Austen Called It a Confederacy Against Her

A sixteen-year-old girl is pregnant and alone. The man responsible promised to come back and never wrote — she doesn't even know his address. That's in Sense and Sensibility, chapter 31, and the man is John Willoughby, the one everyone remembers as the romantic lead. But the bigger surprise is the ending. Everyone is taught that Elinor is sense, Marianne is sensibility, and Marianne learns her lesson and is rewarded with a good marriage. Austen's own narration says something colder. She writes that Marianne "was to be the reward of all," describes her family and friends as "a confederacy against her," asks "what could she do," and states plainly that Marianne marries Colonel Brandon with no sentiment superior to strong esteem and lively friendship. This episode reads those passages in full, along with the conversation in chapter 2 in which three thousand pounds becomes nothing at all, and makes the case that sense and sensibility are not two personalities — they're two strategies for surviving without money. Also: Austen published this book at her own financial risk, anonymously, as "By a Lady," and cleared about £140. Colonel Brandon has £2,000 a year. Read aloud from the 1811 text: Brandon's account of Willoughby; the closing passages on Marianne's marriage; Fanny Dashwood on five hundred a year. SOURCES Full source list and flagged disputes are in the pinned comment.