#austenathu16

Kate Beckinsale: ‘Austen’s Lady Susan is like Emma on steroids’ http://flip.it/ciIjuH Beckinsale comparing Lady Susan and Emma feels apt not just because she played both of them, but because they are arguably the most active, outspoken & meddling leads in Austen's work. Elizabeth Bennet has her bons mots. Emma and Lady S produce ideologies, monologues, alternatives histoires, fantasies, and plans a-zz3 over tea. Lady Susan performs as an anti-heroine, seeking to work a system to her financial and social benefit (without sacrificing her sex life or her sense of entitlement). She hustles in every letter, and this is reflecting in every scene of Whit Stillman's Love and Friendship. . Emma is the Austen heroine in danger of becoming an antiheroine or a villain. Her arc can be read as one that humbles her, but I see it more as her struggle to maintain and improve her ability to emphasize (something the novel early on points out her father is incapable of doing). Her fear of loneliness and of being outshown, displaced, forgotten push her to matchmake. Yet, her scheming is laconic when compared to Lady S. This is due largely because Lady Susan Vernon works hard to protect herself from work: not just poverty, but from a loss of status that comes without adhering to the wifely and motherly duties society expects her to embody. Emma wants to keep people close to her: they are her end while for Lady S, they are a means.

I really enjoyed this Major Author:Jane Austen course especially since we got to analyse books by my favorite author. I wish that one of the books we talked about was Persuasion. In light of that I wanted to do my last commonplace book post about Persuasion and how I think it would fit into some of the themes that we discussed in class.

In terms of class, evidence of that being an issue is shown when the Elliots persuaded Anne to not marry Captain Wentworth when they were younger because he was just a poor member of the militia. Then when he came back years later, rich and raised to the rank of a Captain, people did not look down on him as much. The families trying to manipulate their daughters to marry suitable men is also evidence of the class and gender inequality issues. 

In Emma and the Servants by Lisa Hopkins, she said that out of all of Jane Austen heroines Emma “is the only one whose thoughts are not fixed on matrimony virtually from the outset of the novel.” 

This quote made me think about the different Jane Austen heroines from her six major novels, which ones are my favorite, and why.

Elizabeth Bennet

I love Elizabeth Bennet the most not only because Pride and Prejudice is my favorite novel, but because of her independence and her laughing spirit. Also she rejects a man like Mr. Darcy, at least the first time he proposed, which shows an enormous strength of character. 

Elinor Dashwood

I like Miss Dashwood’s ability to be a strength and a backbone to her family in their time of need. I admire her for not giving up on her love even when her younger sister was ridiculing it. 

Fanny Price

Many people do not like Fanny Price because she seems a little meeker but I think that she is just a different kind of protagonist, but one which I still admire. She takes her situation of mot being equal to those around her and she still thrives. She stands up for herself when she decides that she does not want to marry Henry Crawford and in the end she still gets her love.

Anne Elliot

My second favorite novel but not my favorite protagonist. Don’t get me wrong. I love how she is a different kind of protagonist from the younger completely confident type, but I can’t love her because she was so easily persuaded when she was younger to let go of her love. She makes up for it in my eyes though by not letting him go after they are reunited 

Catherine Moorland

For me, even though I admire Catherine’s healthy imagination, she just seems so young and a little ignorant.

Emma Woodhouse

I still cannot get over my aversion to Emma. She is too “perfect”. Rich and beautiful she thinks that she is entitled to meddling in everyone’s lives. I think that she still has a lot of growing to do as a character, but I am appeased by the fact that she will have Mr. Knightley by her side to continue her growth in character.

I love how each of Jane Austen’s heroines are unique and have their own personality. I feel like it is the mark of an amazing author to be able to write so many great novels with different plots and protagonists. 

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