The "Want of Shade"

As Debbie related in class, Jane Austen thought the novel Pride and Prejudice was too "bright" and in need of some element of shade. Although I think this novel one of her best, I can understand her thoughts. Elizabeth might suffer from a sometimes rather silly family and be embarassed from time to time, but there ends her trouble in the world. She does eventually discover her love for Mr. Darcy and overcomes these barriers. Fanny Price, however, the heroine of Mansfield Park, suffers much more. As a child she lives a life not unlike that of Jane Eyre. She feels isolated in her aunt and uncle's estate, always inheriting ideas of her social inferiority to her cousins, being reminded of this constantly by her Aunt Norris, and being neglected by her other aunt and Sir Bertram. This is a much more shadowy upbringing to overcome. Similarly, I remember from an earlier reading of this novel that when Fanny returns to stay with her biological family, she is deeply pained by what she sees. She suffers from unrequited love and longing, social strictures, and beautiful competition up to the very last point of the novel. This is a much more depressing novel which seems hopeless at times, wheras Pride and Prejudice is always promoting the hope that Mr. Bingley will return or that Elizabeth has much more of a promising future than we'd thought. Mansfield Park is honestly my least favorite Austen novel. Maybe it's because of this hopeless feeling throughout, the feeling that Fanny is actually going to keep being dissappointed in every aspect of her life. Even though it has a "happy ending", I don't like the ending at all! I find it disturbing and I also think she deserves better than...(not to spoil the ending)...the man she ends up with.

Me and Elizabeth

I think out of all the characters in Pride and Prejudice, I am most like Elizabeth, as cliche as that might seem. I can identify with her family and her position within it most of all. Even though she is the second eldest, she seems to take on the role of the eldest since Jane is so passive and shy. I am the eldest of my family, although I only have one younger sister. However, she and my mother are almost the picture of Lydia and Mrs. Bennet. Not that my mother is obsessed with marrying off her daughters, but she does remind me of Mrs. Bennet sometimes with her over-drinking and ridiculous comments. My sister's personality is just about the polar opposite of mine. While I tend to enjoy solitude from time to time, a good book, and serious contemplation, she is always talking, being social and acting like "the biggest flirt that ever made her family ridiculous." Similar also to Elizabeth's life, I am the closest to my father. He doesn't find my mother and sister's behaviour entertaining most of the time like Mr. Bennet does, but we definitely have our interests in common and he is the only one I can talk to in my family about serious matters. I feel that Elizabeth and I are most alike in personality and interests than any other of the novel's characters. We both love reading, physical activity, and tend to take matters a little bit too seriously every once in a while. While we might be a bit prideful, we also aren't afraid to speak our minds or keep looking for what we think we deserve in life. Also, the love of my life doesn't happen to be extremely wealthy or live in a huge estate in the country, but I feel like I've found my own "Mr. Darcy," which (trust me I would know) isn't an easy thing to find!! Here's hoping my life continues like the perfect ending of an Austen novel.

A Note on Austen's History

Reading the biography of Jane Austen on the website janeausten.org, I can see how she might have reflected herself upon the character of Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. The family was not rich, as I had previously thought, and the children entertained themselves by writing, acting, creating plays, etc. I can see Jane's love for reading in Elizabeth, and also Mr. Bennet seems similar to Austen's father, who helped her publish her novels and seems to have been a very loving and supportive father.
As to the question asked in class of why she never married, it appears to me that perhaps she never recovered from losing her first love, Tom Lefroy. As some of the female characters in her novel tend to do, perhaps she was determined to wait for him, just in case there was a chance of their ever being together. Their social and financial situations would not allow for them to be married, and, like Anne Elliot in Persuasion, maybe she hoped that one day those problems could be put aside. Of course, all we can ever do to answer the question is guesswork. However, I found this a rather romantic, Austen-esque explanation. I'd be interested to watch the semi-new film, Becoming Jane. I think it attempts to explore this very question.