vel of goodness Austen bestows on her characters, almost as if exhibiting some prejudice of her own that anyone who is a member of her own social class cannot possibly be all bad. Further, Austen portrays love and marriage as something more akin to friendship and a mutually-shaped pact between two individuals who, though they may have misgivings towards one another, still find one another “tolerable.” However, there is no love based on the fiery romantic passion we see motivating characters throughout the realm of romantic literature. Austen is illogical in the sense that she sees the love trials and tribulations of her characters as being the stuff of comedic irony more than she does passionate feeling and emotion. The fact that all of the sisters find husbands, despite being poor and inappropriately behaved in social settings within their class, is illogical. However, what is more illogical is the methodical, rational, mature, evolutionary-like way in which the characters who marry come to be united. It is almost as if Austen is saying there is a slow, linear process of connections that occurs between those who choose to marry one an
...