They wait, they meet, and they have another chance.
————lines from the lake house
Anyone who sparks interests in Jane Austen may get the hang of her sorrowful love story. When she was very young, about 20,she was submerged in love with a young man from Ireland for a few months. But being constrained by the poor family background and gloomy future, they were persuaded to give up the relationship. What a different future would be if Jane didn’t subject to the persuasion, but the truth was that she never ever met him again. And she never loved anyone else in the rest of her life!
In declining health, she allowed herself to deal with it in fiction, expressing those deep and bitter-sweet emotions in a permanent way. In the moving tale, Anne ,the heroine, had waited for her lover, Captain Wentworth, for 8years and finally had another chance. In reality, however, Jane had waited for her Captain Wentworth for whole life. Sadly, the chance never came.
Given the sad experience of the author and the suggestions in the story, many readers deem it unwise to accept the persuasion and feel pity for years of solitude. However, from my own perspective, it was years of waiting and trials and tribulations that made the love between Anne and Captain Wentworth become valuable and praiseworthy. The love from Anne Elliot and was so deep and desperate that it saddened every gentle person. Even though they met again, she never had the hopes of regaining the lost love.
You may deplore their 8 years of separation. But the truth was that these 8 years were not idled away in vain. Were they filled with missing and regrets, but they were also filled with changes and progress. The hands of time had taken Anne’s beauty and vigor away, but it had polished her nature, nurturing her into a persevering,responsible and mature young lady. Likewise, after 8 years of hardships, Wentworth became a successful young captain, with property, wisdom and attraction. Most importantly, their love for each other never faded away. Though their conditions changed so much, the inner corner in their hearts was still vacant for each other. They had met all manner of people thorough the years, but they never met anyone replaceable. And when the suffering waiting came to an end, they were trapped in the sea of obstacles, which brought out their best and displayed their firm inner fiber for each other.
In other words, their reunion had to be distinguished from the short-lived love or the pleasures of the flesh. Instead, it was the profound recognition of each other’s moral excellence, truth and attachment that made their love be in the highest form. And it was the greatest difference from the teen love. What’s more, they might lead a happy life if they turned down the persuasion 8 years ago, but they wouldn’t value and appreciate each other as they were now. For this time, they knew that love never came easily.
Though we tend to stimulate the youth to seize every opportunity, we can’t deny that it was years of waiting and sufferings that strengthened and perfected this love. Furthermore, the felicity carved by time revealed the truth that it is perseverance and constancy that makes love never end. And that’s what Jane Austen tried to convey to us.
In the beginning, Jane Austen may just reckon to free herself from years of bitter love. But when she set down the pen, and finished the most beautiful one of her works, she passed on the meaning of true love to human beings.
Finally, I would like to end with a poem written by Christina Rossetti.
He and She
‘Should one of us remember,
And one of forget,
I wish I know what each will do-
But who can tell as yet?’
‘Should one of us remember,
And one of forget,
I promise you what I will do-
And I’m content to wait for you,
And not be sure as yet.’
"Your feelings may be the strongest," replied Anne, "but the same spirit of analogy will authorise me to assert that ours are the most tender. Man is more robust than woman, but he is not longer lived; which exactly explains my view of the nature of their attachments. Nay, it would be too hard upon you, if it were otherwise. You have difficulties, and privations, and dangers enough to struggle with. You are always labouring and toiling, exposed to every risk and hardship. Your home, country, friends, all quitted. Neither time, nor health, nor life, to be called your own. It would be hard, indeed" (with a faltering voice), "if woman's feelings were to be added to all this."
*********************
"...I believe you equal to every important exertion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as-if I may be allowed the expression-so long as you have an object. I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives for you. All the privilege I claim for my own sex(it is not a very enviable one; you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone."
*********************
" I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I read your feelings, as I think you have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creatures! You do us justice, indeed you do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F.W."
不论读过多少次---安妮和哈维尔上校谈论爱情的忠诚,温特沃斯上校饱含深情的信、八年后更为坚定的表白---我都忍不住热泪盈眶。感谢孙致礼先生的中译本,字字珠玑,即使是与简小姐精致的原文对比也毫不逊色。在多年前,我还是一个中学生时,那本残破的96版《劝导》已让我心生温暖。纵观奥斯丁笔下的所有女主人公,安妮绝对不是最出彩的那位,但是她的温柔善良却最能打动我。多年后,我重读原文,同样的情感不会褪色, "I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me." 我仿佛可以感受到温特沃斯是怀着如何跳跃激动的心情一边写字一边聆听着安妮和他人的对话,八年前的怨恨早已被时光磨去,八年来以为消磨殆尽的思念却亦发强烈。07年BBC出品的《劝导》,结局处是安妮向心上人狂奔而去,影视作品中如此处理更能吸引眼球升华情感,但是我认为这没有必要,甚至是个败笔。真正的爱情是对等的,不需要戏剧化来锦上添花,书中两人的月下互诉衷肠,小巷漫步足矣。
感谢《劝导》再次治愈了我。借用原文结尾的一句话略作修改,All the surprise and suspense, and every other painful part of the evening dissipated by this reviewing...
从简•奥斯丁的《劝导》可以看出她的作品与通常的韩剧类电视剧的本质区别,尽管都是浪漫的。浪漫也是需要基础的,只有拥有合适的条件,浪漫才能不显得虚无缥缈。这里的基础并不是指所谓简的作品中男女主人公之间的门当户对,这事实上是源自英国人自身的根深蒂固的教育:婚姻要门第相当。这不是简的独特之处,也更不是这部作品的精髓所在。在《The lake house》里面,这部作品被犀利地概括为“they wait, they meet, and they have another chance”。精髓在于是they而不是he或是she。也就是无论多么离奇的浪漫,都需要两个人相恋作为基础。久远的分离不能造成困境,因为相恋的人会用一种矛盾的模仿来延长分离到死亡之间的间隔。一旦从they变成了he或she,往往意味着恋人在相恋意义上的死亡,也就是恋爱不再,浪漫缺乏了必需的基础,即双方必须处在相恋的状态。
就拿《劝导》的女主角来说,生于Elliot家族的,首先是不会难看的,基因就摆在那儿了。只是由于Sir Walter过于自恋、挑剔,在他眼里只有他自己和大女儿Elizabeth是容貌姣好的,其他都是ugly。He has no affection for his own daughters.有哪个父亲会认为自己女儿haggard, coarse的?与之形成鲜明对比的Musgrove一家,父母都十分爱自己的儿女,无论他们做什么都是最好的(当然,我并不说这种爱才是对的),这种warm affection和Sir Walter的coldness一比,更是一个天上一个地下,飞流直下三千尺!这也是为什么Anne在Musgrove家会更开心,也只有离家后,她才有可能迎来人生的第二春(”second spring” 好像原文是这么说的)。所以说文中Sir Walter关于Anne 美貌的评价是不可信的。
第二,我读下来觉得那个时候的人,关于beauty还有一个标准就是spirit,光有皮肉相不行,必须由内而外焕发一种青春、令人振奋的气息,像林黛玉一样是肯定不行的。看书中是如何描写Anne的:
“A few years before, Anne Elliot had been a very pretty girl, but her bloom had vanished early.”因为受到家人的竭力反对,她被迫忍痛与恋人Captain Wentworth分手,于是“Her attachment and regrets had, for a long time, clouded every enjoyment of youth, and an early loss of bloom and spirits had been their lasting effect.”佛说“相由心生”,年纪轻轻就心中悲苦,显然少女的青春风采是焕发不起来的,自然早凋了。再看故事发展到后来,当她焕发了第二春之后,书中写道“She was looking remarkablely well; her very regular, very pretty features, having the bloom and freshness of youth restored by the fine wind which had been blowing her complexion, and by the animation of eye which it had also produced.”当人焕发光彩的时候,眼睛都在唱歌!并且最有说服力的是,作者借别人的嘴再一次肯定了Anne的美貌,在Volume Ⅱ中,一群初次见到Anne Elliot 的Ladies在Anne走后这么说:
“She is pretty, I think, Anne Elliot; very pretty, when one comes to look at her. It is not the fashion to say so, but I confess I admire her more than her sister.”
“So do I.”
“And so do I. No comparison. But the men are wild after Miss Elliot. Anne is too delicate for them.”
从中还可以看出男女的审美还是有点差别的,就像有些男的喜欢“肉弹”which is the kind of beauty I could never learn to appreciate.
第三,就是Anne的气质与品格。Anne读过很多书,由于冷酷的父亲与姐姐对她长久的忽视,这也使她免于诸多世俗的污染,留给她许多独自思考的空间,因此使得她宠辱不惊,身上有种tranquility的气质。这也是为什么我觉得Johdi May更适合演Anne的原因。此外,她身上generosity 的品格也是非常可贵的。书中有一段,我看得十分心酸,但通过此也可以一窥她品格的力量:
“She played a great deal better than either of the Miss Musgroves; but having no voice, no knowledge of the harp, and no fond of parents to sit by and fancy themselves delighted, her performance was little thought of, only out of civility, or to refresh the others, as she was well aware. She know that when she played, she was giving pleasure only to herself; but this was no new sensation: except one short period of her life, she had never, since the age of fourteen, never since the loss of her dear mother, known the happiness of being listened to, or encouraged by any just appreciation or real taste. In music she had been always used to feel alone in the world; and Mr. and Mrs. Musgroves’ fond partiality for their own daughters’ performance, and total indifference to any other person’s, gave her much more pleasure for their sakes than mortification for her own.”
Jane Austen和夏洛蒂勃朗特不一样,后者说平庸,就真平庸了,也不考虑下我的感受,看看BBC的《Jane Eyre》, 说她平庸都是flatter 她了。Jane可是很小资的,生在中产阶级家庭,自己也小有姿色,she has no taste for real common features.实在平庸的像P&P里Bannet家的三小姐,Jane着墨不多,一着墨肯定是embarrassment。所以说Jane Austen对姿色平平的女人没兴趣,除非他们有过人的品格,否则是不会有“好下场”的。看看,就连那些男反派们要够格都得非常handsome才行啊,何人又忍心说Anne姿色平庸呢?
这是我看Jane Austen的第三部作品,她对人物的描写技术十分精湛,足见她内心的丰富,才华横溢。她无疑也是个十分挑剔的女人,把看在眼里的丑恶,化在纸上,对他们毫不留情的进行鞭笞。虽然我很喜欢她的作品,也不可否认的认为,小说说教的意味太重;但是,这也是Jane Austen的特点,完完全全把自己对女子高尚品德的要求灌注在她的小说中。不怎么聪明,思想也不怎么样深刻,品德也不见得高尚的女子可以得到幸福,但是,如果女子修养更高一点业更有助于婚姻的幸福,比如安妮妹夫的婚姻,“一桩更般配的婚姻本可以使他更加精神焕发”。
Jane Austen也是强调婚姻般配的,两个人必须站在同等的高度上才会幸福。这是高度不仅仅是两人要有一定的经济基础,还是生活中所扮演角色上的地位平等。像克罗夫特将军夫妇一般,克罗夫特夫人不仅陪伴丈夫在海上生活,并且参与讨论、谋划两人生活中的各种事务,并不是居于从属地位的妻子。否则悲剧的发生就像《杜拉拉2》里面的孙建冬和叶美兰的婚姻,两个人没有交流,没有乐趣,常年分居两地,就这么不停的延续着沉默。
Volume II
Chapter XI. Wentworth writes to Anne, they are reunited
I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I read your feelings, as I think you have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creatures! You do us justice, indeed you do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F.W
I must go, uncertain for my fate, but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father’s house this evening or never.