In the battle of literary greats, it always seemed to me that Shakespeare was far more poetic than Jane Austin. The woman died young and without a husband, which was obscene at the time (although nowadays it is still looked upon as “abnormal” if you are not married/engaged/dating seriously by the time you are 30). Yet watching the current flick, Becoming Jane, you start to see the unrequited love songs and prejudice of society still exist, and it makes you wonder…maybe this Jane person was on to something. For Shakespeare may have had his women be backstabbing, murderous, manipulative villans, but Jane embraced woman intuition of the heart, and perhaps, of the human condition in general.
Now, the film, Becoming Jane is not without its faults. The setting is beautiful, but the lighting is dreadfully dreary. Anne Hathaway, as much as I love her, seems to lose her accent every few words. And James McAvoy, oh, bless his Scottish charm, seems almost too pretty to be the object of Jane’s affection. The dances seemed to drag on, and although there were great camera positioning, sometimes they were a little too deliberate and forced.
But suddenly, its not about the film anymore so much the subject matter. You start pondering these universal life truths, that sometimes great loves just don’t have happy endings, families will sometimes disown you if you do not take a wealthy husband, and sometimes, you must think for yourself. Maybe its naïve, but the hopefulness of the idea that one true love exists out there in the wide world makes this jaded romantic cautiously optimistic, and I still feel like there is one great love out there for me, and I will be damned if I don’t find it in this lifetime. This optimism may seem naïve, but it is a quality I hope I never lose.
And that is what Becoming Jane gives you a sense of…that these stories that Austen wrote, inspired by her true life, were snippets into her soul as a writer. These great literary works, although fiction, were her observations into the human condition, the same human condition that very much continues today.
And as far as my experience with Austin goes, the first time I read Pride and Prejudice, I thought the tension and passion of unrequited love was only in the movies, and that I would never feel love like that. The second time I read it, I was in unrequited love, and thought, ok, now I understand what she was getting at. And at present time, owning my own copy of the hardcover, I just might re-read it to see what pearls of wisdom Austen has for me now, a single, well-educated, career-driven girl in the 21st century.
The human condition will always fascinate me…the motivations behind actions, unrequited loves, it is all very poetic and literary to me. Perhaps, like Austen, I will be able to put these observations into literary greatness someday, but for now, I will do as Jane Austin said, and live by my pen…or my keyboard, as it were…it is the 21st century, after all.
