Sense and Sensibility Weekly update #5

Willoughbys

50-page weekly met? Yes, plus some. This week I finished Part 3, chapters 1-11, which is pages 210-292 in this volume. At one point I thought I might actually finish the book but textbook fatigue would take over every time I sat down to read.

Willoughby is caught by Elinor and Marianne and the truth comes out.

Action: The Steele sisters go to stay with John and Fanny Dashwood and Anne lets the cat-out-of-the-bag about the engagement between Lucy and Edward. The girls are almost literally thrown out of the house in anger and revulsion. Edward, when forced to choose between Lucy or his inheritance, chooses Lucy and doing the honorable thing. Elinor now has to face it that she and Edward will never be together. She finally tells Marianne everything she knows and the sisters console each other. Col. Brandon offers his parish to Edward so that he can make a living somehow. Finally the girls are to go home. Mrs. Jennings is to accompany them as far as the Palmer's residence. While there Marianne gets gravely ill. It is feared that she might die. Col. Brandon rides to Barton Cottage to get Mrs. Dashwood. On the return trip he confesses that he is in love with Marianne, has always been. About the time that Elinor is expecting her mother and Col. Brandon's return, she is summoned out of the sick room and finds Willoughby waiting for her.  He unburdens his guilt on her as he confesses his true feelings about Marianne. Elinor's feelings toward Willoughby soften a bit. Once Marianne is well enough to travel and go home, Elinor tells her about the conversation that she had with Willoughby. His confession seems to bring Marianne a measure of peace and she confesses that she now sees that she would never have been truly happy with him in the long run.

Willoughby makes his confession to Elinor.

Surprises: This section could be titled "Confessions". The movies make quite a bit about the confessions of Lucy that she is engaged to Edward but do not play up or even include Willoughby's confessions to Elinor. I was most surprised to learn that the note that Willoughby wrote to Marianne the night after she saw him at the dance which contained a locket of her hair, was written by Willoughby but dictated by his fiancee, Miss Gray. I was also surprised by the length of his guilty confession made to Elinor and the effect this confession had on her and eventually on Marianne. Knowing how the story ends I am surprised there are only 30 pages of book left to go.

Note: Even though I think of myself as a person very familiar with the works of Jane Austen I keep finding little surprises each week as I read along. I encourage you to pick up a Jane Austen novel this summer and look for those little surprises within, too. By following this format of reporting on the action and remarking on my surprises I find the reading opening up to me.