Jane Austen and Freedom
“To understand, thoroughly understand her own heart,” the narrator comments in Emma, “was the first endeavor.” Self-knowledge, in the order of knowledge, begins with external condemnation and ends with self-reflection. Jane Austen, in all of her novels, gives the leading lady a capacity for self-knowledge that sets her apart from the other characters. And, it is through self-knowledge that she explores the philosophical notion of freedom. The essential logic of her novels – Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma – remains the same. She develops her notion of freedom, beginning with the unity of reason and passion and ending with the subjection of the imaginary life to the rational life, throughout these four novels. Freedom occurs when the divine order, human soul, and social order meet. Austen thus necessarily begins her argument in Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, where reason and passion is united in the leading lady. In Persuasion, the transformation of the leading lady is a harmonizing of the inner consciousness and outer experience. And finally, in Emma, activity of the mind and the heart, harmonized with external experience, is rightly ordered, which occurs when liberty is structured within an ordered, established, social world.
Austen is maybe most well known today for her early feminism (this may, however, be a result of bad scholarship) because the protagonist of every novel is a strong woman in the man-dominated Regency England. It seems that she is focused on marriage, not because it was of romantic interest to her (she never married), but because it most adequately reflects the social order, which was the target of her satire. Furthermore, the protagonist must be a woman from the gentle classes because her place in marriage (as Austen sees it) reflects the individual’s place in the social order. In marriage, the woman must subject herself to an identifiable authority in order to gain freedom. Just as a woman cannot find liberty outside of marriage, the individual cannot find liberty outside of the social order. This ordering of marriage results from a tutor/pupil relationship, where both people at one point develop as a result of the other’s intrustion. The best marriages are thus formed from a mutual esteem of one another.
Sense and Sensibility, the first novel in this sequence, focuses on the dialectic between romance and practical wisdom as expressed through the relationship of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. It is not obvious which of the Miss Dashwoods is the leading lady. Moreover, it seems that the leading lady is neither, but Elinor and Marianne together. In the first chapter, the narrator describes both, noting that Marianne is sensible as well as clever and that Elinor’s feelings were strong yet she knew how to govern them. As the plot develops, Marianne, through the disaster of Willoughby, learns that her earlier notion of love was incorrect, and as the novel ends the narrator notes, “Marianne could never love in halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband, as it had once been to Willoughby.” Through the disaster of Willoughby Marianne learns not to abandon love, but to temper her romantic notions.
Elinor, on the other hand, was more circumspect, believing that conventions were necessary and even useful. She never abandoned this belief, but learned, in an opposing fashion from Marianne, to love Edward Ferrars romantically. This transition from cold, practical realism to a balance of reason and passion (and Marianne’s transition from romanticism to a similar balance) is the beginning of Austen’s argument. For freedom to properly develop, both capacities – reason and passion – must be employed. She shows us this through the opposing values of romance and practical realism that the Miss Dashwoods debate throughout the novel. This unity of reason and passion in Elinor and Marianne together is later formed in one character in Pride and Prejudice.
Elizabeth Bennet from the beginning displayed pride in her ability to laugh at herself and others. Her error, like her family’s, was that she did not take the objective elements of the social order with enough seriousness. The spirited woman in Austen’s novels is always the highest character, as Mr. Knightley points out in condemnation of Miss Fairfax, “She has not the open temper which a man could wish for in a wife.” As Elizabeth develops, through tempering her spirit by the social order, reason and passion are increasingly conflated.
The argument advances from Sense and Sensibility because, instead of this unity appearing through the Miss Dashwoods, it is seen in the repentance of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. This repentance coincides with Elizabeth’s recognition that her family was in error, even her father, and that family errors have consequences. Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, had to recognize that his silent, proud attitude was not the full embodiment of aristocratic propriety. Austen’s argument in Pride and Prejudice is complete when Elizabeth shows that she has learned to control what she laughs at by not sliding into cold silence but by acknowledging that Mr. Darcy has yet to learn to be laughed at.
Elizabeth Bennet, at the end of the novel, becomes a metonym for the unity of reason and passion that was formerly shown in Elinor and Marianne together. Austen’s argument, which was dramatized through the dialectic of Elinor and Marianne, is internalized in Elizabeth’s mind. This internalization must also be harmonized with the outer experience, as Anne Eliot in Persuasion reveals. Persuasion is a novel about the inner and outer life. In the beginning, Anne’s emotions, which primarily reveal her character in the first volume, imperfectly coincide with her conduct. Captain Wentworth, on the other hand, is largely known through his conduct, but it is also unharmonious with his desires.
The turning point for the novel is the incident in Lyme. Increasingly Anne is seen from this point on as an object of esteem for her circle. During the discussions deciding who will return and who will stay, Anne overhears Captain Wentworth refer to her as the most useful in this circumstance. In the second volume Elinor is known less from her body language and the narrator’s comments than from her dialogue. When Anne learns to express – externalizing the internal – she harmonizes that which has been previously un-harmonized: her emotions and moral actions. This harmony of the inner and outer life provides the foundation on which Austen can advance her argument. For, without a full employment of human capacity – reason and passion – and a harmony of the inner and outer life, freedom is not structured within an order, established, social world.
This harmony of the inner and outer is assumed in Emma. Emma’s vain attempts to convince Mr. Woodhouse of his inconsistencies are evidence of this. The discussion Emma has with her father about his obligation to visit Mrs. Elton after her marriage reveals that Emma assumes that her father’s moral actions reflect his desires.
The relation of desire (and capacity to achieve those desires) to social obligation opens the novel: “The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way.” Emma, a lady who “seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence,” was never forced by her social situation to control her imagination. She used it throughout the novel on Harriet, her proxy in love. When she realizes that she was in error, it was not because she used her imagination – Emma’s imagination was necessary for her to realize that she loved Mr. Knightley – but because her imagination had an improper relation to reason.
Austen’s picture of freedom is externally revealed through the experiences of the group at Donwell Abbey and Box Hill. Donwell Abbey is described as “low and sheltered” and the narrator notes that Emma, “felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding.” Emma’s experience at Donwell Abbey is similar in influence to Elizabeth Bennet’s at Pemberly. Box Hill, on the other hand, is an empty space, where people can wander off in all directions. Donwell Abbey, in contrast to Box Hill, expresses freedom as liberty structured in an order. Box Hill reveals the limitations of innovation and freedom. Their responses to Donwell Abbey and Box Hill represent what true freedom is, for Jane Austen.
When Emma realized that her imagination had done not only her wrong, but also Harriet and the entire community of Hartfield, she was immediately drawn into self-reflection. She learned the order of reason and passion through recognizing that her inner consciousness did not reflect her external environment, which propelled her to subject her imagination to reason.
When imagination is tempered by reason, the inner and outer life is harmonized. And when Emma’s imagination is not allowed to run wild, she is able to see the end of benevolence, which is the beginning of freedom for her. Only when she denied altruism was she finally able to act as she ought: “It was all the service she could now render her poor friend; for as to any of the heroism of sentiment which might have prompted her to entreat him to transfer his affection from herself to Harriet … Emma had it not.” Just as knowledge begins with self-knowledge, freedom begins when the individual is able to act as he ought to. Emma was thus able to unite the divine order, human soul, and social order through her right understanding of charity and its end.
Austen begins her argument for freedom with the unity of reason and passion as seen in Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. As this is established, the latter two novels present the right ordering of reason and passion contemporaneous with the harmony of the inner and outer life. The marriages in her novels, as mentioned, are used as proxies for the social order. Just as a woman finds true freedom when liberty is structured within an ordered, established, social world, so too does humanity find true freedom in the social order. Freedom is not to be free from authority, but to find the proper relationship of the subjective individual to the objective authority.
Austen is maybe most well known today for her early feminism (this may, however, be a result of bad scholarship) because the protagonist of every novel is a strong woman in the man-dominated Regency England. It seems that she is focused on marriage, not because it was of romantic interest to her (she never married), but because it most adequately reflects the social order, which was the target of her satire. Furthermore, the protagonist must be a woman from the gentle classes because her place in marriage (as Austen sees it) reflects the individual’s place in the social order. In marriage, the woman must subject herself to an identifiable authority in order to gain freedom. Just as a woman cannot find liberty outside of marriage, the individual cannot find liberty outside of the social order. This ordering of marriage results from a tutor/pupil relationship, where both people at one point develop as a result of the other’s intrustion. The best marriages are thus formed from a mutual esteem of one another.
Sense and Sensibility, the first novel in this sequence, focuses on the dialectic between romance and practical wisdom as expressed through the relationship of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. It is not obvious which of the Miss Dashwoods is the leading lady. Moreover, it seems that the leading lady is neither, but Elinor and Marianne together. In the first chapter, the narrator describes both, noting that Marianne is sensible as well as clever and that Elinor’s feelings were strong yet she knew how to govern them. As the plot develops, Marianne, through the disaster of Willoughby, learns that her earlier notion of love was incorrect, and as the novel ends the narrator notes, “Marianne could never love in halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband, as it had once been to Willoughby.” Through the disaster of Willoughby Marianne learns not to abandon love, but to temper her romantic notions.
Elinor, on the other hand, was more circumspect, believing that conventions were necessary and even useful. She never abandoned this belief, but learned, in an opposing fashion from Marianne, to love Edward Ferrars romantically. This transition from cold, practical realism to a balance of reason and passion (and Marianne’s transition from romanticism to a similar balance) is the beginning of Austen’s argument. For freedom to properly develop, both capacities – reason and passion – must be employed. She shows us this through the opposing values of romance and practical realism that the Miss Dashwoods debate throughout the novel. This unity of reason and passion in Elinor and Marianne together is later formed in one character in Pride and Prejudice.
Elizabeth Bennet from the beginning displayed pride in her ability to laugh at herself and others. Her error, like her family’s, was that she did not take the objective elements of the social order with enough seriousness. The spirited woman in Austen’s novels is always the highest character, as Mr. Knightley points out in condemnation of Miss Fairfax, “She has not the open temper which a man could wish for in a wife.” As Elizabeth develops, through tempering her spirit by the social order, reason and passion are increasingly conflated.
The argument advances from Sense and Sensibility because, instead of this unity appearing through the Miss Dashwoods, it is seen in the repentance of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. This repentance coincides with Elizabeth’s recognition that her family was in error, even her father, and that family errors have consequences. Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, had to recognize that his silent, proud attitude was not the full embodiment of aristocratic propriety. Austen’s argument in Pride and Prejudice is complete when Elizabeth shows that she has learned to control what she laughs at by not sliding into cold silence but by acknowledging that Mr. Darcy has yet to learn to be laughed at.
Elizabeth Bennet, at the end of the novel, becomes a metonym for the unity of reason and passion that was formerly shown in Elinor and Marianne together. Austen’s argument, which was dramatized through the dialectic of Elinor and Marianne, is internalized in Elizabeth’s mind. This internalization must also be harmonized with the outer experience, as Anne Eliot in Persuasion reveals. Persuasion is a novel about the inner and outer life. In the beginning, Anne’s emotions, which primarily reveal her character in the first volume, imperfectly coincide with her conduct. Captain Wentworth, on the other hand, is largely known through his conduct, but it is also unharmonious with his desires.
The turning point for the novel is the incident in Lyme. Increasingly Anne is seen from this point on as an object of esteem for her circle. During the discussions deciding who will return and who will stay, Anne overhears Captain Wentworth refer to her as the most useful in this circumstance. In the second volume Elinor is known less from her body language and the narrator’s comments than from her dialogue. When Anne learns to express – externalizing the internal – she harmonizes that which has been previously un-harmonized: her emotions and moral actions. This harmony of the inner and outer life provides the foundation on which Austen can advance her argument. For, without a full employment of human capacity – reason and passion – and a harmony of the inner and outer life, freedom is not structured within an order, established, social world.
This harmony of the inner and outer is assumed in Emma. Emma’s vain attempts to convince Mr. Woodhouse of his inconsistencies are evidence of this. The discussion Emma has with her father about his obligation to visit Mrs. Elton after her marriage reveals that Emma assumes that her father’s moral actions reflect his desires.
The relation of desire (and capacity to achieve those desires) to social obligation opens the novel: “The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way.” Emma, a lady who “seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence,” was never forced by her social situation to control her imagination. She used it throughout the novel on Harriet, her proxy in love. When she realizes that she was in error, it was not because she used her imagination – Emma’s imagination was necessary for her to realize that she loved Mr. Knightley – but because her imagination had an improper relation to reason.
Austen’s picture of freedom is externally revealed through the experiences of the group at Donwell Abbey and Box Hill. Donwell Abbey is described as “low and sheltered” and the narrator notes that Emma, “felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding.” Emma’s experience at Donwell Abbey is similar in influence to Elizabeth Bennet’s at Pemberly. Box Hill, on the other hand, is an empty space, where people can wander off in all directions. Donwell Abbey, in contrast to Box Hill, expresses freedom as liberty structured in an order. Box Hill reveals the limitations of innovation and freedom. Their responses to Donwell Abbey and Box Hill represent what true freedom is, for Jane Austen.
When Emma realized that her imagination had done not only her wrong, but also Harriet and the entire community of Hartfield, she was immediately drawn into self-reflection. She learned the order of reason and passion through recognizing that her inner consciousness did not reflect her external environment, which propelled her to subject her imagination to reason.
When imagination is tempered by reason, the inner and outer life is harmonized. And when Emma’s imagination is not allowed to run wild, she is able to see the end of benevolence, which is the beginning of freedom for her. Only when she denied altruism was she finally able to act as she ought: “It was all the service she could now render her poor friend; for as to any of the heroism of sentiment which might have prompted her to entreat him to transfer his affection from herself to Harriet … Emma had it not.” Just as knowledge begins with self-knowledge, freedom begins when the individual is able to act as he ought to. Emma was thus able to unite the divine order, human soul, and social order through her right understanding of charity and its end.
Austen begins her argument for freedom with the unity of reason and passion as seen in Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. As this is established, the latter two novels present the right ordering of reason and passion contemporaneous with the harmony of the inner and outer life. The marriages in her novels, as mentioned, are used as proxies for the social order. Just as a woman finds true freedom when liberty is structured within an ordered, established, social world, so too does humanity find true freedom in the social order. Freedom is not to be free from authority, but to find the proper relationship of the subjective individual to the objective authority.
posted by Jonathan D. Teubner at 3:15 PM
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