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Satire
Explanation and Analysis—Mrs. Ferrars:
In an example of verbal irony, Austen describes Mrs. Ferrars—Edward’s mother—as if she is complimenting her when really she is criticizing her:
Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure, and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect. Her complexion was sallow; and her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression; but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature. She was not a woman of many words: for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas.
While there are moments in Austen’s description of Mrs. Ferrars that are overtly unflattering—“her complexion was sallow,” she was “serious, even to sourness”—she also includes descriptions that appear to be complimentary when they are not. For example, the fact that Mrs. Ferrars’s brow made her seem prideful and ill-natured is not “lucky.” Similarly, stating that she had few ideas to contribute in conversation does not set her apart from “people in general” in a positive way, as Austen implies, but in a negative way.
In typical Austen fashion, she takes time to mock arrogant, wealthy people who take themselves too seriously. This is just one of the ways that she satirizes the class-divided British society of her time.
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