Jane Austen's Bad Boys

Spoiler Alert! – This post assumes prior knowledge of Jane Austen’s works – if you haven’t read them, take note of Ms Austen’s own words: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”

I began this post last year after a Jane Austen binge when I was unwell (a Jane Austen binge every couple of years is essential for good health and happiness). It’s high time I finished it (the blog post that is) – so here is a countdown of my favourite Austen bad boys.

6.         John Thorpe, Northanger Abbey – John Thorpe is probably one of Jane Austen’s most unlikeable characters. In contrast to her other bad boys, he has no redeeming features. He is uncouth, arrogant and spreads damaging lies about our heroine, Catherine. He doesn’t have the elegance or gentleman-like manner of any other Austen cad. Catherine “cannot like him” and nor can I.

“There is not the hundredth part of the wine consumed in this kingdom that there ought to be.” – John Thorpe

5.         Frank Churchill, Emma – Emma is an anomaly in Jane Austen’s canon in that none of the characters are really contemptible. Granted, Mr Churchill is not particularly well behaved, flirting with Emma and dissing the one he loves, all to hide his secret engagement to Jane Fairfax. But in the end, his aunt conveniently dies, all is revealed and Mr Churchill marries Jane as he always intended. Emma is not the least heartbroken as she wasn’t really in love with him anyway.  Besides, riding all the way to London to secretly purchase a piano for Jane means Franky-babe doesn’t cut it with the truly contemptible lads.

“Our companions are excessively stupid.  What shall we do to rouse them?  Any nonsense will serve. They shall talk.” – Frank Churchill

4.         William Elliot, Persuasion – Anne’s cousin Mr Elliot became estranged from the Elliot family when he spurned Anne’s sister Elizabeth in favour of marrying for money. When the family move to Bath, Mr Elliot – now a rich widower and heir to the baronetcy – renews his acquaintance with Sir Walter’s family and shows impeccable taste by turning his attentions towards Anne. Anne however is irrevocably in love with Captain Wentworth and is not at all convinced of Mr Elliot’s sincerity. Her doubts appear justified when she spies Mr Elliot with Mrs Clay when he was supposed to be out of town.

Mr Elliot was too generally agreeable. Various as were the tempers in her father’s house, he pleased them all. He endured too well, – stood too well with everybody.

3.         John Willoughby, Sense and Sensibility – Willoughby’s a real rotter and by far the worst of the worst charmers in Austen’s novels. He sweeps Marianne off her feet (or at least carries her home when she sprains her ankle), fools everyone into thinking he will propose to her, then cruelly forsakes her for another. The Dashwoods later learn he disgraced then abandoned Colonel Brandon’s ward, which caused Willoughby to be disinherited by his wealthy Aunt and forced him to marry for money instead of love. When Marianne falls ill and her life is in balance, Willoughby has the audacity to come begging for forgiveness and declaring his unhappiness with the choices he made.

“Brandon is just the kind of man,” said Willoughby one day when they were talking of him together, “whom everybody speaks well of, and nobody cares about; whom all are delighted to see, and nobody remembers to talk to.” – John Willoughby

2.       George Wickham, Pride and Prejudice – What a wicked old boy is Wickham!  Running up gambling debts, charming all the women of Meryton (but finding them decidedly lacking in the essential quality of fortune), making everyone believe he is an officer and a gentleman, spreading lies and half-truths about Darcy, and topping it all off by whisking poor, foolish Lydia away from the safety of her family and friends without any intention of marrying her. In the end, he is caught, forced into matrimony (with the inducement of large sums of money from Mr Darcy) and banished to a regiment as far away as possible. Yet, despite all this, Austen manages to imbue in the reader a modicum of sympathy for Wickham – just another example of the brilliance of her writing.

“He is as fine a fellow,” said Mr Bennet, as soon as they were out of the house, “as ever I saw. He simpers, and smirks, and makes love to us all. I am prodigiously proud of him. I defy even Sir William Lucas himself, to produce a more valuable son-in-law.” – Mr Bennet after a visit from Mr and Mrs Wickham. (Mr Bennet btw is one of my all-time favourite characters in literature.)

1.         Henry Crawford, Mansfield Park – Unlike other Austen bad boys, Crawford may be charming but he makes no pretence of being good. He’s rich and conceited enough to always have some rakish scheme in the works, including inducing Fanny Price to fall in love with him. This backfires on him however, when he finds himself truly in love with Fanny. Mr Crawford genuinely believes that he could change his wicked ways if Fanny married him, and he does make a gallant attempt to be good for her sake. Fanny though “…was quiet, but …was not blind.”  She’s never fooled by Mr Crawford, and when he is rejected, he confirms Fanny’s misgivings by running off with Maria.

[He] went off with [Maria] at last, because he could not help it, regretting Fanny, even at the moment, but regretting her infinitely more when all the bustle of the intrigue was over.

Mansfield Park is the novel, more than any other Austen work, that stays with me long after a reading (or viewing).  It's in no small measure because of the complexity of Henry Crawford's character, and I always like to imagine what might have happened had Fanny become Mrs Crawford instead of Mrs Bertram.