| Description |
To face an enigma we must be able to articulate the problem. Marianne Dashwood says, "Shall we ever talk on that subject, Elinor? ...or will it be wrong? I can talk about it now, I hope, as I ought to do" (Austen 1983, 299).1 The two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, face similar problems: Elinor falls in love with a gentleman who is engaged to marry another, and Marianne falls prey to the deceptions of a villain who seems to fulfill every romantic requirement she can wistfully dream up. The problem this thesis attempts to articulate is how these sisters face this unrequited love. In the beginning of the novel, each sister is introduced as representing a specific perspective: Marianne is the romanticist, undisciplined in the expression of her emotions, and Elinor is the model of controlled expression, tied to a world of propriety and politics. These perspectives dictate each sister's enigma: Elinor must learn the value of Marianne's emotions and Marianne must recognize and discover the control and sense displayed by her older sister. Their ability to express their suffering determines whether their approach to the problem has been successful. This work attempts to understand and respond to current debates about Jane Austen's feminism: should we applaud and study her as an advocate of female power with a uniquely female understanding, or should we dismiss her as a woman too caught up in the social conventions dictated by men-marriage, inheritance, and propriety-to be called feminist. Austen displays a sublime understanding of a uniquely female experience: the aesthetics of suffering as a woman in a society dominated by men. Elinor and Marianne discover within each other an ability to overcome and use suffering, to live with desire and anxiety without being controlled by it. Controlled expression, a grace under pressure, is Austen's answer to such a predicament. Women dominate Austen's world; their abilities become Austen's strategies. Her attitude toward society and the literary traditions she faces is an individual, feminine expression filled with grace, humor, and irony. |
