Jane
Posted by Traci P on October 07, 1997 at 15:07:02:
In response to Oh, Janet!, written by Kali on October 07, 1997 at 14:02:02
] I loved Polly! Smouldering - you might have something there, and indeed, Polly doesn't have "a slight appearance of ill-health" - but she IS elegant, as is Jane! Please tell me in what way Ms. Walker does NOT fit the following description:
] "Her height was pretty, just such as anybody would think tall, and nobody could think very tall; her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin...her face, her features - there was more beauty in them all together than she had remembered; it was not regular, but it was a very pleasing beauty. Her eyes, a deep grey, with dark eyelashes and eyebrows, had never been denied their praise...the skin...had a clearness and delicacy which really needed no fuller bloom. It was a style of beauty of which elegance was the reigning character, and as such, she must, in honour, by all her principles, admire it..."
Hi Kali, it was more the effect of Polly's beauty. I thought she was a little more sensual than I envisioned Jane Fairfax, and certainly not pale enough. My impression has always been that "pale beauty" was considered elegant beauty during this time period (Caroline Bingley slighting Lizzy for her tan after touring Derbyshire), and that a darker complexion was considered rather plebeian. And you're right, Polly certainly didn't appear in ill-health. In all, I thought Olivia Williams was a better representation of Jane Fairfax, although I thought Polly Walker was a bit more beautiful in that "coarse, plebeian way" that I wish I possessed (I'm rather pale myself and I can't say that I personally find it "elegant")!
Traci
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