THOSE HIDEOUS CREATURES

Written by Rosemary L. Gainer, Glenville, WV, USA

Although not easy to discern, at least on first glance, Jane Austen's gentle comedies of manners contain their fair share of monsters. Some, indeed are almost gothic in their capacity to create trails of wreckage among the other characters. Mrs. Bennet, the irrepressible mother in Pride and Prejudice, leaps immediately to mind. How does she really feel about her daughters, other than wanting to see them all married? She is proud of Jane's beauty, and sensitive to her position as the eldest daughter. In a perfect world, her Jane would be the first one married, and of course, to an eligible, handsome, wealthy young man. Even so, she gives little or no thought to Jane's feelings. For instance, on p. 30 of P&P, Jane has just received a letter. Mrs. Bennet, tactless, as always, immediately begins badgering her:

'"Well, Jane, who is it from? what is it about? what does he say?...." She assumes that it is from Mr. Bingley. Jane, with the forbearance of a saint, replies quietly that it is from MISS Bingley, and that she has been invited to Netherfield for dinner.

To her second daughter, Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennnet is cold- hearted in the extreme, scolding her when she refuses to marry the repulsive Mr. Collins, and never showing the least maternal tenderness or solicitude. Mary and Catherine, the next two daughters in line, suffer the fate now commonly called the "middle child" syndrome. Mrs. Bennet scarcely acknowledges their existence. On the other hand, she lavishly indulges her youngest daughter, Lydia, an empty-headed sixteen-year-old. Without sensible advice and direction, Lydia runs wild and gets into trouble. Even when Lydia enters into a bad marriage, Mrs. Bennet thinks mostly of wedding clothes, and complains about the brevity of the announcement in the paper.

Added to all this is the damage done by Mrs. Bennet's unbridled tongue. She cannot keep her mouth shut. and very nearly causes Jane to be rejected by Mr. Bingley. This is on the advice of his friend, Mr. Darcy, who thinks that marrying into such a family would be a disaster. Mr. Darcy eventually asks for Elizabeth's hand, but he makes it clear that he loves her against his better judgement. He certainly does not relish the prospect of Mrs. Bennet as a mother-in-law.

Aunt Norris in Mansfield Park is another "hideous creature," always utterly selfish and cruel. In many respects she is worse than Mrs. Bennet, who doesn't seem to have a clue to the pain and suffering she is causing. Aunt Norris' unkindness is deliberate. She enjoys the virtuous glow of "doing something" for Fanny, the child of a sister who married unwisely, and not well. But in order not to be inconvenienced herself, she foists Fanny off on her other sister, the placid Mrs. Bertram, and her wealthy husband, Sir Thomas. They don't object to being thus imposed on, and Aunt Norris has things pretty much her way until almost the end of the story. She continually shoves Fanny into the background, telling her how insignificant she is, and how grateful she should be to be allowed to exist on the fringe of this fine family. She also uses Fanny, who doesn't seem to have a very strong constitution, as her personal slave.

Lady Russell, in Persuasion, is a different kind of character, but her influence is no less malicious and hurtful. Whereas Mrs. Bennet and Aunt Norris are principal characters, causing trouble before the reader's eyes, Lady Russell wields her influence offstage. She hardly enters into the story at all, except in Anne's memory. Lady Russell was the older woman, the surrogate mother who persuaded nineteen-year-old Anne to break her engagement with the young sea captain, an adventurer of whom neither Lady Russell nor Anne's widowed father approved. This state of affairs continued sadly for eight years. The difference between the character of Lady Russell and the others is revealed when Anne and her sea captain are finally reunited. Lady Russell lacks the practiced cruelty of Aunt Norris, and has the grace and intelligence to become reconciled to the situation without carrying on in the manner of Mrs. Bennet.

We now come to Emma, heroine of the book by the same name, who narrowly escapes becoming one of those "hideous creatures." She certainly starts out creating disaster areas. Her unconscionable interfering with her friend Harriet's life nearly wrecks Harriet's chances of a happy marriage. Her ego, combined with her dislike of Miss Jane Fairfax causes her to fall in with Jane's fiance's plans, thereby giving Jane a great deal of pain. This makes her, through part of the story, at least, one of Miss Austen's most exasperating little monsters. But here the similarity ends. Although it doesn't happen until quite late in the book, Emma has the ability to learn from her mistakes and to change from a manipulator into a truly compassionate, mature woman. For this reason, the story has a deeper, more philosophic character than the others.

Of the four Austen female characters here described, Mrs. Bennet and Aunt Norris are clearly the most monstrous, for they never change. At the end of the book they are just as silly, stupid, and destructive as they were in the beginning. Lady Russell, who destroyed Anne's young life, at least eight years of it, is not silly or stupid, but sadly, a product of her time and station in life. Emma, unlike Aunt Norris, does not have a cruel or selfish bone in her body, but at one time or another, she is silly, stupid, destructive, and all too conscious of her station in life. With a lot of help from her wise friend and eventual husband, Mr. Knightly, she finally makes it through to become a really good person, - something for which we who love happy endings must be truly thankful.

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