Sense & Sensibility: Marianne's Disappointment
The Year of Jane Continues
If you’re new to this Substack, one of the things I’m offering subscribers in 2023 is A Year with Jane. We’re reading through Austen’s six novels this year and Sense & Sensibility is our read for August and September.
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Before we dive in to this week’s links, I wanted to clarify that for the reading schedule for Sense & Sensibility, the date listed is the date you should have completed that week’s reading. So this email discusses chapters 23-29!
Willoughby Is the Worst
In this week’s reading of Sense & Sensibility, Marianne and Elinor travel to London at Mrs. Jennings’s invitation. Marianne wants to see Willoughby and Elinor dutifully follows—although she knows that there is no happy reunion with Edward waiting for her.
But things soon take a bad turn. Willoughby doesn’t respond to Marianne’s letters or visit her. When she finally sees him, he is very altered from the young man who just a few weeks ago begged for a lock of her hair.
And after writing to him, Willoughby confirms what she fears: he is engaged to someone else and claims no special affection for Marianne at all.
To Elinor’s dismay, Marianne reveals that she and Willoughby were never engaged. This shocks Elinor! She cannot reconcile the intimacy of their behavior with the fact that Willoughby had “never absolutely” declared his love for Marianne or proposed marriage to her. Marianne’s dismissiveness to any conventional codes of conduct have not served her well. They have left her vulnerable to terrible mistreatment.
Elinor is also deeply pained by Marianne’s grief over Willoughby’s inconstancy. Marianne’s refusal to govern her emotions even in the smallest degree or to “exert” herself to overcome her sorrow drives her into a deep despair that alarms Elinor. Add to that the pain of Marianne’s dismissal of the idea that Elinor could understand her feelings. Because she has promised Lucy Steele her silence, Elinor can’t explain how she has experienced a very similar disappointment. But unlike Marianne, Elinor does not have a sister who is helping her through her suffering. No wonder she needed that glass of wine!
Discussion Question: Is there any merit to Marianne’s attitude toward romance and emotion? Is she one of Austen’s many examples of a virtue taken to an extreme (and becoming a vice)? Or is she wrong from the start? (Chime in by replying to this post.)
Reading schedule:
August 5th:
Gather your books. There are many editions out there, so just grab what’s on your shelf or at the local library. And if you enjoy audiobooks, this is an excellent novel to enjoy with a great narrator. My favorite for this novel is Juliet Stevenson’s audiobook version. Grab Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life from Ave Maria Press (use STEWART20 for 20% off) or from Amazon.
If you didn’t start reading with us in January, you may want to catch up by reading the Introduction and Chapters 1-4 of Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life to set the stage.
Read by August 13th:
Chapters 1-11 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by August 20th:
Chapters 12-22 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by August 27th:
Chapters 23-29 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by September 3rd:
Chapters 30-36 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by September 10th:
Chapters 37-43 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by September 17th:
Chapters 44-50 of Sense & Sensibility
Read by September 24th:
Chapter 4 of Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life
Caveat:
On the reading schedule I have suggested reading the chapter about Mansfield Park after finishing the novel. This is because as a reader I hate spoilers. But if you’ve already read the novel or are familiar with the story and want a resource to help you dive deeper as you re-read it, feel free to read Chapter 5 of Jane Austen’s Genius Guide to Life first.
I’ll be sending out weekly reflections and discussion questions to consider as you read. If you want to read faster or slower, go for it. This is fun, not homework.
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Enjoy reading the next few chapters of Sense & Sensibility!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
Haley’s Book on Jane Austen’s Novels
Haley’s Book about Radical Simplicity
This is an interesting question. I am currently parent to a new adult, a 16-y-o (Marianne's age), a 14-y-o, and an almost-12-y-o, so I sort of take a sideways approach to it. We have to remember that Marianne's young. It's not about vice or virtue at all, it's about hormones and development. Now of course, vice and virtue come into play, because vice and virtue are developing via hormones and development. But the only way I'm keeping my sanity through the ups and downs of the teen years is to remember that they are fighting a physical battle with a chemical foe, and sometimes I just have to send them to bed and wait for a new day tomorrow. (Can you tell this is what I did with one of mine in the last 24 hours?) First love is always dramatic--and TRAUmatic, when it ends. Marianne took it to an extreme, but girls often do that. It depends on the personality, how public it is. :)
None of that is to let Marianne off the hook. She was pretty self-absorbed through it all. But that, too, is teenagers. It's 100% to her credit that when confronted with Elinor's pain, she examined her conscience and realized she had to make a change. This is what we pray for in our children.
I view it less as Marianne's personal vice, and more as what she has learned to reflect from her mother's own behavior. The story frequently compares the two and shows how Mrs. Dashwood does not check her emotions but prefers to let them sweep her along. I am more and more amazed at Elinor's ability to remain mastery over her emotions without being shown the example from her mother. I do think that I envy Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood's comfort in making their feelings known and not hiding them to avoid awkwardness or the possibility of affecting someone else. I was raised to prioritize complete composure and what others might be feeling, over what I was feeling. Without exception. This has made it hard to not dismiss or distrust my own natural feelings.