People: Elinor and Marianne
Text: From a night of more sleep than Elinor expected of her, Marianne found herself still miserable. The two girls talked over and over again about the situation while they waited for breakfast to be called. Nothing was resolved, and things only seemed to be going repeatedly through a similar pattern. The same steady and affectionate counsel flowed from Elinor, while Marianne went from blaming Willoughby to exonerating him, thinking maybe he had been duped by Miss Grey. But on one point, Marianne was always the same: the presence of Mrs. Jennings would be difficult to endure.
Of Mrs. Jennings, Marianne said, “No, no, no, it cannot be. She cannot feel. Her kindness is not sympathy; her good nature is not tenderness. All that she wants is gossip, and she only likes me now because I supply it.”
Elinor had not needed this statement to be assured of the injustice to which her sister was often led in her opinions of others. Marianne was ruled by the irritable refinement of her own mind, and the too great importance placed by her on the delicacies of a strong sensibility and the graces of a polished manner. She expected from other people the same opinions and feelings as her own, and she judged of their motives by the immediate effect of their actions on herself. A bit later, Mrs. Jennings chanced to prove herself a fresh source of pain, though the impulse was of the utmost good will.
With a letter in her outstretched hand to Marianne, she entered and said, “Now, my dear, I bring you something that I am sure will do you good.”
In one minute, Marianne’s imagination placed before her a letter from Willoughby, full of tenderness and contrition. But the work of one moment was destroyed by the next. The handwriting of her mother was never unwelcome until then. Willoughby filled every page of her mother’s letter. Marianne wept with agony through the whole of it.
Emotion: compassion
Insight: Psalm 34:13,14 offer, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit…seek peace and pursue it.”
Poor Marianne, wretched in her own misery, and blind to the hypocrisy that lies in her own soul, is grieved by the behavior of Mrs. Jennings. She believes that Mrs. Jennings does not feel tender sympathy for her and only sees her as a feeding program for her gossip. Elinor, who has seen Marianne gossip on several occasions, is irritated by her lack of honesty and understanding. That Mrs. Jennings would hand her a letter without first saying that it was from her mother, further drove Marianne to despair.
Unlike Marianne, may we be quick to see in ourselves the weaknesses of others. This psalm reminds us to keep our tongues from speaking deceit. Marianne is deceiving herself by believing that she is better than Mrs. Jennings, more compassionate. And yet a few short weeks earlier, she herself indulged in gossiping with Willoughby about Colonel Brandon. May we be honest, first with ourselves, and then about ourselves and then seek peace, pursue it, and share it through the manner in which we choose to speak about others.
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