"...if there had been any real impropriety in what I did, I should have been sensible of it at the time, for we always know when we are acting wrong, and with such a conviction I could have had no pleasure" (73).
Three topics of such contention that they should never be discussed, except in the most intimate of company: religion, politics, and a distaste for Jane Austen.
I am of the unpopular opinion that Jane Austen is an unfortunate addition to the British canon of classic literature. I have not yet met an Austen publication that I did not suffer through, and even though I have one or two still on my TBR list, at this point I am finishing them for the sake of being able to hate them in their entirety. There are two types of responses one can expect when declaring this take to the world. The first: a relieved whisper of agreement, with eyes darting to and fro, looking for a Jane Austen stan to come rushing in with a knife. The second response is the one with the knife.
For my part, I am interested to hear from one of those individuals who un-ironically re-reads Pride and Prejudice every year and isn't also being waterboarded for information. Please, for the love of literature, explain to me how a reader can overlook so many flaws and frustrating inconsistencies and still find something enjoyable! In lieu of anyone nearby to contradict and/or stab me, I will give my thoughts on a few flaws of Sense and Sensibility that I find frankly embarrassing.
1. "Edward was not only without affection for the person who was to be his wife; but that he had not even the chance of being tolerably happy in marriage" (149).
The characters are terrible. The sisterly relationship between Marianne and Elinor is probably the most redeeming quality of the novel. They are portrayed very accurately, often disagreeing, but loyal to a fault and supportive of one another. The whole point of the novel is that each sister has one half of what is necessary to be successful in life and specifically love (sense and sensibility), and they must learn from one another in order to find a truly compatible spouse. However, neither woman is really all that sensible. They are both driven by emotion (albeit Elinor in a more subtle way) and make excuses for their own suitors when they behave terribly.
Willoughby is very obviously the worst sort of player, manipulating women continually, and Elinor recognizes his truancy from the beginning. But her own love interest, Edward, is emotionally constipated, lacking in empathy, and selfish. He is consistently described as anti-social and hesitant to engage in meaningful conversations, and he has an emotional affair with Elinor while he is engaged to Lucy, which is dishonest to both of them as well as being cowardly.
Lucy and her sister are both portrayed as often dumb and sometimes cruel, a combination which makes for some very eyebrow-raising choices. All of the friends that the Dashwoods make are either insufferable gossips or unerringly shallow, and even the mother portrays very few admirable qualities other than caring very greatly for her daughters. Every single character is shown in such an unflattering light that it is very nearly impossible to relate to or root for any one of them.
2. "But--it was not Colonel Brandon-neither his air-nor his height. Were it possible, she should say it must be Edward" (344)!
The plot is unsatisfying. Despite having the aspect of sisterly relationship, which is the book's saving grace, it is essentially only about losing and gaining romantic relationships in all manner of 19th century frippery. I have stated many a time that romance is not my preferred genre, not least of which because it can often lack depth and enough interesting plot points to keep the story going in a meaningful way. If Jane Austen is the paragon of romance, then I have been proven correct. Sense and Sensibility is about love, deceit, and money. That is all. Just a bunch of people going to each other's houses and gossiping about each other until something happens outside their circle to create even more gossip.
A book like Jane Eyre, often grouped together with Austen novels, is an example of a plot that involves additional elements that provide a well-rounded story. Much detail and attention are given to Jane's childhood, maturity, and independence in a society that does not welcome female autonomy. She is a woman allowed to have flaws while still supporting the notion that women are humans with just as much depth and intelligence as men. Sense and Sensibility unfortunately seems to highlight and reinforce the idea that girls only think about marriage and what it can bring them rather than having other desires or pursuits.
3. "He had left the girl whose youth and innocence he had seduced, in a situation of the utmost distress, with no creditable home, no help, no friends, ignorant of his address" (203)!
No sense of real justice. My final problem with the novel is not necessarily that there is no obvious consequence for the poor choices of many of the characters (other than "feeling bad"), but that the author seems to have intended for the ending to be satisfying. I am very aware that in the real world, many people do not receive poetic judgement for their sins. Books do not need to have endings that tie up every lose thread and leave the villains in jail cells. However, I do believe that there needs to be some element within the text that convinces the reader that the author is aware of who the villains actually are.
Willougby is a truly heinous individual. His entire characterization is as a pretty boy who convinces girls that he is their soulmate so that he can manipulate them and then leave. He literally gets a fourteen-year-old girl pregnant and then abandons her!! And yet, he is given a very weak and borderline offensive "redemption arc" when he returns to explain himself and apologize to Elinor when Marianne is extremely ill. His only punishment is being doomed to a reportedly love-less marriage, but even that is softened by the book's ending. The young girl is simply never mentioned again.
I have already waxed poetic about Edward's failings, but he is painted as a boorish and unavailable man, in every sense of the word, for most of the novel. Then, out of the blue, he comes riding across the countryside free of all former obligations. For some reason, the reader is expected to celebrate that he now proposes to Elinor. Um, no?
He was engaged to a girl for four years and then did the "gentlemanly" thing and agreed to marry her even after realizing that he did not want to be with her and was subsequently disowned by his entire family. Not to mention, all of the previous objections to a possible union with Elinor (money, family, antisocial behavior) are un-resolved. But I guess it's fine now, because his family realized that Elinor is really the lesser of two evils and all that other stuff doesn't matter as much as the author made it seem to in the beginning.
I have to stop here, or I will go on for another several paragraphs and the Jane Austen fans might smell blood in the water and come for me. All in all, I am not impressed with the caliber of Sense and Sensibility. Wherever high school and college students forced to read this novel are crying out in the night with despair, I hear you. You are not alone.
