Pride and Prejudice
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Do you find similarities between Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet?
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You may view Elizabeth as being a strong-willed character, but I don't think Brontë saw her— or any of Austen's characters, for that matter— as being that way.I would say both Elizabeth and Jane are independent, but Jane is more independent than Lizzy. Jane has virtually no family at all; Elizabeth does. Jane finds her own job; Lizzy never has one. Jane tries to become her own woman, temporarily leaving Rochester and only returning once she has her own fortune; that never happens with Elizabeth.
Charlotte Brontë probably jealous of Jane Austen. However, I think that Brontë, as a feminist, probably thought Jane Austen created characters that were too weak, too conventional, and too privileged to be interesting.
I would suggest that Anne Eliot (Persuasion) is more like Jane Eyre because their temperament is much more similar I think. Jane Eyre wasn't outspoken; she just wasn't a fake. And Jane Eyre's history is so vastly different from any of Austen's characters' histories. I love Jane Austen, but there is no question that Charlotte Bronte reached far deeper.
Bronte as a feminist should have noted and admired such a character as Elizabeth Bennet. I feel she just skimmed the novel. Granted, Elizabeth was brought up in a comfortable home, yet it was still a suffocating atmosphere for someone as outspoken and independent as her. Ladies wern't expected to be that way. Elizabeth wasn't so conventional, she spoke her mind, criticized others, turned down Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy. Wasn't it expected of women to accept proposals of marriage?
I love Charlotte Bronte, but I'm amazed she missed so many things about Jane Austen, I wonder if it was on purpose. I know she loved Byron and Shakespeare, so I guess the world of Jane Austen might have seemed dull to her.
For me, the main difference between Bronte's heroines and Austen's--other than life circumstances--is the point to which they're controlled by their feelings.Elizabeth is "romantic" enough to desire to marry for love but at her core, she's a practical person.I think of her as kind of the "calm in the storm," someone who regulates her personal feelings carefully and often chooses to laugh instead of cry.
Conversely, Jane is entirely governed by her emotions. It's what landed her in so much trouble as a child, and it continues into her adulthood. After her disastrous attempt to marry Rochester, she runs off in the night and ends up begging on the streets, almost dying because she can't stand to stay in that house another minute. Lizzie Bennet would have never done that.
Jane and Elizabeth are both strong-willed female leads, but they show that in very different ways and I think they're two very different characters.
I can see only one or two basic similarities between Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett. Both were independent-minded, and both driven by a guiding intention to live with integrity according to their individual outlooks.Otherwise their personalities were quite different. Elizabeth is confident, lively, humorous, and very sociable-- Jane Eyre has really none of these qualities; she smolders with an intensity that she habitually tries to mask, rarely expresses her feelings, and takes little interest in the society of other people. Elizabeth seems to view life with affection even if with a pervasive strain of sarcasm-- Jane Eyre seems to view life as a battle, within which one must either cope or conquer, and in which the unhappy or insupportable is ever trailing only a step or two behind.
A part of Charlotte Bronte's vitriol for Jane Austen probably had to do with the way in which she was introduced to Jane Austen's work: by a literary critic who had recommended 'P&P' to Charlotte Bronte as an example of how to make improvements in her own writing. That is quite an obnoxious 'recommendation'; and Charlotte Bronte was not a person to respond graciously to felt affronts when vehemence offered a truer vehicle for her feelings. Every bit as intense as Jane Eyre, it probably felt like another battle front: she felt attacked, and responded aggressively with her own salvos.
At the same time, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte seem as different in personality as Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre. I read a description somewhere that the two writers reflected a clash between the arch-classicist and arch-romantic: Jane Austen focused primarily on clever and elegant mental activity; Charlotte Bronte on intense and passionate feeling.
I doubt that Charlotte Bronte would have admired Jane Austen's writing even had she not been introduced to it so obnoxious a fashion. One wonders, though, whether she would have been so acerbic in disparaging Jane Austen, not only as a writer but even as a woman and person, which itself was quite obnoxious considering she knew not the first thing about the dead writer upon whom she lavished such personalized scorn.
kellyjane1212 wrote: "I can see only one or two basic similarities between Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett. Both were independent-minded, and both driven by a guiding intention to live with integrity according to their..."Very well put. I agree completely.
I think that Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre are both very different; although both are strong minded & independent personally I prefer Elizabeth as she speaks her mind & is more witty and funny than Jane Eyre.
kellyjane1212 wrote: "I can see only one or two basic similarities between Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennett. Both were independent-minded, and both driven by a guiding intention to live with integrity according to their..."That makes a lot of sense, I think and would definitely explain Charlotte Bronte's distaste for Austen's work. Personally I think there is another similarity between the two, that of pride. Because all though it is Mr Darcy which is said to be the character that the pride part of the title refers to, Lizzie is proud as well. And Jane was proud enough to eat out of a pigs trough rather than ask for charity.
@ SorrelIt's seems a good point, because Elizabeth definitely prided herself on her discernment and penetration, even though these qualities failed her concerning both Wickham and Mr. Darcy. Plus, her pride was 'mortified', as she herself said, by Mr. Darcy originally finding her only 'tolerable' rather than pretty. She had some certain amount of pride in both her looks and her judgment.
And as you mentioned, Jane Eyre had strains of pride almost amounting to recklessness, unwilling to ask for charity even if it meant dying from the hunger or cold of homelessness.
I do admire Charlotte Bronte for her strong conviction though, even if I don't feel the same way. There must be more to it though, right? I get the feeling Charlotte Bronte was fascinated by Jane Austen, in a similar manner to Mark Twain. Maybe they both did despise her writing, but they were intrigued by her nonetheless. I bet Charlotte went back many times and reread her, to find something she may have missed.
no i don't find the similarity at all. elizabeth was a feisty heroine. poor jane eyre was plain and calm lol. elizabeth was not plain just not as pretty as her sister. neway elizabeth's personality was enough to provide 4 any lack of beauty on her part
Caitlin wrote: "Conversely, Jane is entirely governed by her emotions. It's what landed her in so much trouble as a child, and it continues into her adulthood. After her disastrous attempt to marry Rochester, she runs off in the night and ends up begging on the streets, almost dying because she can't stand to stay in that house another minute. Lizzie Bennet would have never done that."Jane's flight from Rochester is the reason I admire her so much. It was a sinful situation, so she had to get out fast, no matter the cost. Lizzy didn't face any such challenge. Her going to work as a governess was never even considered a viable option, though if her father had died before she married, she might have had to.
One should be careful about stating that Brontë was jealous of Austen. I highly doubt so, as Brontë seemed too good for such nonsense. Elizabeth may seen strong, but she had NO obstacles in life as Jane had, and therefore it is quite hard to compare them. In character though, I think Jane is more the silent, thoughtful type, and Elizabeth the conversant and entertaining one.
Marte wrote: "One should be careful about stating that Brontë was jealous of Austen. I highly doubt so, as Brontë seemed too good for such nonsense. Elizabeth may seen strong, but she had NO obstacles in life as..."I have to agree with you Marte. My sense is that Charlotte Bronte felt driven to break the bounds of conventional storytelling, frustrated with social constraints that she felt were oppressive and unhealthy, and determined to make a resounding statement in favor of direct emotional authenticity regardless of social censure. Jane Austen must have seemed to her the antithesis of this latter intention: much if not most of the emotional intensities in her work are expressed indirectly; she works within the framework of the social conventions even as she satirizes them, etc.
All to say that I wouldn't assume any jealousy on Charlotte Bronte's part either. She seemed to have something like a 'warrior spirit': she had a mission and charged headlong into it, with little patience or interest for those not alongside her. Or something like that; I think her lack of appreciation for Jane Austen's work was honest.
It seems to me that if you want to understand how Charlotte Bronte felt about Jane Austen, you don't have to speculate. You can go straight to the horse's mouth in this instance.http://wwnorton.tumblr.com/post/18161...
I personally don't think that the characters are similar at all. Perhaps, superficially in the sense that they both have independent streaks....but from a "feminist" standpoint, I think I see where Jane Eyre might be more of a model of "feminist self-sufficiency" than Elizabeth Bennet would be. I can't see Elizabeth Bennet taking a job/position and trying to make her own way in the world in the same manner that Jane did.
It's funny but just last week I asked Samantha Ellis who wrote a book about heroines if she thought Jane and Lizzy could be friends. Here is her response:I do! I think they both have a sense of humour and a caustic take on the world, & they both hate snobbery. I think they'd get on very well.
I also enjoyed "Pride&Prejudice" more than "Jane Eyre". Remember that both writers are women and the characters, although inspired in real ones, are submmited to the writer´s will. So either Elizabeth´s live was or not difficult, was the writer´s choice and is not really her merit. This is why I love Austen´s psychology. She didn´t need to create a character with a difficult life in order to show the personality of a strong woman. Elizabeth analizes the qualities and the imperfections of all those that sorround her and finally she admits her own. I think that Austen focuses more on Elizabeth´s pride and prejudice than on Darcy´s, and I think she tries to prove that a woman becomes stronger when she acknoledges her imperfections, therefore she is able to be objective. Austen understands that self-pity isn´t the way to self-improvement, but Bronté turns to drama in order to show Jane´s self-sufficience. Jane Eyre becomes independent when she inherits her uncle´s fortune and Elizabeth obtains her independence by marrying Darcy. Jane finally obtains a better life because of her kinship with a wealthy man, and Elizabeth because her inteligence makes a wealthy man fall in love with her and when she also falls in love with him, she accept to marry him. A smart choise, I would say.
To sum-up, I consider Austen stronger and smarter than Bronté, because she doesn´t write under prejudice. Her own circumstance as a woman doesn´t affect her writing. She dyes as an author, when her writing begins, as Barthes would say.
Well said Mirela, I just can't accept that Charlotte could completely overlook the remarkable attributes of Elizabeth Bennet, even me reading it in this day and age am very surprised how modern she reads, her unique nature and independent spirit. She deals with life as it is, as it is imposed upon her. And if someone as cluey, strong and wilful as Elizabeth Bennet couldn't get a job and make her way in the world, then who could?
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Was it jealousy because of Austen's reputation? Or perhaps she just didn't like how Austen wrote, apparently Austen wasn't "poetic" enough for her.