Moving the plot along

A sort of syncopated approach today.

Willoughby leaves
And what to make of it? Well, that's what all the characters are also trying to do, so let's just leave it until we know better.

Marianne's reaction to the departure
Now, this is interesting. 

Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from Willoughby. She would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning, had she not risen from her bed in more need of repose than when she lay down in it. But the feelings which made such composure a disgrace, left her in no danger of incurring it. She was awake the whole night, and she wept the greatest part of it. She got up with an headache, was unable to talk, and unwilling to take any nourishment; giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters, and forbidding all attempt at consolation from either. Her sensibility was potent enough! 

Some have read this as proof that Marianne is just acting the part but I think that is wrong. Note first the sentence: "But the feelings which made such composure a disgrace, left her in no danger of incurring it." Then note the last sentence: "Her sensibility was potent enough!" The exposition here is, I think, a glance inside Marianne's head but it doesn't show her acting the part it shows her doubting her heroic status. Luckily, her feelings are potent enough.

The question we might ask ourselves, however, is how exactly does her heroism differ from narcissism? Let's go back to the contrast between feelings natural and feelings heroic from Northanger Abbey:

Feelings rather natural than heroic possessed her; instead of considering her own dignity injured ....

Doesn't Marianne do the exact opposite here. That is to say, isn't her own dignity the first, second and last thing she thinks of? She is possessed by feelings heroic rather than natural.

[And, as I have suggested before, we should keep Hamlet and Ophelia in mind when we think of Willoughby and Marianne.  How exactly does the romantic hero differ from a narcissist?]


The arrival of Edward Ferrars
Now, here something fascinating happens. We get a  scene that ought to feel heavy-handed but does not. I mean the scene where Elinor says that wealth is important and Marianne claims she would be happy with only "a competence". Marianne's competence, as Elinor predicts, turns out to be the exact amount of Elinor's wealth.

While this is going on, however, Austen slips an interesting revelation into the mix. Let's flash back a bit. Remember how when Marianne criticized Edward's lack of sensibility and Elinor responded that she and he had been "a good deal thrown together" and that, therefore, she knew his opinions on art and literature, better that Marianne? Well, we suddenly learn ow that Marianne and Edward have a whole history of talking about these things. He knows her opinions, he knows her favourite authors.

Now, we might be tempted to think that he knows these things because Elinor and he have discussed Marianne but there is a very good reason to conclude not.

The picturesque
As I have said before, there is a discussion of the picturesque in every single Austen novel. When it comes up here, in Chapter 18, we learn that Edward has a whole series of defence mechanisms in place to use against Marianne.

"You must not inquire too far, Marianne -- remember, I have no knowledge in the picturesque, and I shall offend you by my ignorance and want of taste, if we come to particulars. I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold! surfaces strange and uncouth, which ought to be irregular and rugged; and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere. You must be satisfied with such admiration as I can honestly give. I call it a very fine country -- the hills are steep, the woods seem full of fine timber, and the valley looks comfortable and snug -- with rich meadows and several neat farm houses scattered here and there. It exactly answers my idea of a fine country, because it unites beauty with utility -- and I dare say it is a picturesque one too, because you admire it; I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me. I know nothing of the picturesque."

"I am afraid it is but too true," said Marianne; "but why should you boast of it?" 

The crucial detail here is that Edward is lying in the emphasized text. He says he has no knowledge if the picturesque but goes on to show us that he knows it very well. he uses all the correct vocabulary in the correct way while supposing to demonstrate that he cannot. And Marianne misses it entirely.

There is an implied backstory here that Austen leaves up to our imagination. Marianne obviously made some attempt to shape Edward's sensibilities just as she did with Willoughby. But Edward rebuffed her. Did she try to win him over in love too? My guess is yes. And Edward rebuffed her.

And how like Marianne to see a man's rejecting her as evidence of his lack of sensibility!

The rape of locks on Thursday.

Oh yeah, before moving on, catch this:

 "I wish with all my soul," cried Sir John, "that Willoughby were among us again."

This, and Marianne's blushing, gave new suspicions to Edward. "And who is Willoughby?" said he, in a low voice, to Miss Dashwood, by whom he was sitting.

She gave him a brief reply. Marianne's countenance was more communicative. Edward saw enough to comprehend not only the meaning of others, but such of Marianne's expressions as had puzzled him before; and when their visitors left them, he went immediately round to her and said, in a whisper, "I have been guessing. Shall I tell you my guess?"

"What do you mean?"

"Shall I tell you?"

"Certainly."

"Well, then, I guess that Mr. Willoughby hunts."

Marianne was surprised and confused, yet she could not help smiling at the quiet archness of his manner, and, after a moment's silence, said, "Oh! Edward! How can you? -- But the time will come, I hope... I am sure you will like him."

"I do not doubt it," replied he, rather astonished at her earnestness and warmth; for had he not imagined it to be a joke for the good of her acquaintance in general, founded only on a something or a nothing between Mr. Willoughby and herself, he would not have ventured to mention it.

Interesting, isn't it, that Marianne is suprised and confused to find that Edward was able to figure this out? She has no notion of how easy it is for others to read her behaviour. She is so focused on her feelings that she can't see that the very people she disdains have no trouble understanding her.