Lest this one slide by too easily, let's do the arithmetic. Willoughby is nine years older than Marianne. And not just any nine years, he is the nine years between 25, which is to say very much a man, and 16, which is to say very much a girl. For us it is, while technically not a crime, deeply immoral behaviour on his part and on her mother's part to let this romance happen.
Earlier we discussed the larger gap between Colonel Brandon and Marianne and between the Middletons. These age differences do not bother Jane Austen. In the town where I grew up—a rough and ready mill town—anyone doing what Willoughby does here, falling for the charms of a sixteen year old, would have been beaten for his trouble. Nowhere I know of would he be approved.
For Jane Austen and her time, it's a non-issue and that is worth remembering as we read this.
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