Retrench!
Barbara Whelehan, writing for Bankrate.com (via Yahoo!), uses examples from Jane Austen’s work to illustrate the negative effects of carrying excessive credit card debt.
The inability to live within one’s means goes back a long way. If fiction reflects reality, consider the character John Willoughby in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” published in 1811. Willoughby’s “estate had been rated … at about six or seven hundred [pounds] a year; but he lived at an expense to which that income could hardly be equal, and he had himself often complained of his poverty.”
Credit cards were nonexistent in those days, so the quickest way to wealth was to marry well. Willoughby used this strategy, and in the process broke the heart of the pretty and poor protagonist Miss Marianne, whom he had been leading on. A sympathetic friend of Marianne assessed the scoundrel this way: “Nothing in the way of pleasure can ever be given up by the young men of this age.”
Now, doesn’t that sound like something you might hear today? (Add “women” to obviate sexist overtones and make it more current.)
OK, things have changed since the days of horse-drawn carriages and letters sent by post. For one thing, up until around the mid-19th century, those who were unable to meet their obligations were often sent to debtor’s prison for the “wantonness of pride, the malignity of revenge, or the acrimony of disappointed expectation,” in the words of Samuel Johnson, who sympathized with imprisoned debtors, not creditors. No wonder: The litterateur of the 18th century suffered poverty most of his life.
January 19th, 2006 at 7:56 am
However, read Vanity Fair for the POSITIVE effects of carrying excessive debt. From memory, there are a couple of chapters in which Thackeray describes the lifestyle of Becky and her husband, when they establish a home in London, living wildly beyond their means. The tradesmen to whom they owe money have to keep extending more and more credit, because they know that if they call in the debt, they won’t see a penny. Rather like America and the world community nowadays.. (America = Becky Sharp, honest tradesmen = world community.)
January 19th, 2006 at 10:05 am
“America = Becky Sharp, honest tradesmen = world community
Robin, don’t you have this backwards? I’m thinking of all the Third World Debt that will/can NEVER be repaid - hence all the cries to forgive debts rather than continue racking up more interest that will also never be repaid.
And back to literary examples, the one that comes to my mind is Madame Bovary. Her excessive spending racked up huge debts that WERE collected, much to her embarrassment and chagrin, with tragic results.
And picky note to the Editrix: aren’t there too many t’s in litterateur? I would suppose root word would be same as for literature.
January 19th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Deb, I just looked it up in the OED and they say it can be spelled both ways; they give instances since 1806, about half with one T and the other half with two Ts… but two Ts must be more correct, since it seems to be a loan word from french, and the french has two Ts. [note to ed: my apologies for answering a question addressed to you!]
Having said that, though, English has a history of taking french loan words and eventually “naturalising” them by changing the spelling. Take french hommage and english homage for instance.
As for the debt question, I think Thackeray’s main point was that the powerless cannot get away with racking up huge debt (London’s poor, and third world counties)but the powerful and well-connected (Mr & Mrs Crawley and the United States) can. America’s debt is many times greater than all third world debt rolled together. Of course, America can award itself credit since they are in the unique position of owning the world’s reserve currency, but that is another question.
January 19th, 2006 at 1:34 pm
[note to ed: my apologies for answering a question addressed to you!]
Considering that my answer was “hell if I know,” I’ll let it slide!
Becky Sharp is a sociopath, if you ask me. That many, including me, nonetheless enjoy her as a character is a testament to Thackeray’s storytelling skills, I think. But I don’t think that point is germane to the discussion at hand, other than to say that it’s not just the Crawleys’ social position that allowed them to rack up debt but Becky’s total lack of understanding why it should be paid, and that she was impoverishing other people by failing to do so. It was all about Becky. Rawdon, left on his own, probably would have paid up eventually, or asked his aunt to do it or something. (And of course if he hadn’t married Becky he most likely would have inherited Miss Crawley’s fortune.)
Getting back to Jane Austen, we can see a similar theme in Persuasion, when Anne Elliot wants Sir Walter to follow a stricter regime for paying back his debts, because she considers debt a dishonor, whereas Sir Walter and Miss Elliot are more concerned with keeping up their style of living and less with actually paying off the debt. From Chapter 2:
January 19th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
“Considering that my answer was “hell if I know,” I’ll let it slide!” Ain’t it nice having a librarian with great resources at our beck and call?!?!?
And reading this is SOOOO much more interesting than what I’m being paid to do today. Think it’s time to dust off Persuasion this evening for another read.
January 21st, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Yes, you can either dust off your copy of Persuasion or you can get out the dvd, my personal favorite. Poor Anne is saddened by the financial situation. She yearns for the moderation of her poor mother. Ah, and, as added pleasure, you can gaze upon Cirian Hines.