Brothers
Posted by Barbara on April 17, 1998 at 12:23:38:
In response to Life and Art 2, written by Helen on April 17, 1998 at 11:20:46
] Basically, reading the biography has made people consider relationships between JA's life and her writing in various ways. What I was wondering about was ways in which her writing departs from her own life: for example, mothers are not significant characters, as a rule, and are often dead or not present for parts of the novel. But JA spent most of her life under the same roof as her own mamma. Are there other such differences? And why are they there?
One thing that stands out is that most of JA's heroines come from families of all-female siblings: Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor and Marianne (I'm not considering John, their half brother, to really be a brother to them, and he was not raised with them), Emma, and Anne Elliot. And, in three of these situations, the Bennets, the Dashwoods and the Elliots, things would be a lot different for everyone if only their had been a brother. The family property or title would not be passing into other hands, and the marriage prospects would therefore not be so dim. I find it rather interesting that a woman with six brothers should so often write about female heroines who are at least partially in their difficult situations because there is no brother to help them.
On the other hand, Fanny Price is warmly attached to her brother William and Edmund is like a brother to her. Catherine Moreland is also fond of her own brother.
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