In Defence of Lucy Steele from 'Sense and Sensibility'

 This is going to be a pretty niche blog post, since it's exploring a minor character from Sense and Sensibility, but I've been itching to write it for months because it's something I feel very strongly about.

If you read my post A Day in the Life of a Y12 Student in Lockdown, you'll probably know that one of the books I'm studying right now is Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - not my favourite of her novels but still a good read. Being in an English class, there's obviously a lot of discussion about it. I've already expressed my opinion in class, but still wanted to expand on it.

Lucy Steele is engaged to Edward Ferrars, the man that our main character Elinor is in love with. For most of the first volume, Elinor and her family are convinced that Edward loves her back, until Lucy reveals to her that she has been engaged to him for four years. At this point, we're meant to decide that Lucy is an evil snake, as my English teacher and class all agree with, but I can't get my head around it.

Firstly, Lucy isn't in the wrong socially for wanting her fiancé to be loyal to her. If you think about it in modern terms, Elinor is in love with Lucy's boyfriend, and he has clearly shown signs of attraction to her. I wouldn't say it's unreasonable for Lucy to investigate, get to know the 'other woman', and try and stop Edward from cheating on her. The only reason we're meant to be on Elinor's side is because the book is told from her perspective.

Austen tries very hard to make Lucy seem like the 'other woman' ruining Elinor's romance, but it's simply not true. Elinor has no official or legal advantage in this situation. Edward should be in a committed relationship to Lucy; she has every right to expect that from him. By initiating the engagement, he made a vow of loyalty to her. This is what makes his behaviour even less excusable than Willoughby's - as Marianne says, Willoughby's love for her was every day implied, but never actually promised out loud. Edward, on the other hand, has a duty to both women not to lead Elinor on, an oath made by his engagement.

In my opinion, Edward is the real villain here. Because of persistent attitudes towards gender in both Austen's society and ours, the women are pitted against each other and forced to think of the other as the villain. They're not. Edward is the one holding the power, breaking his promise to Lucy by leading Elinor on, but both of these women blame the other. It's understandable for Regency Era readers to also take this view, but it's 2020 - we've got to start holding the man accountable. It's worrying that my English class still sees Lucy as the one in the wrong, when to me, it's clearly Edward.

Another argument brought up against Lucy is that she doesn't truly love Edward, so she doesn't deserve to marry him. I'd say this is a true statement - I don't think Lucy loves Edward. She's very clearly in it for the money. Does this make her a gold digger? Maybe. But at that time, it was all she could do to raise her status.

Elinor mentions again and again in her bitchy narrative that the Steeles are of a lower class, uneducated, and lacking any real, natural elegance and grace. In a time when a woman's only job was to marry rich or be condemned to a life of poverty, we can admire Lucy for being able to bag a man of a much higher class, with such an inheritance. Elinor isn't innocent of this either, because she also acknowledges that she has to marry well for financial stability. She has experienced firsthand the difficulties of not being given a steady, comfortable income by male relatives - you'd think she'd be more empathetic to Lucy, who is doing everything she can to secure a comfortable future. In the Regency Era, marriages weren't often born from love - it was an economic proposition, taking into account status and class. 

Elinor also often notes that Lucy's lack of education has made her unrefined, and she quickly realises that they don't 'belong' in her social class or company. This makes Elinor a perpetrator of classism, upholding the damaging class system that allows no room for movement. She is likely too privileged to empathise with Lucy, and fails to note that the Steele sisters are actually very clever - they've managed to charm and manipulate people, and infiltrate the upper-class. I'm in full support of Lucy manipulating her way around the class system for her own personal gain, and rejecting the submissive, meek persona that women were supposed to embody. She can play this as a role, but it's not who she truly is.

I know that at the end of the day, Lucy is still somewhat a villain. The final chapters of the book, where she randomly breaks it off with Edward and marries Robert instead, have been criticised for being unrealistic and silly, and I have to agree. If the ending had been more realistic, Lucy and Edward would've married, and Elinor would have come to terms with that. Lucy's sudden change of heart at the end cements her as the villain, and gives Elinor her happy ending.

Contrary to the opinion at the time, I don't hate the ending. I don't think Austen's books were intended to be morbidly realistic, especially given that novels were disregarded as silly and too feminine at the time - it was an attempt to be uplifting and lighthearted. I also think Elinor did deserve her happy ending. However, I believe that if Lucy's characterisation had been consistent, she would've ended up marrying Edward, and she wouldn't have been in the wrong for that.

Let me know your opinion in the comments!