Just Another Janeite

A Commonplace book for my Jane Austen English class

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Persuasion

I really enjoyed this Major Author:Jane Austen course especially since we got to analyse books by my favorite author. I wish that one of the books we talked about was Persuasion. In light of that I wanted to do my last commonplace book post about Persuasion and how I think it would fit into some of the themes that we discussed in class.

In terms of class, evidence of that being an issue is shown when the Elliots persuaded Anne to not marry Captain Wentworth when they were younger because he was just a poor member of the militia. Then when he came back years later, rich and raised to the rank of a Captain, people did not look down on him as much. The families trying to manipulate their daughters to marry suitable men is also evidence of the class and gender inequality issues. 

I love that in the end Anne Elliot goes against her families wishes and ends up marrying her true love Captain Wentworth and retaining the home that meant so much to her. 

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Austen Heroines

In Emma and the Servants by Lisa Hopkins, she said that out of all of Jane Austen heroines Emma “is the only one whose thoughts are not fixed on matrimony virtually from the outset of the novel.” 

This quote made me think about the different Jane Austen heroines from her six major novels, which ones are my favorite, and why.

Elizabeth Bennet

I love Elizabeth Bennet the most not only because Pride and Prejudice is my favorite novel, but because of her independence and her laughing spirit. Also she rejects a man like Mr. Darcy, at least the first time he proposed, which shows an enormous strength of character. 

Elinor Dashwood

I like Miss Dashwood’s ability to be a strength and a backbone to her family in their time of need. I admire her for not giving up on her love even when her younger sister was ridiculing it. 

Fanny Price

Many people do not like Fanny Price because she seems a little meeker but I think that she is just a different kind of protagonist, but one which I still admire. She takes her situation of mot being equal to those around her and she still thrives. She stands up for herself when she decides that she does not want to marry Henry Crawford and in the end she still gets her love.

Anne Elliot

My second favorite novel but not my favorite protagonist. Don’t get me wrong. I love how she is a different kind of protagonist from the younger completely confident type, but I can’t love her because she was so easily persuaded when she was younger to let go of her love. She makes up for it in my eyes though by not letting him go after they are reunited 

Catherine Moorland

For me, even though I admire Catherine’s healthy imagination, she just seems so young and a little ignorant.

Emma Woodhouse

I still cannot get over my aversion to Emma. She is too “perfect”. Rich and beautiful she thinks that she is entitled to meddling in everyone’s lives. I think that she still has a lot of growing to do as a character, but I am appeased by the fact that she will have Mr. Knightley by her side to continue her growth in character.

I love how each of Jane Austen’s heroines are unique and have their own personality. I feel like it is the mark of an amazing author to be able to write so many great novels with different plots and protagonists. 

Works Cited:

Hopkins, Lisa. “Emma and the Servants.” Persuasion On-Line Occasional Papers, NO.3 (Fall 1999). Web. 10 December 2016.

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The Age Gap in Emma

I could not quite put my finger on why I did not like Emma as much as the other Jane Austen novels but I think I got it now. I don’t know about anyone else but the age gap in Emma really bothers me. Emma is 21 years old and Mr. Knightley is 37. That’s incredible. But what’s more incredible is that people seem to be okay with or overlook this fact. It would be a different story if they just met each other, fell in love and he happened to be 16 years older than her. But that is not the case. Their families are friends. Knightley knew Emma from the time she was an infant. He was 16 years old when she was a baby. That’s honestly creepy if he harbored feelings for her when she was a child. Knightley had the opportunity to raise a perfect bride for himself basically. I don’t know. The age gap does not take away form the brilliance of yet another Jane Austen novel, but it is something that I personally can’t seem to get over. 

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My opinion on Lady Susan

Here’s my opinion on the epistolary novel by Jane Austen entitled Lady Susan. Because it is so short I expected that I would not like it but I found that I enjoyed it so much that I could not put it down and therefore read it in one go. I still do not know whether or not I like Lady Susan’s character. Whether or not she is innocent of the accusations against her or if she really is full of deceit as Mrs. Vernon says. In my opinion Lady Susan could be one of two things, a good person who is just trying to better the lives of others and her daughter by insisting that she marry someone with money. Or she could be a massive flirt who only thinks of herself. I truly think that she is a mixture of both. Being a great beauty and having that fact reiterated to her for years could have caused her to become a flirt, but I still think that she really wanted to secure her daughter’s life because her daughter had no education or nothing to really recommend her. When her friend Mrs. Johnson urged her to marry Reginald, she was going to go through with it only because she saw it as a way to secure her family’s future without forcing her daughter into an unhappy marriage. When that did not work out she even sacrificed and married James Martin herself. I think that this speaks to her true character.

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Dido’s Dilemma

In the movie Belle which came out in 2013, the protagonist Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay is a woman of mixed descent with a mother who was a slave and a father who was an English gentleman. After Dido’s mother passed away, her father came for her and brought her out of the slums. He took her to stay with his uncle because he was still in the navy. After some reservation from the uncle because he was the head Supreme Judge, he took Dido in and raised her as a companion for his other niece Elizabeth. After Dido grew up, her father died and left her a fortune making her an heiress. 

The whole story includes the issue of the Zong Case where Sir Mansfield, Dido’s uncle, was to give his ruling. The Zong case was about a human slave trade ship that supposedly had low water levels and threw slaves overboard to drown. The crew of that ship was trying to claim insurance for the slaves that they murdered. I was happy that in the end Sir Mansfield ruled in favor of the insurers who refused to pay the crew money, and that the whole case was a step towards abolishing slavery.

The film brought up many issues of that time period of race, class, and gender. One of the main dilemma’s that Dido had in the film was not knowing here she belonged. I think she was struggling with being raised as a lady but still having to follow rules that degraded her like not being able to eat at the dinner table when there were guests over. She kept looking at portraits and noticing that the white person in the portrait would have a position of prominence and power while there would be a black slave in the portrait serving them in a position of inferiority. She was afraid when her uncle wanted to do a portrait of Dido and her cousin Elizabeth. She thought that she would be placed in a simlar position of teh slaves that she saw in other portraits and that would bring attention to her real place in the family.

Instead the portrait produced showed Dido just as beautifully as her cousin (shown above). She was even positioned higher that her cousin. Although there as still some issues with the painting such as the fact that Dido is positioned behind Elizabeth and carrying something so that it looks like she is working, it still looks as if they are basically equals because of the clothing and the fact that Dido is also wearing jewelry. In the film Dido realizes her true place in her family and the fact that she is loved and cherished, she even gets to marry the man of her choosing.

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Is Emma a Detective Novel?

Is Emma a detective novel? Author P.D. James seems to think so. She once said that Emma seems like a detective novel. I heard this and I immediately said to myself that it cannot be true. Emma is a typical Jane Austen romance novel. I thought that P.D. James, who is the author of mystery novels such as Death Comes to Pemberley, had just misread the situation because as a mystery novelist that would be easy to do. But the more I read Emma, the more I could pick up on where it could be like a detective novel.

Emma is a serial matchmaker. She successfully matched up her old governess Miss Taylor with Mr. Weston and they are now in a happy marriage. She then takes Harriet Smith under her wing and decides that Mr. Elton should be the one for her. Like a detective, Emma observes the behaviors of the two people and tries to look for clues that Mr. Elton has feelings for Harriet.

Even though Emma seems like a detective when she is finding clues and drawing conclusions, I think she is a bad one. She would find evidence of certain things but if that evidence does not point towards her goals of getting Miss Smith and Mr. Elton together then she ignores them. A good example of this would be in Chapter 9 of Emma, when Mr. Elton wrote the poem for Emma and Miss Smith to include in their collection of poems. Emma studied the poem and successfully deemed that it was an offer of courtship. But the line where it says “Thy ready wit the word will soon supply” causes some problems. Emma reads it and knows that her friend Miss Smith is not very witty, meaning that the poem could be for someone else. But because she believes and wants Mr. Elton to be in love with Harriet, she ignores the evidence and comes to the conclusion she wants anyway.

This is why even though I now believe that Emma could be described as having the characteristics of a detective novel, I do not think that Emma makes a very good detective because she lets her feelings get in the way.

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Who is the Anonymous author of The Woman of Colour?

Well, the whole point of the author being Anonymous means that I do not know who they are. The interesting thing about this though is that I can insert whoever I think the author could be like. In my mind, I imagine the author of The Woman of Colour as a white woman. Even though the novel is literally about a woman of color, I picture the author this way for a few reasons.

In the novel, the protagonist Olivia Fairfield is the daughter of a white plantation owner and a black slave in Jamaica, making her a mixed race person. Her mother died in childbirth and she was raised by a white governess as her father’s daughter, so basically she was raised to be like other white women despite the color of her skin. She has expressed her sympathy for slaves and has openly said she is against slavery and thinks slaves should not be treated like animals. My problem is that when she addresses these issues, I feel like she is too calm and matter of fact for the author who wrote her character to also be a person of color. It feels to me like the author is an outsider looking into the world of people of color and although she is sympathetic of our plight, she has not experienced the same things herself.

I also think that the author is a woman because of the fact that Olivia Fairfield does not end up happily married at the end. I feel like woman authors and women in general would have been tired of the fact that novels depict them as wanting nothing but marriage and only being concerned with making an eligible match. So in direct defiance of this, even though the author could have married Olivia off again to Mr. Honeycomb after all her trials and tribulations, she decided to send Olivia back home to Jamaica to be with the friend she has been writing the letters to the whole time. I believe that this seems like a plot twist that a female author would include.

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Is It Wrong to Compare the Slave Trade to the Marriage Mart?

In Jane Austen and Edward Said: Gender, Culture, and Imperialism by Susan Fraiman. One of her main points is that back in the times of Jane Austen’s novels the marriage of females to males i.e. the marriage mart is comparable to the slave trade.

Fraiman says that in Mansfield Park, Sir Thomas trying to persuade Fanny Price to marry Henry Crawford is comparable “to put female flesh on the auction block in exchange for male status”.

Fraiman got some push back for her point of view because the slave trade is of course a very delicate part of history and she seems to almost casually compare the slavery of people who were treated as less than human, to females being paraded around and married off to the man with the most fortune or eligibility. 

I agree that there are some problems with the whole Marriage Mart issue, especially if the female is unwilling to marry the male, but sometimes they do have a say in the matter. Their opinion can count. Slavery was forced upon those who became slaves and they had no say in the matter and the topic should not be discussed lightly and compared to more frivolous things.

Therefore if asked is it wrong to compare the slave trade to the marriage mart? I would say definitely yes. Fraiman could have found a different analogy to make around the marriage mart. 

Source:

Fraiman, Susan. "Jane Austen and Edward Said: Gender, Culture, and Imperialism." Critical Inquiry 21.4 (Summer 1995): 805-821. JSTOR. Web. 5 February 2013.

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Nature vs. Nurture in Mansfield Park

“In a review of the two houses, as they appeared to her before the end of a week, Fanny was tempted to apply them to Dr. Johnson’s celebrated judgement as to matrimony and celibacy, and say, that though Mansfield Park might have some pains, Portsmouth could have no pleasures.”

 - Chapter 39 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

“When she had been coming to Portsmouth; she had loved to call it her home, had been fond of saying that she was going home; the word had been very dear to her, and so it still was,, but it must be applied to Mansfield. That was now the home. Portsmouth was Portsmouth; Mansfield was home.”

- Chapter 45 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

In my opinion these two passages help to show how Fanny’s upbringing helped to influence her opinions of Portsmouth and how Mansfield Park contains elements of Nature vs Nurture.

What do I mean by this?

Fanny was born in Portsmouth and was raised there for her early childhood. If she had remained in Portsmouth without being exposed to Mansfield Park she would have grown up to be just like her parents and her family there, with little manners and education, and Portsmouth would have felt like home to her. But because she was exposed to Mansfield Park and her cousin Edmund introduced her to books and helped her get more of an education, she grew up a certain way, with a gentleness of character who was always grateful, and Mansfield became her home. 

On the other hand Maria and Julia Bertram were born and raised at Mansfield Park all their lives and as a result turned into spoiled brats who did nothing but disappoint their father.

Women who could have all turned out similarly because of their nature, but who did not because of their nurture, where and who raised them.

I think it was cruel of Sir Thomas to send Fanny to Portsmouth because it was like sending her away from home. She may have been born in Portsmouth but Mansfield Park was her home at that time.

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Mansfield Park - The 1999 version

Let it be known that I have no patience. Having only finished the first two Volumes of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, I took it upon myself to watch one of the adaptations before I even finished reading the book. Maybe this was not a good idea but nevertheless I cannot do anything about it now. All I can say is I would like to comment on the fact that the adaptation seems very, very different from the novel.

For one there is this.

The main character Fanny Price who seems to break the fourth wall by looking straight into the camera at every opportunity she gets. I do not know if this is a ploy to try to get the audience to like or connect more with the character of Fanny Price, who may never live up to Elizabeth Bennet her predecessor, but I just find it very disconcerting. I’m watching a movie, you know just an observer of what’s going on onscreen and suddenly bam, someone’s staring straight at me.

I haven’t gotten far enough yet so I cannot really say but I like how the film portrays Fanny and Edmund’s relationships growth from friendship to love. I do not think that the film shows enough of Fanny’s suffering from Edmund liking Mary Crawford the way the novel dwells on it. 

Also they have Mary Crawford dressing so provocatively for that time era and even though her character is a complex one in the novel, I do not believe she dresses like that. A respectable man such as Edmund would not like her as much as he did if she dressed like that in the novel.

Finally, even though I have yet to finish the novel seeing Henry Crawford’s development from being a flirt to seemingly loving Fanny Price was actually believable in the film adaptation, regardless of what he did after he was rejected. In fact, I can’t wait to read about Henry trying to get Fanny to marry him in the novel, to see if it’s just as entertaining.

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Edmund falling in “love” with Miss Crawford

“A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as elegant as herself; and both placed near a window, cut down to the ground, and opening on a little lawn, surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer, was enough to catch any man’s heart.”

- Volume I Chapter 7 of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

It was in these lines of Mansfield Park that we get a first glimpse at Edmund Bertram “falling in love” with Mary Crawford.

Besides the fact that I am extremely biased because I want Edmund to be with the main character in this novel, Fanny Price, I don’t really think that I can qualify his attachment as love, and even if it is love, I believe it is doomed to fail.

I think what he feels for Mary Crawford is simply attraction and infatuation. She is a beautiful and lively girl who suddenly came into his life, who happens to know how to play an elegant instrument, such as the harp, well. Edmund’s strange love of nature, which he happens to share with Fanny, was no doubt triggered when he saw Mary playing, framed by the window. 

This infatuation has blinded Edmund to the fact that Mary is not a good match for him. She is very opinionated about certain things, such as distance and time,and the navy, while he doesn’t share the same sentiments. She also would never respect his future profession as a clergyman. 

I think these things are important if a relationship between them were to happen, but I guess I will have to continue reading Mansfield Park to see just when Edmund comes to his senses.

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Why is Pride and Prejudice so Loved?

The question is why is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice so popular, not just among her novels but among all romance novels. Now I cannot answer that particular question because I do not know any everyone else likes it, but I can tell you why I love it.

Pride and Prejudice is my favorite novel and my favorite movie, specifically the 2005 version, of all time and I think the reason why I love it and so many other people love it is this.

We all want this.

We all want a Mr. Darcy to love us.

The whole scenario is like a dream come true honestly. A rich and handsome gentleman wants to marry you? Who wouldn’t want that to happen to them?

But that’s not all that Pride and Prejudice is about. If Mr. Darcy had just fallen in love with Elizabeth Bennet from the get go and she had returned his feelings just as earnestly, we would have gotten a very boring, and short, story. 

Instead we get the reality of the fact that first impressions aren’t always the best. We learn that true love will always have obstacles, be it pride, objections from family, differences in wealth and status, other suitors, or even very bad decisions. 

But what we come away with from Pride and Prejudice is that true love can conquer all of these things and that’s why I believe this novel is and forever will be, one of the greatest love stories of all time.

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Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice Adaptations

One thing I have realized through watching different adaptations of Pride and Prejudice is that most of the time the characters are portrayed differently in each film. For example I want, to compare the Mr. Darcy characters in some of the Pride and Prejudice films I have seen.

There is Laurence Olivier in the 1940s version.

In my opinion this Darcy was a lot more flirtatious and open with his affections for Elizabeth than the others. Granted he was still proud and disagreeable in the areas of the film that he was supposed to be, but he had an air of playfulness that made watching his progressing romance with Elizabeth highly enjoyable.

Colin Firth from the 1995 version

Every time I watch this version I want to ask Colin Firth “Why so serious?” He is always staring at something whether it be at Elizabeth or out of the window. He smiles so rarely in the entire movie and when he does it almost never is with teeth. He did proud Darcy very well. And of course there is the wet shirt scene which isn’t even in the original book... Overall contrary to popular opinion, he isn’t my favorite Darcy.

Then there is Matthew MacFadyen from the 2005 film

First of all the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice is my favorite movie of all time, which makes this a bit biased... Anyway, Matthew MacFadyen’s Darcy is my favorite one. My friends and I like to call him emo Darcy. You can really see him struggling with his feelings of longing for Elizabeth. Also I like this Mr. Darcy because he doesn’t take away from who the real main character of Pride and Prejudice is...Elizabeth Bennet. 

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Mr. and Mrs. Bennet

From Volume I of Pride and Prejudice, it become apparent that Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are mainly in the story to provide comic relief and to move the plot forward, but they are both only minor character.

My observation is that it is much easier to pick up on what Mrs. Bennet’s character wants that what Mr. Bennet’s character desires.

Mrs. Bennet is very clear that her greatest desire is to see her five daughters married to suitable gentlemen. She is always preoccupied with thoughts about the fact that the Bennet family home of Longbourn is entailed away to the first male heir, their cousin Mr. Collins. This is why she is so ecstatic when Mr. Bingley comes to Netherfield because he is definitely a suitable man for one of her daughters.

Mr. Bennet on the other hand seems to only want piece and quiet and to stay in his library undisturbed reading his books. But being the only male in the Bennet family he has to take on a bigger role and introduce himself to Mr. Bingley so that he can then in turn introduce his wife and five daughters.

Mr and Mrs. Bennet’s marriage seems like it would be struggling just because they definitely have different personalities. Mr Bennet is more intellectual and sarcastic, while Mrs. Bennet is so loud, nonsensical, and always complaining about her “poor nerves”. Personally I think that even though they are so different it is obvious that their marriage still works because not only are they still together, but they ave five daughters. Maybe they just reached a compromise of Mrs. Bennet always complaining, Mr. Bennet making fun of her, and Mrs. Bennet in turn not realizing that she is being laughed at.

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The Set Up for Pride and Prejudice

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

From the very first sentence of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in Volume One Chapter One, you can foresee two of the main themes of the novel.

Marriage and money.

The quote speaks of the fact that if there is a man who has money, then there is no question that he is looking for a wife. It is his responsibility to pass on the good fortune that he is in possession of to his children.

What I love about this quote is that it is stressed that “it is a truth universally acknowledged.” They’re saying that everyone in the world of this novel is aware of this statement. Marriage and money is on everyone’s mind.