u/Ok_Broccoli_9426

>The real circumstances of this pathetic piece of family history were, that the Musgroves had had the ill fortune of a very troublesome, hopeless son; and the good fortune to lose him before he reached his twentieth year; that he had been sent to sea because he was stupid and unmanageable on shore; that he had been very little cared for at any time by his family, though quite as much as he deserved; seldom heard of, and scarcely at all regretted, when the intelligence of his death abroad had worked its way to Uppercross, two years before.

>He had, in fact, though his sisters were now doing all they could for him, by calling him “poor Richard,” been nothing better than a thick-headed, unfeeling, unprofitable Dick Musgrove, who had never done anything to entitle himself to more than the abbreviation of his name, living or dead.

Austen notably never seems to hate her characters, even the bad ones, and doesn't delight in punishing them - "let other pens dwell on misery," etc. Even in Persuasion, which is maybe the darkest of her novels - she's not usually mean. So the level of disdain, even contempt for Dick Musgrove, has always struck me as somewhat singular in her oeuvre - which is not short on profligate young men! It also kind of...comes out of nowhere? Like there needs to be a reason for the Musgroves and Wentworth to get acquainted; I get that that's his plot purpose, but it's very jarring when Austen suddenly goes, "And then there's this asshole. The best thing he ever did was die."

Thoughts?? Do other readers find this as out of place as I do?