Indifference in
Sense and Sensibility
329
impoverishment. Elinor may appear reserved and unconcerned
in the presence of her rival, yet Austen repeatedly draws our
attention to the emotional turbulence hidden behind her calm
face: “her heart sunk within her,” “under [her composure of
voice] was concealed an emotion and distress beyond any thing
she had ever felt before” (Austen, 2006: 154
-
155). The
affective core of indifference recurs in the second
confrontational dialogue between Elinor and Lucy. Having
contemplated on Lucy’s words for a while, Elinor decides to
discuss with Lucy the secret engagement again. In particular,
they talk about Edward’s feeling. Lucy boasts of Edward’s
constancy, to which her rival replies:
“That conviction must be every thing to you; . . . If
the strength of your reciprocal attachment had failed,
as between many people and under many
circumstances it naturally would during a four year’s
engagement, your situation would have been pitiable
indeed.”
Lucy here looks up; but Elinor was careful in
guarding her countenance from every expression that
could give her words a suspicious tendency. (168)
Indifference in this passage involves more than the absence of
feeling. Elinor hypothesizes that Edward’s love for Lucy has
died out. Her hypothesis in fact rests on a deeper assumption
that Edward’s affection for her occasions his indifference to his
fiancée. When she apparently seeks to hurt her rival by an
unwelcome hint (“If . . . your reciprocal attachment had
failed”), she wraps up her attack with her alleged sympathy
(“your situation would have been pitiable”). Elinor may
carefully “guard[ ] her countenance from every expression”
and appear emotionless. Yet following Lucy’s inquisitive eyes,
we are invited to speculate about the cauldron of emotion
seething behind Elinor’s performance of unconcern.
