Jane Austen For Dummies (35 page)

If the father didn't leave sufficient financial resources to enable his widow and unmarried daughters to live comfortably, the responsibility fell on his sons. Of course, not all sons did this, but in Austen's personal world, they did. As noted in Chapter 3, when Mr. Austen died, his sons got together and supplied their mother and two sisters with an annual income of £450. (That's about $47,500 in retail power for the year 2004.)

Jane Austen also speaks to the brotherly responsibility in
Pride and Prejudice:
The young Lucas boys are relieved that their 28-year-old spinster sister, Charlotte, marries Mr. Collins. Hypothetically, they would've helped her, but they might never have let her forget it!

What happens when there are no brothers or sons to take care of the women? Unless the ladies have generous friends, they're out of luck.

And friends are just who Mrs. and Miss Bates have to lean on in
Emma
. Mrs. Bates is the widow of the local clergyman, whose death left his wife and unmarried daughter with no pension income — like the Austen ladies. But unlike the Austen ladies, there are no Bates brothers or sons to help the two women. Consequently, the two Bates ladies are now out of the vicarage and living in the village in rented rooms above a business. Because of their residual genteel status, and because Highbury, their village, is a generous one, the Bates ladies are the object of kindness from Mr. Knightley, who sends them apples from his estate, and Emma Woodhouse, who sends them pork from the family livestock. They still get to join the upper set of Highbury but in a secondary role.

Society expected women of the gentry to have certain social skills and talents so they could be good wives, mothers, and hostesses for their husbands' estates. Austen recites these expectations through Miss Bingley, who certainly thinks of herself as an accomplished woman, in a scene in
Pride and Prejudice:

To this list, Darcy responds, “‘[A]nd to this, she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.'” His use of the words “more substantial” suggests that Miss Bingley's list is composed of insubstantial learning. Let's face it: How intellectually “accomplished” can Miss Bingley be when she picks up the second volume of a book to read only because Darcy is reading the first volume (PP 1:11)? Yet Miss Bingley and her sister had expensive educations (PP 1:4), which doesn't say much for expensive, fashionable educations for girls.

As for Elizabeth's reading: Yes, she does pick up a book to read while at Netherfield instead of joining a group playing cards, leading Miss Bingley to taunt her by saying that Elizabeth “‘despises cards. She is a great reader and has no pleasure in anything else.'” But Elizabeth immediately replies, “‘I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.'” But Elizabeth Bennet could not be the articulate and clever young woman that she proves herself to be (and that attracts Darcy, who wants the accomplished woman to improve her mind!) if she didn't read and think about what she read. To Miss Bingley's and Mr. Darcy's combined list of traits for the “accomplished woman,” Elizabeth cleverly retorts, “‘I am no longer surprised at your knowing
only
six accomplished women. I rather wonder at your knowing
any
.'” That would include Miss Bingley, herself! Jane Austen felt very much like Elizabeth! For Austen never gives Miss Bingley anything sensible to say, especially around Darcy, whom she is always futilely trying to impress.

The most fashionable, educational, and expensive institution for young ladies was the seminary. While the word “seminary” suggests today a place for religious education, these seminaries were just fancy schools for rich girls. At the seminary, the students learned sewing (“work”), reading, writing, mathematics, French, and history. Special dancing, music (instrument and singing), and art classes were also included, sometimes for extra tuition. The seminaries in London were especially desirable because they helped students get rid of their country accents and acquire the posh, southern London accent.

While the wealthy confidently sent their daughters to seminaries, Austen doesn't give high marks to ladies with seminary educations:

While seminaries boarded students, regular, less fashionable boarding schools for girls located in the country and in towns and cities other than London also existed. In fact, many girls of the gentry went to boarding schools that weren't seminaries. Because of the absence of any standardized curriculum, schools taught what they wanted to teach. Girls' education was pretty basic. Arriving with some rudimentary knowledge from home (sewing, arithmetic, basic writing, and reading skills), the boarding students continued with reading and writing, as well as history, sewing, arithmetic, and geography. They might also have lessons in dancing, music, and French for extra fees from outside masters brought to the school.

“A real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding school” is shown in
Emma
with Mrs. Goddard's school (E 1:3). Here, Austen continues, “a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and . . . girls might be sent to be out of the way and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies.” In the novel, the simple and not particularly bright Harriet Smith is the product of Mrs. Goddard's school. The fictional school is likely inspired by Austen's own experience in boarding school as a child.
Persuasion
's Anne Elliot also went to a boarding school in Bath when she was a young girl. She appears to have been well educated: She reads the latest poets and speaks Italian with such fluency that she can do sight translations of Italian musical lyrics into beautiful English. While Harriet's simplicity and bad grammar — Harriet says Robert Martin's sisters, her fellow students at Mrs. Goddard's, “‘are quite as well educated as me'” — don't say much for the training she had there, Anne certainly benefited from her boarding-school education. Austen's depictions of such schools in her novels suggest an affectionate remembrance of her own days at boarding school, especially at the Abbey School. (For more on Jane Austen's education at boarding school, see Chapter 3.)

A highly fashionable way to educate one's daughter(s) was to hire a governess — a female tutor who lived with the family. This live-in staff member accomplished two goals: The family had both a live-in educator and a female companion or chaperone for the girls when they went for walks, carriage rides, and so on. Many girls with governesses had all of their education at home until they were well into their teens. The subjects would be the same as at the seminaries or boarding schools. And again, special masters could be hired to supplement the girls' education in dancing, music, and art.

The governess was so common in families of the gentry that in
Pride and Prejudice,
the officious Lady Catherine de Bourgh is surprised that Elizabeth's mother, with five daughters, didn't have a governess for them. Lady Catherine is, of course, a vocal supporter of governesses: “‘I always say that nothing is to be done in education without steady and regular instruction, and nobody but a governess can give it'” (PP 2:6). Ironically, Lady Catherine's only child, a daughter who's about Elizabeth's age, and the product of education by a governess, is quiet, withdrawn, boring, and totally uncommunicative. Of course, we need to keep in mind, however, that having a controlling mother like Lady Catherine might well lead to inhibitions and insecurities in her daughter. (Reading Jane Austen sometimes leads one to play Psychology 101!)

Maria and Julia Bertram of
Mansfield Park
were also educated by a governess, as well as by their Aunt Norris. But while they've been taught art and music, we never see them paint or hear them play. Furthermore, they're “entirely deficient in the less common acquirements of self-knowledge, generosity, and humility” (MP 1:2). That's quite a damning comment about the Bertram girls' education.

Because education wasn't mandatory, many young ladies never went to school or had a governess. But this lack of formal education doesn't mean that children grew up illiterate and ignorant. As Elizabeth tells Lady Catherine, “‘[S]uch of us as wished to learn, never wanted the means. We were always encouraged to read, and had all the masters that were necessary'” (PP 2:6). Young Jane Austen spent only short periods at boarding school. Having access to her father's excellent library, she would discuss her reading with her parents and siblings. And with a father who ran a small boarding school for boys, young Jane joined the boys for instruction.

Austen never includes in her novels a father like her own. Her dad was well-educated, clever, intelligent, gentle, and interested in all of his children's learning. Elizabeth Bennet, Catherine Morland, and the Dashwood sisters are all products of educations at the hands of their mothers. But none of these heroines makes the moral errors (the Bertram sisters), shows the personality flaws (Emma, the Bingley sisters), or reveals personal dullness (Anne de Bourgh) that Austen's seminary or governess-educated females do.

The French salon of the 17th century encouraged the development of women's ability to make charming conversation. But as Chapter 12's discussion of the influence of Doctors Fordyce and Gregory (Doctors of Divinity, not medical doctors) emphasized, English gentlewomen were expected to be quiet, to hide their knowledge, to behave with delicacy, to avoid “manly” activities like running, and so forth. The whole point of being a lady meant pleasing her husband. Even the great English bluestocking (member of a mid-18th-century group of women devoted to intellectual conversation and charitable causes), Lady Mary Wortley Montague, though she wrote poetry championing women, advised them to keep their learning hidden from men.

All of Austen's heroines are ladies: They move and dance well; they display gracefulness, moderation, and decorum. And while Marianne Dashwood did fall running down a hill, remember that it was raining at the time and that ladies' shoes were delicate with no traction! However, a closer look at Austen's heroines also reveals that these ladies partake in some unladylike behavior, reflecting Austen's opinion of her day's prescription for mannerly ladies. (See Chapter 12 for more on how ladies learned their manners).