What you may ask has the author Jane Austen to do with the dialectic? Well, quite a lot, if one look at one of her main novels, Sense and Sensibility which I have just finished reading for the umpteenth time. On the one hand, Austen seems to follow what Alistair MacIntyre terms as Aristotle’s ‘virtue ethics’ and, on the other hand, she expertly uses Plato’s dialectical method to show what practical wisdom or prudence actually is, and what its opposite is.
She uses the dialectic to introduce the two principal characters of her novel, Elinor, who represents good sense, and Marianne who represents an extreme sense of affection. Elinor tries to govern her feelings, while her sister, Marianne, is resolved never to restrict hers. This contrast is repeated throughout the novel.
The Story
The story revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Whereas the former is a sensible, rational creature, her younger sister is wildly romantic –a characteristic that offers Austen plenty of scope for both satire and compassion. Commenting on Edward Ferrars, a potential suitor for Elinor’s hand, Marianne admits that while she “loves him tenderly,” she finds him disappointing as a possible lover for her sister.
Soon however, Marianne meets a man who measures up to her ideal: Mr. Willoughby, a new neighbor. So swept away by passion is Marianne that her behavior begins to border on the scandalous. Then Willoughby abandons her; meanwhile, Elinor’s growing affection for Edward suffers a check when he admits he is secretly engaged to a childhood sweetheart. How each of the sisters reacts to their romantic misfortunes, and the lessons they draw before coming finally to the requisite happy ending, forms the heart of the novel.
Though Marianne’s disregard for social conventions and willingness to consider the world well-lost for love may appeal to modern readers, it is Elinor whom Austen herself most evidently admired; a truly happy marriage, she shows us, exists only where sense and sensibility meet and mix in proper measure.
(Summary from The Literature Network)
Practical Wisdom
Practical wisdom is the internal search for practical knowledge to help us find the best way to behave and communicate. Some ancient Greek philosophers were famous for their quest for harmony, order and equilibrium in their behavior. It is like a search for the right proportion or the right measure of behavior. Jane Austen used this spirit to centre her novel Sense and Sensibility. The novel itself is about how reason and feeling are best intertwined using Aristotle’s principle of the ‘mean’. The ‘mean’ here actually is developing the ability to take the right measure in all things. This then, for the author, is the portrait of a good person and in the novel it is, of course, Elinor Dashwood.
The ‘mean’ in Sense and Sensibility
This, in normal language, is about the ability to keep one’s head in difficult situations. An example from the novel is Elinor’s realization that the chances of her being reunited with the man she loves is gone forever. She suffers but she does not allow despair to set in; she does not allow herself to be overpowered by excessive grief.
According to Jane Austen, a good person is a person with the best kind of character, a balanced character without excess or defects. To demonstrate this, Austen rolls all the characteristics of a good person into the character of Elinor and then invents the opposite in the character of her sister, Marianne. Elinor’s position could be described as a state which is ‘intermediate between defect and excess’. An example that Aristotle gives us is, ‘what does being brave mean?’ The conclusion he reached here was that being brave was the middle point between being rash (excess) and being a coward (defect). Another example of the ‘mean’ is `temperance’. One position is ‘insensibility’ (too little pleasure-a prohibition, so to speak), which is a defect, and ‘self indulgence’ (too much pleasure) which is excess.
So Elinor is seen as an example of the ‘mean’, and Marianne is seen as a person who wants everything or nothing. One could go as far as to say that the whole point of this novel is exploring the proper relation between reason and feeling. But the question which is not really answered is how does one develop this ‘coolness of judgment’? How does one gain this control over feelings? Elinor had an affectionate heart; but she knew how to govern feelings. Marianne had an affectionate heart but refused to govern her feelings.
References: Emsley, Sarah. Jane Austen’s Philosophy of the Virtues, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005