“Kind love & good wishes for a happy New Year to you all” — Letter from 1817
Mrs. Bennet fretting over her poor nerves.
Jane Austen cautioned heroines against swooning since her Juvenalia writings. Love and Friendship is full of swooning young heroines so overcome with emotion in stressful situations that they faint under pressure, temporarily deprived of their senses.
At one point in the epistolary novel, Laura, the heroine, gets advice from her friend Sophia to “run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint,” suggesting, as Ellen Martin writes, that running mad at lease sustains consciousness.
“Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint.”
Elsewhere in Austen’s fiction, we see Mrs. Bennet complaining about her nerves from the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice.
“Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way! You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves.
“You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least.”
And while others spring into action, Mrs. Bennet takes to her bed upon hearing the news of Lydia running away with Mr. Wickham and living together in sin.
In Persuasion, too, we have the swooning Louisa Musgrove, who takes a near-fatal fall when she jumps from a stone wall in Lyme before Captain Wentworth (with whom she’s been flirting) is ready to catch her.
In Anne Elliot, we have a heroine who keeps her cool, who shows how to remain conscious and take action under pressure—while everyone else around her has a meltdown.
Anne, attending with all strength and zeal, and thought, which instinct supplied, to Henrietta, still tried, at intervals, to suggest comfort to the others, tried to quiet Mary, to animate Charles, to assuage the feelings of Captain Wentworth. Both seemed to look to her for directions.
“Anne, Anne,” cried Charles, “what is to be done next? What, in heaven’s name, is to be done next?”
Captain Wentworth’s eyes were also turned towards her.
“Had not she better be carried to the inn? Yes, I am sure: carry her gently to the inn.”
In 2023, sustain consciousness. Faint not under pressure or to gain the attentions of a suitor.
Happy New Year, modern heroines!
P.S. What are some of your resolutions for 2023? Share them in the thread!
Share this post
Resolution #2: Get off your fainting couch
Share this post
“Kind love & good wishes for a happy New Year to you all”
— Letter from 1817
Jane Austen cautioned heroines against swooning since her Juvenalia writings. Love and Friendship is full of swooning young heroines so overcome with emotion in stressful situations that they faint under pressure, temporarily deprived of their senses.
At one point in the epistolary novel, Laura, the heroine, gets advice from her friend Sophia to “run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint,” suggesting, as Ellen Martin writes, that running mad at lease sustains consciousness.
Elsewhere in Austen’s fiction, we see Mrs. Bennet complaining about her nerves from the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice.
And while others spring into action, Mrs. Bennet takes to her bed upon hearing the news of Lydia running away with Mr. Wickham and living together in sin.
In Persuasion, too, we have the swooning Louisa Musgrove, who takes a near-fatal fall when she jumps from a stone wall in Lyme before Captain Wentworth (with whom she’s been flirting) is ready to catch her.
In Anne Elliot, we have a heroine who keeps her cool, who shows how to remain conscious and take action under pressure—while everyone else around her has a meltdown.
In 2023, sustain consciousness. Faint not under pressure or to gain the attentions of a suitor.
Happy New Year, modern heroines!
P.S. What are some of your resolutions for 2023? Share them in the thread!