Category: Notes on books

I’ve been thinking of EBB’s Sonnet 14 .

Do not say I love her for her smile – her look – her way of speaking gently, for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine

She says, implicitly, I will age, I will change, and I want to be loved for who I am. Not her “smile,” “look,” or “speaking,” but something of soul’s senses. Anyways, this reminds me of marriage in Pride and Prejudice:

Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation, and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.

Spoken by Charlotte, who is so much more pragmatic, or so it seems, than EBB. She is motivated by a desire not to be an economic burden to her parents and, not unreasonably, thinks that the situation with Mr Collins offers her a respectable future. I love the episode in P&P when Elizabeth visits them and takes the measure of the marriage, noting for example that Charlotte has positioned her reading room so that she minimizes exposure to her husband.