I have
been struck by the number of wealthy older women in Jane Austen’s novels who
exercise stringent financial control over various young male relations.
The importance of money: 19th
century reticule
In this
post, I shall look at three examples; firstly, Mrs Churchill, the rich aunt by
marriage of Frank Churchill in Emma. She brought him up after his
mother’s death and dotes on him but that hasn’t stopped her from exercising
strict control over his life. She is generous to him; he obviously has plenty
of spending money but it comes at her discretion, and she is a capricious
woman. He is supposed to be her heir – he changed his name from Weston to
Churchill on his coming of age – but it is not official. Interestingly, Mrs
Churchill is entirely off stage; we never meet her but her influence is
profound.
Frank comes to Highbury (with
Emma and Harriet)
Mrs
Churchill’s main role is surely to show facets of Frank’s character. He is only
twenty-three, and, as Mr Knightley tells Emma, ‘A young man, brought up by
those who are proud, luxurious and selfish (is bound to be) proud,
luxurious and selfish, too.’ He doesn’t cut Frank any slack. He points out
that ‘we hear of him forever at some watering-place or other; a little while
ago he was in Weymouth. This proves he can leave the Churchills
(implication: if he really wanted to).’
Frank Churchill chatting to Emma
Mr
Knightley ends by saying, ‘It is Frank Churchill’s duty to pay this attention
to his father (visiting him on his marriage). He knows it to be so by
all his promises and messages; it he wished to do it, it might be done.’
Frank’s omission is discourteous towards the new Mrs Weston, in particular. He
wrote her ‘a very handsome letter’ but the actual visit keeps getting
put off.
The
reader gathers that Mrs Churchill is jealous of Frank’s relationship with his
father. Even so, there may be something else behind Frank’s procrastination.
Mr Woodhouse is concerned for
Jane Fairfax’s health
Frank
has a secret, one which could have serious repercussions if his aunt gets to
hear of it; he is secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax, whom he met in
Weymouth. Jane is acknowledged by all to be beautiful, talented and cultured.
Unfortunately, she has no money and Mrs Churchill’s jealous nature could lead
her to disinherit Frank. The reader realizes, much later, that Frank only
appears in Highbury when Jane Fairfax returns to her aunt and grandmother who
live there.
Mrs Smith dismisses Willoughby
My
second wealthy female relation is Mrs Smith, the elderly cousin of Willoughby
in Sense and Sensibility. Willoughby is her presumed heir but this, as
with Frank Churchill, is unofficial and could be revoked. Willoughby at least
has some money of his own, what Sir John Barton calls ‘A very pretty estate’
in Somerset, worth about £600 p.a. It’s not a lot for a gentleman but, if he
chose to live modestly, he and Marianne could manage. To complicate matters,
Willoughby has been living beyond his means and is in debt. He visits Mrs Smith
at Allenham every year, just to keep her sweet, and he does his best to keep
secret his unsavoury seduction of the sixteen-year-old Eliza, the ward of Mrs
Smith’s neighbour, Colonel Brandon. Mrs Smith, like Mrs Churchill, is off stage
and we never meet her.
Willoughby’s
seduction of Eliza and her having had his child, has made Willoughby’s personal
situation far more perilous than Frank’s. When Mrs Smith discovers it, she
demands that he marries Eliza. Willoughby refuses and what follows is a total
breach.
That
night, before he leaves Allenham, Willoughby wrestles with his conscience and
decides that, much though he loves Marianne, it is ‘insufficient to outweigh
the dread of poverty, or get the better of those false ideas of the necessity
of riches.’ He abandons Marianne without any real explanation, causing her
a great deal of distress, and goes to London to find a rich wife.
Ironically,
once he is married, Mrs Smith relents. She approves of his marriage to a ‘woman
of character’, and reinstates him as her heir. He gets what he thought he
wanted – money, but loses what he has come to realize is far more valuable,
marriage to a woman he loves.
Mrs Ferrars
My
third rich older woman is the widow, Mrs Ferrars, the mother of the hero,
Edward Ferrars, in Sense and Sensibility. Edward, as her elder son, is
the heir but he is not financially independent. He has £2,000 of his own which
brings in a mere £100 p.a., not a sum a gentleman can live on. Edward, too,
must dance to his mother’s tune. Mrs Ferrars appears two thirds of the way
through the book when Elinor and Marianne visit their half-brother in
London. Elinor and Marianne pay a call on him, together with Lucy and
Nancy Steele.
This is
the only time we see Mrs Ferrars for ourselves. She is a little, thin woman
with ‘a strong character of pride and ill nature’ She suspects
that Edward loves Elinor and ‘eyes her with the spirited determination of
disliking her at all events’, addressing not a single word to her. Instead,
she pays a lot of flattering attention to Lucy Steele who has been secretly
engaged to Edward for four years.
Lucy confides in Elinor
about her secret engagement to Edward
The
reader knows that sooner or later Lucy’s engagement to Edward will come out.
What will Mrs Ferrars do? For the rest of the book, she’s off stage, but Jane
Austen allows Lucy several scenes triumphing over Elinor (Lucy suspects an
attachment between Edward and Elinor). We also hear from Lucy’s
cousin, Mrs Jennings, that Mrs Ferrars has cut Edward off without a
penny; and from an appalled John Dashwood, Elinor’s half-brother, who can’t
understand why Edward won’t marry the rich Miss Morton; and from Lucy’s vulgar
sister, Nancy. The eaction of each illuminates the respective characters.
Edward
does as a gentleman ought; he stands by his engagement to Lucy, though he has
long since ceased to love her. Now almost penniless, he moves into cheap
lodgings. His only option is to take Holy Orders (which he wants) but, without
the help of a rich patron, he’ll be lucky to find a curacy, which, notoriously,
paid a pittance; £50 p.a. was not unusual.
Edward arrives at Barton Cottage
to propose to Elinor
Colonel
Brandon steps in and generously offers him a living. It is only worth £200 a
year but it means that Edward is no longer homeless and has a future. Robert,
his asinine brother, now officially Mrs Ferrars’ heir and with the income that
should have been Edward’s, elopes with the artful Lucy. Mrs Ferrars becomes
reconciled with Edward, accepts his marriage to Elinor, and gives him £10,000,
the sum she gave her daughter Fanny on her marriage to John Dashwood.
National
Portrait Gallery. Jane Austen after Cassandra Austen, stipple engraving,
published 1870
I find
it interesting that Jane Austen has three rich, older women who pull strings to
control younger male relations. Mrs Churchill and Mrs Ferrars are both
seriously manipulative and unpleasant. Ultimately, Mrs Churchill’s death
removes the obstacle to Frank’s marriage with Jane. Mrs Ferrars has to give way
and allow Edward a decent sum of money, even if it is only half of what he
should have had. Both women’s behaviour ratchets up the dramatic tension, and
tests the young men’s mettle, which is something every author should be looking
to do.
Mrs
Smith isn’t overly intrusive; she doesn’t have a prospective bride waiting in
the wings, for example. She thinks as a right-thinking woman should. Willoughby
complains about ‘the purity of her life, the formality of her notions, her
ignorance of the world,’ and tries to dismiss her outlook as old-fashioned,
but his speech only serves to show up his selfish disregard for Eliza, Marianne
and Mrs Smith herself. Out of the three young men, Willoughby is the one who
really loses out.
Reading Lady
I
discussed this post with my Mediaeval historian brother who said that
anyone from a similar background in the 14th century would have understood
the problem instantly. It was the norm until comparatively
recently that the older generation controlled the family money.
He
reminded me that marriage settlements ensured that a widow had
her dowry, but she was also legally entitled to ‘the widow’s
third.’ That could tie up an awful lot of money.
Illustrations
from Emma and Sense and Sensibility by Hugh Thomson
Elizabeth
Hawksley
I turned up the most marvellous contemporary treatise on
poisons on Google books, which tells me exactly what was known about, thought
about and how to recognise every possible poison you could think of, and some
you couldn’t. This was for the third book in my Lady Fan Mystery series. You
can also dig up lots of accounts of horrific 18th century murders, which is
extremely helpful, thank you, generating plenty of ideas.
