I am watching the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson movie and:
Emma Thompson claims that Lucy Steele knows that Elinor is, er, interested in Edward Ferrars and wants to oh-so-politely-but-firmly get Elinor to Back Off.
a. How would she know this (they’ve only just met), and
b. What difference would it make? Lucy and Edward are already secretly engaged. Edward may no longer be interested, but he is an honorable man and anyway Elinor has no claim.
I don’t think Lucy is a bad person, just kind of desperate to marry “up.”
Why does Fanny Dashwood hate her half-sisters-in-law so much and like Lucy so much? If the Dashwoods are poor, it’s because Fanny talked her husband out of supporting them! And Lucy is even worse off than they are financially and socially!
How much does Miss Grey know about John Willoughby, and does she care? If I were beautiful and loaded and had to get married, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to marry the sort of man who does the things Willoughby has done. (Maybe their families have known each other for a while and this was planned, like Darcy and Miss de Bourgh.)
Why aren’t the Dashwoods appalled by Willoughby’s character? Why don’t they thank their lucky stars that Marianne lost him? They should never be willing to speak of him again.
I’ll just have to reread the book by candlelight while I ride out hurricane Irene! As if I needed an excuse. I’ve read it a couple of times but have watched the heck out of the film.
In the film support for your first question comes from Lucy saying in a very pointed way how she’d be nervous if Edward ever spoke of one woman more than any other. Follwed by “But of course he’s never given me cause to worry on that score” or whatever the line is. I’ve always taken the actress’ reading of that line to mean she really IS threatened by Elinor and is telling her to back off. I suspect Edward in his loyalty probably writes her often - or his letters started to be more spaced out and that made her suspect (all inferred, no basis in anything from the film or book as far as I know).
Perhaps Fanny understands even on a subconscious level that if she were to open her heart to the Dashwood girls then she’d have to acknowledge their status as members of her family and her husband would have to do better by them. Or maybe she’s just an awful awful person. In the film I also wonder if her praise of Lucy is fake and calculated just to get information out of her.
From the tone of Willoughby’s note to Marianne it seems to me that he at least knows how he ought to behave. I imagine Miss Grey sees the charming (apparently) wealthy man and not the real Willoughby. To me it’s similar to something that’s touched on in Pride and Prejudice. Darcy cannot expose Wickham without embarassing his sister. Colonel Brandon can’t expose Willoughby without revealing a lot of stuff he clearly prefers to keep private.
Certainly they are apalled. In the commentary Emma T. draws parallels between Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood. From that I can imagine them both romanticizing Willoughby in a way that keeps them from having to hate him, which might turn them bitter.
At the end of the film I’m always left wondering why it’s okay for Robert F to marry Lucy. I nnow that the book answers this in some way, but I have a mental block and never remember.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie, but I’ll try to answer based on the book.
Fanny and her mother Mrs. Ferrars like Lucy because Lucy is playing them like a fiddle. Fanny and Mrs. Ferrars are vain snobs, and Lucy is good at flattering/manipulating them. (This is why Mrs. F comes to accept Lucy’s marriage to Robert.)
The novel reveals very little about Miss Grey, but she’s presumably in the dark about much of Willoughby’s past.
I can’t remember if Mrs. Dashwood is ever told about Willoughby’s history with Col. Brandon’s ward; if not she may not think as badly of him as her daughters do. But it’s my recollection that by the end of the novel the Dashwoods agree that he was a charming jerk who may deserve some pity but who Marianne is definitely better off without. Everyone is happy she winds up with a much more reliable and respectable husband.
In the book, doesn’t Willoughby explain that Miss Grey was standing over him, dictating his letter to Marianne? And that’s why it was so formal and cold?
No, you’re right. Miss Grey knew about Marianne, at least to some extent, but he probably did his best to play it down. I don’t think she knew about Col. Brandon’s ward.
Edward is the first-born son. He stands to inherit everything. He no longer loves Lucy but is obliged to hold to his promise to marry her and intends to do so. But as much as Fanny and Mrs. Ferrars seem to like Lucy, she’s clearly not good enough to marry Edward, and when the secret engagement comes to light, Lucy is rejected by both. Edward sticks to his promise to marry and after some wrangling with Mama, she “disinherits” him and promises the estate to Robert.
Now Edward is too poor for Lucy, and his family won’t have her anyway, so they “agree” to break their engagement. Edward is free to marry Elinor and Lucy is free to marry Robert and gets the money anyway. Somehow Robert gets away with marrying a woman both his mother and sister abhor and Lucy is fine with being abhorred by her mother- and sister-in-law, as long as she gets the money. Presumably they all have long, awkward family get-togethers for the rest of their lives.
Lamia, I agree with you about Lucy playing the Ferrarses like a fiddle. So she has one talent, anyway.
Another thought: the movie makes it seem like the Ferrarses are somewhat nouveau riche in that Fanny is grabby and tight with money and apparently has rather garish taste (her line about having something at Norland pulled down to make way for a Grecian temple; the scene in London where the whole family is walking through town and the screenplay suggests Fanny is wearing a foofy, overdone hat). She also has that dismissive line at Norland about the old books “These are mostly foreign.”