#mr. elliot

[saimusage]

Samuel West (Mr. Elliot), Amanda Root (Anne) and Ciaran Hinds (Captain Wentworth) in "Persuasion" 1995 version.

[bethanydelleman]

One text post for each dubious male character in each Austen novel

George Wickham, Pride & Prejudice

Mr. Elliot, Persuasion

John Thorpe, Northanger Abbey

John Willoughby, Sense & Sensibility

Henry Crawford, Mansfield Park

Frank Churchill, Emma

Bonus:

Jane Austen Text Posts

[pretty-lil-emperess]

Mr. Elliot: *Holding Ms Bitter's hand* Professor, why have we stopped?

Professor Membrane: *Speaking to a fast food booth* Yeah I'll have three cheeseburgers.

Mr. Elliot: Professor for god's sake! She's having a baby!

Professor Membrane: Oh thats right! And a kids meal.

[oldfashionedbooklove]

I’ve reread Jane Austen’s 6 major novels this year and I thought it’d be fun to do my own little ranking of the heroes and villains in her novels. I already did the heroes in this post, so on to the villains! As before, this is all for fun and you don’t have to agree with me. 😉 I’ll be doing these by order of how I read them, so we’ll start with—

Northanger Abbey

I consider General Tilney the real villain in NA, because he’s the one who actively harms anyone. (Throwing Catherine out like that?! Never forgiven). But it was brought to my attention that John Thorpe helped bring that event about, which makes him partly a villain. Plus, he’s awful in general. 

John Thorpe … was a stout young man of middling height, who, with a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a groom, and too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil, and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy. (chapter 7)

Is the stupidest, most irritating character in all of Austen’s works

Literally hate the dude

Can not take him seriously 

-10,000 points for creating so much secondhand embarrassment and horror. Unquestionably terrible. 

As for General Tilney…

[The general] was a very handsome man, of a commanding aspect, past the bloom, but not past the vigour of life… (chapter 10)

Is a terrible parent

Is a terrible host

Is a terrible master 

Was probably a terrible husband

-9,000 points; he and Thorpe are unquestionably the worst villains so they’re not really considered in this ranking. Thorpe is horribly opinionated and self-centred and all-out RUDE and Tilney is just mean. 

Sense & Sensibility

Now we come to the villains we can really rank, and we start with John Willoughby. There are objectively several villains in S&S, but we won’t really consider Fanny Dashwood & Co, because they’re not men. ;P 

Elinor and her mother rose up in amazement at [Willoughby’s] entrance, and while the eyes of both were fixed on him with an evident wonder and a secret admiration which equally sprung from his appearance, he apologized for his intrusion by relating its cause, in a manner so frank and so graceful that his person, which was uncommonly handsome, received additional charms from his voice and expression. [T]o the perfect good-breeding of the gentleman, he united frankness and vivacity…. (chapters 9 & 10)

CONS:

Deliberately let Marianne fall in love with him without having any serious thoughts about her. -1000 points 

Led Eliza on. -2000 points

Abandoned Eliza, however accidentally. -1000 points

Married another woman for money while being madly in love with Marianne, and treated M shamefully because of it. -3000 points

Was generally too opinionated and disrespectful. -500 points

PROS:

Owned everything and apologized, however useless and belated it was. +500 points

Did not deliberately mean to harm Marianne at first. +500 points 

Willoughby’s villainy is more about being cowardly, thoughtless, selfish, and worldly than actually intending and deliberately doing evil. Still terrible, but somehow he’s still someone you feel sorry for. 

OVERALL RANKING FOR WILLOUGHBY: -6,500 points

Pride & Prejudice

The main villain in this story is the infamous George Wickham. 

But the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man, whom they had never seen before, of most gentlemanlike appearance[. Wickham] wanted only regimentals to make him completely charming. His appearance was greatly in his favour: he had all the best parts of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and very pleasing address. (chapter 15)

CONS:

Is such a worthless fellow that his lifelong friend won’t let him enter the church and everyone agrees it was the best thing to do for him (at a time when to enter the church didn’t really necessitate being a great guy). -1,000 points

Tries to woo and run away with a young girl. -2,000 points

Lives with another young girl with no intention of marrying her, knowing it would ruin her irremediably. -4,000 points 

Deliberately spreads lies and maligns the character of his benefactor’s son (his lifelong companion and erstwhile friend) because said friend kept him from being a problem (see point 1). -1,000 points

PROS:

Actually none. 

He never even apologized.

Always doubled down on his lies. 

He is the most unfeeling, least repentant, and most deliberately wicked of the Austen villains. 

OVERALL RANKING FOR WICKHAM: -8,000 points.

Mansfield Park

One of the main villains in MP is Mrs. Norris, who has the unenviable distinction of being the Austen character I hate most after John Thorpe. But again, as she’s a woman, we won’t rank her. Instead we turn our attention to the baffling Henry Crawford. 

[Henry] was not handsome: no, when they first saw him he was absolutely plain, black and plain; but still he was the gentleman, with a pleasing address. The second meeting proved him not so very plain: he was plain, to be sure, but then he had so much countenance, and his teeth were so good, and he was so well made, that one soon forgot he was plain; and after a third interview, after dining in company with him at the Parsonage, he was no longer allowed to be called so by anybody. He was, in fact, the most agreeable young man the sisters had ever known, and they were equally delighted with him. (chapters 4 & 5)

CONS:

Pursues Fanny when she begs him constantly not to and tells him very clearly why she won’t. -1,000 points 

Flirts with both Maria & Julia, pitting them against each other, making both hope for his love, and completely disrespecting Maria’s fiancé. -2,000 points 

Deliberately sets out to make Fanny fall in love with him so he can break her heart. -1,000 points 

Fools around with Maria AGAIN after she’s married and ends up accidentally getting himself into a scandal with her. (Maria was the one who ran to his house and started the whole thing, and he gave up because he thought there was no coming back. He never intended to seriously pursue her.) -1000 points for being dumb. 

PROS:

Is a good brother. +500 points

Is a genuinely kind, respectful fellow. +1,000 points 

Tries to woo Fanny very respectfully and following her own likes & dislikes (to be fair to Henry, everyone was telling him to chase her, and he knew she was likely to say no because she was shy and modest). +500 points 

Genuinely seemed to be reforming and trying to be a better person. +1,000 points

He is objectively the least evil and most tenderhearted of the Austen villains. 

OVERALL RANKING FOR CRAWFORD: -2,000 points.

Persuasion

I actually struggled somewhat to find an actual villain for this book, aside from Sir Walter, who isn’t as much a villain as he is an idiot. I finally pitched on Mr. William Elliot, who is not a very satisfactory villain as all his villainy is known secondhand and none is exhibited against the MC herself. 

…this second meeting, short as it was, also proved … by the readiness and propriety of his apologies, that [Mr. Elliot] was a man of exceedingly good manners. He seemed about thirty, and though not handsome, had an agreeable person. (chapters 4 & 5)

CONS:

Very disrespectful. -1,000 points

Very mercenary and selfish and classist. -1,000 points

Horribly treated his longtime best friend who had sacrificed every thing for him. -4,000 points 

OVERALL RANKING FOR ELLIOT: -6,000 points

Emma

I also really struggled to find a real villain in E, because I don’t think Frank Churchill deserves to be called a villain, however irresponsible he is. I finally decided on Mr. Elton, but he is certainly not responsible for all the bad things that happen in the book, though he causes some and marries someone who doesn’t help make anything right! So I ended up not trying to rank him.

And so our official ranking is…

*drumroll again*

Wickham: -8,000 Willoughby: -6,500  Elliot: -6,000. Crawford: -2,000 

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Henry Golding as Mr. Elliot & Dakota Johnson as Anne Elliot in Persuasion (Film, 2022).

[prismaticxchromatics]

A Room with a View (1985) Director: James Ivory

“I don't care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!”

[incorrectinvaderzim]

Mr. Elliot: Who's ready to start class? How are you all feeling? Gaz: Uh...horrible?

[mametupa]