Ethical Review: AN EDUCATION

By BARCODE 2x

An Education, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan, is a beautiful and eloquent film about a very tough subject. Jenny (Mulligan) is 16 when she meets the charming older David (Sarsgaard). He offers her a lift in the rain, and thus begins a tender, romantic, and troubling turn of events.

If what we are taught is true, then men reach their sexual peak in their mid to late teens, and women in their early 30s. We are also taught that women reach a level of emotional maturity in their late teens that men may not reach ever in their lives. If women and men are so physiologically different, then why should society frown on unconventional romances? If the man and woman are coming to one another at the time of their coincidental, separate sexual and emotional maturity, then what should age matter?

I am not speaking of illegal relationships here. No one condones that.

I am talking about consenting adults with an age gap between them. Young women and men may fantasize about affairs with older people, more mature human beings, why not? These older people can provide, as the title of the film suggests, an education. They have lived in the world, a world that the young person may have only read about.

And certainly older people can see the appeal of a young, fun, spirited and adventurous lover. In Ann Arbor, we are witness to this phenomenon every day, en masse. It's a college town, after all. Any hip restaurant will feature, in a darkened corner booth, an older man with a younger woman. He appears to be in his 40s and in good shape, with grey around the temples, and she is a gorgeous, firm young woman, with baby-round cheeks and even dimples, perhaps, if you're lucky enough to catch them. They share desserts and talk about movies.

Despite the fun that could be had with this biological speculation, the problem remains that there are large-scale institutional problems with these relationships. Young impressionable people are easily taken advantage of, easily fooled, and there are intrinsic risks to falling in love with someone older and more experienced than yourself. These couples seem blissfully unaware of the discomfort they cause all around them. They throw caution to the wind, no doubt to the fierce objections of their parents, friends, colleauges, and everyone else. No one sees the real societal value of dating a person older or younger than oneself. These are not looked upon as positive, constructive relationships. No one approves. It is a soft taboo, a real no-no, it's simply not done. The two are seen as weak, needy people, and the relationship, to all appearances, is doomed. Oh god, they're kissing, turn away, don't look!

It's frowned upon. But you must admit it's so damn sexy. In An Education, Jenny has little interest in the young male suitors her own age. It is London in 1961. She is cosmopolitan, with a love of music and literature. She speaks French. She finds a perfect match in the sophisticated, spontaneous David. He charms her parents as well, and masterfully concocts beautiful lies to steal Jenny away for romantic weekends.

They travel in the company of two of his friends, always. In this Bohemian paradise, Jenny learns to smoke, drink, dance, kiss. She goes to an auction and giddily bids for her male friends on an expensive painting. She learns many things. She learns to gamble, to distinguish fine food and fine antiques.

David, as it happens, is a thief and con artist. He steals and manipulates clever real estate deals. In one shady deal, he is seen kindly helping a black family move into a new apartment. The old women living next door move out, and he buys up their apartment for cheap. In another instance, he burglars an antique map from an open house for sale. Jenny is his accomplice.

He is a Robin Hood. Jenny is shocked, but soon sees his logic; he steals so they can have their fun. He is a benevolent thief with infinite charm. Jenny is altogether swept up.

As final exams approach, Jenny begins contemplating the value of a college education. I have spoken with many young people today who face the same dilemma. Why get a degree when there are no jobs? For women in 1961, especially. Jenny throws it all away to marry David.

Only to lose him as well.

In a devastating revelation, he turns out to be a complete phony, and Jenny is now left with no exams, no college, no future. Ruined at 17. She is denied re-entry to her prep school. Ruined girls have no second chances, not even with other women. Her life is essentially over, until she digs her way out through the help of a teacher/mentor Ms. Stubbs (a beautifully restrained and buttoned-down Olivia Williams).

Jenny's parents come clean as well. They had been seduced by David's charm and his supposed connections. In a tearful confession, Jenny's father (Alfred Molina) tells her what a fool he had been, but how he believed in the fairy tale as much as she did.

Jenny had walked out of school while her friends watched behind the gateway, as though they were held in by an invisible forcefield. She had shucked off the values of her parents. She learned the values of hip young women of the time, who saw formal education as a complete waste. Better to get married. What do you need a degree for anyhow? Jenny's Headmistress (Emma Thompson) tells her to stay in school, but paints the bleakest picture of life after college. Be a teacher, or a civil servant. So why not abandon it all and have fun?

"Action is character," Ms. Stubbs had taught her in the study of the English novel. We are, essentially, the sum of our actions. Values and feelings, she reads in Camus, are bourgeouis and empty. Life is for the living. The present moment is all we have. Why waste it in school when you could be spending it at the opera or the nightclub?

David, ultimately, has a lot to learn too. The sum of his actions make his character out to be a shady, crooked, overgrown child with compulsive habits. He is a pirate, a looter. He steals art, antiques, cars, real estate.  Jenny waits until her 17th birthday to give him what she will never give anyone else again. He steals that from her too.

And finally, arriving at college, she reinvents herself. Her education with David, and her year of living dangerously, taught her how to create a beautiful, worldly version of herself. She would lie to her young boyfriends later, and say she had never been to Paris.

When we are young, we pretend to be older. When older, we pretend to be young again. We fool people, sometimes. We fool ourselves. Everyone lies a little. It's necessary to sneak out of the house. It's necessary in order to skip school. Lying is an art, and requires practice and skill, like anything else. And we all learn it. The real education happens after school is done. The real education comes, sometimes terrifyingly, through sneaky discoveries after dark. In English literature, we call it "coming of age."