Is Elizabeth Bennet a perfect heroine?
People seem to dislike Emma almost as much as they like dearest Lizzie. Neither is perfect but that’s why I like them. A certain level of spitefulness is always endearing.
“Pictures of perfection [in heroines] make me sick and wicked.” Jane Austen
Her comment suggests that her heroines will not be ‘perfect’, in the sense that such perfect heroines are idealised images of female virtue. Austen’s heroines will each have her own measure of human failings, such as vanity or prejudice. In fact, the comment implies, perfect heroines are irritating to Austen (they make her ‘sick’). They even unleash a kind of spitefulness in her (they make her ‘wicked’), as if she wishes to expose the unreal and idealised examples of female characters in some contemporary fiction.
None of us likes to admit that a person’s wealth is a hugely attractive. “I’d never marry for money,” my students proudly tell me. I would. It’s a better reason than most.
On viewing the magnificence of the estate of Pemberley, Elizabeth reacts in what seems a very human way – she thinks of all that the material wealth she has turned down in refusing Darcy. Then she remembers that had she accepted his proposal, she would not be allowed to invite her Aunt and Uncle (because Darcy, she assumes, would be too proud to invite people who had made their wealth from business). Then Austen adds, “That was a lucky recollection – it saved her from something like regret.” So this display of wealth almost causes her momentarily to regret having turned down Darcy.
A few paragraphs later, Elizabeth hears the housekeeper say, ‘“Miss Darcy is always down for the summer months.”’ Then Austen adds, ‘“Except,” thought Elizabeth, “when she goes to Ramsgate.” (This is a reference to the intended elopement with Wickham.) This is very spiteful of Elizabeth, which, for me, makes her all the more convincing and endearing as a character.
Does anyone else like Lizzie because she can be a cow?
