Becoming Jane - A beautiful irony of life and literature

 

"My characters will have, after a little bit of trouble, all that they desire" - Jane Austen

Becoming Jane is a movie on the author Jane Austen, celebrated author of Pride and Prejudice.  It is believed that she wrote the novel when she was having an affair with the lawyer Thomas  Langlois Lefroy on whom she based the character of Mr Darcy. The movie traces this controversial love affair of Jane Austen.  Having grown up reading Pride and Prejudice and swooning over the dashing Mr Darcy, I anticipated that Thomas Lefroy would just be like Mr Darcy.  Alas, I was wrong. The movie is a whole 2-hour piece of irony. Characters of the movie look familiar to the characters of the book, but they behave in an unconventional way. Jane Austen herself acts differently (more humanely) than the character of Elizabeth Bennet of the book. Watching this movie I was busy noticing how these actors onscreen look much like the characters of the book but act in a more relatable, life-like manner. Peculiarities of life and literature were popping up whenever I considered the nuances of the movie.

Most amazingly shocked I was to see the character of Mr Lefroy. Young and charming Irish lawyer. His charms were totally different from the old-air condescending charms of Mr Darcy (although Mr Darcy would not certainly be a prospect in this time, in his time, he might've been). How Jane Austen based the character of Mr Darcy on someone like Thomas Lefroy who was his polar opposite? (If we take the movie to be factually correct of course)

Lefroy floated across the screen effortlessly in his first few scenes. Ireland-born student studying law in London on his uncle's apprenticeship. He is a city-lad, drinking, running around St James's like neck-or-nothing young blood of the fancy as his uncle calls him. He is sociable, flirty, polite and expressive of his emotions, anyone familiar with Mr Darcy would know that he is not like that. Lefroy has some disdain for the idea of private property (Darcy is a super-wealthy landlord, representation of private property) and has a bad reputation (especially among women) for behaving differently than a 'gentleman' which everyone expects him to be. 'I am a lawyer and justice plays no part in the law', he says. He advises Austen to be the equivalent of a 'masculine' author, experience is vital, encouraging her to write. This substance is missing in the conversations of Mr Darcy and Ms Bennet.

 

Life and Literature

       
Anne Hathaway as Jane Austen and James McAvoy as Thomas Lefroy

The movie Becoming Jane explores the short passionate love affair between Jane Austen and Thomas Lefroy. It is reportedly the inspiration behind her novel Pride and Prejudice. It is very clear that the circumstances in her novel are different from the ones in her personal life. Lefroy when he meets Austen doesn't have any property and is dependent on his uncle's allowances on which he is supposed to meet the expenses of his family (his mother and siblings). Austen on the other hand is a woman without any fortune whom her mother wishes to marry a wealthy man. They are star-crossed. 
In the book, Darcy is a well-sought wealthy man, the best prospect any woman can wish for. Bennet is a balanced, level-headed young woman, not vulnerable to passion of any kind. 

I think Jane Austen wrote the perfect picture of her life and experiences in the book. In it, everyone got what they desired, which she mentions in the movie as well. She lived her dream in those pages. How it would've been if Lefroy was of the same social standing as Mr Darcy when they met and fell in love. How it would have been she wasn't so vulnerable to passions of tender age. 

Jane Austen did not marry after her affair with Thomas Lefroy. It was a brave step for a woman of the Victorian Age to not marry but live by her pen (she wrote novels). Lefroy went on to inherit his uncle's property and became an established lawman. He named one of his daughters Jane. 

So this was for the woman who introduced me to romance through her novel no matter how tragic her own love life was. She has been teaching young girls to fell in love without losing themselves for centuries now. 




I liked this Pinterest edit. 
















 


 


 


 

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