Jane Austen may be assumed to be immortalizing herself in
the character named Jane by those who do not know the novel or the author. Jane
is a proper women of the time: naive, compliant, married, and satisfied. The
character is a model woman of the time and even shares the author’s name. Contrary
though, Austen is like Elizabeth, close to her father, smart, outspoken. She was
the opposite of the ‘ideal’ woman of the time since she didn’t fit into the
mold that Jane so clearly came out of. Even so, Jane Austen was fairly successful.
Reflecting on that, what do you think of societal conventions? With Austen
being successful while breaking the mold, why didn’t more women do it?
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ReplyDeleteI feel that while Austen was without a doubt successful, she most likely faced a lot of hardship for her independence and outspokenness because of the social norms at the time. I believe it is these hardships or the judgments she may have faced that prevented more women from being like her. It was probably intimidating for a women at this time to be so independent.
ReplyDeleteI will answer your question with a question of my own: do you think Jane Austen truly was an outspoken woman that broke the mold? She surely emulates a woman with unconventional thoughts and ideas and there is no question that she has inspired many a person with her writing, but was she truly outspoken? I think it is safe to say that within her inner court of female family members Austen broke the standards at which she was held by society when encouraged to take pride in her writing. However, to the outside world and the men in her life Austen was described as being meek and humble. I can see where you are coming from based on Austen never getting married or having children. She certainly did now follow society on that one, but in every other sense she seemed a model, respectable woman.
ReplyDeleteJane Austen certainly broke the mold for a woman in her time. In some ways, she does seem to be like Elizabeth, but like Nicky said, Austen is described as being humble by outside world and to those who were not her confidantes, which is something Kaplan argues in her article.
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