In Love, Look for Happiness
The first lesson Jane Austen can teach modern women (women especially, but it wouldn't hurt men to listen too): when it comes to love, aim for happiness.
Isn't that obvious? Doesn't everybody want to be happy?
Sure, just like we all want to be thin. But we want a lot of other things, too, like 20-oz. sodas.
Jane Austen shows us heroines who end up with the perfect happy endings we want--think Elizabeth Bennet with Mr. Darcy. But she also shows us women who miss out because they're pursuing other things. Lydia Bennet has such a "rage for admiration" that she pursues male attention without giving long-term consequences a second thought. Charlotte Lucas is willing to marry the embarrassing Mr. Collins for financial security. And Marianne Dashwood, the only Jane Austen heroine who misses out on a really happy ending, loses the love of her life because she's too busy having a Romantic adventure to see clearly what the guy is really up to.
Do women still miss happiness for these reasons? Unfortunately, more than ever. Think about the difference between a seventeen-year-old girl in 1812 reading Sense and Sensibility and a seventeen-year-old girl in 2012 reading our girls' and women's magazines. A twenty-first-century teenager who's looking forward to her "first time" simply isn't aiming for happily ever after in her love life. She's a lot like Marianne, just looking forward to an adventure.
So what's wrong with adventure? Nothing. Security and male attention are great things too. So are status and pleasure. But it's not savvy to put any of those things before happiness.
Jane Austen fully expected her readers to model their "conduct" on her novels. The impulse that readers have to imitate what they read is a major theme of her books. Yielding to that impulse in the case of her own novels could be really smart.
Okay, who agrees or disagrees: Could recalibrating to aim for happiness really change the trajectory of some women's lives?
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Comments:
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Grist for the mill, not convinced by this, but still trying to round out my utterly inadequate public school education by plowing through Plato, Plotinus and (and now re-reading Aristotle), while re-reading Bishop Joseph Andrews and re-reading some early church fathers and two new books on Fascism, so not going to get to it soon; however, I could say more but I think the quiver is empty, and in short I find them damaging to the earlier church father's ideas, that's my take on them; however, recommended further reading on Neoplatonism since you are the expert?
Pseudodionysius
As Ricochet's resident Neo-Platonist I defer to the Oxford Handbook of Aquinas by Brian Davies, OP and Eleonore Stump:
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
I think Aristotle is great in some ways, and he certainly influenced the Puritans and others with his logic, but he misses the big picture.
Elizabeth Kantor: Will be v. interested to see if St. Thomas can persuade you that Aristotle is (mostly) compatible with Christ.
St. Salieri: Very interesting. I've avoided Thomas Aquinas my whole life, focused on many other things, and I don't think I've mastered his predecessors well enough to navigate his writings. I can't wait to finally try him. I know I'll need lots of peace and quiet and help to work through him.
Joseph Stanko
That makes sense to me. In fact, it sounds quite similar to the Thomistic virtues, with the former corresponding to the supernatural or theological virtues and the latter to the natural or moral virtues. ยท 7 minutes ago
10 hours ago
8 hours ago
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
She may have been, but her theology is a mess (as a can glean it), unless you like it, in which case mine is a mess; but her view of happiness-via Aristotle, well, if that is her view, then you know what I think. Plus being a follower of Paul is not to follow a human example, but to follow him so far as he is a Christ follower.
Elizabeth Kantor: I'm not going to argue against putting Jesus before Jane Austen.
But I'm sticking to my guns that Jane Austen was a very good Christian (though I don't see eye-to-eye with her on every theological point, either) and, like St. Paul, also worthy of imitation. (I Corinthians 11:1 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.)
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
however, recommended further reading on Neoplatonism since you are the expert?
Pseudodionysius
As Ricochet's resident Neo-Platonist I defer to the Oxford Handbook of Aquinas by Brian Davies, OP and Eleonore Stump:
3 hours ago
Aquinas's written corpus is some 8,000,000 words and your time would be better spent on reading his biblical commentaries and beefing up your knowledge of Plato and Aristotle. Neoplatonic thought is quite specialized and usually studied late in Greek philosophy studies. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has good entries on each of the major neoplatonic thinkers as is the brief historical entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
Other books you could consult with profit, in increasing order of difficulty:
Aquinas's Summa by Jean Pierre Torrell, O.P. trans by Guevin, OSB p. 78 - 80;
An Introduction to Medieval Philosophy by Joseph W. Koterski, SJ (various pages scattered throughout text);
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Vol.1 The Person and His Work by Jean Pierre Torrell, OP translated by Robert Royal. See entries on neoplatonism and participation.
...cont'd....
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
....cont'd....
Introduction to Scholastic Theology by Ulrich G. Leinsle translated from the original German by Michael J. Miller.
Warning: Difficult graduate level text by German scholastic specialist with twin doctorates in philosophy and theology. Not for the faint of heart. Does cover reception of scholastic thought by Reformation theologians in some detail, including Calvin.
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Editor's note: The presence in the list of so many CUA Press texts is mere coincidence.
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
But it is a human example--St. Paul's being a disciple of Christ, I mean. In fact, even Jesus' own example is a human example. (You will not be surprised to learn that your theology does seem to me more of a mess than Jane Austen's.)
St. Salieri: Plus being a follower of Paul is not to follow a human example, but to follow him so far as he is a Christ follower.
22 hours ago
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Now, I'm confused, are we talk medieval or late classical Neoplatonism, and is there any significant difference? My knowledge of Neoplatonism, and my point about it not being good for the development of theology (since I think the Church began going off to Babylon around 400-500, and stayed there for most of the next 1000 years), is it's influence on the church circa 300-780, you've pointed me to high and late Medieval sources, and of course Aquinas and Luther and Calvin have (from what I've read not having studied Aquinas in-depth on his own), much in common, and there is I know from my very limited reading of Aquinas in my general reading of high/late medieval history great influence on the generation of ideas in the years and people that lead to Luther and Calvin.
Warning noted and appreciated, will put these on my reading list: I attended a conference on Aquinas about four years ago at a seminary to beef up my knowledge, I think I got 75% of it, the rest - over my head.
Pseudodionysius: ....cont'd....
Introduction to Scholastic Theology
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Agreed, I have no idea what that means now, it was written after about 2 hours of sleep, when I should have just walked away. I think what I meant was I think you were parsing that passage from Paul wrong, but I see your point, both of them.
Elizabeth Kantor: But it is a human example--St. Paul's being a disciple of Christ, I mean. In fact, even Jesus' own example is a human example. (You will not be surprised to learn that your theology does seem to me more of a mess than Jane Austen's.)
St. Salieri: Plus being a follower of Paul is not to follow a human example, but to follow him so far as he is a Christ follower.
22 hours ago
14 hours ago
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
However, you have never addressed my original point, that looking for "happiness" not holiness is not the way to form, sustain, and build a marriage. That there is something more rewarding than Aristotle's and your interpretation of Austen's idea of happiness that results from looking for holiness first, and that it will sustain a marriage more fully and richly than "happiness", ever possibly could. You can still be a Christian and do it your/Austen way, but it is the poorer choice.
Elizabeth Kantor: But it is a human example--St. Paul's being a disciple of Christ, I mean. In fact, even Jesus' own example is a human example. (You will not be surprised to learn that your theology does seem to me more of a mess than Jane Austen's.)
St. Salieri: Plus being a follower of Paul is not to follow a human example, but to follow him so far as he is a Christ follower.
22 hours ago
14 hours ago
Apr '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
I just love this.
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
However, you have never addressed my original point, that looking for "happiness" not holiness is not the way to form, sustain, and build a marriage.
The Aristotelian "eudamonia" and Christian "beatitude" are much closer than the modern sense of "happiness", which most people think of as an emotional state. The Aristotelian sense was the outcome of a moral life well lived, not a transitory emotional state. It had some flaws, but could be corrected and was was through the work of later philosophers and theologians.
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Now, I'm confused, are we talk medieval or late classical Neoplatonism, and is there any significant difference?
You're forgetting that in addition to the disappearance of most Greek manuscripts when the Roman Empire fractured into the western remnant and Byzantium, neo platonism and platonism were scarce in what would eventually become Europe. As well, there's recent historical work indicating that the Muslim world actively choked off the supply of papyrus to the proto Europe of late antiquity.
Aquinas -- if my memory serves me correctly -- uncovered a forgery (or misattribution if you prefer) in some sources (I'm thinking its Proclus but I'd have to look up the reference again).
Once you see how neo platonism entered scholastic thought you will likely find it easier to go back and read Boethius, Pseudodionysius, Proclus, Plotinus, Macrobius, et al since you will have the requisite motivation and insight into its future use.
Sometimes the shortest distance between 2 points is a circle.
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
since I think the Church began going off to Babylon around 400-500, and stayed there for most of the next 1000 years)
I'll leave you with one name to look at: William of Ockham and his nominalism. You may wish to read Richard Weaver's book for a light introduction to the topic which, of course, has much more to it.
Feb '11
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
Many, many thanks!
My route to theology was out of my desire to understand my own faith, but has been a circuitous and intermittent path. Early American history as an undergraduate led me to the American Puritans, to the later Continental Puritans to Calvin & Co., to Luther, then to Augustine, then to Plato, then to Aristotle, along the way I ran into Marcus A. and Epictetus, and Plotinus, college ended and I didn't have the time to read as thoroughly anymore, plus I'm a fulltime working classical church musician (ie I have to practice a lot) and for most of the last 10 years a craftsman (more than fulltime), now finished with school (again) to become a public school teacher, so I'm trying to hit a lot of gaps, sometimes very raggedly, while working part-time and looking full time for a job. I'm re-working my way through my Baker set of Nicene and Ante-Nicene Church fathers, and some Anglican theology, when there's time, now a wife and family to raise as well...sigh...too much to read...so little time.
Pseudodionysius:
I'll leave you with one name to look at...
Sep '10
Re: In Love, Look for Happiness
St. Salieri: Many, many thanks!
7 hours ago
You're most welcome.