What about the Austen Craze annoys you?

While I love Jane Austen in all of her amazingness, I would also have to argue that Austen at times does bug me. I mean why write all these love stories, that always have a Cinderella plot line. There are some of her novels that are complex, but they are never difficult to understand. Austen never writes about the love stories that don't work out. Every character gets what they want, they live happily ever after and the novels end there. The reader never gets to see what happend after the characters get married. Also why can't a woman marry the man she wants without regard to money or status. I mean I know at that time period it would be scandalous, and she would be an outcast. Austen never writes about this although I am sure it did happen. Why does Austen always have this Pauper to Rishes story? It never varies. I wish that it could be more complex or use more of the real history/world that it was written in. Why didn't Austen try to write in different time periods, or places, or with vastly different character/stories? That is just what I think.

My future husband...

Well this is an exciting prompt.

My personality is most like:

- Elizabeth = for her rebelliousness
- Elinor = her ability to think about things in a mature way, how she is sensible, humble, and how she takes care of her family
- Jane = her shy/interrelatedness at times (though I am much more talkative)

My future husband's personality would have to be:

-Darcy = his ability to think about things in such a deep and interesting way
- Bingley = for his charismatic personalty, ability to talk easily in big crowds and his fun loving spirit (he always seems like he is smiling and happy)
- Edward = his ability to really listen to someone and offer good advice or comfort
- Brandon = his need to protect Marianne from people like Willoughby

I think it would be a combination between all of these men. I am more like an Elizabeth character now and I might be attracted to a guy like Darcy, or Bingley. I'm not really sure which one I would pick it would really have to depend upon which one I had a stronger connection with in the long run and our ability to be comfortable with each other. I would need to be with someone who is a little extroverted and maybe have a little bit of charisma. Someone that makes me laugh and I can be sarcastic with. I would also want them to be able to talk to a large group of people easily or in a natural/comfortable way, so that when we are in mixed company it wouldn't be awkward or embarrassing.

I would never be attracted to a guy that is arrogant, conceited, all about himself, too quiet or trying to show off in some way about how much they had. I would want someone who is honest and humble, who doesn't care about worldly things but tries to do things for other people without expecting something in return.

Willoughby vs. Wickham

Willoughby

• seduces a young woman
• gets her pregnant and bolts
• lies about this to Marianne
• tries to be overly affectionate to Marianne
• competes with Colonel Brandon and tries to create rumors about him
• the only thing that he really wants is to have sex with Marianne (it seems)
• he leads on poor Marianne who is both innocent and oblivious to what is going on

Wickham

• tries to seduce Darcy's sister Georgiana into marrying/eloping with him
• doesn't get the opportunity to get Georgiana pregnant (thankfully) and bolts
• lies about this to Elizabeth Benet
• tries to get Elizabeth on his side by giving his "side" of the story
• competes with Darcy and spreads lies about him
• all he wants is to flirt with a beautiful girl and then ditch her for someone else
• he is charismatic and seems to go after the girls with low self esteem who make up for it by being flirtatious.

I think the lesser of the two evils in this scenario has to be Wickham. Willoughby is the worse one here. I mean he got some poor woman pregnant, bolted and now here he is again trying to seduce Marianne. He seems older and has more experience in the world with woman and having sex and he seems to pry on the younger women like Marianne. I think he is the more dangerous one. Wickham in contrast is calmer. He seems to want to be in the companionship of young girls that are beautiful so that he can make out with them. He seems a lot less scary than Willoughby. See Wickham tried to seduce Georgiana but when Darcy stepped in to protect his younger sister Wickham backed off, bolted and left her alone. When Willoughby is trying to seduce Marianne everyone around her including Colonel Brandon try and protect her from him, but he is persistent and doesn't give up or go away. I think that is more dangerous than anything Wickham could have done, as that kind of goes into the category of being slightly obsessive and possessive. It is kind of creepy, at least to me. The major problem with both Willoughby and Wickham is that they seem nice (they are certainly handsome, tall, and charismatic), but there is something that is slightly off about both of them. Willoughby wants to have sex with any woman he can seduce and then leave her to become destitute. Wickham wants to go after a woman's fortunes and then leave them with nothing. Both have similar goals but Willoughby's motives are a lot more aggressive and violent.

The characters in Northhanger Abbey being aloof?

James and Isabelle, Catherine and John

The characters in Northhanger Abbey seem to be unaware of each other's feelings. I don't think this is because they are trying to deny the reality of what is going on, but that they are in a way unaware of the deeper feelings between each other. For example when Catherine likes John he has no clue how she feels about him. He wouldn't know how she felt unless she told him, then his perception of her and his interaction with her might change. I had this happen to me recently. I have liked this guy for 2 years now and I have been patiently waiting for him. The other day we hung out and then the next time I saw him I told him how I felt and he said that he liked me as well, but that he didn't know for sure if I did indeed like him. This could be the same thing for the characters. They might sense an intimate connection, but they don't want to get hurt so in order to protect their inner feelings they try to avoid the reality of the situation until they know for sure that both parties feel the same way.

Catherine Morland: worthy of hero status?

I think Catherine Morland will be the underdog of Northhanger Abbey. She is going to surprise everyone. I mean from the very first descriptions of her she is poor and plain. As she gets older however she gets more and more accomplished and beautiful.

I think she will just keep surprising people by her ability to sing, draw, read, write and play the piano, in being an accomplished lady. She will be quick witted and make everyone laugh. She will be the life of the party. That is my prediction but we shall see if this is right.

From her character so far it seems as if she is one of those girls who like to prove people wrong or surprise people with doing something they do not expect. I can say that I identify with her in this way.

I think the way she will rise to the hero status will be in the following way:

She is going to save some one's life. They will be drowning and she will save them. Then she will be rewarded and looked upon as a hero, then she will be given first choice over whom she wants to marry in gratitude to her.

Is there an Emma in your life?

There is a person in my life that is closely related to Emma. She has almost the same personality. She gossips all the time about people. She is not a bad person as we look upon gossipping as a negative connotation, she just has a lot of time on her hands. They both love to gossip, try and figure out who should marry whom and why, they are aware of the latest trends, fashions, etc. and talk to other people about their observations. There are times when it is enjoyable to talk to my friend about something girl related, such as boys, beauty, deep thoughts, day to day events, etc., but then there is also a bad thing about that as well. I almost feel as if I am prying into someone else's life and I feel guilty like I shouldn't know this kind of information. My friend doesn't mean to hurt anyone but I don't think she has any idea how her observations could potentially hurt some one's feelings. I think that is the same with Emma. I mean did anyone ever say to her, "hey this is my life leave me alone!" No, but I think at some point Emma should leave people alone and let them live their lives.

Emma's Facebook

I think Emma's Facebook would be quite entertaining. She would have a lot of friends and realtions and try and hook up different people who she would see as an obvious match, in very subtle ways. She would probably be intensely interested in the Facebook Instant Messenger application and be looking at other people's Facebooks while gossipping with one of her friends about a social situation, who should marry whom, other woman, and so on. She would probably put up pictures of all the parties and outings she had gone on where she had determined the best matches for every person. Here is an example of what it might look like:

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Name: Emma Woodhouse

Location: England
Hobbies: Matchmaking

This is me Emma Woodhouse.

This is a good example of gossiping in the novel of Emma. Whether she is talking to her fahter, Mr. Knightly or a number of other ladies she is always trying to get someone happily married. Here is an example of an amiable bachelor whom Emma would be more than happy to set someone up with.

Another example of a nice looking young man. Here is a whole group of guys that Emma would no doubt pair up with some of her lonlier women friends.

This exemplifies the idea of everyone gossipping about someone else.

I would not be surprized to find on Emma's page a map or chart showing all the matches she has made of happy couples that with her brilliance she paired up together. It would probably be complete with mini stories about how they met, and about how happy they are since Emma introduced them.