Jane Austen and her Dark World

Jane Austen and her Dark World

Her novels are not so relaxing, and after the strongest pleasure of reading disappears, you will find that Austen wrote about the other side of the world.

it seems to me a slight waste to put Jane Austen with Dumas, Charlotte Bronte and Mark Twain as a must-read list for young people. The reading taste of adolescence makes it easy to be fascinated by the sudden violence, illogical love and 20-year-old revenge stories in the novel, while Jane Austen may be quite boring in the eyes of most 15-and 16-year-olds. Rumors of country life, polite gentlemen and old girls to be married, priests. Austen's life circle determines that her novels lack some excitement, and her humorous, cynical, elegant and ingenious wording needs to experience a bit of worldly experience.

I remember the deep pleasure I felt every time I read Pride and Prejudice. The pleasure does not come from the misunderstanding of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, but from their imperfect personalities, the sparks they collide with when they meet, and their true appreciation of each other's personalities based on love. The love written by this woman who lived in British society two hundred years ago is bolder than almost all contemporary love stories-most love stories tell us that love first comes from physical attraction, and after love happens, all the setbacks and tests really come. Austin is not. She understands that love is a process of finding and recognizing oneself, and the process of determining love is more thrilling than the test after the beginning of love, because the former takes place in the heart. From this point of view, I believe that Pride and Prejudice is unique in a sense.

but then again, Elizabeth is so easy to like in Pride and Prejudice. She is smart, lively and enthusiastic, and at the same time has a cautious and introspective side, worrying about others all the time. I hope the people around her can be happy. But Austin made no attempt to make Elizabeth perfect. At the end of the novel, after seeing Mr. Darcy's Pemberley Manor, Elizabeth jokingly said, "I was moved as soon as I saw Pemberley Manor." And Darcy, a gentleman with an annual income of 10,000 pounds during the British Regency at that time, spoke rudely in the face of Elizabeth, who was inferior to her. But pride in identity and property is the most important element of Darcy's character, and without this there is no story to tell. You also have to admit that it is these small dark sides of character that constitute the most intense dramatic scene in the novel and make Mr. Darcy's confession in Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice a classic.

Pride and Prejudice

2005


Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is even more so. Mr. Bingley's appearance comes from Mrs. Bennett's description, "A rich bachelor earns four or five thousand pounds a year." What a blessing for the girls! " Darcy, not to mention, income and status are the hard indicators that all the heroes in Austen's novels must have, even the root cause of romance. And Elizabeth's good friend Charlotte without hesitation married a man she neither loved nor respected, because if not, she would become an old girl who was spurned by others. This is what the cruel economic society told Elizabeth the truth, and Elizabeth herself had to admit that Charlotte had no choice.

little by little, you find that the world of Austen's novel is not as perfect as imagined, it is even very dark. In all her novels, there are few happily married couples. On the contrary, there are countless couples who hate each other, separated couples, brother and sister and parents who blame each other. All the protagonists live in frustration, suffering, boring life and the threat of poverty. No one is fully sure of the future. On the other hand, the middle-class women in England in the 19th century could only devote their energy with nowhere to vent, reading sentimental novels and visiting each other, among which the near-perfect heroine, Elizabeth Burnett, can only vent their energy by taking a long and aimless walk in the countryside. Just like her father once told her, "I don't think any man is worthy of your intelligence," which is a kind of poignant irony.

in my favorite Austen novel Persuasion, Anne, the 19-year-old daughter of the fallen aristocrat Sir Walter, fell in love with Wentworth, a young sailor, but her father and godmother were worried about her difficult life after marriage and strongly opposed her. The cautious Anne took the advice and refused Wentworth. Eight years later, Colonel Wentworth, who had made a fortune in the overseas war and was promoted to a high position, returned to his hometown, and the two met. At this time, the situation of the two people had an exchange of 180 degrees. At that time, Wentworth was successful, rich, knowledgeable, handsome and stable, while Anne, who lost her mother, no longer had time to carry the burden of the family and helped her sister take care of the children. In the 2007 version of Persuasion, Anne is not only not beautiful, but also has some slight buckteeth. (all the unwitting people around her are praising Wentworth, hoping to get to know him, while Annie's situation is unconcerned. The most gripping thing is that, deep down, Anne has stopped hoping.

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2007 edition of Persuasion

Anne, who has regretted her wrong decision for eight years, has been suffering. These moments were "silent, deep injuries". She understood that "time had destroyed her youth and vitality," and even lost her beautiful appearance; and after she bumped into Wentworth for the first time, she kept rejoicing that she had survived. "the worst is over."

pain, remorse, endless face to the embarrassment and regret of the old, irreplaceable holes in life and calm withdrawal. All this is happening quietly in a woman's inner world. It is a feeling of "I am suffering from the retribution of what I have done wrong", a clear understanding that the best time has passed and I have missed, and a feeling of watching happiness swim away and trying to maintain the last bit of dignity.

like Pride and Prejudice, Colonel Wentworth finally saw Anne's strength and bravery in a series of accidents and proposed to her again. The kind-hearted Austen finally gave his protagonist a happy ending and relieved us nervous readers. Equally intriguing is that Wentworth did not confide in Anne in the final finale of Persuasion, which is certainly not the usual style of Austen. Like a military medallion, Wentworth described to Anne the character in which she had found her kind, tolerant, brave and resourceful. In Austin's writings, all love is conditional, who says that a good character is not the most important condition? Austin once again defines what she sees as stable love: a combination of conditional, rational consideration and careful choice can lead to the most stable marriage.

gradually, I began to know Jane Austen, a more real Austen. Her novels are not so relaxing, and after the strongest pleasure of reading disappears, you will find that Austen wrote about the other side of the world, not "Pride and Prejudice", but "persuasion", "reason and emotion". There are no rich aristocrats Darcy and Bentley to satisfy the romantic fantasies of the reader, only the farmer's brother Edward Ferras and Colonel Brandon, who can't bear to look back on the past, and these are the most real characters in Austen's writings, because they represent the world we live in-trivial, unbearable, cruel. To live in this world, men are also subject to various restrictions and often feel at a loss and helpless. In the face of the darkness of the world, we must grit our teeth, open our eyes and face the reality.

in the 1995 edition of sense and Sensibility, Ang Lee directed

but in the final analysis, Austin is not Hugo, nor is reason and emotion Les Miserables. Social classes and interpersonal relationships are cold and hard, but strangely, reading Austin always makes us feel like a spring breeze, as if connected with her. I think the reason for the lack of heaviness in her novels lies in her own character: cheerful and optimistic by nature, easy to forget pain and, above all, an unparalleled sense of humor. The British writer Maugham once had the most apt description of Austen in the Great Master and his masterpiece:

"she has an open mouth and an unusual sense of humor. she likes to laugh and make others laugh. It is hard for a humorist to think of a funny thing and expect him to keep it in his heart. God knows, it's not easy to joke without showing a little bitterness. There is not much stimulation in natural kindness. It was admirable that Jane was acutely aware of the absurdity, stupidity, affectation and hypocrisy of others, which not only made her angry and distressed, but amused her. Her good upbringing made her unable to say hurtful words, but she must have thought it harmless to amuse herself by teasing them with Cassandra (Austin's sister). I don't see any malice in her most witty and pungent words; her humor is, as humor should be, based on precise observation and frankness. "

I like Jane Austen more and more as I get older. It used to be because of those romantic love stories, but now it's because we see everyone's own struggle and helplessness behind the story; we see that we live in this world and can't do everything we want to do. Austen deeply understands the mediocrity of human beings and has a strong interest in all kinds of contradictions in human nature. she believes in the people she writes, just as the readers believe her. I think we should all take a look at Austin every now and then, because at a particular moment, she can sting and shock you through fierce mockery and self-mockery: what about an imperfect life? At least I could pick up the book, follow Austin's eyes and laugh.