A number of critics and historians have traced the complex portrait of masculine performance in Georgian and Regency era England, following shifting understandings of masculinity at the turn of the nineteenth century. Karen Harvey, for example, focuses on the various forms of masculinity emerging from roughly the end of the seventeenth century to the start of the Regency era, touching on the ways that these forms of masculine performance interact with, shape, and dominate one other (298-305).
Harvey draws on the incredibly influential work of Michèle Cohen, whose analysis of masculinity at the end of the eighteenth century examines the gradual shift from the mid-century hegemonic masculinity of the ‘polite gentleman’ to an emerging masculine form founded on the ideals of chivalry that ultimately came to dominate much of the nineteenth century (314-315). Also challenging politeness is yet another type of masculinity posited by Hannah Barker, one found outside of ‘polite circles’ and centered on domesticity and religion (13).
Amidst these competing conceptions of masculine performance is Jane Austen, who, in her novel Sense and Sensibility, negotiates these competing forms of masculinity in the narrative. Through character, Austen represents four masculine types-the polite, the sensible, the domestic, and the chivalrous ideal. In virtue and emotional sensitivity, Colonel Brandon embodies elements of both the polite and the sensible, as Sarah Ailwood notes ; in behavior and ambition, Edward Ferrars captures the polite and the domestic. Willoughby stands as the direct opposite of both, representing the chivalrous ideal. Through the three central male characters and their actions in the narrative, Austen affirms polite, sensible, and domestic masculinities and critiques the ideal ‘chivalrous’ masculinity.
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In her analysis of masculinity in England from roughly 1650-1800, Harvey establishes four broad categories of masculine forms- ‘four stages of man’-prevalent in that span of time: the ‘Household Patriarch,’ ‘Libertines and Fops,’ ‘The Polite Gentleman,’ and the unlabeled ‘chivalrous’ form (298-305). Each of these forms seem to manifest in various ways throughout the time frame, but as Harvey notes, ‘the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries feature a distinctive manly type, as the polite gentleman moves center stage. In contrast (perhaps in reaction) to the libertine, the polite gentleman strove for restraint.
In contrast to the fop, the polite gentleman was easy and thoughtful of others’ and practiced ‘self-government’ and ‘equanimity’ (301). Because politeness culture established connections among ‘decorum, gentility, and Christianity,’ the polite gentleman generally was devoted to God and felt a strong sense of religious duty (Harvey 304). Furthermore, the polite gentleman kept frequent company with women, as they were believed to ‘refine’ the conversational skills and language of men (Harvey 301-302).
Cohen suggests that this ‘polite’ form of masculinity was hegemonic in the late eighteenth century, pointing out that conduct manuals of the time reinforce this notion (312-313). Indeed, in an essay included in the first volume of The Preceptor, published in 1749, R. Dodsley offers readers ‘The Picture of a Good Man’ in which he instructs young men on the qualities of the polite gentleman, emphasizing selflessness as central to happiness:
He makes the Interest of Mankind, in a manner, his own; and has a tender and affectionate Concern for their Welfare. He cannot think himself happy, whatever his Possessions and Enjoyments are, while he sees others miserable…and the greatest Charm of Prosperity is the Opportunity it affords for relieving his Fellow Creatures, and of being more extensively useful. (17).
In another collection of essays ‘chiefly collected from different authors’ never named in the text, one author recommends that male youth adopt the qualities associated with the ‘polite gentleman’ (Harvey 301), stressing especially the importance of self-regulation and moderation and associating these qualities with religious duty:
On the proper regulation, therefore, of men’s passions, the true excellence of their characters, and their real happiness, essentially depend… This makes it absolutely necessary for young persons to exercise the great duty of self-government. They should keep their wishes within the bounds of temperance and chastity; consider that life as the best which providence hath appointed them; and be mild, gentle, and patient… And if, through the blessing of the Almighty, they do actually attain the universal moderation, we are speaking of, they will then secure their true interest and glory… (A. M. 90-91).
