“Beginning with a little aversion”

“Beginning with a little aversion” is a comic phrase that Maud’s uncle adapts into an argument for reconsidering Dudley as a possible husband. Its significance lies in the way a joke about marriage becomes a tool of persuasion: Maud’s dislike is treated not as a decisive objection, but as a feeling that might change.

The phrase and its source

Maud’s uncle attributes the saying to Mrs. Malaprop in Sheridan’s play, presenting it as one of the character’s comic malapropisms. He acknowledges that the idea is a joke when applied to matrimony, yet separates the comic formulation from what he claims is a serious truth about love: an initial aversion, in his view, need not prevent later attachment.

He bolsters the claim with the example of Sheridan’s own marriage to Miss Ogle. According to his account, she initially expressed horror of Sheridan but, a few months later, would supposedly have died rather than not marry him. The example is offered as a precedent for emotional reversal, not as proof that Maud’s feelings will necessarily follow the same course.

Its use in persuading Maud

The remark comes as Maud is about to object. Her uncle beckons her into silence and continues, insisting that she hear him out. He frames his case conditionally: he assumes Maud is free to marry, cares little for Dudley, and even believes she dislikes him. Rather than accepting those assumptions as reasons to end the discussion, he makes them the starting point for it.

He also argues that Maud’s fortune gives her the unusual freedom to marry for love. Since few men could offer an estate comparable to the one she already possesses, he says, Dudley’s poverty should not count as an objection if Dudley were otherwise eligible. The phrase thus belongs to a larger attempt to shift Maud’s attention away from her present aversion and toward the possibility of a changed attachment.

Rhetorical force and limits

The saying’s comic origin lends the argument a light, familiar surface, while its practical purpose is serious: Maud’s uncle is urging her to give Dudley a second thought. His appeal joins an anecdote about Sheridan and Miss Ogle to a calculation about Maud’s wealth and independence. Yet the argument remains his interpretation of Maud’s feelings, not a statement that she has changed her mind. In the passage, the phrase marks pressure to reconsider, while Maud’s attempted protest preserves the distance between his theory of love and her own response.