Suffering in Jane Austen's Novels
Jane Austen Wrote About Pain and Heartbreak in Many of Her Works
Jul 20, 2009
The author herself suffered long from the disease that finally killed her, believed by most to be Addison’s disease, whilst others think it was some sort of lymphoma, possibly Hodgkin’s disease.
Her novels evolved through the years, through re-writes and later original manuscripts. Persuasion is a great deal sadder and simpler than Pride and Prejudice, though real suffering took place in both. An examination of the different types of suffering she wrote about in her works shows a complex, educated, and ultra-observant writer putting down life on the page.
As she had her hero Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey say: “Our pleasures in this world are always to be paid for.”
Suffering in Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen considered Elizabeth Bennet her favourite heroine. Yet she had her confide to her beloved sister Jane: “The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense.”
- Elizabeth Bennet was deceived by Mr. Wickham, whom she had begun to have feelings for, and had reason to be encouraged. That gentleman later married her younger, flighty sister, Lydia.
- Elizabeth also thought ill of Mr. Darcy, who had begun to grow quite pleased with her appearance and manners, and confronted him in a fit of temper, only to be set right about circumstances through a letter he wrote to her. She was forced to change her opinion of him: “Astonishment, apprehension, and even horror, oppressed her.”
- Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet were kept apart from one another and suffered from their own pride, from the machinations and plots of others, and from society’s opinion in general. Eventually, they came together, but it was not a rosy romance that did not have its thorns. As Elizabeth Bennet said: “Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.”
Suffering in Mansfield Park
Here, suffering is taken to a deeper level.
- In Mansfield Park, as a child, Fanny Price is taken from her family and sent to live with wealthy relatives, as a sort of slave to the Lady of the house. Jane Austen set up a clear picture of poor Fanny’s relatives: “Their vanity was in such good order that they seemed to be quite free from it.”
- Fanny Price had a quick mind, was a good horsewoman, and had all the manners of a lady, yet she was prevented from participating in outings and activities with the other young people of the house and vicinity: “Fanny was up in a moment, expecting some errand, for the habit of employing her in that way was not yet overcome…”
- Fanny Price was basically a slave, a stranger to her own family, an outcast within the circle of her wealthy relatives, and quite alone. This feeling of being alone, of having no friends or support system, is one of the worst that a human being can endure, for humans are social creatures, and need at least one strong arm upon which to lean.
Suffering in Sense and Sensibility
Suffering comes in this novel on multiple levels, with the dual story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.
- Both are crossed in love, in different ways and for different reasons. They react differently, but both suffer greatly.
- Elinor holds her suffering in, bearing heartbreak for months before she is able to finally release her pent-up feelings in a fit of hysterics when she learns her love has not married.
- Marianne, full of passion and high feelings, works herself into a fever that brings her to her deathbed.
- Here, the sisters spend a night of life-and-death suffering together – Marianne struggling for each breath, for her very life, and Elinor struggling to maintain hope even in the face of her sister’s possible impending doom. Perhaps Jane Austen saw a bit of herself and her beloved older sister Cassandra in this situation as Jane grew sicker and sicker, as Cassandra could only watch.
Suffering in Persuasion
By the time this novel was penned, Jane Austen had evolved from a witty, vivacious young girl into a thoughtful woman facing her own death. The novel has a thread of sadness and hopelessness throughout.
- The heroine, Anne Eliot, has lost her love, Frederick Wentworth, by following the advice of others. When he finally returns, he seems to hold no regard for her. This breaks Anne’s heart all over again. What she does not know is that his is broken, as well.
- Anne says some of the most painfully truthful words in any of Jane Austen’s novels when she speaks thus: “We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us.”
- Frederick Wentworth, across the room as she says this, cringes in pain. Anne continues: “All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one; you need not covet it), is that of loving, longest, when existence or when hope is gone.”
Perhaps with these words, Jane Austen was thinking of her own life, of her own remembrances, her own lost loves, and of the people she had met and spoken with, and, lying alone, in pain, wondering how many of them were thinking of her.
One only wonders what Jane Austen would think now if she knew how highly esteemed she is held in the world of literature.
But even high esteem does not protect one from suffering, from loss, from heartache, as Jane Austen shows so well with her characters.
Her works are complex, and speak of both joyous union and unspeakable pain; in other words, life.
Sources:
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Doubleday and Company, 1945.
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen, Everyman’s Library, 1998.
The Wicked Wit of Jane Austen, compiled by Dominique Enright, Michael O’Mara Books Limited, 2002, 2007.
