Posted by Ann on September 17, 1997 at 12:18:33:
In reply to Interesting New View Point, but still wrong :-) posted by Nora on September 16, 1997 at 19:54:22
] Fanny belongs with Henry, and if JA had continued the story like P&P (where I admit hating Darcy for what he did too and calling him a jerk AT FIRST!!!), MP would be as lovable as P&P. ....Now....if you had not said that Henry was a jerk, we could be allies....because we too are out for what is best for Fanny. She needs to live a little.
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There is a fundamental difference between Henry Crawford and Darcy--Darcy was, at the core, a good and moral person, Henry was not.
If Fanny had ended up with Henry, she might have lived, as you say, a little, but within a few years Henry would be off chasing women again--breaking Fanny's heart. A year or two of possible happiness would be followed by a lifetime of misery. There was no divorce in this era, after all (except for cuckolded men, like Rushworth). If Fanny and Henry had gotten married, she would have been stuck with a filanderer for the rest of her life, and one who had already proved his cruelty when he intentinally set out to break Fanny's heart.
Henry is not Frederick Wentworth, and, I believe, could never assume such constancy--it was not in his character.
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