Author: Frances

..than being with Willoughby “who didn’t know what he had when he had it.”

I had no other intention …than to pass my time pleasantly … Your sister’s lovely person and interesting manners could not but please me… at first I must confess, my vanity only was elevated by it. Careless of her happiness, thinking only of my own amusement, … I endeavoured, by every means in my power, to make myself pleasing to her, without any design of returning her affection.”

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility C44

From the beginning of their acquaintance Willoughby sets out to please Marianne, to amuse himself. Any woman deserves better than this. It’s not till he loses her that he realises her value. He fools himself into thinking it didn’t mean anything but when Marianne contacts him upon reaching London –

…this note made me know myself better. I felt that she was infinitely dearer to me than any other woman in the world”

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility C44

Marianne acknowledges, when she understands his past behaviour to Eliza Williams, she could have never been happy with him. She was deceived in his character. After, she focuses on her studies, her piano and her family, there is a struggle but she finds joy in every day life.

Elinor points out that even if Willoughby had been able to marry Marianne, he would likely have been unhappy and made her unhappy too.

..he regrets what he has done. …Because … It has not made him happy. .. he thinks only that he has married a woman of a less amiable temper than yourself. But does it follow that had he married you, he would have been happy?… He would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint, but he would have been always … poor…”

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility C47

Marianne does find a man who truly appreciates her and fulfils all her romantic ideals; he enjoys reading, is passionate and has a tragic backstory. But most importantly he’s a good man, bonus he’s also rich.

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The same could be said of Fanny Price as regards Edmund Bertram…

It’s painful to read (later) about the friends drifting apart. There is a “restraint” and Lizzy is sure there can never be “real confidence” between them once Charlotte accepts Mr Collin’s proposal. They maintain contact after the marriage:

..their correspondence was as regular and frequent as it ever had been: that it should be equally unreserved was impossible. Elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over; and, though determined not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what had been rather than what was.”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C26

Lizzy never really acknowledges her position of privilege, not only does she have more money than Charlotte, she’s younger and more attractive too. She begrudgingly accepts the marriage, though she never tells Charlotte, later (in a startling disclosure to someone she isn’t close with) she says to Darcy:

I am not certain that I consider her marrying Mr. Collins as the wisest thing she ever did. She seems perfectly happy, however; and, in a prudential light, it is certainly a very good match for her.”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C32

At Hunsford Lizzy gives “Charlotte all the credit” for the interior of the house and admires her way of managing Mr Collins, not only does she send him often into the garden to get him out of the house (allowing him to be forgotten) but:

When Mr. Collins said anything of which his wife might reasonably be ashamed…Charlotte wisely did not hear.”

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, C28

Charlotte has made a good choice for herself, she knew she didn’t have options and could manage Mr Collins which we see her doing. In this adaptation once Lizzy visits Hunsford it’s as though all is forgiven. But in the book it seems Lizzy never really forgives her for marrying Mr Collins rather than remaining a spinster in case someone better came along. It would be interested to see what choice Lizzy would have made in Charlotte’s circumstances.

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Audio from You’re On Your Own Kid by Taylor Swift

Video and Audio from Pride and Prejudice 2005

Mr Bingley has real Labrador energy which comes through so clearly in this adaptation. His watching Jane like an infatuated school boy is somehow adorable rather than creepy. He is very clearly Enchanted to meet her.

Jane is modest and doesn’t realise she’s “about five times as pretty as every other woman in the room” as Lizzy puts it. She’s flattered and didn’t expect Mr Bingley to ask her to dance a second time (only two dances were allowed), but Lizzy did. Lizzy has also overheard Bingley praising Jane as “the most beautiful creature”. Even Darcy can’t deny it and calls her, in his cynical way “the only handsome girl in the room.”

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Audio from Enchanted (TV) by Taylor Swift

Video and Audio from Pride and Prejudice 2005

Catherine is briefly worried Mr Tilney loves someone else (only in the adaptation, not in the book)

In the novel when Catherine sees Miss Tilney with Mr Tilney she  “immediately guessed (her) to be his sister” thereby (as Austen disappointedly points out) not having a dramatic moment of “turning a deathlike paleness and falling in a fit on Mrs Allen’s bosom.” Considering what other ideas Catherine has during the course of the novel, it’s a big deal to show so much maturity and sensibleness.

.. it had never entered her head that Mr. Tilney could be married; he had not behaved, he had not talked, like the married men to whom she had been used; he had never mentioned a wife, and he had acknowledged a sister.”

-Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey C8

The lyrics fit so well here, she’s devastated thinking Mr Tilney is in love with someone, then the moment she realises the lady is his sister the night is sparkling again. (I should probably use this song for her meeting Mr Tilney at some point)

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Audio from Enchanted TV by Taylor Swift

Video from Northanger Abbey 2007

Willoughby could not hear of her marriage without a pang… he long thought of Colonel Brandon with envy, and of Marianne with regret…he always retained that decided regard …and made her his secret standard of perfection in woman; and many a rising beauty would be slighted by him in after-days as bearing no comparison with Mrs. Brandon.”

Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, C50

Many of us want our exes to still think of us, to regret their behaviour and/or the break up. Marianne has the ultimate revenge; not only is she whole heartedly devoted to her husband (success is the best revenge after all) but Willoughby can’t forget her.

It’s debatable whether it was hard for Willoughby to leave Marianne. Though “he strongly partook of the emotion which over-powered Marianne” in their last individual meeting, it was his choice to leave and not propose as he has intended. He may have been fooling himself thinking that he would propose, he certainly had no issues abandoning Eliza Williams – perhaps his involvement with her, a much younger woman, puts him in the category of groomer with Wickham.

It should be noted that Austen does have a thing about men with the initial “W.” As discussed in a podcast episode she sends two Williams to sea, she doesn’t like either Sir Walter or William Walter Elliot in Persuasion (though Wentworth skirts this trend). Amme asks, quite reasonably, what William hurt her? Someone with the initial W did at some point.

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And then there’s Isabella Thorpe…

She thinks she’s captured Captain Tilney when she dismisses her current fiancé, James Morland. In the 2007 adaptation they show her faith in Tilney was due to them having a physical relationship, a faith which she quickly looses as soon as the deed is done. I like to think the last frame of this video is her thinking of James in regret.

Isabella asks Catherine, her friend and James’ sister, to intervene on her behalf, completely unaware that Catherine already knows she’s jilted James.

I am quite uneasy about your dear brother, not having heard from him since he went to Oxford; and am fearful of some misunderstanding. Your kind offices will set all right: he is the only man I ever did or could love, and I trust you will convince him of it.”

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, C27

It’s likely that Isabella, whether she slept with the Captain or not, will long think about James Morland and what she lost.

This is one of the most supremely uncomfortable scenes in any Austen novel (for me, at least). Emma allows her flirting and bad mood to get out of hand to the extent that she insults Miss Bates who, though ridiculous, she should respect.

When I last watched the 2020 adaptation I so clearly heard the lines from Betty, that longing to be forgiven, that hopefulness mixed with despair that you may never be able to make things right.

I’m standing on your doorstep and it’s finally sinking in”

-Taylor Swift, Betty

It is probably the worst thing Emma does in the course of the novel, as Mr Knightley says;

You, …whom she had seen grow up from a period when her notice was an honour, to have you now, in thoughtless spirits, and the pride of the moment, laugh at her, humble her – and before her niece, too – and before others, many of whom (certainly some,) would be entirely guided by your treatment of her.”

-Jane Austen, Emma C43

(You could argue her convincing Harriet to not marry Mr Martin was worse, but Harriet can make her own decisions and here Emma is not only influencing a large group but directly insulting someone.)

It is a painful but necessary scene. Emma begins to consider her behaviour to others, their feelings, and grows because of it. Had this not happened she wouldn’t mature to be an appropriate partner for Mr Knightley.

Audio from Betty by Taylor Swift

Video and Audio from Emma 2020

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