Edward Ferrars's Playlist

        I am forced to admit to you that I an an ardent admirer of Jane Austen. I hesitate, of course, because she is such a popular author among young women, particularly young English majors. I do genuinely appreciate Jane Austen as a witty writer with well-developed characters, but I think that when there are t-shirts that say, "I love Mr. Darcy," and infinity scarves that have excerpts from Pride and Prejudice printed on them, things have gotten out of hand.
        I think that, perhaps, one of my favourite novels by Jane Austen is Sense and Sensibility. Though the title does make it sound a bit like a highly moralistic bubble-gum romance, it is one of her darker novels. It also contains my favourite of all Austen heroes, Edward Ferrars. Upon first reading this novel, I actually despised him, because I felt that he had no backbone. Reading parts of it over again as an adult, I find that I understand him far more than I did before. 
        Last summer, I tried re-reading Sense and Sensibility. I didn't get through the whole thing, because I was trying to read too many things at once, but I started making some interesting comparisons between characters in the novel and people you might see today. To be exact, I began re-imagining Sense and Sensibility as occuring in the early to mid 2000s. Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters would belong to a slightly eclectic group of people you might find working in craft or bead stores and burning incense in the living room and listening to New Age music. Mr. and Mrs. John Dashwood would be successful professionals. And Edward, I've decided, would listen to emo music.
         I don't know that I would classify Edward as an emo himself. Edward Ferrars is far too fond of being comfortable to adopt any alternative lifestyle or embrace any fashion from a subculture. I think, however, many of the lyrics you might find in songs labeled "emo" or even "punk rock" from the 90s to the 2000s would particularly resonate with his circumstances and feelings in the novel. Edward Ferrars struggles with not being understood or accepted by his family while forced to depend on them. He has low self-esteem, both because he is socially awkward and because he has no purpose in life. He is also trapped in a relationship that he no longer wants, while falling in love with a girl that, even if he broke off the other relationship, he still might not be able to have. I think that a lot of emo songs deal with these types of problems, or similar ones. Though Edward is not known for appreciation of music in the novel, I think he would be attracted to some emo and lighter punk rock songs because of their lyrical content. He wouldn't be the type of person to worship underground punk bands and pride himself on keeping up with the latest in alternative music, but he would probably quietly hum Green Day in the corner of the room at a party. He might compile a nice list of songs that stay on the less edgy, more mainstream side of emo, and listen to them when he's feeling down.
         A month or two ago, I entered into the subject of Jane Austen with a lovely friend of mine. As we compared our favourite novels, I mentioned to her my vision of Edward Ferrars. We decided that we should make playlists for our favourite Austen characters of music that they might listen to if they lived in the present day. Here is a short one that I compiled for Edward.


                                                             Edward Ferrars's Playlist

                                              "Sugar, We're Going Down"- Fall Out Boy
                                        "Wake Me Up When September Ends"- Green Day
                                             "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"- Green Day
                                                             "Longview"- Green Day
                                                               "21 Guns"- Green Day
                                                              "I Miss You"- Blink 182
                                                 "To the End"- My Chemical Romance
                                "The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You"- My Chemical Romance
                                                 "I'm Not Okay"- My Chemical Romance
                                             "I Don't Love You"- My Chemical Romance
                                                     "The Calendar"- Panic! At the Disco
                                          "The Ballad of Mona Lisa"- Panic! At the Disco