Henry Tilney

I decided to tackle my least favorite of Ms. Austen’s books this time. I didn’t really feel like ending a month of talking about such a fascinating subject (men, specifically those in Jane Austen’s books) on a low note.


Northanger Abbey.

I’m not even sure it belongs in a discussion of Ms. Austen’s male characters at all, because the main character in this book isn’t the actual people in it. Instead, this is a book about another type of book, the gothic novel so popular in Ms. Austen’s time. The specific novel that is the focus of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe. Not kidding. In Northanger Abbey, Ms. Austen exposes the dangers of becoming too caught up in a fantasy so that it clouds your judgement. She was actually making fun of the gothic novel, though she probably read several as it was the popular type of novel in her day. I’ve read the Mysteries of Udolpho, on some plane ride which I don’t remember. It’s like a bad B movie.

So if the main character in Northanger Abbey is a book, is there a lead male? Technically yes, but I’m not sure I understand him. Catherine Morland is a silly young girl caught up in her reading of the Mysteries of Udolpho. Nowadays she would be one of the many teenagers debating Edward vs. Jakob. She sees intrigue everywhere, but suspects the wrong people for the wrong reasons and trusts the ones she should suspect. Henry Tilney is educated, is strong enough to stand up to his money grubbing father, and sees clearly that Catherine thinks melodrama is around every corner. Yet somehow he is still attracted to her, enough that he goes against his father’s wishes and wants to marry her.

I haven’t yet figured out the attraction. I just don’t see why Henry Tilney is interested in Catherine. It may that the only version of the book I’ve seen tries so hard to create Catherine’s atmospheric and slightly sinister view of the world (as only a confused young girl would see it) that it becomes cheesy. Sorry to the director, whoever you are. A post in the blog Jane Austen’s World by Ellen Moody states that there is a 2007 version which also tries to create a gothic atmosphere. Ms. Austen was actually satirizing this type of thing, movie people. I’ll check Netflix for this version, but it may be I just need to go back to the book to understand Henry Tilney.

In the 1987 adaptation that I own, Henry Tilney is played by Peter Firth. The last name is the same as the man we all recognize as Mr. Darcy. I have wondered if they are related, so I went looking. Turns out they’re not related, and that Peter Firth has quite an impressive career on his own. It’s just coincidence that two actors with the last name of Firth have played men in Jane Austen books.

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Update 1/7/2013:

I've noticed that the pageviews of this post have increased over the last 10 days or so. Thank you to everyone who has been reading it. Shortly after writing this post, I took a two year long break from this blog.  I only returned to it a couple of months ago. The first two posts after my return are Absence:

http://itsgotsomethingtodowithjaneausten.blogspot.com/2012/11/absence.html

and Makes the heart grow fonder:

http://itsgotsomethingtodowithjaneausten.blogspot.com/2012/11/makes-heart-grow-fonder.html

If you feel like reading any other recent posts, they are located in the archive on the right sidebar.

Thank you everyone for reading this blog!

Captain Wentworth

If most Jane Austen fans had to pick their favorite Jane Austen novel, the first choice would probably be Pride and Prejudice.  However, if I had to choose it would be Persuasion.  Ms. Austen's female lead in this novel is Anne Elliot, who is more mature than her other leading women.  Anne, in her youth, was persuaded to refuse Captain Wentworth.  Though she may have made some youthful mistakes, Anne has grown into an intelligent, capable woman.  Her beauty is not obvious and flashy, so much so that her own family tends to overlook her.  Anne may be quiet, but she is quiet steel. 

Part of Captain Wentworth's allure is that he does eventually recognize this after he gets over his hurt feelings.  Several years after the rejection, he is back in the family circle and slowly comes to realize he still loves her.  As with most of Jane Austen's male leads, which  is part of what makes her so cool (especially for her time), he ignores the flash (eventually) and goes for the true worth.

The other part of Captain Wentworth's allure is hidden between the lines.  Ms. Austen focused on the interactions and relations between people,  which is what she excels at and what she knew.  But what is not discussed is how Captain Wentworth could have joined the navy and come back with what amounted to a fortune at the time.   How does a sailor, captain or not, amass a fortune?  It worked roughly like this: when a ship fought another ship during back then, either from another country or a pirate ship, the spoils (gold coins, whatever) went to the winning ship.  Some would be set aside for whatever government the ship is operating under (unless the winning ship was a pirate ship, of course), the rest would then be divided up according to rank.  For Captain Wentworth to get a fortune this way would mean that his ship won a lot, in dangerous situations.  Captain Wentworth, in modern terms, would be considered a bad boy, a bit dangerous, with a bit of an edge.  Yet sensitive enough to recognize that he still loves Anne and to recognize her worth, her intelligence, and her hidden strength. 

Now that's a package.

It's the formula for almost every romantic comedy out there.  Especially if the movie stars Gerard Butler.

As I've mentioned before, in my modern rewrite I would cast John Cusack.  My dream movie would have Mr. Cusack in a Jane Austen novel, and converting the character from sailor to actor would give plenty of opportunity for a hint of bad boy.

My favorite Captain Wentworth, other than John Cusack, is Ciaran Hinds, who plays the character as large and a bit intimidating, and is truly an imposing figure.  I can see him striking fear into even the most scary of pirates.  Yet he also shows the human side of the character when he is with his sailor friends and when he relents toward Anne.

Another recent version of Persuasion from 2007 starred Rupert Penry-Jones (on left).  This version confused me.  At the end he buys the family estate for Anne.   This is strange because her father, Baron Elliot, is still alive and is still very much aware of the family image which would definitely not involve selling the family estate, the basis of his self-perceived prestige.  And though Ms. Austen doesn't mention if the estate is entailed like the one in Pride and Prejudice, since it will be inherited by a male cousin it mostly likely is entailed.  Entailment guarantees that the house will always be passed from male to male so it stays in the family, and the entailed estate cannot be sold.  This means that there was no way that Captain Wentworth could have purchased this property for Anne.

Colin Firth vs. Elliot Cowan

Colin Firth, as mentioned in the last post, is the standard against which other Mr. Darcys are measured.  One of the most famous moments in Jane Austen film is the following clip.  It's not actually in the book, but the suggestion of Mr. Firth stripping down and getting wet is a very subtle way of sexing the book up.  (I say subtle cuz other directors for Jane movies, such as Mansfield Park, have gone overboard with trying to make things sexier and have ruined everything).  Here it is:




But a few months ago I received an Austen adaptation through Netflix called Lost in Austen.  Amanda Price is your normal, average Jane Austen fan who is dealing with a rather insensitive boyfriend and who has read Pride and Prejudice so many times that she knows the characters intimately and her copy looks like it is about to fall apart.  Perfectly normal.  Then one night she hears a noise and finds Elizabeth Bennet in her bathroom, having traveled through a time/reality portal in the wall behind Amanda's tub.  Also perfectly normal.  So Amanda tests the portal, and finds herself in the world of the novel.  Elizabeth shuts the wall/door, leaving Amanda in Pride and Prejudice and Elizabeth in modern day London.  In this world, Elliot Cowan is Mr. Darcy.  Of course I wasn't prepared to admit that he was the character, since that title belongs to Colin Firth.  But about halfway through I started accepting him as Mr. Darcy, at first reluctantly.  But Amanda, being a true Pride and Prejudice fan, is very much aware of one of our favorite moments in Jane Austen film.  So she asks him for a favor, and after this moment Elliot Cowan is truly a contender for the Mr. Darcy crown. And I had to shut my mouth, which had fallen open.  Here's the clip.  Enjoy!

Jane Austen's Men: Mr. Darcy

Men.

Sometimes we love them, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes the muscles start to look as tasty as ice cream cones. Sometimes they’re really cute and can make you smile.

And sometimes you just want to poke them with a stick to see how they’ll react.

With so many remakes of Jane Austen based movies over the years, Jane Austen fans have plenty of men to drool over. Take Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, for example. He’s hunky, seems reasonably intelligent, and has the good sense to fall in love with an intelligent, interesting, and spirited woman named Elizabeth Bennet. If I’m being perfectly honest, it doesn’t hurt that he had money in a time when money was scarce. His pride and prejudice make him seem at first like a bit of an ass, but when Elizabeth tells him off after his rather insultingly worded proposal he shapes up. Mostly.

There have been several actors that have portrayed Mr. Darcy through the years, even Laurence Olivier in an early wartime version. The quintessential, classic Mr. Darcy is Colin Firth (picture in the sidebar). Or maybe I should say that Colin Firth is Mr. Darcy. He starred in the A&E/BBC miniseries (which I have on DVD and videotape still) version of Pride and Prejudice.  After Elizabeth finally agrees to marry him, and he looks tenderly down at her and says “my dearest loveliest Elizabeth”, I melt into a little puddle, no matter how many times I've watched it. When Helen Fielding wrote Bridget Jones’ Diary, she had Colin Firth’s representation of Mr. Darcy in mind, so of course he was the only one who could be Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones movies. I don’t even know the name of the Mr. Darcy in the Keira Knightly version: that’s how completely forgettable he was (sorry, dude, whoever you are).