Sense & Sensibility, chapter 35: Stuck In The Middle
Okay, obviously it’s not all on her—how is she supposed to know about Lucy’s secret engagement with Edward if Elinor isn’t sharing? And honestly, the petty bench in me would rather blame it on Lucy, who didn’t need to visit Elinor in the first place. You can also argue that Edward had no pressing need to visit Elinor either, although I have a theory on that …
Let’s do this scene justice. It’s the day after the Dinner Party of Diminishing Returns. Lucy has arrived at Berkeley Street to rub it in Elinor’s face that Mrs. Ferrars (and Fanny) took a shine to her: “[S]uch kindness as fell to the share of nobody but me! No pride, no hauteur, and your sister just the same—all sweetness and affability!” Elinor points out that “if they had known your engagement,” Lucy would have been treated quite differently, a point that Lucy rather carelessly brushes past. It’s hard to tell if she’s aware of the fact that the Ferrarses don’t approve of Elinor as a prospective daughter-in-law and thus would be far less inclined to approve of the lower-born Lucy. The approval she received is surface-level and definitely doesn’t support her blithe claim that “it will all end well, and there will be no difficulties at all.” Lucy’s clever, but not wise.
And then who should show up to completely step on Lucy’s moment (just after she passive-aggressively needles Elinor about Mrs. Ferrars’s “forbidding” treatment toward her) but the man they’re both entangled with.
Yes, Edward, Mr. Twice-A-Volume himself, walks in and everyone has to pretend that they’re all just good … acquaintances. Elinor’s fortitude does the work of three people, as she carries on a polite conversation all by herself while Edward recovers from his embarrassment* and Lucy silently pouts in the corner. Then Elinor “loiter[s] away several minutes on the landing place” on the pretense of fetching Marianne, given the lovebirds (makes gagging noises) time to catch up. Frustratingly, we don’t get to see how Lucy behaves around Edward (future chapters will give us some insight). One can only wonder whether Lucy enquires as to why he chose to visit the Dashwood sisters before he visited her …
Once MA arrives, the entire dynamic changes once again. Thrilled to see Edward at last (it’s been months since they’ve been in town), she’s back to normal. Which means she’s effusive, warm, sweet … incredibly self-absorbed, ignorant, and dismissive of anybody who doesn’t spark joy in her. Lucy, already put-out by Edward’s unspoken but obvious preference for another woman, is further irritated with being left out. So she decides to snipe at MA about “young men [who] never stand upon engagements” … and it ends up backfiring for everyone when MA innocently declares that Edward is totally great at keeping promises because he has “the most delicate conscience in the world.”
Hoooooooooooo boy.
I mean, both of them are being incredibly rude here. MA is excluding Lucy from the conversation—a social no-no. Lucy, in turn, isn’t attempting to include herself—also a social no-no. So what we’ve got here is a petty and unnecessary stand-off between two people who let their loyalties (MA’s is to her sister, Lucy’s is to herself) dictate their behavior. But in this case, I think I have to give it to MA, who’s so blinded by tunnel vision that she doesn’t even clock how differently Edward is behaving than the last time they met. And what’s even worse is that she’s making Elinor work harder at hosting—and she doesn’t care!
Not to imply that this is all happening in a bubble. MA is still getting over the oppressive Willoughby incident, as both she and Lucy allude to (in their own different ways). She takes comfort in her (limited) knowledge of Elinor and Edward’s love. Again: her behavior is understandable.
That doesn’t make it okay. Especially when, after their guests leave, Elinor attempts to explain that Lucy and Edward are old friends and MA outright accuses her of—wait for it—fishing for a compliment: “If you only hope to have your assertion contradicted, as I must suppose to be the case, you ought to recollect that I am the last person in the world to do it.” All she hears is her sister downplaying her feelings for Edward and she can’t stand it.
You know what hurts the most? This is the last meeting that Elinor can reasonably expect to have with Edward … and this is the note they go out on: a cacophony of embarrassment, bitterness, and empty words.
Next time: Is Lucy Steele winning? Tune in to find out …
*So Edward really isn’t making a good impression as he mumbles and bumbles around, but I think we ought to consider the fact that he came to visit Elinor the day after she first met his mother. It’s likely he heard about his mom’s bad behavior toward Elinor. Did he come here to apologize to Elinor? This would give credence to MA’s declaration that he’s “fearful of giving pain [and] wounding expectation” …
Credit to Alfred Wallis Mills for the illustration.
Comments
Post a Comment