Monday, August 27, 2007
The Comeuppance of Jane Austen
Since my lovely wife doesn't have a comment feature enabled on her blog, I'm going to have to respond to her most recent post in my own blog. That's OK. It'll give me a chance to make a point I've been mulling lately.
Here's what Shelly said, in a post about the Jane Austen pseudo-biopic Becoming Jane, which she saw last week with a bunch of girlfriends (not me).
Austen, I have decided, is singlehandedly responsible for the modern "romantic comedy" and all of its cliches and rules. It's long been apparent that romantic comedies are formulaic, but it's only recently that I've realized where the formula comes from.
Jane Austen, it turns out, was the original romantic comedy storyteller.
Essentially, because of Austen's long-lived success, every single romcom in the world is now required by law to follow the basic plot points of "Pride and Prejudice." To wit:
The answer to your query, my love, is that Jane's love interest must be a jerk when she meets him because Mr. Darcy was a jerk when Lizzie Bennet* met him. Austen brought it upon herself.
* Am I the only person who is bugged by the spelling of Lizzie's last name? The real surname is Bennett. Did Austen not know that when she wrote the book? Did her editor not know?
Here's what Shelly said, in a post about the Jane Austen pseudo-biopic Becoming Jane, which she saw last week with a bunch of girlfriends (not me).
Why does the love interest, Mr. Tom Lefoy, have to be introduced as a little bitI find it very ironic that my wife makes this comment in the context of a story about the personal life of Jane Austen, because the answer is very obvious to me: because of Jane Austen.
of a scoundrel? During our first introduction to him, he is portrayed as a
reckless young man who is less than serious about his career, is rather free
with women, and enjoys boxing among rowdy crowds. I don't know why the writers
felt it necessary to make Tom like this. And I see it more and more often among
love interests in romantic movies. If you want to know which guy that our
heroine is going to fall in love with just look for the reckless jerk at the
beginning of the show and you're bound to have found him. Of course, by the end
of the movie, he's had a sudden change of heart and he's instantly everything
our heroine could ever want - faithful, kind, accomplished and true.But why does
he have to be "bad" in the first place? Call me crazy, but those aren't the guys
I wanted to be with when I was dating. In fact, it was just the opposite. Which
is clear by looking at the man I eventually married who is about as clean cut
and non-reckless as they come. Why can't Hollywood make a romantic movie where
the love interest is always a good guy, because that's really who you want to be
with anyway.
Austen, I have decided, is singlehandedly responsible for the modern "romantic comedy" and all of its cliches and rules. It's long been apparent that romantic comedies are formulaic, but it's only recently that I've realized where the formula comes from.
Jane Austen, it turns out, was the original romantic comedy storyteller.
Essentially, because of Austen's long-lived success, every single romcom in the world is now required by law to follow the basic plot points of "Pride and Prejudice." To wit:
1) When the two people who are destined to fall in love meet, one of them (usually the man) is a relatively insensitive jerk, and there is ill will between them.I challenge you to name a modern romantic comedy (other than the refreshing My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which is the exception to a whole lot of rules) that does not follow this formula. So it comes as no surprise that when the filmmakers were putting together Becoming Jane, they followed the formula (except, I guess, the last point, because Austen's spinsterhood is so well known they couldn't have altered that fact and maintained a straight face).
2) Throughout the course of the movie, based on interaction between the two
characters (often against the will of one or the other), they grow fonder of
each other.
3) They break up.
4) They discover that one or the other of them has had a startling change
of heart, and they get back together.
The answer to your query, my love, is that Jane's love interest must be a jerk when she meets him because Mr. Darcy was a jerk when Lizzie Bennet* met him. Austen brought it upon herself.
* Am I the only person who is bugged by the spelling of Lizzie's last name? The real surname is Bennett. Did Austen not know that when she wrote the book? Did her editor not know?
Comments: Post a Comment
