Beauty in Jane

Tonight my friend and I had a Jane night - watching Jane Eyre as well as some Jane Austen. Sometimes I forget that Jane Eyre is not an Austen book, but a Bronte one...but watching the film I was reminded of the differences.  Bronte is darker, deeper even.  Austen wrote out of a desire to see all her characters get "after a little bit of trouble, everything their hearts desired".  She pleases us with beautiful women and handsome men, dances, kindnesses, prayers, familial love, and cups of tea.  Even the self centred men who do the heroines wrong sometimes have a little pang of heart.  But Bronte seems to enjoy scaring us a little with the truly evil side of people - Jane Eyre brings us harsh stepmothers, cruel taskmasters, talk of hellfire and a raging inferno taking over a castle, jealousy, anger, horror, insanity, and a truly great struggle between good and evil.  Two people make that struggle in their own hearts, choosing actions in their lives based on what they think is right and wrong.  One chooses to set aside that little niggling thought of conscience and do what the rest of the world would surely agree is right; and the other listens to it, flees in the midst of rain and storm, and wrestles with her own soul until right comes.

After watching Jane Eyre, we turned to Pride and Prejudice - almost for some relief.  We made dinner and were about to set it out at the table, when we decided that my very long dining room table would make an ideal opportunity for a Jane experience. We set the plates out, one at one end and one at the other, as though we were in one of those huge draughty dining rooms with candles and tapestries and servants.  We set candles all over the table, and used the long stemmed glasses for our sparkling wine.  And just as we sat down, we realised that we couldn't have this kind of dinner without dressing up, so we raced to my closet and picked out two beautiful dresses and some pearls, and sat down to eat our first course in style.  It was really lovely, "dressing for dinner".  How often do I make something quickly in the microwave, and eat it while working or reading or even standing at the breakfast bar.  And how rarely do I set aside three courses, with wine and candles, and time to talk, and the mobile phone somewhere else in the house where I can't hear it.  Because there's something not quite right about stepping back in time several hundred years, but trying to bring your existing century with you.  They don't fit.  You must have one or the other, and tonight we chose the other.


There's great beauty in both Janes.  Charlotte Bronte's Jane is plain, with great beauty within.  Jane Austen's women are beautiful inside and out, renowned for their beauty and chosen even when they are poor.  And there's something about the times gone by that makes us wish for it a little - the horses and carriages, four poster beds, family meals, dinners out, ruffled dresses, balls...so tonight we enjoyed it all, from the comfort of my twenty-first century flat.