When Tim and I we’re dating, I introduced him to Pride and Prejudice through the film adaption of Jane Austen’s most famous novel. The one we saw together featured Keira Knightly. Drawn to the witty banter and human characterizations, he has since watch it with me every few years and we discuss the various people and situations at length.
This year, we have begun viewing the longer BBC miniseries version from 1995 featuring Colin Firth. This version is regarded by many women in my generation as “the best one” and spawned the knock-off Bridget Jones books and movies among other things.
Most of Jane Austen’s novels are variations on the themes of her own life; a woman bound by the limits of her time and society. In Pride and Prejudice, the story centers around a family with five daughters where a cousin is set to inherit the house and income. In Sense and Sensibility, the family has three daughters and begins after the dad dies and the half-brother gets everything leaving the women basically homeless. In Emma, the family is smaller and wealthier and in Persuasion, the family is extremely poor. While all of Austen’s literary heroines get the guy, poor Austen never got hers. Her history tells us the man she had a romance with eventually married another.
All of Jane’s novels grapple with individuals and their good and bad qualities which makes them universal in their appeal. Despite the difference in time and place, many of us can relate to the various characters.
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth starts off hating Mr. Darcy because he comes off like a stuck-up jerk. Already sensitive to her lower social status, she leans heavily on her clever mind and sharp tongue to fend off his cold remarks. But even she gets duped by the charming Mr. Wickham who deceives them all. In Sense and Sensibly the handsome fraud goes by Mr. Willoughby and in Emma both Mr. Churchill and Mr. Elton prove false. The lesson is that you can’t even trust your best instincts when it comes to men.
Just like in real life, not all men in the Austen universe are bad nor are all the women innocent. The character of Mr. Darcy is complex. He seems cold, because life has treated him coldly. His father died and Mr. Wickham, the young man he grew up with, tried to seduce his younger sister for a crack at the family’s money. Instead of being helped by his aunt, she proves no better trying to marry Mr. Darcy off to her daughter to keep the estate in the family. Both Colonial Brandon and Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility are pushed around by men and women motivated by envy and greed.
The question to the characters and the readers then becomes, “Do we get stuck in our misfortunes or find a way to move forward?” Both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are forced to admit their own weaknesses and forgive each other’s. Emma gives up manipulation and learns to be a better person. Even the writer herself found satisfaction. While Jane Austen never married, she did find publishing success and her books have never been out of print.
