This
post is my followup to the part of my post yesterday…
…in
which I explained that Edward Ferrars’s surprisingly and suspiciously (to
Marianne Dashwood) early decamping from a tete a tete with his supposed beloved
Elinor Dashwood at Barton Cottage, to take a nature walk, was actually Edward’s
cover story for his slipping out to a tryst with his actual lover, Lucy Steele.
After
completing that post, I started thinking some more about the sexual innuendoes
in Edward’s description of the “fine country” he supposedly took his walk in
during that Chapter 18 episode. That’s when I quickly realized that I had actually
been down that road before, several years ago, when I first wrote about the
sexual innuendoes only two chapters earlier, in Chapter 16 of S&S…
…during
which Edward and Marianne have a similar coded conversation about the
countryside, and we read Edward’s crude and cruel sexual punning:
"Now,
Edward," said [Marianne], calling his attention to the prospect,
"here is Barton valley. Look up to it, and be tranquil if you can. Look at
those hills! Did you ever see their equals? To the left is Barton park, amongst
those woods and plantations. You may see the end of the house. And there,
beneath that farthest hill, which rises with such grandeur, is our
cottage."
"It
is a beautiful country," he replied; "but these bottoms must be dirty
in winter."
"How
can you think of dirt, with such objects before you?"
"Because,"
replied he, smiling, "among the rest of the objects before me, I see a
very dirty lane."
"How
strange!" said Marianne to herself as she walked on. …”
I say
it’s crude and cruel, because, in code, Marianne is saying to Edward that
Elinor (represented by the picturesque beauty of Barton Cottage) is right there
for the taking by him if he wants her—but he disdains and denigrates Elinor,
seeing her instead as a dirty bottom and a very dirty lane----much the same way,
as I have long suggested, that Wentworth, in startlingly parallel fashion, crudely
jokes to Louisa about the Asp (i.e, Anne) going to the bottom.
But
it’s even worse than that, if possible. When I revisited Chapter 16, this time I
kept firmly in mind the disturbing idea that Edward is really not that into
Elinor. And that raised a new question for me—if he wasn’t that into Elinor,
why in the world did he choose to visit Barton Cottage in the first place, when
he could just as easily have seen Lucy on the sly, without having to make any
lame excuses about walks in the countyside? As soon as I asked myself that
question, I knew the answer—it will shock you, both for what it says about
Edward, and also because it fits so perfectly with the circumstances of
Edward’s arrival at Barton Cottage that JA has slyly hidden in plain sight in
Chapter 16.
Without
further ado, here is the scene in which Edward first arrives at Barton Cottage:
“One
morning, about a week after [Willoughby’s] leaving the country, Marianne was
prevailed on to join her sisters in their usual walk, instead of wandering away
by herself. Hitherto she had carefully avoided every companion in her rambles.
If her sisters intended to walk on the downs, she directly stole away towards
the lanes; if they talked of the valley, she was as speedy in climbing the
hills, and could never be found when the others set off. But at length she was
secured by the exertions of Elinor, who greatly disapproved such continual
seclusion.”
So
far, nothing of especial note. But then…
“They
walked along the road through the valley, and chiefly in silence, for
Marianne's mind could not be
controlled, and Elinor, satisfied with gaining one point, would not then
attempt more. Beyond the entrance of the valley, where the country, though
still rich, was less wild and more open, a long stretch of the road which they
had travelled on first coming to Barton, lay before them; and on reaching that
point, they stopped to look around them, and examine a prospect which formed
the distance of their view from the cottage, from a spot which they had never
happened to reach in any of their walks before.”
So,
it seems that Marianne is mysteriously directing the three Dashwood sisters to
a new spot, where they have never previously gone. It seems to Elinor (whose
point of view controls this scene) that this is just Marianne’s aimless,
undisciplined mind sending them all off into the middle of nowhere, but is it
as random as it seems? After all, I first argued 13 years ago that Marianne and
Willoughby do not meet by accident, but Willoughby has been stalking Marianne—and
then, several years later, I realized that Marianne has actually placed herself
in that precise location, and had “accidentally” twisted her ankle at precisely
the right time, so as to be seen by Willoughby—therefore a kind of reciprocal
stalker-stalkee relationship!
What
if Marianne was at it again, but this time with Edward instead of Willoughby?
Let’s read on:
“Amongst
the objects in the scene, they soon discovered an animated one; it was a man on
horseback riding towards them. In a few minutes they could distinguish him to
be a gentleman; and in a moment afterwards Marianne rapturously exclaimed,
"It
is he; it is indeed;—I know it is!"—and was hastening to meet him, when
Elinor cried out,
"Indeed,
Marianne, I think you are mistaken. It is not Willoughby. The person is not
tall enough for him, and has not his air."
"He
has, he has," cried Marianne, "I am sure he has. His air, his coat,
his horse. I knew how soon he would come."
She
walked eagerly on as she spoke; and Elinor, to screen Marianne from
particularity, as she felt almost certain of its not being Willoughby,
quickened her pace and kept up with her. They were soon within thirty yards of
the gentleman. Marianne looked again; her heart sunk within her; and abruptly
turning round, she was hurrying back, when the voices of both her sisters were
raised to detain her; a third, almost as well known as Willoughby's, joined
them in begging her to stop, and she turned round with surprise to see and
welcome Edward Ferrars. “
Now, we
read that Marianne’s heart sinking, but this narration is from Elinor’s perspective, not Marianne’s.
What, then, if Marianne (who, we are told only a few paragraphs earlier in
Chapter 16, was a participant in the middle of a Dashwood family groupread of Hamlet) has been inspired by Hamlet’s
staging of The Mousetrap in order to
trap Claudius into showing his guilt, and has chosen to stage a revelatory pastoral
“scene” of her own devising? And, carrying this one logical step further, what
if Marianne became aware previously
(during one of those many prior solitary rambles
that worried Elinor so much) that Edward Ferrars was in the habit of using that
particular road at that general time of day, as he rode along from Plymouth to….frequent
trysts with Lucy?
Read
on, read on….
“He
was the only person in the world who could at that moment be forgiven for not
being Willoughby; the only one who could have gained a smile from her; but she
dispersed her tears to smile on HIM, and in her sister's happiness forgot for a
time her own disappointment.
He
dismounted, and giving his horse to his servant, walked back with them to
Barton, whither he was purposely coming to visit them.”
Now
here’s the crux of my argument today. Edward tells the three Dashwood sisters
that “he was purposely coming to visit them”—but what if he wasn’t? What if
Marianne stalked Edward, and had in effect trapped him en route to Lucy, such
that he had no choice but to make up the hasty excuse that he had intended to
visit Barton Cottage?
Read
on some more…
“He
was welcomed by them all with great cordiality, but especially by Marianne, who
showed more warmth of regard in her reception of him than even Elinor herself.
To Marianne, indeed, the meeting between Edward and her sister was but a
continuation of that unaccountable coldness which she had often observed at
Norland in their mutual behaviour. On Edward's side, more particularly, there
was a deficiency of all that a lover ought to look and say on such an occasion.
He was confused, seemed scarcely sensible of pleasure in seeing them, looked
neither rapturous nor gay, said little but what was forced from him by
questions, and distinguished Elinor by no mark of affection. Marianne saw and
listened with increasing surprise. She began almost to feel a dislike of
Edward; and it ended, as every feeling must end with her, by carrying back her
thoughts to Willoughby, whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking
to those of his brother elect.”
Now,
use Occam’s Razor here---we can either treat Edward as inexplicably being very
very muted in his expression of pleasure to suddenly meet them there in the
middle of nowhere, or…we can powerfully explain his reaction as his awareness
that he has been caught in a trap, and the last thing in the world he wanted
was to meet Elinor while he was on his way to Lucy!
“After
a short silence which succeeded the first surprise and enquiries of meeting,
Marianne asked Edward if he came directly from London. No, he had been in
Devonshire a fortnight.
"A
fortnight!" she repeated, surprised at his being so long in the same
county with Elinor without seeing her before.
He
looked rather distressed as he added, that he had been staying with some
friends near Plymouth. “
I don’t
think I need to add any further explanation for Edward’s having been “so long
in the same county with Elinor without seeing her before”—this makes perfect
sense if he has intended never to see
Elinor again!
And..his
getting Shanghai’d into a visit at Barton Cottage, which forces him to make
excuses about nature sightseeing, also provides a shocking new explanation for
why Lucy and her sister suddenly first appear at Barton Park, as guests of Sir
John and Mrs. Jennings, in Chapter 21 –we can see now that Lucy has shown up, because
now she knows—either from Edward or by her own devious means---that Elinor is
in the vicinity, and is a rival for Edward’s affections, and so must be
neutralized—at least, until Lucy can set in motion her domino-falling plot that
ends up with her marrying the weak-minded Robert Ferrars and then taking
control of the Ferrars family and its considerable fortune and power!
Cheers,
ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode
on Twitter
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