Indifference in
Sense and Sensibility
317
self-expression.
Compelling as these analyses are, they
understand Austen’s treatment of Marianne simply in terms of
emotional investment. It seems that Austen depicts a woman of
feeling calculated to arouse readers’ sympathy because she
desires us to appreciate the power and danger of youthful
love
Missing from this critical commonplace is an important
question involving a subtle distinction: why is it that, while
many readers feel sorry for Marianne when she marries
Colonel Brandon at the end of the novel, few can sympathize
with Marianne’s early lovesickness?
I would contend that it is
because Austen works as much on Marianne’s attachment to
Willoughby as on her detachment from everyone else. The
problem of indifference, as much as that of emotional
fluctuations, plays a formative role in Marianne’s development.
Consider one famous passage describing Marianne’s
misery after Willoughby abruptly leaves her:
This violent oppression of spirits continued the whole
evening. She was without any power, because she was
without any desire of command over herself. The
slightest mention of any thing relative to Willoughby
overpowered her in an instant; and though her family
4
A classic example of this argument can be found in Butler (1975:182-196).
Benedict also suggests that, like many other late eighteenth-century novels,
Sense and Sensibility
“depict[s] [its] characters’ passionate feelings . . . [but]
enclose[s] these portraits within a narrative endorsing restraint,
contemplation and self-control”(1994: 210).
5
Walter Scott’s 1815 review of Austen’s novels demonstrates the affecting
power of Austen’s narratives. Having read
Sense and Sensibility
,
Scott
apparently sympathizes more with Marianne: “Who is it, that in his youth
has felt a virtuous attachment, however romantic or however unfortunate,
but can trace back to its influence much that his character may possess of
what is honourable, dignified, and disinterested?” (as cited in Southam, 1995:
68).
6
Readers’ dissatisfaction with Marianne’s marriage can be found in Mudrick
(1968: 91-93) and Tanner (2007: 100-101). I will address this issue later in
this essay.
