Ahhh....lovely, everything resolved.
What a turn of events for Miss Lucy Steele and the Ferrar's brothers?! And no matter how hard Mrs. Ferrars wanted to disown her sons on account of Lucy, she of course allowed Robert back into her circle of wealth. And they say parents don't have their favorite children... I say they deserve each other.
I cannot, like the Dashwood women (especially Elinor), conclude by saying "poor" Willoughby. He still was in the wrong! And yes, they may see him in a little better light after his explanation of things, but it seems to me that they are blaming his faults on how the world brought him up. Similar to today, we are in a world of blame, it is always someone else's fault. Elinor's thoughts on what happened to Willoughby, "The world had made him extravagant and vain--Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own gulity trimph at the expence of another, had involved him in a real attachment [to Marianne], which extravagance, or at least its offspring necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment. The attachment, from which against honour, against feeling, against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself, now, when no longer allowable, governed every thought; and the misery, was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature." Yes, the pressures of society and wealth in that time period were extreme, but it was still up to Willoughby to make his own actions!
I do love how they concluded that Marianne entirely gave her heart over to Colonel Brandon because she "could never love by halves". She finally saw in him what everyone else saw all along.
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2 comments:
Definitely a turn of events. Craziness. I thought the same thing I do not understand how these people think Willoughby is honorable again. He is a dork. I do like the fact that he forever thinks of her and what she is doing. ha, serves him right.
I have to say overall it did not end up how I thought. I really thought Elinor would end up with Colonel Brandon. I loved the quote as well where she said she gave her whole self to him. AHHHHHHHHh. Well I am very excited for Pride and Prejudice. I am definitely a fan.
Hey ladies...I am back! France was fabulous and I did, in my time away, manage to complete the first novel. So, some comments come lately:
It seems that, overall, money is a major theme that centers around the various characters behavior. Mr. Dashwood is just consumed by it and sees men with other money marrying his sisters as a means of assuaging his own guilt about not doing the honorable thing and caring for them as he had promised his dying father. Willoughby sees money as happiness, even though he learns in the end that by holding it the highest place he misses out on the priceless things, such as true love and the devotion of another, which bring true happiness. But, such shallow people still seem to be ok in the end it seems because even Austen said that, "but he was forever inconsolable, that he fled from society, or contracted an habitual gloom of tember, or died of a broken heart, must not be depended on--for he did neither. He lived to exert, and frequently to enjoy himself. His wife was not always out of humour, nor his home always uncomfortable; and in his breed of horses and dogs, and in sporting of every kind, he found no inconsiderable degree of domestic felicity." How nice for him to be able to forget so easily all the pain he has caused others (and I refer more to Colonel Brandon's psuedo daughter and the child that was left behind). The author never gets in to it, but no doubt that that girl is shunned by most in "respectable society" and the child as well. And I agree with Nat, Elinor let him off to easily. Blaming society is an excuse that a lot of people still use...take some personal responsibility already!
And as for the ending...it is wonderful that all things worked out for our favorite characters...Elinor and Edward are together...Colonel Brandon and Marianne are joyfully wed...and Mrs. Dashwood is happy that her girls are with men of such noble character (and probably she would be a bit happy about the fact that the men have some financial means as well...whether that is modest or great wealth. And to the rest of them...they seem to have turned out ok as well.
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