jane austen love and friendship sparknotes

This plan failed miserably, but Lady Susan got lucky-her reputation is safe only because Mrs. But Lady Susan doesn’t seem to think love is important in a marriage she dislikes Sir James but would still like to see her daughter married to him for financial reasons, even though Frederica is against it. Though she was acting in Frederica’s name, she probably didn’t have her best interests at heart.Īlthough Sir James proposed to Frederica, it doesn’t seem like the marriage would be a love match-after all, Lady Susan was the one flirting with him, so he’s probably interested in her, not Frederica. This is an uncomfortable and manipulative dynamic, and what’s more, Lady Susan doesn’t even seem to care about her daughter. In fact, family seems to matter very little to Lady Susan: she has an odd idea of motherly love, as she was trying to seduce Sir James on behalf of her daughter. Lady Susan also doesn’t seem to care that her husband recently died-she’s not exactly grieving the loss, since she’s already flirting with multiple men. Manwaring hush-hush, and she only flirted slightly with Sir James. After all, she tried to keep her affair with Mr. The humor of this passage comes from both its sharp contrast to Lady Susan’s previous letter, and from the way Lady Susan understates her own dastardly deeds: clearly, she thinks the women in the Manwaring household are overreacting. This letter reveals that everything Lady Susan told Charles was a lie: she was actually forced to leave her friends’ home because she seduced two men who should have been off-limits, which explains why she’s fleeing to Churchill now.

Jane austen love and friendship sparknotes