what's the most important thing in a
Jane Austen novel
some might say often complainingly oh
it's all about getting married it's all
back up and so it is of course she
writes comedies comedies and in marriage
she writes about a society in which for
many people for many young women getting
married the most important thing and of
course quite a few of her heroines their
chance of of happiness in life seems to
be promised on their chance of marriage
their chances of marriage because within
that she does wonderful things within
the conventions that she she knew and
accepted as part of her social world so
for instance Sense and Sensibility
is a novel which would have been
possible without certain strict
conventions about getting engaged about
proposals Jane Austen is really
interested in the business of making
proposals and here's a nice hint to
readers why is it that almost all
proposals in Jane Austen novels which
are made indoors are unsuccessful and
almost all proposals which are made out
of doors are successful think about that
one one rule in Jane Austen is that if a
man proposes marriage as if he assumes
the answer will be yes and the answer
will be no men only seem to succeed in
making proposals certainly for the
heroines of Jane Austen novels if
they're properly diffident and
unconfident mr. Darcy of course has to
learn that lesson but also there are
these conventions about proposals and
engagement which I think the first time
read it can quite soon grassed you don't
have to read background books to get
these two conventions in particular
important first the man proposes the
woman can only decline Henry Tillman
North anger Abby says to Catherine
Morland whom of course he will
eventually married
it's the same in marriage as in dancing
in Jane Austen the man asks the woman
can only say yes or no
so in sex and Sensibility this
convention is hugely important because
women have to wait to be asked what said
would flare us up to Ellen that doesn't
know he seems to be interested in her
but he never asks or he does eventually
but for much of the novel he's not
asking has Willoughby asked Marianne he
seems to behave as if he loves her that
has he asked her and the second
convention equally important in Sense
and Sensibility is that if a man asks a
woman to marry him and she agrees even
if nobody else knows about it he is
bound to honor that commitment and he's
actually legally bound it's breach of
promise if he if he if he tries to slip
out of this commitment so that's of a
modern that modern word commitment is a
man committed to a relationship is
really hard and fast in the world of
Jane Austen and of course the plot of
Jane of Sense and Sensibility relies on
the fact that Edward Ferris has an
engagement which he now regrets which he
can't weasel out of because he's a
gentleman but the wonderful thing I
think about Austen though the reason you
know she's so much in control of her
material is that these conventions
become intelligible in the course of the
novel I don't think you need a KERS of
explanation to realize pretty quickly
when you read Sense and Sensibility
what's going on
you