JANE AUSTEN'S PARENTS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20026, 6 September 1930, Page 13

JANE AUSTEN'S PARENTS.

it . ' v.stt in the "Nation."] *ASH, m in ofl K to which Mrs Wool* pic win the family sitting-room (T?J%*>ut hate, without bitter,.7Lt fear.-without protest," fc-rth days Mrs Woolf, she tot tu. verdict J some qualification, id 1 - t tha t in dealing with *JI *» M ' wholl)r " ee "7 &£■***■ ra » t h j" T; ** ? u rtav of course, only have W ridicule can kill as L ..'more ponderous weapons, to ask if her tfdW selection and presentation j#^,L ]o3fr 'lethal intend If she did she go about it m ibM° nitte r pir n th £\ with! Or did she M Si wc call it, a for ftnrticularly mothers, 10^her to ruthlessnessf u Sifed HP repfesent types not to be Something is seriously, if aniiss with them all, at tho case of the full-length None of them understand > torn care for their offspring, what with their pomposities and m Lu«neiel. their imbecilities and eJ»p!^® el ' £ a g roU p of objects no parallel in fiction. It '!?$*?«/{ I suppose, be agreed that Jane on the side of the children, to conceal it. She &£?!« know, devoted to young & and to be befriended by such fe'tfas the joy and ambition of S' and ni ® coß - Th " , 18 ffiav tWlt she openly showed her reof tho parental thwartiftgs, Eefc and spoiflngs visited on her SSfaf eh»tSoters. Of course not, but SSJjaik ourselves why Lydia eloped, drooped, and how it was that SJt a heroine could scramble out of M family circle unscathed, we have %'tO look at the parental portraits Answer. i' be further elucidated rotind her gallery of Iter Elliot is familiar ype of the pomposity nmemorated in many pedimented country er, M Miss Austen tells rely gentle way, "was As a preposterous y ranks very high. By 3destal, we See Elizftliot, while Anne, who te Elliot at any price, Sir Thomas Bertram e of parental respontook a painful form anxious parent" and e" to his daughters: manner "repressed all Spirits before him." ice of Sir Thomas ly circle at Mansfield (tee that when he deyou have a sense of n up, that cynic and Mr Bennet, cast a on the household, at e was clearly tmen:ap of top-hamper in ital responsibility, in passing that Miss exculpatory touch to her lackadaisical re u& know that both had v married women tractions were by no ' their understanding >ecnli&r to that age. sh the figures of Lady Bennet we recognise All Jane Austen's r are lavjshed on the tose sofds, and the d in Lady Bertram's ioa of the deplorable ister, poor Mrs Price, is the authors of the iiggest, we may study Lady Bertram would id pitched her off her marriages were not a motif, and she was r to pillory a widoW 'married couple. Obtrs Ferrars, who made lightmare, and nearly ' Rood, and all. For of school, university, oVide their quota of er widow, Mrs Dashroted mother in 4 senr a dreadful goose in Ith her daughters, widower, was an unhand his conduct rfn- - iopen to Catherine's farding Mrs Tllney's thing to be said on cious domestio tyrant jbe figures in was in f*Up of the romantic Jte the insipid Lady insult up her two boys pf the household and , for her husband's I. to pack the house uestft. And there is lie;- younger, another t, a selfish creature, I . when things went sery. Mr Musgrove, lertram and Mr Ben his wife's expense: '6 With Lady Russell ■ real understanding more consequence to id more usefulness, egance to his habits i fourth case of the sr, another character M to Mr Woodhouse, thanthat when. Miss lown—or a pantaloon iough to fall back on eerl&ok the masterly Mrs MusgTove, the blameless mother! en * ie can judge, with no >ind than was proper earing that Captain coming over from rcross, she bethought fl Commander Wenti a son of hers, long en service. Could it •tirely innocent and • But observe: "That mid have been suda recollection of the hj, as connected with one of those extratnmd which do somewhen Captain Wentout to be the right ablished on the sofa, e is murmuring reear, comes the elec "Mrs Musgrove was substantial size, inby nature to express Gd humour than tenment," and Captain e told, "should be edit for the selflich he attended to lugs over the destiny ve. nobody had cared 1 allowance for Mrs f : .of mind and pleniMJd for the circumMusgrove seems to 7 prepossessing, Miss 1 out as a downright Passaga xeminda one ;

of the way she sometimes opens her heart in letters to her sister. Parental prerogative, of course, ran much higher then than in our time; but Miss Austen's circle did include some parents in human shape; her own parents appear to have been not unkind or unreasonable, and the letters show us many pleasant and sane people whose children were well enough handled. Even in the novels we come across what may be described as normal couples, like the Morlands, the Gardiners of Graeechurch street, the John Knightleys and the Harvilles, on mutual good terms and in happy relations with their children. But they are invariably to be found in the background or middle distance, whereas a cardinal position in the plot or character scheme of each of the novels is assigned to at least one foolish or maleficent parent. Whether Jane Austen meant these extraordinary persons to represent the prevailing or only the most obnoxious parental types we have no means of knowing. The letters destroyed by Cassandra Austen might have told us. However that may be, her experience would seem to have induced in her an nnassuagable desire to show them up and to go on showing them up. It was a task of which she never wearied, and it was carried out ruthlessly and in a mood, as one sometimes suspects, of unholy glee. She certainly contrived to leave a handsome arsonal of high explosives to the revolting daughters. How could a daughter be asked to honour her father and mother if they were anything like Jane Austen's parental