Henry & Jane
Posted by Valerie Mc. on January 03, 1998 at 13:14:39:
In response to Why Henry is so different, written by MB on January 02, 1998 at 10:50:11
] JA needs to have at least one character in every novel who will (for the most part) be representative of her values, opinions, intelligence, and wit. In other novels, she uses her heroines : Elizabeth, Elinor, Fanny, Anne, Emma? (I actually think that Emma represents JA's wit and Mr. Knightley represents everything else).
] Now, as much as I like Catherine, and as much as I think she and her family represent JA's values, I don't think that she can be said to represent JA's wit or intelligence. JA needed Catherine to be a certain way for the sake of the parodic (word?) elements of NA. So, JA used her hero to represent her in this novel.
] It strikes me that the characters who are usually the most "instructive" - Elizabeth, Elinor, Mr. Knightley, Henry Tilney - are also the ones who fit in with my idea of JA's own character.
Mmm - that's a neat observation. It goes with another one - recall JA's statement that "Pictures of perfection make me sick and wicked." And look at the two female characters in all her works who could be called pictures of perfection by that day's standards. She called them Jane.
But of course they weren't Jane - she hid herself, as you suggested, among the less perfect but more interesting characters. An endlessly witty and amusing woman!
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