James (I use the formal version to avoid confusion),
Re your comment below:
> In Bingley, to fit Jane's almost angelic demeanour,
> she had to have someone who, if he raised his
> voice may cause Jane to have an attack of vapours.
> Jane needed someone who was that "man without
> fault" and, in creating him Jane Austen actually
> needed a cheerful Charlie, goody-goody guy so much
> so that she sent him on an eight month holiday to
> stop him doing anything wrong.
I think you're misreading Jane Bennetif you think she needed someone who could never show passion, or even anger. Or that such a person would "give her a case of the vapors." Jane is not the only gentle heroine (supporting heroine in this case) Miss Austen ever created. And gentle is not a synonym for "weak."
The "Jane-like" Anne Elliot (who, I grant you is more developed than Jane, but she's both the main and the viewpoint character) attracts, and is attracted to the ultra-masculine professional military man Frederick Wentworth.
It's not Anne, but Lady Russell, who's turned off by his bluff, hearty manner, his confidence, and his general demeanor.
Look how many fan-fics convincingly match Jane to the Wentworth-like Col. Fitzwilliam. Are every one of those fan-fic writers completely misreading Jane Bennet's character. I don't think so.
None of this has anything to do with whether or not Charles is a wimp, but, he's got a good heart, and is a loyal friend, and I'd rather have a sister of mine matched with a guy like that, than, as others have pointed out, a Wickham, a Willoughby, or a Hank Crawford.
JIM D.
