Monday, July 22, 2013

How Jane Austen is as relevant as ever

Well this is my first post and what is on my mind right now is Jane Austen.What a writer she was? How she understood a women's heart and how well she could decipher love and relationships and mostly how she was able to comment upon the human self without getting too preachy.

Her books are a relief to my soul ,well to any woman's soul.She removes us from this cynical modern world into a time and era where world was simple and uncomplicated.There was romance in the air and women were ladies and men were chivalrous gentlemen.Well who can forget the clothes and shoes of course!

Jane Austen's books are about humans and their love,ambitions,insecurities,their defeats and their triumphs.But mostly I feel what she wrote was a commentary on the social situation in early 18th century.Her view of human and the society.How we think we have come a long way ,however little has changed.Jane Austen's famous line from her book "Pride and Prejudice" - "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" is as relevant as ever.

Our society is still about finding the most eligible bachelor in the town.We sill have lot of Mrs. Benettes and Mr.Collins among us.Most importantly the "eligible" bachelors and their mothers (by their own definitions of course!) of our society believe in that statement more than the mothers or a girl herself.In our society and believe me in every part of the world , a man still thinks that he is a prized possession something which every girl wants -Whether it is to propose or decide to marry-It is he who has to be ready and make a decision as there are plenty of women after him and his fortune.It is he who has to buy a ring always!.

A false pretense which even Mr.Darcy could not get away with.He however acknowledges his pride, presumptions and his reserved nature to be the cause of some problems and appreciates Lizzy for pointing it out to him.That is what makes Mr Darcy an ideal man for every woman.As he loved the very woman who pointed out all the faults in him.

It is sad but a woman even in today's world cannot propose a relationship leave alone marriage.It would be highly inappropriate.Such women are often termed as aggressive ,obsessive or plain silly.

This narrow,stereotypical, judgmental nature of a human mind is what Jane Austen tries to capture ,decipher and point out in her books.She showed the ugly side of a human in the most subtle manner.The fact that her all characters are always grey not black or white says a lot about each human's struggle to self discovery.

I just love her books and would recommend to every teenagers discovering books for the first time.


It is surprising that somebody who understood human relationships so well never married herself.Well sometimes women who are single(Just like Mua!)are really the most romantic as they are always dreaming of something unattainable ,some image(An image only) of wonderful caring man who would come and sweep them off their feet.Well dream on!

I get a feeling that Jane would have sat for hours by her bay window looking out at her wonderful English gardens and would have dreamed about love and friendship.I have a feeling she always yearned for love and missed it.

Well most of us women do the same as well!





2 comments:

pocketfullofthoughts said...

Congrats on your first post :) .Jane Austen belonged to the world ,her characters are still revered mainly for all the reasons you mentioned.

Suma D said...

Thanks for the support