Take Two

Okay, that certainly did not come out right. I am certainly not advocating a return to the slightly progressed Victorian age, the time of the tet-a-tet and rules for how to sit, stand, smile, or frown... the days when women would sit at home making small talk over tea and embroidery, waiting for the slight excitement of a hopefully-not-horribly-boring male suitor. I stand by what I had to say about those two passages and about the underlying morality I admire in the society of the early 1800's but need to amend and add a few more thoughts.

As fellow blogger and twitterer Gina commented on my past post (I hope you don't mind me bringing this up in another post - it's an excellent point), this is roughly what I seemed to be saying. That blog post felt a bit muddled and confused as I wrote it - apparently with good reason. Let me see if I can take a step back and clarify.

The rules of Jane Austen's time were painful. You couldn't speak to someone unless you'd first been introduced, there were certain things you could read - as I was discussing with that passage from Northanger Abbey about novels. Everyone knew their place in society relative to everyone else - and the slightest change in dress, behavior, or speech could send someone into a tizzy.

So, yes, I agree Gina - I couldn't possible tolerate these rules either - but why I LOVE Austen novels is that they show us how things were then and allow us to appreciate how things are now. Like it or not, this was how women DID live and I think it's important to keep this picture in mind when walking to school in jeans and flip flops, hugging guy-friends and being able to openly say what you're thinking.

Before I go more into detail - or rather, more into generalities - let me just say that Mansfield Park bored me out of my mind and I'd be perfectly happy if I never heard another word about Fanny Price again. Some people can be TOO good and she was one of them. Grow a spine, girl. Also, I haven't had the chance yet to read Persuasion or Sense and Sensability, though I know the story of the latter from the BBC series.

When it really comes down to it, what I admire most about Jane Austen's novels is Jane Austen herself. This woman managed not only to write novels when no one - let alone a woman - was supposed to do that ... and she managed to write novels that I think are still prevalent in the 21st Century (hence the lovely picture I included above, found via a quick Google search). Catherine Morland is a rather boring character, true, who's head was full of silliness and who sat around waiting for Henry to decide if he liked her or not. But, this was how it was - a woman couldn't show feeling unless the man showed it first. Like I've said, these rules were stupid, but they were there.

But, consider two other characters: Emma and Elizabeth. These girls acted - true, one was misguided, and a bit snobby, but I still think Emma had good intentions as she tried to help Harriet. And Elizabeth, well, that gal knew how to speak her mind! She stood up for what she wanted and believed in - the right to marry for love despite her poor financial situations, the right to an opinion, to have her family and herself respected - and it's for these reasons that I think Pride and Prejudice is such a timeless novel.

Rather than spend all day extoling the virtues of P&P, which I will defend with my dying breath against anyone but guys who irrationally hate it because it's a "chick book" (they just don't get it), let me go back to Austen. The fact that we are still talking about these books, still reading them and admiring (or disliking) the heroines is amazing to me! The fact that we can hear Jane Austen's voice standing up for what she believes in, in the novels she wrote with fervor... well, I guess that fills the role of the strong woman, taking the place of a strong female narrator or weak female heroines.

And, Gina, do not mean to go after your point of view at all - I agree that many of the women in these stories simply sit around waiting for husbands... and I haven't read Bleak House (though now I want to!), but I guess what I'm trying to say is that these aspects of Austen's books are like having a flawed character - like Harry Potter, even. If the books depicted society as perfect back then, I can't help but think they'd be a lot less interesting.

Bottom line: What jars me so much whenever I read Austen is how much our society has changed since that point in time. Since ANY point in time. If you've read this blog, you know I'm constantly fascinated by technology - the newest Twitter Applcation (Tweetie, in case your wondering... it's totally awesome), or the 1 billionth App sold on the Apple Store (the grand prize went to a 13 year old). But, what I love about these books is that they make me take a step back from the minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow observations of how far we've progressed since... last week. They make me look at the big picture: Of how far we've come in the last 200 years. And through it all, I can't help loving Austen for managing to preserve that time in history for us to read and attempt to understand.