Total Want of Talent

I usually reread "Pride and Prejudice" every summer but this year I decided to reread "Sense and Sensibility" instead. While it is not as well written as P&P or Persuasion, it is an enjoyable book. As I read this book again, I keep noticing all the references Austen makes to talent. Lady Middleton and her husband, Sir John, are described as having a "total want of talent" and other characters are also characterized by their lack of talent. Austen implies that "want of talent" makes one insipid (this is especially true about Lady Middleton), and inferior to the two main characters Marianne and Elinor. But I wander what Austen means by talent? Are Marianne and Elinor talented because they enjoy music, paining, reading, and intellectual conversation? Is Lady Middleton insipid because she enjoys keeping a nice home and caring for her children? Or is it that Lady Middleton is only concern with keeping house and rearing children and idles away her free time instead of improving herself? With the exception of Edward Ferrars and Col. Brandon (who naturally as the worthy matches to the Misses Dashwood) all the other characters in the story show a total want of talent that is characterized by the lack of inner resources and their dependence upon society for entertainment and enjoyment.

But what it is talent? Oxford English Dictionary (I love that it gives the etymology of a word!) defines it as: 1. an inclination, propension, or disposition for anything; 2. a mental endowment; natural ability; 3. mental powers of superior order; 4. special natural ability or aptitude, an accomplishment.

I think I wander about talent because I have always been at a loss of what my talents (if I indeed have any) are. It has always seemed to me that talent is an external accomplishment, something that can be displayed, like playing an instrument, singing, painting, drawing, designing...in other creating something. I do not have any of those talents. I cook well but that is because I can follow a recipe. I enjoy reading but should I consider that a talent just because I can read or because I enjoy it. While I still search for what my talents are, I flatter myself that at least in Jane Austen's world I would not fall into the class of "total want of talent" since do not lack in inner resources and do not rely upon society for entertainment.

New definition of talent: inner resources that does not make one a the mercy of society for enjoyment and entertainment.