Monday, April 9, 2012
Vanity in the men
I find it interesting that many of Austen's men have been very vain and image conscious, more so than some of the women, since that was primarily thought of as a feminine trait. For example, the opening description of Sir Walter Elliot describes him as "Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter's character", but later states that "His looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he owed a wife of very superior character to anything deserved by his own" (p 47). In some of my research for the paper, I found arguments that some of Austen's feminist writing traits are her showing that men are capable of the same superficiality as women. She shows men and women as being both vain and sensible instead of sticking one trait with the stereotypical gender. Although Sir Walter Elliot gets his family into debt and picks his favorite daughter based on vanity, he does seem to care since he doesn't get married for his daughter's sake. In place of a mother, again, there is a rich widow running the plot, which seems to be a staple in all of Austen's novels.
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I agree I find that very interesting. In this novel another person who is somewhat vain is Wentworth. He is not as vain so much in his personal appearance but in his want for an attractive wife. He places much on the superficiality of their looks. He, seemingly, has lost interest in Anne because she was "altered beyond his knowledge" because "the years...had destroyed her youth and bloom" (95). However, Wentworth is ready to marry any woman who is "between fifteen and thirty may have me for asking. A little beauty, and a few smiles, anda few compliment to the navy, and I am a lost man" (96). In looking for a wife he just wants a pretty girl who likes the navy. While this is not personal vanity this kind of shallowness certainly indicates some lack of depth in how he views his own person.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that many of the men in Persuasion are even more vain than the women in the novel. In one of the excerpts from a feminine conduct manual in an appendix of Mansfield Park (apologies for being so vague, I don’t have the book on me!), the (male) author explains that vanity is not feminine, and that it is actually one of the most dangerous qualities a woman can possess. It is interesting, then, that the men in this novel would exhibit vain tendencies so liberally. Of course, they are not concerned with acting in an unfeminine manner. However, vanity seems like a generally negative trait all around, so I would think men would still want to avoid coming off that way. Actually, though, I appreciate the way Austen lets her characters act out of vanity. Though it is undesirable, it is realistic. As Tara points out, Austen “shows men and women as being both vain and sensible instead of sticking one trait with the stereotypical gender.” In reality, men can be just as vain as women, and almost everyone at one point or another acts in a way that is motivated by self-absorption. I read Austen’s vain male characters as just one more example of the realism and true-to-life nature of her novels.
ReplyDeleteIn the second half of the novel, I loved the not-so-subtle reference to Sir Walter's vanity in Admiral Croft's notice of his large number of looking glasses in his dressing room: "'I have done very little besides sending away some of the large looking-glasses from my dressing-room, which was your father's. A very good man, and very much the gentleman I am sure - but I should think, Miss Elliot' (looking with serious reflection) 'I should think he must be rather a dressy man for his time of life. - Such a number of looking-glasses! oh Lord! there was no getting away from oneself" (Austen 151). At this point, Austen really shows the humor in Sir Walter's self-obsession, mirroring (quite literally) his interest in the Baronetage book.
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