Virtue and Romance: Allan Bloom on Jane Austen and Aristotelian Ethics Mary Beth Garbitelli & Douglas Kries ithin Allan Bloom’s last book, Love mized; the rural is superior to the urban; Wand Friendship, stands a chapter on sentiment tends to be predominant. What Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.1 The chap- is perhaps unexpected, though, is Bloom’s ter is short—just over seventeen pages in insistence on “Austen’s classical prefer- length—but that it exists at all in a volume ences,” on her appearance “as a partisan of that features Plato and Rousseau may be Aristotelian rationalism against the domi- surprising to many. Nevertheless, Bloom nant principles of modernity,” and on her offers an incisive if unorthodox interpreta- desire “to celebrate classical friendship as tion of Austen’s novel, ultimately suggest- the core of romantic love.”2 ing that Austen advances a position that Without claiming that Austen actually features a unique combination of mod- read Aristotle, we may accept and even ern romantic love and ancient friendship. extend Bloom’s claim that there is a strong That the translator of Emile sees echoes of Aristotelian element in her work. Indeed, modern romanticism in Austen’s books is Bloom attributes to Austen a unique and hardly to be wondered at, for her works daring synthesis between modern mar- display many themes that are reminiscent riage and classical friendship, but does not of Rousseau: marriage is the foundation think that her attempt to reconcile these of society and, for most, the source of elements wholly succeeds. Nevertheless, meaning and purpose in life; social barri- his refutation does not take into account ers such as class often present themselves as that Austen has anticipated and answered unjust obstacles to romantic desire; chas- his objections in her fi ction. We may, tity is the prerequisite of strong romantic therefore, accept Bloom’s interpretation of attachment; differences between males and Austen while rejecting his evaluation. females are augmented rather than mini- Smallness and Happiness MARY BETH GARBITELLI is an adjunct instruc- Aristotle is of course famous for his com- tor of English at the University of Southern ment in the fi rst book of the Politics that Maine. Her father, DOUGLAS KRIES, is the Ber- man is a political animal. The polis, how- nard J. Coughlin, S.J., Professor of Christian Phi- ever, is a city of limited size—one in which losophy at Gonzaga University. His most recent there is a good chance that any given citi- book is The Problem of Natural Law. zen will know any other given citizen, 25 MODERN AGE or at least have some reasonably reliable Anna Austen, Jane Austen says, “You are knowledge about any other citizen. In his now collecting your People delightfully, discussion of the life of the polis, Aristo- getting them exactly into such a spot as is tle seems only indirectly interested in how the delight of my life;—3 or 4 Families in a such a city relates to other cities or nations, Country Village is the very thing to work especially if they are far away. It is not that on.”4 Indeed, Aunt Jane’s Pride and Preju- he completely ignores foreign affairs, but dice begins with the authoress collecting a what makes a polis an important and natu- small number of families in the vicinity of ral feature of human life is how it promotes a country village and bringing them into human happiness by advancing the virtues contact with each other at small gather- of the citizens; this means that Aristotle is ings, including parties and dances; her principally concerned with how the citi- Emma has two spatial foci, the two country zens themselves relate to each other. estates of her hero and heroine, which are This restricted horizon within which within walking distance of each other, as human beings work toward their hap- are the local village and all of the dwelling piness is further limited when one turns places of the other important characters in from Aristotle’s Politics to his Ethics. Cer- the novel. Like Aristotle, Austen seems to tainly, Aristotle advocates the study of the grasp the fact that the human horizon is city in the Ethics, but in Books VIII and limited by space and time in such a man- IX of the work he explains that a circle of ner that it is possible to know well—as friends within a city is actually the very friends—only a small number of people. best situation that human beings can hope If signifi cant human communication is for. These friends, sharing a noble con- to occur, it will have to occur within a ception of the good, will practice virtue limited circle of people who are involved toward each other, thereby improving each with each other in seeking to live well. As other and leading each other into the true Alasdair MacIntyre notes perceptively of happiness that comes with genuine virtue. Austen’s work, “The restricted households It seems that the justice provided by the of Highbury and Mansfi eld Park have to polis is indeed the natural social horizon for serve as surrogates for the Greek city-state human beings, but within the polis there is and the medieval kingdom.”5 an even smaller social circle that provides Another way to make this point is to the context for the best life for the best note that Austen harbors an Aristotelian human beings. “When men are friends,” distrust of large political arrangements Aristotle says, “they have no need of jus- in which anonymity is prevalent. It is an tice, while when they are just they need almost universal rule in Austen’s nov- friendship as well.”3 els that little good ever comes from the Jane Austen’s novels share the Aristo- great metropolis of London. In Pride and telian focus on small social arrangements. Prejudice, for example, London is the place If Aristotle prefers a small circle of friends where Lydia and Wickham fl ee to absent living within a city of restricted size, Aus- themselves from their families and indeed ten prefers a small circle of families living from all of their political obligations. They within a village of modest size; both, how- conceal themselves in the great anonymity ever, emphasize situations in which a hand- that is London’s political life. To be sure, ful of people share together a life in which Elizabeth Bennet’s decent aunt and uncle their happiness is intertwined. In a letter of live in London, as do Emma Woodhouse’s 1814 to her niece and aspiring story-teller decent sister and brother-in-law. Any ambi- 26 WINTER 2010 guity, however, about the status of London Austen’s “Aristotelian” preference for in Austen’s view that would remain after small political arrangements is also shown considering Pride and Prejudice and Emma by the marked lack of interest in geopoliti- would seem to be dispelled in Mansfi eld cal affairs in her novels. Austen wrote just Park, in a brief but important rural conver- after the author of Refl ections on the Revolu- sation between the “villainess,” Miss Mary tion in France, just before the author of A Crawford, who has lived in London, and Tale of Two Cities, and contemporaneously the eventual hero of the book, Edmund with Sir Walter Scott. Yet her books are Bertram. Edmund is intending a career vastly different from those, for nowhere in as a clergyman; this, in Miss Crawford’s her novels do we read much about tremen- view, is a very bad idea—indeed she calls dous battles, revolutions, or politics on a the clergyman’s status “nothing,” an asser- grand scale. Although in Pride and Preju- tion that gives rise to a spirited response dice some soldiers are stationed near the from Edmund: “I cannot call that situa- home of the heroine and her sisters, they tion nothing, which has the charge of all are only interesting as possible domestic that is of the fi rst importance to mankind, partners; they are never called upon to do individually or collectively considered, any fi ghting or dying, and indeed it is not temporally and eternally—which has the all that clear just why they have congre- guardianship of religion and morals, and gated in the fi rst place.7 In Emma, we do consequently of the manners which result learn of a military hero of some years past, from their infl uence.” In the exchange that and we also learn of acquaintances who are follows, Edmund argues that the reason traveling in Ireland, but none of the main Miss Crawford thinks the clergy insignifi - characters seems to be much interested in cant is her experience in living in an urban the world beyond England. Indeed, only a center so large that the private moral lives few of them even have much knowledge of both clergy and parishioners are hidden. of a world beyond their village, and those In smaller political settings the true func- few who do are usually among the least tion of clergy can come to the fore: attractive characters in the book, such as Mrs. Elton and Mr. Frank Churchill. For- We do not look in great cities for eign lands do play a more prominent role our best morality. It is not there, that in Mansfi eld Park, for Sir Thomas Bertram respectable people of any denomina- absents himself from his family and village tion can do most good; and it cer- because of urgent economic endeavors tainly is not there, that the infl uence in distant Antigua.