occasionally a bunch of clever-trousers people will get together for a dinner party. less than occasionally i'll be invited. it's like receiving a wildcard entry to wimbledon. alas, i'm not smart enough to qualify for a place at the table in the usual way. but i am smart-alecky enough to make the the starting line in this elastic, charitable way.
at these 4 or 5 course pow-wows the conversation often reverts to scrimmaging subjects like "who is your favourite jane austen heroine" (it is assumed you've read them all, naturally). for unimpeachable reasons everyone plumps for elizabeth bennet. which isn't the least bit surprising as she's the sassiest of the lot. and she trips off the last page a very rich woman and a safe 100 miles from her mother. so she doesn't really count. much too obvious. the question is really "who is your second favourite austen heroine".
my choice, ahem, is marianne dashwood from "sense and sensibility". unfortunately no one else ever seconds me, or has anything particularly nice to say about "sense and sensibility". and as i was getting rather bored defending my choice i thought it would be amusing (and more persuasive) to put it in rhyme.
fanny price is much too nice.
elinor dashwood is far too good.
emma woodhouse just doesn't arouse.
and i regret
i cannot feel a jot
for poor anne elliott.
no, they won't do.
for me, you see,
marianne is the only one—
she really is a lot of fun.
but why marianne? when she's clearly intended as cautionary example of the (selfish and destructive) effects of an excessively romantic nature? i admit this. she's a self-indulgent girl. but, bless her, her highs are very high, and her lows are desperately low. when she's crushed by love she doesn't put on a stiff upper lip, but mopes about in a disconsolate fashion. she doesn't mind everyone knowing. she doesn't care about appearances. she's moody, and ardent, and never ever boring.
she's brave enough to be openly sad. and that is marvellous.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I am ridiculed for having two sad posts in a row - and here you applaud Miss Marianne's "brave" sadness... you are too much! lol
Your rhyme was a hoot - very artistic.
Perhaps I don't like Marianne because she reminds me much of myself. Too much of a good thing? (ha)
She is just too self indulgent, and I really don't think she takes the time to notice what Elinor is going through. That scene between the two of them after Marianne discovers Edward is engaged tears my heart in two.
My second favourite character is Mr. Darcy (typical woman, I hear you say) - but he is haughty and unkind and wrong and everything a gentleman ought NOT to be, but my god does he make amends for himself in the end.
Saving Lydia from Mr Wickham's disgrace was the most galant act of any of Jane Austen's characters.
PS: Emilie Francois was fantastic as Margarate in the movie version of S & S.
cath. what's wrong with being inconsistent? besides, i rather think eeyore is the best thing going in the "100 aker wood".
rosanna. if "s+s" does have an artistic weakness it is that it's too pedagogical: giving us a template of how to behave (elinor) and how not to behave (marianne). it just might be too didactic. but i don't think it is. the humour, the irony, and wonderful moral acuity save it from that.
I do like Marianne. What a colorful character she is! And yet the quirks you seem to respond so positively too are the same ones that women poo-poo and men (generally) can't be bothered with. Where you fit in, I don't know.
She is a child, and Austen has written her in such a fashion. She is petulant, overly emotional, and judging by her extreme highs and lows, manic depressive. Scratch, that. She is just your typical teenager. She thinks she knows exactly what love is, without prior experience. In fact, she 'loves' Willoughby, the first man to have shown an interest in her, to the point where, when she doesn't get what she wants, she stamps her feet and throws a hissy fit (or, in Marianne's case, cries herself in to a state and makes herself sick in the rain). And for this, we love her. She is a typical Austen character, although I feel labeling her a 'heroine' may be going one step too far.
ls. who says i fit in? or belong?
yr comments on marianne true but brusque. marianne is an example of excessive feeling. she falls in love with willoughby because she has been prepared for it, by her choice of (romantic) reading material. she's a bit like emma bovary in that respect.
marianne is not typical of austen in any way. all her heroines are rational and exhibit good sense. they don't yield to strong feeling. you are right. she is not a heroine.
so no drugs, alcohol or lawyers then?
I think you are marvelous.
Actually I am more of a Bronte fan than Austen. Jane Eyre all the way, baby
w. brontë is good. but austen is funnier. and there's rather a lot of "poor me" about jane eyre, don't you think?
Jane Eyre tired me by about the age of seventeen. I began to feel very laden with the emotional content.
Post a Comment