Sense & Sensibility, chapter 7: An Audience Of One

In Barton Park, neighbors are the key to society and entertainment. Sir John Middleton is the Dashwood girls’ lifeline—but that doesn’t mean he’s a perfect neighbor.

Continuing the theme of opposites brought together by the circumstances of society (how else do you explain the Middletons’ marriage?), the narrator illustrates just how little Sir John and Lady Middleton have in common. He hunts. She coddles the kids. He’s a people-person. She takes pride in home décor. “[T]hey [keep] more company of every kind than any other family in the neighbourhood” due to his fondness for entertaining and her desire to show off the house to as many people as possible. “It was necessary to the happiness of both,” the narrator notes without sympathy.

If either of these people deserve sympathy—and that’s a big fat “if”—it may be Sir John, whose benevolence is genuine. He has a “good heart” and gets true satisfaction out of “showing kindness to his cousins.” But he’s also glad that, as an all-female family, he won’t have to compete with any of them during hunting season. Which could be taken in two ways: a) Sir John’s do-gooder attitude and love of hunting are equally characteristic of him, or b) it’s a satirical lesson of reaping the rewards of a good deed. Given this book’s tone, it’s probably both.

Unfortunately for the Dashwoods, the couple “strongly [resemble] each other in that total want of talent and taste which confine[s] their employments, unconnected with such as society produced, within a very narrow compass.” Lack of education is never a good sign in a Jane Austen novel, but even worse is a lack of intellectual curiosity and creativity. The Middletons may be wealthy, sociable, and generous, but they can’t afford rich inner lives. This is exemplified when Marianne performs on their pianoforte (which is normally locked up*). Sir John talks through all of Marianne’s playing and his wife can’t keep track of which song Marianne has just performed (understandable if she’s sitting next to her chatterbox husband). The fact that the pianoforte is usually not in use puts a dent Lady Middleton’s claim that she is “fond” of playing. She could totally start a musical club with Mrs. Elton and Lady Catherine.

Something else altogether is Mrs. Jennings, mother to Lady Middleton. She’s “a good-humored, merry, fat, elderly woman” but “rather vulgar,” mercilessly teasing Elinor and Marianne about secret boyfriends. Confession: I’ve loved Mrs. Jennings for the same reasons Movie Margaret also enjoys Mrs. Jennings: she says what’s on her mind and is often on hand to move the story along. Give her a few drinks, a pointed hat, and a pet hedgehog, and she’s Nanny Ogg. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a no-nonsense Borrowing best friend to balance her out, so Mrs. Jennings can be a bit … much. Marianne definitely doesn’t like her when Mrs. Jennings starts in on Elinor, although her constantly “turn[ing] her eyes towards Elinor, to see how she bore these attacks” is more irritating than Mrs. Jennings’s impolite jokes. There will be more to say about Marianne’s behavior towards her in the coming chapters.

But fear not, lovely readers: I have saved the best for last, as we meet Bachelor #2 as well. Colonel Brandon doesn’t make a striking first appearance, but “his countenance [is] sensible, and his address … particularly gentlemanlike,” which make him preferable to the rest of the party. Ironically, it’s his lack of effusion over Marianne’s performance (“contrasted against the horrible insensibility** of the others”)  that earns her respect. Assuming that he “might well have outlived all acuteness of feeling and every exquisite power of enjoyment,” she goes easy on him. 

How … generous, Marianne.

Analyzing Col. Brandon is going to be weird for me because I, too, may or may not soon be “on the wrong side of five-and-thirty.” Of course, he’s no spring chicken, but his behavior (“silent and grave”) makes him seem older than he really is. Experienced readers will know that a prominent, though private, aspect of Col. Brandon’s life is currently in turmoil, which definitely affects his level of social engagement as well as his mood.

We’ll have a lot more to talk about Col. Brandon and how unfair Marianne may be in judging him next time.

Credit for the above image goes to Niroot Puttapipat, whose website I implore you to explore.

*Every so often, David M. Shapard makes me laugh: “In the case of the Middletons, locking would be desirable, since the children could open an unlocked one and tinker with it.”

**A word here meaning “indifference,” a quality that many characters in Sense & Sensibility possess and which often does a lot of damage.