thoughts on a romance
I've just watched the BBC’s production of Persuasion by Jane Austen and my initial thought upon finishing it was “Rubbish!” I have not only wasted time, but filled my mind with images of heaving bosoms, trembling lips, longing looks and a final passionate kiss that bespeaks the only proper ending to an emotionally-charged romance. But surely I can learn something if I will think it through.
The good:
- I admired several qualities of the main character, Anne Elliot: her firmness of will - such as when she unflinchingly put out her hands to reset a young boy’s dislocated collarbone, her modest demeanor amidst a family that was excessively vain and infatuated with human honor, her kindness toward her rather annoying sister, (whom I would have been quite inclined to shake violently); her patience in not immediately throwing herself at a man she loved very much; her disregard for status, such as in calling on a poor woman as her friend.
- The fact that Captain Frederick loved Anne more for her character than her looks was commendable.
- I appreciated the sobriety of Ann and the Captain, who did not try to casually toss away the awkwardness of their strained relationship with forced levity. (Yet could there have been forgiveness for righteousness’ sake, and not merely because they were still in love with each other? Of course, but such stories are never made into movies!)
- I appreciated the way the story honored the woman who quietly waited, and not the woman who was giddy and flirtatious. The whole movie portrayed flirtation in a bad light, and that can be helpful in discouraging its practice.
The bad:
- Family ties were portrayed as something that existed only for status, and there was no portrayal of the family as it ought to be. The hero of the story was the young woman who finally disregarded her family for the love of her heart. Now, as the story went, there really was nothing else she could do. Her family was a cluster of (rather nauseating) primping societal baubles who cared nothing for matters of the soul…. Captain Frederick was handsome and ardent and deep down he loved Anne…where else could the story go? And yet, this individualistic disregard of the family, though made necessary in Persuasion, is played out again and again in contemporary homes where self-absorbed young women live in a dream-world where they imagine themselves to be just like Ann Elliot, and there families to be as ridiculous as hers. Imbued with a sense of sacred individualism, they imagine their romantic affairs to be their own personal possession, and hope that their emotional attachment to the boy down the street will end with a kiss as passionate as the Captain’s, and a love as undying. The vision for God-honoring and holy relationships, the beauty of properly exercised headship and submission, and the Christian realization that I am not my own but God’s - are drowned by deafening throb of the individual heart.
- The story follows the pattern of romantic fantasizing in which many women are prone to indulge. The female heart’s longing for love, if fueled by a vivid imagination, can easily produce a story like this. Austen had a good imagination. Some women do not - never mind - they can fuel their fantasy with the stories of talented writers. Though romantic stories are not always wrong in themselves, they have great potential danger as fuel for idle fantasizing, which is not only unprofitable, but also has a tendency to inflame lust.
- The story was focused on the human level, as if men were gods and God was unimportant, even non-existent. God alone satisfies the longing of the human heart, but sadly, the story portrayed what so many people erroneously think - that human love will satisfy the heart’s deepest longings.
So then, am I glad I watched the movie? I’m not sure. The suspense was wonderful. The ending was rapturous. But I was profoundly unsatisfied, and not surprised. I have a happy ending still to come, that will make Anne and the Captain look like crumbly claymation. It’s not just my personal happy ending, but one to be shared with all Christ’s people, when the love of our hearts will come back (after an absence much longer than eight years), and prove that he still loves us by raising us out of the grave, to be with Him forever.
The good:
- I admired several qualities of the main character, Anne Elliot: her firmness of will - such as when she unflinchingly put out her hands to reset a young boy’s dislocated collarbone, her modest demeanor amidst a family that was excessively vain and infatuated with human honor, her kindness toward her rather annoying sister, (whom I would have been quite inclined to shake violently); her patience in not immediately throwing herself at a man she loved very much; her disregard for status, such as in calling on a poor woman as her friend.
- The fact that Captain Frederick loved Anne more for her character than her looks was commendable.
- I appreciated the sobriety of Ann and the Captain, who did not try to casually toss away the awkwardness of their strained relationship with forced levity. (Yet could there have been forgiveness for righteousness’ sake, and not merely because they were still in love with each other? Of course, but such stories are never made into movies!)
- I appreciated the way the story honored the woman who quietly waited, and not the woman who was giddy and flirtatious. The whole movie portrayed flirtation in a bad light, and that can be helpful in discouraging its practice.
The bad:
- Family ties were portrayed as something that existed only for status, and there was no portrayal of the family as it ought to be. The hero of the story was the young woman who finally disregarded her family for the love of her heart. Now, as the story went, there really was nothing else she could do. Her family was a cluster of (rather nauseating) primping societal baubles who cared nothing for matters of the soul…. Captain Frederick was handsome and ardent and deep down he loved Anne…where else could the story go? And yet, this individualistic disregard of the family, though made necessary in Persuasion, is played out again and again in contemporary homes where self-absorbed young women live in a dream-world where they imagine themselves to be just like Ann Elliot, and there families to be as ridiculous as hers. Imbued with a sense of sacred individualism, they imagine their romantic affairs to be their own personal possession, and hope that their emotional attachment to the boy down the street will end with a kiss as passionate as the Captain’s, and a love as undying. The vision for God-honoring and holy relationships, the beauty of properly exercised headship and submission, and the Christian realization that I am not my own but God’s - are drowned by deafening throb of the individual heart.
- The story follows the pattern of romantic fantasizing in which many women are prone to indulge. The female heart’s longing for love, if fueled by a vivid imagination, can easily produce a story like this. Austen had a good imagination. Some women do not - never mind - they can fuel their fantasy with the stories of talented writers. Though romantic stories are not always wrong in themselves, they have great potential danger as fuel for idle fantasizing, which is not only unprofitable, but also has a tendency to inflame lust.
- The story was focused on the human level, as if men were gods and God was unimportant, even non-existent. God alone satisfies the longing of the human heart, but sadly, the story portrayed what so many people erroneously think - that human love will satisfy the heart’s deepest longings.
So then, am I glad I watched the movie? I’m not sure. The suspense was wonderful. The ending was rapturous. But I was profoundly unsatisfied, and not surprised. I have a happy ending still to come, that will make Anne and the Captain look like crumbly claymation. It’s not just my personal happy ending, but one to be shared with all Christ’s people, when the love of our hearts will come back (after an absence much longer than eight years), and prove that he still loves us by raising us out of the grave, to be with Him forever.
Labels: family, Life Lessons
posted by Alyssa Faith at 4:50 PM
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