pearlescent

Her heroines are half and half introverts and extroverts (Fanny Price, Elinor Dashwood, Anne Elliot/Elizabeth Bennet, Catherine Morland, Emma Woodhouse). Her young heroines feel very different from her older ones, the difference between Catherine Morland and Anne Elliot is spring to autumn. She writes similar personality types in men and women but they come off very differently due to gender expectations (Mr. Darcy vs. Emma Woodhouse, Henry Tilney vs. Elizabeth Bennet). The level of intelligence, insight, snobbery, prejudice, and education varies between her heroines and you. can. tell. The tone of the novels changes along with the personalities of her heroines. Pride & Prejudice sparkles with Elizabeth Bennet, Mansfield Park cowers with Fanny Price.

Moreover, Austen makes main characters out of characters who would usually be minor! Emma Woodhouse should be the villain of Jane Fairfax's story, but instead she's the heroine. Catherine Morland has no right to be a heroine, what with her normal family and boring life, but she is the star and the true Gothic heroine, Eleanor Tilney, is in the background. A "washed-up" woman of seven-and-twenty, considered over the hill and unworthy of romance in two previous novels is the star of the most romantic of Austen's novels. Jane Austen sees the heroism and possibility for interesting stories in all women, even those who are chronically ignored and forgotten.