'What is it your brother Sidney says about its being a hospital?' 'Oh, my dear Mary, merely a joke of his. He pretends to advise me to make a hospital of it. He pretends to laugh at my improvements. Sidney says anything, you know. He has always said what he chose of and to us all. Most families have such a member among them I believe Miss Heywood. - There is a someone in most families privileged by superior abilities or spirits to say anything. - In ours, it is Sidney; who is a very clever young man, - and with great powers of pleasing. - He lives too much in the world to be settled; that is his only fault. - He is here and there and everywhere.'
Austen, Jane, and Margaret Drabble. Lady Susan ; The Watsons ; Sanditon. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. Print. 171
I thought that this was a particularly interesting passage to consider for a number of reasons. Firstly, we see how this idea of self medicating and the application of homebrew remedies can be debilitating in the worst degree not only to physical health, but also the mental conditons of those that are making such prescriptions. We see how truly ridiculous this entire concept is, as the sisters of Mr.Parker are limiting their lives by thinking themselves constantly ill, when it is the cures that they self prescribe that are in fact doing them the most harm. They have convinced themselves and a number of other people with their charade of constant illness and invalidity that it is a natural part of their constitution and just quite easily prone to sickness. And so Sidney suggests that Mr. Parker make Sanditon into a hospital, whereby they can "cure" the ailments away of those who come, for Sanditon is as effective at healing or curing those who come as his sisters home remedies of leeches and teeth pulling. Sidney here speaks his mind and is blatantly honest with his little jab of criticism, and it serves to separate him as a man of independent thought and probable integrity, though Mr.Parker debases it by calling it a joke and saying things merely because he can, not because he truly believes them or stands behind them.












