Monday, February 8, 2010

Jane Austen and Sex before Marriage


I'd just like to share with you all a few thoughts I've been having on the subject of sex before or outside marriage in Regency times. Jane Austen's view of such indiscretions appears mixed, to say the least.

A couple of young female characters in Jane Austen's novels are, shall we say, a little indiscreet in their relationships, and certainly meet with the come-uppance a reader of the time would expect. Isabella Thorpe, disappointed by her fiance's comparative lack of fortune, allows herself to be wooed and seduced by Captain Frederick Tilney. In so doing, the full extent of her flawed character is revealed. She finds herself disgraced and abandoned by her more honourable fiance. What befalls her then we do not know. Is she pregnant? Will she ever find a husband? We are left to guess what her future might hold.

Maria Bertram commits a similar sin; having married for money, but without love, she cuckolds her husband with the dashing Henry Crawford. Here her punishment is clear; she is expelled from her marriage, banished from her family and has to suffer the companionship and "comfort" of her Aunt Norris for the remainder of her days. Hellish indeed.

Curiously, not all of Jane Austen's characters who commit similar indiscretions are so punished. Lydia Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, the most shameless and disgraceful flirt of all, has a veneer of respectability placed over her conduct by her family, and is welcomed back into the fold. Eliza Williams in Sense & Sensibility, the daughter of Colonel Brandon's ward who is seduced and left pregnant by John Willoughby, is merely pitied for her plight, though she too will be excluded from polite society.

The difference in treatment of these various characters by Jane Austen seems to depend not so much on the sin of having sexual relationships, but on whether or not those relationships were adulterous, or injurious to another person. Therefore, Lydia Bennet is forgiven, since she has not harmed another suitor, as is Eliza Williams. Maria Bertram and Isabella Thorpe have both wounded honest men, and cannot be forgiven.

This brings me to a final, rather thorny question; that of Marianne Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility. Marianne launches herself into a passionate, unreserved relationship with Mr John Willoughby. Marianne is reckless; open in her regard for Willoughby, driving around the countryside with him unchaperoned, and finally allowing him to bring her to visit his house, Combe Magna. They visit the house in secret and alone, when Willoughby has already hinted at his intentions towards Marianne.

Marianne goes on to marry Colonel Brandon, who has already shown himself to be compassionate and understanding in his manner of dealing with his ward, Eliza Williams, and her situation. I can't help wondering if he was also aware and accepting of the fact that his wife had committed the same transgression as that of his ward, and with the same man? If Marianne had done so, which would surely harm her other suitor Colonel Brandon, she should not have had such a happy ending according to Jane Austen's own self-imposed standard. Or was Marianne the exception which proves the rule?

Because my final question is, did Marianne have sex with Willoughby, or didn't she? What do you think?

16 comments:

  1. Nice question. I've already speculated back on my own blog that I think the thing is we can read it either way. And we might remember Marianne's assertion that people can only love once. We can read that in a purely romantic fashion or we can read it as having something to do with sex.

    The other really intriguing incident is during Willoughby's "confession"to Elinor. She challenges him on his treatment of Brandon's ward and his response is, well, you mustn't imagine that she didn't want it too. And Elinor, to our shock, casually accepts that!

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  2. I just can't bring myself to believe that Marianne "succumbed" in that way. I don't think Austen could have brought herself to give Marianne a happy ending if that had been the case...casual sex isn't Austen.

    If, as you argue (and I agree with you), Jane refused absolution on those who treated good men poorly, why would she make an exception for Marianne? And why so casually brushed aside by Elinor, given the heights of dispair that Lizzie Bennett feels when Lydia's silliness is uncovered?

    This is probably a childish, visceral reaction. Maybe I just don't want to believe that Marianne would act so? Hmm. It could be argued either way.

    On another note, I always hated the way Lydia was just allowed back into the fold! Grr!

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  3. Thanks for the comments! Personally I feel that, since Marianne was genuinely in love and was acting artlessly, without any knowledge of hurting Col Brandon or anyone else, this allowed Jane Austen to forgive her and grant her her happy ending.

    The Georgians in general were far more relaxed about sex than the Victorians were later, so I have no problem with Elinor accepting Willoughby's word that Eliza wanted the relationship too; I think she was merely relieved that the relationship was consensual, and that there was no force or coercion involved.

    We might well believe that casual sex isn't Austen, but I'm inclined to think that she absolutely frowned on it only when, as I outlined above, it hurt someone who didn't deserve to be hurt.

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  4. I tend to think of Jane being more forward-thinking about society and the fall of the aristocratic classes then about sex.

    Hmm, this raises so many questions, simply because I have never really considered the sexual side...I always just prescribed to the "there is no open kissing in Austen" notion. Might have to go back and read the collection!

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  5. I only saw the movie, but I thought the point was Alan Rickman (Col. Whatever) was a real gentleman and since he loved her, willing to overlook Marianne's youthful dalliance. Austen, was at heart a romantic country girl herself, I don't think she condemned heartlessly.

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  6. Well said, Stephen! Yes, I think that sums it up.

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  7. I would have to say that during the innumerable times that I watched Sense and Sensibility it never entered my head that Kate Winslet had shagged Willoughby, and now that I have read the book my opinion hasn't changed. The only time sex enters my head when thinking of Jane Austen is worrying about my favourite leading men i.e. Darcy, Brandon and Knightley. All men in their thirties or later in Brandon's case, and no sex before marriage, I can't believe that. Have you seen Jeremy Northam? I for one couldn't have allowed a sexless existence to persist for these guys. I really love her men and am very dissapointed to find out from you that she never found one for herself, tragic!

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  8. Thanks Elaine! It is especially tragic that she seems to have met Mr Right in the summer of 1804, while she was holidaying in Lyme Regis - probably part of the reason she was so fond of that spot. Little or nothing is known about the man in question, apart from a passing comment from Cassandra many years after Jane's death, but he seems to have been "eminently suitable" for Jane. Sadly, after arranging to meet him the following summer, she received word that he had died suddenly. I believe this man might have represented her real chance at happiness, rather than her flirtation with Tom Lefroy when she was only twenty-one. I'd love to know what really happened in Lyme that summer.

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  9. I think JA deliberately left the issue open. There are plenty of allusions to sex, and sexual indiscretions, in S&S (Queen Mab and others). It is up to the reader to make up her mind on what went on between Marianne and W.

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  10. I agree, Catherine. I believe it's deliberately ambiguous. Thank you for the comment!

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  11. All the years of reading Jane Austen's novels, including Sense and Sensibility it never once crossed my mind that Marianne and Willoughby had sex.

    Reading the post it definitely crossed my mind as possible however I cling the the same fact that one of the other commenter's made above.

    Elizabeth Bennet was very distressed when Lydia succommed to Wickham and they did not have as strong of a sisterly bond as Marianne and Elinor. I do not think that Elinor would have reacted so calmly and rationally had that been the case.

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  12. Thanks for your thoughts, Emma. However, I don't think Elinor knew... or rather, that she chose not to think it/believe it. Marianne assured Elinor that she had nothing to reproach Willoughby for and Elinor read this in the way that would give her most comfort.

    I think this is a splendid example of how we all - including Elinor - read what we want to from any situation.

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  13. What an excellent and thought-provoking post! I do think it is a very valid question, knowing Willoughby as the seducer he is, I can definitely believe he would TRY something with Marianne while they were alone a Combe Magna, but I'd like to think that Marianne stopped him before things got too out of hand.

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  14. In the New Testament, πορνεία (porneia) is commonly translated incorrectly into English as fornication rather than its truer meaning of sexual immorality and in Biblical Greek, the word porneia meant "sexual immorality" or "sexual perversions." It was often used as a blanket term to encompass all sexual activity and even sexual thoughts public sex positions that were considered unrighteous by the Old Testament laws of Leviticus, in particular Leviticus 18, including: incest, bestiality, and homosexuality.

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