Men, Women, and the Willful Mi
Female speech in Jane Austen's novels is heavily dictated by the whims of her male characters, and although "female speech is never entirely repressed in Austen's fiction, it is dictated so as to mirror or otherwise reassure masculine desire" (Johnson 37). However, there are times when women stray from the gendered rules of speech and, in expressing their opinions, threaten male control over discourse. In these situations men resort to either willful misinterpretation or forced silence in order to draw women back into their verbal control. Mary Crawford and Elizabeth Bennet are two of Austen's more dynamic threats to male control over discourse, but even the meek and modest Fanny Price can become a threat by departing from the gendered rules of speech. When she refuses Henry's proposal, Sir Thomas is stunned, having "expected from Fanny a cheerful readiness to be guided. Her resistance implies an assumption of self-responsibility that challenges his authority" (Johnson 104). Mary and Elizabeth are atypical of Austen's female characters in that their freedom of speech means that they do not need men to educate them or to form their opinions. Other heroines, such as Catherine Morland, are lost without a man to guide them. W
Elizabeth's behavior in this situation is analogous to General Tilney's behavior with both Eleanor and Catherine. But in an interesting twist, Elizabeth, in one of the freer moments with Darcy at the end of the novel, takes it upon herself to explain to Darcy why he fell in love with her. He explains Elizabeth's behavior to her as typical of those "young ladies who reject the addresses of the man whom they secretly mean to accept, when he first applies for their favor" (PP 82). But Mansfield Park is the epitome of female imprisonment, where female speech is curtailed from childhood on. This allows the men to co-opt women's voices and turn the women into modest and pliable mates. He interprets her words as a "mirror" that reflects back at him his desire for marriage, and he projects his feelings onto Elizabeth. Collins also argues the point on what he sees as the quintessential female anxiety: that she will never be as lucky as to receive another marriage proposal. Elizabeth's protestations mean nothing because Collins cannot conceive of a woman who would act outside of the gendered rules of speech. Crawford then becomes a background figure while Sir Thomas attempts to convince Fanny that she, like Elizabeth, is simply playing the role of the love struck and (unlike Elizabeth) modest female by refusing Crawford: "I know he spoke to you yesterday, and (as far as I understand), received as much encouragement to proceed as a well-judging young woman could permit herself to give" (MP 284). This is the ultimate submission of a woman to the male control of discourse a chilling portrait of women's fate if men are successful in maintaining that control. And even once Sir Thomas accepts that Fanny has or, rather, believes she has reservations about marrying Crawford, he insists that she "does not quite know her own feelings" (MP 286). ) Darcy disapproves of Elizabeth's family, but he does not disapprove of her personality, even if it includes her un-feminine loquaciousness. Indeed, the Bertram sisters' education consists of learning "to repress all the flow of their spirits before [Sir Thomas]" (MP 16). Although there is no explicit "repression" of their speech, the willful misinterpretation is as effective as any physical repression could be. While Elizabeth is the charismatic heroine of her story, Mary, who shares many of her traits, is an anti-heroine.
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Acceptance Essays
