ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Jane Austen characters with chronic illness and disability and it describes state of social attitudes towards disability and how this relates to Austen's characters and attitudes towards invalidism. It examines the novels, the work of literary critics about the novels, and film versions of the books for their view on invisible disability and chronic illness. In Austen's day, an invalid was seen as a person with delicate health who stays at home a lot and lies around or sits around being quiet, so as not to aggravate his/her "condition." In Austen's time and for the rest of the 19th century, going to Bath, a seaside town, to take the waters was seen as an act of healing or at least feeling better for invalids. Invalids, such as Harriet Martineau, thought that being couch-ridden afforded her the time and space to think about the larger issues of humanity such as good and evil, pain and suffering.
