In Stephen’s wonderful post yesterday he was asking about great thrillers – in the context of comparing and contrasting two of my favorite books and movies: Thomas Harris’s masterpieces Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs.
When I teach, I use those two books all the time – to the, um, horror, of the aspiring romance writers who often take my workshops, who wouldn’t be caught dead (sorry, I’ll stop now) reading those books. But I always try to get new writers to understand that they can learn just as much from stories outside their own genre, because the elements of story – and suspense – are the same no matter how many bodies are or are not falling or how many creatures are or are not lurking in the basement.
And for us darker types, there’s a lot to be learned about storytelling from classics in other genres.
I am lately on a Reacher binge and at the same time obsessed with the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson film of Sense And Sensibility. Which makes a warped kind of sense because my experience with romance is more along the lines of what you get in the Reacher books, and I find serious horror in Sense And Sensibility. But I’m not joking about the horror in Sense and Sensibility (or any Austen book), and it’s not a horror of romance, either. I am, however, horrified at the Netflix description of the film as “Austen’s classic tale of 19th century etiquette”. This story is more about monsters in the basement than it is about etiquette.
Actually, it is about an evil much bigger than a monster in the basement.
The film opens at the deathbed of Mr. Dashwood, the father of our heroines Elinor and Marianne (Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, one all “Sense” and the other all Sensibility” – ie, passion.). Mr. Dashwood has called in John, his son from a previous marriage, to whom Dashwood’s entire fortune and houses will pass under the law of primogeniture, which bars women from inheriting property and keeps both the patriarchy and the aristocracy intact by mandating that family fortunes pass undivided to the eldest son of a family, with only minimal livings carved out for any remaining male children.
Before he dies, Dashwood extracts a promise from John that he will take care of the present Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, who by law are only allowed to inherit 500 pounds.
John’s original intention is to give the Dashwood women an additional 3000 pounds so they can live comfortably on the interest, but in the course of a carriage ride up to Norland Park, where John and his wife will take over the Dashwood house, John’s harridan of a wife, Fanny whittles John’s gift down to nothing at all: “Twenty pounds here and there should be ample. What would four women need with more than 500 pounds?”
This series of scenes is a beautiful – and funny – dramatization of greed in action, and Fanny makes a detestable villain. But more importantly, the scenes introduce the real villain of the story, and every Austen story: primogeniture – which kept the rich superrich, the poor practically or literally indentured as servants to the rich, and women enslaved to men, for centuries.
Stylistically, Jane Austen was writing comedies, but the stories are built on social outrage, and I believe it’s that canny blend that made and keeps these books classics.
The whole next sequence introduces us to the extremely sympathetic Dashwood women as they are reduced to guests in their own house – in the midst of their deep grief over the loss of their father and husband. While Fanny steamrolls through the house claiming everything in it as her own, the Dashwood women scramble to find other living arrangements on their tiny inheritance.
And then, enter Edward Ferrars – Fanny’s intelligent but very reserved brother (Hugh Grant at his diffidently charming best) who instantly understands the pain of the Dashwoods’ circumstances, bonds with and draws out youngest daughter Margaret, and falls hard – abeit reservedly – for kindred soul Elinor. Of course, a match made in heaven – but there’s more to this than love. In her circumstances, Elinor’s life and her family’s lives depend on her making a good marriage, because women are prohibited from earning an income. So a happy marriage to a well-off man is the dream, the best possible outcome– but the stakes couldn’t be higher, and Elinor’s situation is more than tenuous – she has not the slightest power over the outcome. Fanny and Edward’s mother (offstage, but very present in the form of threat of disinheriting Edward if he makes an “unworthy marriage”) immediately go about preventing this match, and the Dashwoods move from their home to a cottage on the estate of Mrs. Dashwood’s wealthy cousin, without a marriage proposal from Edward to Elinor.
In their new home, younger sister Marianne catches the eye of the county’s most eligible bachelor, wealthy and cultured Colonel Brandon (a completely dreamy Alan Rickman). Marianne scorns Brandon’s attentions, thinking him too old (he’s 35 in the book), and falls hard for the dashing Willoughby, who also seems very well-fixed financially and outspokenly shares Marianne’s passion for poetry and music. Elinor, though, has doubts….
All of this set up (the first act of the film) makes for huge stakes emotionally. We hope that Elinor will make her happy marriage with Edward. We hope Marianne will also make a happy marriage, but are uneasy with her choice of Willoughby (over Alan Rickman??? Surely that’s wrong…) We fear that Edward will not marry Elinor because of his mother’s threat of disinheritance.
Elinor is very much in love with Edward; we know she will never find as perfect a mate elsewhere. But even beyond that – her life without him is clear and endlessly grim – spinsterhood, poverty, or perhaps a loveless marriage that at best would turn her into some version of Fanny, and at worst – well, put any ribbon you want on marriage, but at the time women were property of their husbands. (And we’re not all that long out of it, ourselves.)
Marianne’s possible fate is spelled out even more graphically by Colonel Brandon. As a youth he fell in love with his family’s young ward, but they were forbidden to marry because she was penniless. Brandon was shipped off to war, and the young woman was turned out of the house and reduced to prostitution; Brandon returned to find her dying in a poorhouse.
It’s all reported very discreetly, but it’s clear this is exactly what could happen to the passionate, impetuous Marianne if Willoughby throws her over. And throw her over he does…
Now of course, after some hair-raising reversals, there is finally a brilliantly happy ending; all the right people marry. But underneath all of that is the undercurrent of the horror that might happen if it doesn’t end happily – the stakes are just about as high as they can get.
And it’s not just the women who suffer under the system of primogeniture and complete control by the property owners of the society. Willoughby is disinherited and reduced to marrying for money, when his true love is Marianne. Edward is disinherited by his mother when he chooses to marry “beneath him” and only saved from poverty by the sympathetic Colonel Brandon, who offers him a clergy position in the local parish. And we also see the miserable marriage of a couple of minor characters – wonderful performance by Hugh Laurie as a man who married for money and is drowning in his own bitterness.
Austen’s work is so often called “drawing room comedy”, but I don’t read or see many thrillers that have anywhere near this level of tension, suspense, and truly horrific stakes – it’s my most fervent hope that I can create characters and situations anywhere near this emotional gripping.
So how about it, Rati – what books or movies have gripped you lately? Any examples of huge emotional and/or thematic stakes you weren’t expecting in a particular genre?
I’d especially love to hear about emotional and thematic stakes in thrillers and mysteries, but any gerne is fine with me.)
And of course I have to ask – Hugh Grant or Alan Rickman?
– Alex
Alan Rickman, for sure!
Alan Rickman, every time.
While there is a cottage industry of all things Austen which has gone beyond irritating, I count her as my favorite author. Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility are simply the best, IMHO. The fate of women depended on whether they were the whole package: money of course, and if she could play piano, sing, dance, paint cups, etc. Not if she had a brain or personality. Heavens, a husband and wife interact? Time and time again, this era is "romancified" by which I mean seen through rose-colored glasses — but it was not a happy time for most people.
That Austen can be viewed (and read) as more than a romance or a comedy is fantastic.
Ah, my sisters, I suspect it's going to be Alan Rickman by a landslide. Not that Hugh doesn't have his charms.
PK, I'm right with you on the Austen cottage industry – love that she's getting the attention, but it's a little like Christmas music by now.
I loved this post because I just watched this movie the other night and the whole time I was thinking about the structure. There was a great all-is-lost moment concerning the romance of Edward and Elinor.
Alan Rickman all the way!
Karin, you are so right about that "All is lost" moment – so realistic and so devastating.
Hi Alex,
Alan Rickman, of course. I had no idea he had such a body of work, until I looked into it for some other reason…have you ever seen him in this miniseries…this is just a song video to Rasputin by Boney M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxpfkvHQ_5k&feature=related
Now, I need to see this movie.
Kit, I have always wanted to see that – Russia and Rickman in one. Thanks for reminding me!
Definitely Alan Rickman. Poor Hugh, I'd mow right over the man withing a week.
Love the analysis, Alex. And you're right, they were the monsters-in-the-basement thrillers, just quietly deadly.
You so nailed this, Alex. I think Jane Austen is who invented noir. It's all so tenuous, so out of anyone you care about's control in these stories. And the stakes are life and death–masked by wit and convention, but so deep all the same. Thank you!!
I love Sense and Sensibility – watch it at least once a year – and yes, of course, Alan Rickman all the way!
This is a perfect post for my work today – I'm at Weymouth and my new novel just this morning pulled itself together inside my head – all the layers tucking themselves into place with tension and stakes notching themselves up perfectly.
I knew if I gave this time to the process, it would happen.
And wrt reading outside our favorite genres to learn, I suspect it's even easier to see the things we need to learn when reading outside our favorites – makes things stand out more.
Rickman's been with Rima over forty five years…don't expect that he's going anywhere ladies. Seen maybe half of his performances including Rasputin (won an Emmy(. Just found out earlier this week that Hugh Grant plays a despicable character in An Awfully Big Adventure that Alan Rickman is in as well…what a bonus!
Alex what did you think of the directors commentary? How about Emma's commentary? It was this movie that launched me into 19th century literature. Wuthering Heights I think is by far the darkest and my fav. Austin is Northanger Abby but then again, I haven't begun reading their influences…the Gothic novels.
Toni, word is Hugh's got a lot more going than his screen persona, and I totally believe it. It's only that Rickman is so Rickman.
Cornelia, it's so true about the looming forces. So how did noir get to be about the evil woman?
Never mind, no one has to answer THAT one.
Billie, I was at Weymouth with my posse just two weeks ago – impossible not to think of Austen… and the magic was there for us, too.
Yeah, I think you're right that it can be easier to see key structural elements in a story outside our own genre
Debbie, I'm watching it on Netflix – commentaries will have to wait until I get someplace with a TV again.
If that ever happens…
"Stylistically, Jane Austen was writing comedies, but the stories are built on social outrage, "
Excellent summation, Alex. I haven't read Austen [I know, GASP] and I think this is why. I've heard enough discussion to know the basics. Even though S&S has a "happy" ending, it IS outrageous. And depressing as hell. At the end, the real monster is still under the bed. Or out on the moor. Whatever.
BTW, this post illustrates one of the things I love about your teaching. You describe things so well and make your point so clearly, even someone who hasn't read the book/seen the movie will understand.
Hey, I'm willing to read outside my genre. I just finished Sabrina's HELLION IN HER BED (I love her voice, always have) and was surprised by the character of the 13 year old boy. She did a great job showing his courage and his pain, making him an emotionally involving part of the story and not just a plot device. Not at all what I was expecting and a couple times it caught me off guard, how much she made me care about this kid. Though really, I should know better, with her. She's one of the very few historical romance writers I can still read.
And yes, Rickman.
Now if the choice was Alan Rickman and Colin Firth in his wet shirt in Pride & Prejudice …. that would be a tough one.
Hey Katherine – this is just unacceptable. We really do have to lock you in a room and not let you out until you've finished the complete works.
Maybe if we promised you Alan Rickman?
Excellent point, PK. Now THAT'S a romantic dilemma.
Now I'm the one who has to say "poor Hugh" – he's been up against both these paragons….
You can do that? Maybe if he read the books to me…
We're on the same page again, Alex!
God, I love Sense and Sensibility! I'm a huge fan. I read Emma Thompson's screenplay of the Ang Lee film, too…I just think it's one of the best films ever made, and one of the best novels I've ever read.
What a great analysis of the work, too, Alex. Jeez, I could spend a month with you watching and analyzing films every day.
Alex, Emma touches upon some of the social commentary you mention and has a great sense of fun and humour. She's also a very positive and witty commentator. Hope you get to a tv soon!
Yike, Katherine, what a great idea – I may have just swooned for the first time in my life…
SJS – the only man so far brave enough to wade into this estrogenic fray.
(Or is that – smart enough?)
It's an amazing film, Steve – I am in love with it. And that closing image of the wedding capped by Col. Brandon throwing the gold coins up into the air – just breathtaking. I LOVE this stuff.
Debbie, totally agreed – Emma's a great book, and the teen flick of it, Clueless, was actually quite charming.
Love your post, and it made me think about Austen in a new way. Also, in thinking about the Regency romance which was always fluff to me, (and I love them), i am beginning to see the desperation and need behind all those balls, and cotillions, and such. I think I get so seduced by the costumes, and the language that I forget the true nature of the times, of which Austen was a sharp, and not necessarily happy observer. I would love to attend a class you would teach on this stuff. A friend of mine just week told me about her tee shirt which says "I'm in love with Mr. Darcy." Alan Rickman for sure, but Colin Firth is right up there. And, he too, is aging well.
Oh, I'm….the only guy…
well, I just meant that…I really appreciate the cinematography, you know. The camera angels and stuff.
Hey, didn't the 49ers just win the Superbowl or something?
Lil, no, it's pretty clear that Austen wasn't a happy observer. And those silly balls really meant life and death to a lot of women at the time.
Colin Firth… Alan Rickman. Colin Firth… Alan Rickman.
I have a feeling I'm going to sleep REALLY WELL tonight.
Hmm, isn't the Superbowl in January? And I kind of think I'd know even just by osmosis if the Niners had anything to do with it.
No worries, Steve, you're the alpha male here by more than a mile.
So Stephen, Rickman, Firth, or Grant? <grin>
Um Alex, I was unclear. Emma's great but I actually meant Emma Thompson's commentary on the S&S DVD. 🙂
One of my favorite courses in college was called The History of Women– not a good title, but it got all the girls (and one lonely guy) to sign on. A better title might have been The History of Men and Recovery from Male Domination: Meet Me after Class for Bra Burning Demo.
I have to say I have a certain fondness for Alan Rickman.
>>So Stephen, Rickman, Firth, or Grant?<<
Now THERE'S a contest.
With Reine weighing in, we've got Rickman appealing all the way down to the early twenty-somethings – the man is a god.