May 16, 2014 18:53
william beck,
rupert friend,
robert east,
adrian lukis,
television,
dominic cooper,
hayley atwell,
greg wise,
jonathan coy,
carey mulligan,
peter settelen,
georgian era,
ewan mcgregor,
alessandro nivola,
peter woodward,
samuel west,
movies,
joseph beattie,
cassie stuart,
jane austen,
rupert evans,
tobias menzies,
embeth davidtz,
old hollywood,
clive francis,
literary
Leave a comment
Fanny's feelings for Edmund are nobody else's business; she's not obligated to share something so private with the man she watched try to seduce her cousins (one of whom was engaged). "I don't like you" is all she's obligated to say, which she did. henry Crawford is Austen's best "rogue" imvho because he causes more damage than any of the others, and he's the most callous - he doesn't care who his affair with Maria Rushworth would hurt or how wrong attacking her heart after she was married is; his ego can't bear the thought of a woman not enamoured with him, and that includes a previous victim who learned to hate him. No woman can say No to henry Crawford - he won't stand for it. His re-pursuit of Maria was perfectly consistent with his character; he wanted to be the hero who would swoop in and rescue the Cinderella from her terrible life, but he wasn't willing to give up his fun, viilainous ways to do it. he blew it. Jane Austen was too realistic a writer to promote the Gothic fantasy that a woman can "change" or fix" a man; it doesn't work that way.
Reply
I'm not saying that Fanny should have married Henry. If she didn't love him, she didn't love him. But she could have at least told him the truth, instead of hiding her true feelings behind a mask of self-righteous morality. And it's Fanny's self-righteousness and hypocrisy that makes her my least favorite Austen heroine.
Reply
Leave a comment