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AIBU?

To think Marianne shouldn't have married Colonel Brandon?

440 replies

squoosh · 21/08/2013 23:45

Okay Willoughby was a cad and a bounder and took himself out of the running, but I do think that Brandon swooped in to take advantage of her rain induced fever which had left her a bit dazed and compliant.

It's a bit creepy that he falls in love with her because she reminds him of his long lost, 'fallen', dead love. Plus he's a bit intense, the laughs wouldn't be forthcoming and I'll warrant he expected her to do all kinds of dark shit in the bedroom.

Ideally she'd have had another couple of seasons in London and met lots of nice suitors or maybe even nipped across to Pride and Prejudice and married that nice Colonel Fitzwilliam.

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kickassangel · 21/08/2013 23:51

Fitzwilliam a good suggestion.

But there was a bit of a thing about women suddenly becoming all mature and sensible after a health scare, so Marianne fits that.

But I never really believed she lived him. I figured that she settled.

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Sophita · 21/08/2013 23:57

I am torn on this because when I picture Colonel Brandon as Alan Rickman, it's all fine and dandy and it clearly means Marianne ends up with a much better sex life than poor Elinor because urgh Hugh Grant

but just going on the book, you're right, it is sad and she is settling.

in a way though, I like that about Jane Austen - she doesn't do trite happy ever after, she does address what it was really like for women getting married in that time

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Peacocklady · 22/08/2013 00:00

I like to think she grew to genuinely love him! I love that film. Willoughby's cheekbones, her sister sobbing at her bedside, Hugh Lawrie's sarcasm, all of it!

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YouTheCat · 22/08/2013 00:01

Colonel Fitzwilliam was married.

I think Marianne needs Brandon to stop her from making an utter tit of herself.

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LanguageTimothy · 22/08/2013 00:07

Quite frankly Brandon was settling.

Intelligent
Kind
Generous
Forgiving
Good looking
Rich

He was a catch. Marianne was quite frankly a flibberty gibbit that most of us would have wanted to give a good slap.

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 00:09

But he was dull and earnest and fatherly.

And yes she was a flibberty gibbet, but she could have had some good scandalous fun!

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Sophita · 22/08/2013 00:11

But Marianne was only sixteen at the beginning of the book and he was a grown up - I know different time and standards, but that's still a hell of a gap in life experience and temperament.

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YouTheCat · 22/08/2013 00:12

She would have ended up doing something spectacularly damning and ended up without a husband!!! Shock

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WhereYouLeftIt · 22/08/2013 00:12

I always felt that Marianne was a bit of an idiot, totally hooked on 'romance'. Then she woke up to reality; seeing Willoughby for what he was allowed her to see (and appreciate) Brandon for what he was. Even if she remained idiot romance-hooked Marianne, Brandon's back-story would be totally romantic, so making him attractive to her.

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LanguageTimothy · 22/08/2013 00:12

Hmm, still think I'd have been itching to give her what for.

Still much as I love JA her men don't really do it for me.

Rochester now....

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 00:13

Oh yeah Rochester was a real catch, aside from his teeny tiny secret.

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LanguageTimothy · 22/08/2013 00:13

My DH is quite like Rochester now that I think about it...

Without the mad first wife of course unless that's me

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YouTheCat · 22/08/2013 00:14

I like the fact the, mainly, JA's male characters require a woman to make them a better person.

Darcy - I'm looking at you. Grin

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curlew · 22/08/2013 00:15

"
I think Marianne needs Brandon to stop her from making an utter tit of herself"

This.

Oh, and why hasn't Emma Thompson done Emma?

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 00:16

I wouldn't have minded marrying Bingley. Pots of cash, lots of fun, kind hearted, not overly burdened with heavy thoughts.

Lot to be said for being able to have a laugh with someone when spending many looooong winter evenings together in draughty country houses.

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 00:17

Now that I think of it, Brandon should have married Marianne's Mum.

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VileWoman · 22/08/2013 00:22

I was just thinking about this. it's a long time since I read the book but I think Emma Thompson signposts the relationship with Brandon more than JA did, so in the book it feels even worse than settling, it's just JA tying up the loose plot lines. Of course because I was a young flippity jibbit myself when I last read it I couldn't see why Brandon was attractive at all whereas as an adult I think AR is damn sexy (admittedly I don't think I'd kick Greg Wise out of bed either!).

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OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly · 22/08/2013 00:22

Marianne is the equivalent of your teenage friend who falls in love with someone across the dance floor of the nightclub, sighs with angst and follows him round all the time (dragging you with her to places he is going to be, because they are meant to be together).

Saying how "sensitive" & "misunderstood" he is, texts him hundreds of times with no answer & then agonises & overanalyses any tiny bit of attention he gives her. Stalks him on Facebook, tries to find out who every single female is in his photos...
(Can you tell I knew someone like this?!)

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ILoveAFullFridge · 22/08/2013 00:23

Nah, Marianne's a flighty, thoughtless, flibbertygibbet, who would fall for any man who paid her intense attention. Brandon couldn't get a look-in until she was stuck convalescing.

(As for the film - eurgh [shudders] dreadful casting. Emma T far too old to play Elinor.)

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sicutlilium · 22/08/2013 00:24

I'm re-reading Jane Eyre after a gap of 25 years, and what I find really strains credibility is that, when she flees from the sham wedding, of all the doorsteps in all the world the one she lands on belongs to her long-lost cousins.

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OnTheBottomWithAWomansWeekly · 22/08/2013 00:26

Oh and she'd tell you herself how deep and intellectual she is - there would be copious use of the phrase "true to myself" and little real thought for others.

I liked Kate Winslet in the part, i thought she garnered a lot if sympathy for Marianne, but the older I get the more the character annoys me!

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squoosh · 22/08/2013 00:26

I love that LanguageTimothy has resurrected 'flibbertigibbet'!

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AphraBehn · 22/08/2013 00:27

Col Fitzwilliam wasn't married, he was just expected as a younger son to marry an heiress (which is why he couldn't seriously persue Lizzy Bennet even though he quite fancied her). Marianne wouldn't have been rich enough for him either.

David Morrissey played Col Brandon as well, he didn't seem old.

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springytoofs · 22/08/2013 00:28

I saw Willoughby in my village once. He was wearing a baseball cap and dodging his head about so ridiculously as if to say 'don't recognise me! I'm famous!' that he draw attention to himself.

anyway, Willoughby and Miss Dashwood are an item now. Married, I think.

Colonel Brandon doesn't pronounce his words properly I find - sort of doesn't use his lips. And all that touching of furniture in his distress business, very annoying, very Prince Charles.

Hugh Grant, just how irritating was he?! 'My heart....... will always and ever be .......................................................................................yours. Plus he looked about 12.

Mind you, Emma Thompson's sobbing was pretty good, I thought. All that pent of tension!

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AphraBehn · 22/08/2013 00:31

Onthebottom I know someone exactly like Isabella Thorpe from Northanger Abbey. Jane Austen observed these types well!

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