Publication N°4 : Jane Austen and Hypocrisy
Social hypocrisy in Austen's novels.
In Persuasion,
the hypocrisy reigning in the aristocratic milieu is not depicted implicitly by
Austen. The novel begins with the description of Sir Walter’s favorite hobby,
which is to read The Baronetage, a
book that contains the history of ancient families who have an aristocratic
title. In addition to this fact, Sir Walter is depicted as vain and deeply
attached to his title of baronet. This beginning underlines the tone that will
reign throughout the whole novel, the satire of the pretentious
aristocracy. Later in the novel, the
reader sees that Sir Walter has a strong desire to be associated with Lady
Dalrymple.
Lady Dalrymple is mentioned thirty-two times in the novel, and yet she
does not appear more than two times in front of the protagonist. This number
shows that Sir Walter is mentioning her too much as he should do normally.
Hypocrisy is perceived through the eyes of Anne Elliot:
Had Lady Dalrymple and her daughter even been
very agreeable, she would still have been ashamed of the agitation they
created, but they were nothing. There was no superiority of manner,
accomplishment, or understanding. [1]
The term “agitation” is not innocent in this quote. The politeness due to the
rank of Lady Dalrymple becomes hypocrisy when this politeness is highly
exaggerated.
People had to make a fuss around her arrival, only
because of her social rank. Their hypocrisy is even more striking when Austen
made her bland as a woman. Austen also underlines that Lady Dalrymple and her
daughter seem to be equivalent in “manner”
and “accomplishment” as the next
woman. They are not extraordinary people worth knowing, and Anne is
disappointed by this, as the hypocrisy of her father and sister becomes even
more important. The reader perceives this through the eyes of Anne Elliot, who
is not blinded by envy and has no desire to climb the social ladder. She is not
biased. This quote also depicts that Lady Dalrymple, and her daughter are used
to such a treatment, as the fuss their presence made doesn’t affect them. The
fuss created is only present because of the envy of Sir Walter and Elizabeth,
who dream of climbing even more the aristocratic ladder by association with
Lady Dalrymple. The reader does not necessarily understand the need for such
hypocrite manners, especially someone who would read Persuasion nowadays, but such general panic would have been
understood if they were worth it, humanly speaking, and this feeling is
described by John Halperin:
In genteel households small matters of etiquette were
of greater importance than they are today, largely because the eighteenth
century gentry belonged to a society more formal than anything we know. There
was more outward courtesy and ceremony of manner [2]
May Witwit and Maysoon Taher Muhi wrote in their essay: “Sir Walter, who is shown to have all the
appurtenances of refinement, is actually vulgar in his obsession with his own
appearance and importance”[3].
This quote points out that Austen criticizes
self-importance and false appearances, which only underlines the hypocrisy of a
social class, here the aristocracy. Austen makes Persuasion a satire of the aristocracy and the hypocrisy living in
this social rank, by depicting the snobbism of the aristocrats who only
consider people through their social rank. This
social hypocrisy can be contrasted with another novel. In Sense and Sensibility, hypocrisy towards a member of the
aristocracy comes from someone who belongs to the middle class.
Lady
Middleton is a secondary character in the novel, whose appearances are scarce.
She does not seem to enjoy social meetings, which is unusual for someone of the
aristocracy, and she only takes pleasure in flattery, especially concerning her
children. Her character is cold, insensitive about her surroundings, but when
someone flatters her children, and by extension herself, she expresses positive
feelings: “they happened to be so
doatingly fond of children that Lady Middleton's good opinion was engaged in
their favour before they had been an hour at the Park”[4]
The reader understands that the personal pronoun “they” is a reference to the
Steele’s sisters. To ensure the positive vision of everyone about themselves,
the Steele’s sisters are doing whatever they can to be liked, even if they must
lie, be hypocrites about it. The children they are so fond of are not children
anyone could be fond of, except for Lady Middleton. Austen makes it clear that
her mother has no power over them, and that they are badly raised: “their sashes untied, their hair pulled about
their ears, their work-bags searched, and their knives and scissors stolen away”[5]
With this quote, Austen underlines the constant
pampering of the aristocracy, especially when it comes from someone who has a
lower social rank than them. This pampering is so usual that they do not doubt
for a second that it could be false. The importance given to the social rank of
the aristocracy only makes them blind to any hypocrisy they could encounter,
and Austen makes it clear that Lady Middleton is not aware that the praises
made by the Steele’s sisters are false ones, only made to gain trust and to be
liked, accepted by a member of the aristocracy.
The reader understands that in this situation, it is
hypocrisy, because the situation is seen through the eyes of Elinor Dashwood
and the omniscient narrator, who is truthful about the conduct of Lady Middleton’s
children. There is no doubt that if Lady Middleton encountered children from a
lower social class and as badly raised as her own, she would resent them and
their mother. It seems that in Austen’s era, members of the middle and upper
class had to pamper the aristocracy and using of hypocrisy was usual.
For Lady Middleton, as well as for Sir
Walter Elliot, their whole existence revolves around appearances and material goods.
(…) admiration of whatever her ladyship
was doing, if she happened to be doing any thing, or in taking patterns of some
elegant new dress, in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into
unceasing delight [6]
This quote, in addition of underlining once again the
hypocrisy of the Steele’s sisters, also underlines the superficiality of the
life of Lady Middleton. Austen depicts the superficiality in the lives of
aristocrats, but through the character of Lady Middleton, she put the emphasis
on the purposeless life of an aristocrat woman at the end of the eighteenth
century. The superficiality of her life has now a meaning through her children.
Austen makes her character lives for her children
because it is the only thing she has purpose in doing. Raising the next
generation, as it was expected of women in Austen’s era. Hypocrisy comes when
Lady Middleton does not realize that her children are not behaving nicely
towards anyone and does nothing to stop it. The constant hypocrisy she
supposedly encountered in her life concerning her children, here emphasized by
the Steele sisters, only shows to the reader that this is a vicious circle.
Lady Middleton does not realize that her children are not nice because people
are hypocrites towards her, and people are being hypocrites because they feel
the need to be, for them to be accepted by a higher member of society. The
reader can suppose that if people were not such hypocrites towards Lady
Middleton, perhaps she would have realized that her children are a nightmare.
Through these two characters, Austen depicts the
superficial lives of the aristocratic milieu, whether it concerns a man or a
woman. With this superficiality, hypocrisy comes along, and flourished.
Austen shows the importance to pamper the aristocracy,
and that hypocrisy is reigning in this social rank, whether hypocrisy comes
from them, or people belonging to an inferior social class. The importance of
social ranks, and the complexity of social interactions are underlined by
Austen in her novels.
No comments:
Post a Comment