#nd things

Marianne is a teenager, who is going through an incredibly tumultuous time. She does not yet have the emotional maturity to deal with the complex feelings that she is confronted with due to the various changes in her life, i.e. her father's death, which means that she must leave her family home, move far away and find her place in a brand new social circle; experiencing her first love in Willoughby, only for the courtship to abruptly end with his departure, before she ultimately discovers (after yet more upheaval in the form of going to London) that he is engaged to someone else and had no serious intention to marry her.

That is a lot for anyone to deal with, but it is especially difficult for someone as young (and sheltered!) as Marianne to come to terms with. I think if Marianne were older, an autistic reading of her would compel me more but she's a teenager and almost all teenagers are emotionally immature hormonal nightmares at some point during their adolescence. It is a universal experience for everyone at Marianne's age (16/17) to learn these lessons, of how they fit in the world.

Marianne is initially quite selfish, something I would argue it would less likely for her to be if she was autistic, because she wouldn't know that there were social norms to follow, whereas she seems to ignore them because she is having so much fun being swept up in her emotions towards Willoughby. I think there is a considerable difference between selfishly ignoring the consequences of your behaviour (which is how a neurotypical person would act) and having no idea that your behaviour is impacting others because you do not intuitively understand social norms (as an autistic person would). Marianne doesn't want to admit her behaviour with Willoughby is improper and could possibly expose her family to disgrace because she's a self-centred and highly emotional young lady, who is having far too much fun to consider the wider implications, as an older person with more life experience might. I think she ignores social norms, not because she fails to comprehend them, but because she doesn't consider anybody else (which is pretty standard for teenagers, they do have a tendency to be egotistical).

Also, I think if she was autistic, it's a pretty grim story, of having to learn to mask highly and compromising her own well-being, lest she continue to hurt others. But more than that, I think it would undermine Marianne's character development. From memory, Marianne's overly-emotional behaviour resembles that of her mother, whereas Elinor provides a more level-headed contrast to them both (though she still struggles with her emotions, in her own way). So Marianne becoming a better version of herself by learning to temper her emotions is not only a beautiful story of redemption, as she stops going down the same path as her mother, but it's also a lesson to readers of all ages. You can't help your nature, but you still have a responsibility to own your shortcomings and be the best version of yourself, not only for your own sake (I mean, she almost dies!) but also for the sake of everyone around you.

But I think the biggest reason why I struggle to see Marianne as autistic is found in in Chapter 42:

'Two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there, not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery, but all over the grounds, and especially in the most distant parts of them ... where... the grass was the longest and wettest, had—assisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockings—given Marianne a cold so violent though for a day or two trifled with or denied, would force itself by increasing ailments on the concern of every body, and the notice of herself.'

Reading this passage gives me chills [derogatory]; even thinking of the sensory nightmare of having wet clothes makes me cringe!! I want to cry when I accidentally splash a drop of water on my sock when doing the dishes or watering the plants in my garden, never mind walking in long wet grass and then leaving those clothes on! I jest, hyposensitivity absolutely is a thing... but still. I don't think that there is a passage in any of Austen's works that I find as upsetting as that one!

Joking aside, it is Marianne's response when she recovers from her illness that I think best illustrates that she did not lack the ability (as an autistic person might) to understand the implications of her behaviour all along, but she did not want to consider others.

This passage from Chapter 46, where Marianne goes on the walk with Elinor and sees where she first encountered Willoughby, illustrates my point:

'My illness has made me think. It has given me leisure and calmness for serious recollection. Long before I was enough recovered to talk, I was perfectly able to reflect. I considered the past: I saw in my own behaviour, since the beginning of our acquaintance with [Willoughby] last autumn, nothing but a series of imprudence towards myself, and want of kindness to others. I saw that my own feelings had prepared my sufferings, and that my want of fortitude under them had almost led me to the grave. My illness, I well knew, had been entirely brought on by myself by such negligence of my own health, as I had felt even at the time to be wrong.'

Especially the last line proves that Marianne had some degree of self-awareness, even if she was unwilling to act upon it, which I think is quite different than struggling with one's emotions due to a disability that causes difficulty in regulating them. I think such an episode of self-reflection and learning to value those around you is pretty standard as one grows up, though hopefully is is not always caused by a life-threatening illness!