She was criticised by some, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, for writing light, fluffy romances. But her books go beyond the story of a romance between a man and a woman.
They examine relationships between people, and society, and how those relationships can be altered with time and circumstance, to either disappear or to grow deeper. These examples show how some of Jane Austen’s male characters display loyalty and love to her famous heroines.
Colonel Brandon
The long-suffering suitor of Marianne Dashwood, Colonel Brandon is perhaps one of Jane Austen’s more overshadowed heroes.
- He has suffered great pain himself, yet is willing to reach out and love again.
- When Marianne falls for Mr. Willoughby, only to be disappointed when she finds out he is already engaged and proceeds to make herself ill, Colonel Brandon stands by Elinor Dashwood’s side as she mounts a lonely night vigil by her sister’s bedside.
- Brandon willingly dashes off into the night to fetch the girls’ mother and brings her to her ailing daughter’s side.
Whilst not flashy like Willoughby, Brandon is kind and good and is rewarded for his faithfulness to the Dashwood family by eventually achieving Marianne’s hand in marriage. This was meant to be, as Jane Austen so wittily put it: “It would be an excellent match, for he was rich and she was handsome.”
Mr. Knightley
Assuming a bit more presence than Captain Brandon only due to length of acquaintance, Mr. Knightley has known Emma Woodhouse her entire life. Indeed, he held her in his arms when she was a baby.
- Over the years, however, his feelings for her develop into more than just those of a brother-in-law and instructor of manners. He grows to love her.
- Emma toys with the affections of others as if they are playthings and tries her hand good-naturedly at matchmaking, only to overlook the most important match of her life until the end of the book.
Jane Austen gives Mr. Knightley’s intensity a soft air to it, as readers can imagine him gazing gently at Emma when he says: “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”
Both Mr. Knightley and Emma are established in the world, and neither has to marry. Theirs is truly a match of love.
Captain Frederick Wentworth
Here is reached a deeper level of longing than perhaps has been seen before, even in Colonel Brandon’s seemingly lost case of misplaced affection.
- Wentworth found Anne Elliot, his true love, but lost her when she was persuaded by others to break off the engagement.
- Eight long years pass before the two are together again, and it seems that once again, others will interfere in their coming together.
- Wentworth appears to be on the verge of an engagement, but only because he thinks Anne Elliot no longer loves him.
- But two hearts committed to one another cannot be kept apart, and in the end, despite others’ opinions, the two declare their love for one another.
Wentworth says: “I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own…”
It would be hard, if one had feelings, to resist such a proposal. Anne, by the way, does not resist.
Mr. Darcy
Here, perhaps, is reached the pinnacle of star-crossed lovers and misunderstandings, as exists between Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy.
- They are crossed throughout the book, first Elizabeth thinking him haughty beyond forgiveness, then changing her mind and thinking him acceptable, only to have her sister elope, putting the entire family in disgrace.
- This, perhaps, is one of the book’s most dramatic moments of misunderstanding, when Mr. Darcy, upon finding out the news of the elopement, leaves Elizabeth suddenly.
- She mistakes this for offense, but he is really putting aside his personal and family pride and leaving in order to put the situation to rights as best as he can.
In the end, all is known between the two, and their love is declared.
Mr. Darcy says to Elizabeth: “If your feelings are still what they were last April [when he first proposed to Elizabeth], tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.” Elizabeth…gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change… he expressed himself on the occasion as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do.”
These four men are examples of Jane Austen’s sympathy toward her male characters. Indeed, she was herself engaged for one evening, breaking it off the next day and quickly leaving the area with her sister Cassandra.
So the next time one is apt to write off Jane Austen as being merely a writer of romances, remember the complex relationships she created between characters, within their society, and perhaps, most importantly, with themselves.
Sources:
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen, Penguin Books, 1995.
Emma, by Jane Austen, Oxford University Press, 1995.
Persuasion, by Jane Austen, Oxford University Press, 1990.
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1945.
 |
