. Your post is a timely reminder that I should pay more attention to my reading and not rush through so quickly.

    I've only read Sense and Sensibility once years ago. I suspect I'd read it again as a new book and your post is enticing me to do so.

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  4. Last time I read it for my JA reading club at the public library. It was January 2010. I'd love to get the new annotated edition coming out this year and read it again. It is my second favourite, after Persuasion. Only third comes P&P and then NA and MP. Great post, as usual.
    I'm in the challenge too but I only chose 4 tasks.
    I read the Three Weissmanns and currently reading Beth Pattillo's The Dashwood Sisters Tell All. Great fun.

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  5. I think you're right about how Edward ended up engaged to Lucy Steele, and interesting that he considers being reserved as worse than being shy, simply because, as you point out, being reserved is a choice.

    Finally, I find it telling that Marianne finds being shy worse than being reserved. To Marianne, shyness is an affliction, but being reserved is a choice. A reserved person chooses to keep private some part of themselves. In a novel that turns on lies, misrepresentations, and miscommunications, you have to wonder where discretion ends and lying begins
    Marianne is intensely honest, she hates lying about anything, especially her feelings, she really does wear her heart on her sleeve, and in Georgian society that honesty is seriously frowned upon - everyone in polite society is supposed to act totally disinterestedly, and Marianne just cannot do that. The line I always remember from this book (and I'll quote the movie version, because it's a little shorter) is when Marianne says to Elinor 'You and I have nothing to say to each other, you because you reveal nothing, and I because I conceal nothing'

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  6. It is a great plan for rereading to find such a telling passage as this. If there is anything to be learned from reading many novels, and from reading and reading Austen, it is the means of judging character. Perhaps this is why women, praised or derided as inveterate novel-readers, are so good at this! :) How wonderful to find a passage where these perceptive sisters debate not merely character, but the reasons for common misjudgment of it. Just fascinating. And you, as reader, join the discussion so perceptively yourself, noting their fine distinctions and making the discovery about Lucy Steele and Edward--this must be the solution! Thank you for bringing all this to light.

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  7. I heard somewhere recently that Marianne and Colonel Brandon never actually have a conversation in the entire book, (or Jane Austen never writes any actual dialogue for them). I wonder about that. I do need to reread this before the JASNA AGM this October. Can't wait!

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  8. A very interesting post, Jane, though I have to say I don't agree with whoever said that "Marianne described as the most intellectual and truly talented of Austen's heroines, and I agree with this." How can anyone say she is intelligent, when she is unable to talk much to Colonel Brandon? I've always thought that Elinor and Colonel Brandon had a much better and natural affinity for one another, but he is besotted with Marianne's brightness and finds Elinor good and sensible....*sigh* Sense and Sensibility has always been one of Jane's books that troubles me because the characters don't always talk to one another - they seem to not always say things that people would say, or if it is said, there is a sense that more could be s - or if they do, it is misrepresented, as you say. It has always seemed full of quiet desperation, it seems to me, and less humour than normal in Jane's books. I much prefer Persuasion or Pride and Prejudice.

    I really can't agree that Marianne is the most intellectual of Jane's characters! She might be the most natural and talented, but smarter than Elinor, or Elizabeth Bennett? I don't think so. Georgiana is more intellectual and more honest than Marianne!

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  9. I've only read the book once and that was many years ago in a college seminar on Austen. I do, however, plan on rereading it this year and am very much looking forward to it!

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  10. Wow, I really feel for poor Edward after Marianne takes a strip off of him in this exchange. I often offend with shyness and it is so relieving when someone gets to know me. This novel really seems to be about the mistakes of youth, and these three really demonstrate this in your bit of dialogue here.

    Great post and it really makes me look forward to reading this again this year in honour of the 200th anniversary!

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  11. have you heard of the S&S reading group discussions on now at indiejane.com ?
    you would add great contributions ~

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