James,
Re your comments:
>
You never see a fault in any body. All the
> world are good and agreeable in your eyes. I never
> heard you speak ill of a human being in my
> life.''That doesn't make her weak. It does, I grant you, make her vulnerable to people who don't deserve her good opinion (i.e. Caroline Bingley), but thinking well of everyone is (and I speak as one who falls into the other category more often than not; I'm a cop and it's common failing of policemen) a far more admirable trait than thinking badly of everyone.
> I do but be realistic in saying all the Bennets
> girls lead very sheltered lives. Apart from the
> odd walk/shopping trip to Meryton, some gossip and
> socialising at a couple of close neighbours and a
> monthly assembly, nothing much seems to happen
> beyond a rousing family chat about Fordyce's
> Sermons, a backgammon battle occasionally and
> maybe a bit of terpsichore to Mary's pianoforte,
> oh, and Lizzie hurdling a style or two whist
> walking. Upper/middle-class, no employment to
> trouble them and, in Jane's case, seemingly a real
> home-bird who is the one who looks after the
> children. Mary is studious, Kitty and Lydia
> senseless and Lizzie fiesty and with a little more
> "quickness" than the rest. Jane, at twenty two and
> five times prettier than anyone else has
> presumably had some male interest besides the
> sonnet scribbler with a taste for fifteen year
> olds. That said, Bingley apart there is little
> romantic activity in her life mentioned anywhere.
> Darcy accepts she is pretty but "smiles too much"
> and Wickham doesn't give her a second look. Mr
> Collins considers her for all of thirty seconds
> before moving on to Lizzie. Lolita she isn't.
> Bingley appears to be the love of her life.
> Personally, I think she and he would make a fine
> pair of Staffordshire pot figures for the
> mantlepiece. (-; Anne Elliot is much more mature
> and we do get to know a lot about her character.
> Jane Bennet is far more a background figure. We
> finish up glad for her happy ending, but in my
> case, little more.
But Anne was only 19 when she and Wentworth first became engaged. When we meet her she's 27, still young, but on the shelf as far as society is concerned, and, yes, she's had eight years of a lost love to mature her, compared to Jane's few months. And as a daughter of the aristocracy, living in a similar rural community, is she really any less sheltered than Jane. As the ignored middle daughter, she's never even had a London season, as far as can be determined from the book. She describes herself as sheltered in her pivotal conversation with Capt. Harville.
"We live at home," she tells Haville, "quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us." Sounds kinda like the same situation you describe the Bennet sisters as having been raised in.
Of course she's more mature. But she was roughly where Jane is (minus a loving, if rambunctious family) when she first met Frederick. And yet he was the man for her. If anything, it was her lack of maturity, and her confidence in her own feelings, that led to their separation.
I don't say she's a clone. She's more accomplished (i.e. piano, languages), probably a little more polished, being from an aristocratic (if minor aristocracy) family. But her main character traits, kindly, gentle, quiet, accommodating, firm on matters of principle, all mirror Jane's.
We do;t know how Jane would perform in a crisis, while we do know that Anne rises to the occasion, but that's at least partly a plot point. Had the story called for it, I think Jane might be able to handle an emergency, too.
As you point out, she's a supporting character, so she's not as richly developed as Anne. Moreover,
P&P is, IIRC, Miss Austen's first novel-length work.
Persuasion was her last, and it shows the maturing of both her talent and her outlook.
I don't say that Bingley's a bad match for Jane. And, of course, it's the match Miss Austen planned for her, which disposes me to approve it, and be happy when it happens (exactly, I suspect, as Miss Austen hopes her audience would feel). It doesn't follow, though, that Jane, or a real person very much like Jane, couldn't be happy with someone who was more forceful.
> As to fanfics, they are but the product of modern
> imaginations and little to do with anything. Jane
> Austen's book/books is/are the only unarguable
> canon. I read P.D. James's
Death Comes to
> Pemberley ( which I though awful) and watched
> the BBC miniseries (with a blue-eyed Lizzie)
> unimpressed.
Lost in Austen was harmless
> and quite hilarious and I've seen it twice because
> it never attempts to be anything but spoof and
> Amanda Root is brilliant in it. None of it is
> relevant in any way. To me, fan-fic is just
> jumping on the Austen bandwaggon. Sorry if that
> upsets anyone. It isn't intended to.
I was disappointed in
DCtP, too; less in its TV adaptation, though that, too, was disappointing. This quite surprised me since I'm a great admirer of the Baroness's cop novels featuring high-ranking Scotland Yarder Adam Dalgliesh.
But as for fan-fics in general, it strikes me that you've joined an odd group if you don't like Austen fan-fiction. Don't take that as sharp as it might read. Sometimes the words sound friendlier in my head that they turn out to be on the page. If this is one of those times, it's just meant as an observation, not an insult.
I do agree that everyone puts their own spin on it. But matching Jane with a dashing military man isn't a big stretch. It just didn't suit the plot (not the characters, but the plot) of the story Miss Austen spun. And most people who write, or read, fan-fiction do so because they've come to know the characters, and the stories, so well.
Frankly, for me, the wild card in a Jane/Colonel match isn't Jane. It's Fitzwilliam. He's the real
tabula rasa. We don't know if he's Regular Army, Royal Marines, or Militia. We don't know if he's cavalry, infantry, artillery, or engineer. We don't even know if he's a serving officer, or if, like Colonel Brandon, he's returned to civilian life, but continues to use his military title.
And es, Jane'd make a fine mother, and that's what her character seems to best fit her for. But the same could be said for Anne Elliot.
Finally, no offense to the ladies, but it's kinda fun to have these discussions with another guy!
JIM