miércoles, 28 de mayo de 2014

"Sense and Sensibility": Self-denial and Self-indulgence - Essay

Self-denial and Self-indulgence in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility
by Omar García

“Now seriously, what have you ever known of self-denial...?”
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 33


Subject: 19th Century Literature 
(with professor Diana Bustos)


In this essay, I will talk about how Jane Austen deals with the topic of self-knowledge and self-introspection in her acclaimed “Sense and Sensibility” (1811). This story, set in England in the 19th century, features the life of two sisters and her approaches and life experiences related to romantic love and heartache.

Though this book, which was the first novel written by Austen, belongs to the genre of romantic fiction, it is interesting to notice its philosophical and personal reflections about personality.

We know that the most common interpretation of the personalities of Elinor and Marianne has been to see the first as the personification of “sense” and the latter as the personification of “sensibility”, but this time, I would like to offer an alternative perspective. As the title of this essay suggests, I will specifically deal with the notions of self-denial and self-indulgence, as shown in the main characters’ temperament and the attitudes in certain situations throughout the story.

First, it would be important to define what is meant with the former concepts. A simple definition of self-denial would be “the denial [renounce, sacrifice or refusal] of one's own desires” (Collins Dictionary, 2014). A definition of self-indulgence would be “an unrestrained [immoderate or excessive] gratification of one's own desires” (Merriam-Webster (2014). If by ‘desires’ we consider that the word implies whims, interests, emotions and feelings, one may understand why it may be appropriate to highlight these concepts in a deeper analysis of the story.

We begin to see an example of a self-indulgent and self-seeking attitude at the beginning of the book, when Mr. Henry Dashwood gives only five hundred pounds of the heritage to Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters (this, as the result of the advice of his insensitive, self-indulgent wife, Mrs. Fanny Dashwood). The narrator tells us that, indeed, the man was “rather selfish… but Mrs. John Dashwood was a strong caricature of himself;—more narrow-minded and selfish” (Austen, 1811:4). At this point, it seems as if these couple, on the one hand, tried to be too ‘sensible’ (but only for themselves), while, on the other hand, they left sensibility for the ladies aside. This is why they can be seen as the first example of self-interest, although with certain ‘moderation’.

Then we have Marianne who is often described as the girl who “feels without thinking”, but who, in fact, did not lacked sensibleness. We are told that “[her] abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's: she was sensible and clever” (p. 5). The real problem with her, thus, was not the one which is often assumed. We are informed, that the problem, clearly, was  her “excess of… sensibility” and that she was “eager in everything: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation” (ibid).  In other words, Marianne could not control her feelings: she had no self-control, and she let her feelings run wildly, even to the extent of being self-indulgent. Marianne had a good sense of morality, because, it was clarified, that she did had a “sense of honour and honesty” (p. 4). But the trouble then was that she was very impetuous and based her decisions in feelings that depended on what others did to her. She over-cherished her own feelings as the most important thing in the world, and “could not be happy… [with someone] ..whose taste did not in every point coincide with [her] own” (p.12). In this sense, as Anne Richard (2005:5) points out: “for Marianne, Marianne was the measure of all things.”

Elinor, for her part, did have sensibility, and her feelings were as strong and passionate as the ones of her sister. When facing a difficult situation, for instance, she “too, was deeply afflicted; but [the difference was that] she could struggle, she could exert herself” (p.5). In other words, she had actually a “virtuous self-control” (p.238) and possessed “the business of self-command she settled very easily” (p. 73). Elinor was someone who knew the importance of restraining one’s own impetuosity. So important was for her to govern herself, that she says that John Willoughby was not a good match for Marianne because “self-denial is a word hardly understood by him” (p. 243).

As the story proceeds, we see, on the one hand, that Marianne continues to be impulsive and obstinate in her feelings toward John Willoughby (i.e. self-indulgence), while on the other hand, Elinor represses her own feelings (i.e. self-denial) towards Edward Ferrars as she considers the true social situation, and prefers to support her sister and give her advice. In the opinion of Mary Poovey, this has to do with how "Austen also suggests that Elinor's self-denial... ultimately contributes to her own happiness as well as to the happiness of others” (in Bloom 2009:42).

Marianne felt in love with someone who was exactly like her, insofar as self-indulgence is concerned. In Chapter 47, she wonders whether Willoughby has been selfish, to which Elinor replies that "the whole of his behaviour... from the beginning to the end of the affair, has been grounded on selfishness. It was selfishness which first made him sport with [her] affections; which afterwards... made him delay the confession of it, and which finally carried him from Barton. His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle" (p. 243).

When afterwards Marianne falls sick, she is led to a state that threatens her health and life. We then see that, as she recovers, she has an unexpected change in her attitude. She not only commits herself to seek to control her temper, but she assures that her spirit has been “humbled” and her heart “amended” (p. 241). The remembrance of Willoughby now “shall be regulated, it shall be checked by religion, by reason, by constant employment” (ibid).  Here, Marianne is shown as disposed to learn self-control through reason and religion, which she sees as complementary forces that will help her not to commit the same mistakes again. For Austen, the daughter of an Anglican priest, this surely seems to go in concordance to her personal beliefs. Despite of the fact that through years there have been authors who have overlooked or dismissed the role of Austen’s religion in her work, modern scholars have highlighted the importance of it in her books, especially with the discovery of the publication of the Austin’s Prayers. Notably, (Collins, 2007) and Mooneyham (2011:61-61; 119) compiles a series of Christian allusions in this part of Sense and Sensibility, which some scholars interpret as Marianne’s moment of repentance (Copeland & McMaster, 1997: 163-164).  In this line of thought, Mariane’s confession follows, stating that “whenever [she] looked towards the past, [she] saw some duty neglected, or some failing indulged... [she] had been insolent and unjust; with a heart hardened against their merits, and a temper irritated by their very attention” (p. 240).

Acknowledging such sins, Austen let us see how she passes from a former state of total self-indulgence, and moves progressively to a state of unprecedented self-denial, insofar as she states: “The future must be my proof. I have laid down my plan, and if I am capable of adhering to it—my feelings shall be governed and my temper improved. They shall no longer worry others, nor torture myself…” Later she continues: “I considered the past: I saw in my own behaviour, since the beginning… but a series of imprudence towards myself… I saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings,…with such feelings as these reflections gave me, I wonder at my recovery,—wonder that the very eagerness of my desire to live, to have time for atonement to my God, and to you all, did not kill me at once. . .” (p. 240).

To sum up, Sense and Sensibility is not only interesting but relevant in many aspects. First of all, there are many “Mariannes” out there, who, in their anthropomorphist tendency, have considered themselves “the measure of all things.” Jane Austen clearly shows her social criticism to the problems that arouse with such a mindset, and she reflects the idea that those which live like Marianne lived, will also reap what they sowed, getting a type of spiritual illness.

Unlike other works written by Jane, this work does offers a solution, features a moment of self-introspection, self-analysis of one’s own life, a moment of self-denial which depicts a type of moral reformation in Marianne’s attitude. With this, certainly, the author Jane expresses some of her feelings and her thoughts about the insensate attitudes of the people of her day, and, this very  solution, which implies a penitent attitude, can be useful too to heal the senseless attitudes we see nowadays in modern lifestyle.


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