Totally different people
Posted by Alexandra on October 16, 1997 at 12:42:38:
In response to Re-Bronte vs. Austen, written by Patti on October 15, 1997 at 20:31:27
] But to me, Austen is all ritual. Feeling is human; it's a part of life. Actually I think Bronte's characters were more human, not the good, attractive blameless people that make up Austen's heroines. Jane Eyre was human and admitted her faults, her emotions likewise.
Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters were very different people from very different walks of life. They were from different classes. If you look at their writing, the Bronte's writing reflects the fact that they had to work to survive (they all at one point or another had to work) whereas in JA's writing the characters never have to work for a living, even if they have their estates entailed away from them. The Brontes wrote from their own personal experience, if you look at Anne Brote's Agnes Grey it is almost a book on how not to be a governess and is supposedly slightly autobiographical, and from experiences that they may never have had but felt inside (i.e. Cathy's deep feelings in Wuthering Heights.)
Basically what I am saying is that both JA and the Bronte's have their own appeal and their own style of writing. The trouble that you have when trying to compare their writing is the totally different styles of life. They both obviously draw on experience and there are absolutely huge differences between life on the moors of Yorkshire and life on the South coast. That is what makes it so difficult to compare their characters and their writing.
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