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“I DO NOT SEE HOW IT CAN EVER BE ASCERTAINED”: APHRA BEHN AND JANE AUSTEN

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09699082.2011.646863

1747-5848

Janet Todd,

Literature Analysis and Criticism

In this article, Janet Todd links Aphra Behn to a female successor with whom, at first glance, she seems to have little in common, namely Jane Austen, whose juvenile novel “Lady Susan” exhibits surprising similarities to Love-Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister (1684–87) in its portrayal of an immoral female protagonist and its unmediated access to female desire. It is doubtful whether Austen ever read Behn, and Todd makes no claim for a direct influence. Both transgressive heroines, however, are motivated by a will for domination rather than lust, and by a wish for novelty and excitement. Neither is punished by despair and death; both proceed in their paths unreformed. At the end of Love-Letters, Silvia is still flourishing in a sordid way and Susan chooses to marry a rich fool. Adultery is also committed in Mansfield Park (1814), but the offending Maria, too, gets off without severe punishment. Her sin is evaluated in three different ways in the novel: with moral outrage by Fanny, with nonchalance by Mary Crawford, and with detached urbanity by the narrator. Like Behn, who leaves Philander to be judged by “all good Men”, Austen also leaves the final verdict to “the World” and the reader.