Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Lucie Horáková

New Prides and New Prejudices: The Contemporary Cult of Austen in Popular Literature Bachelor‟s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Bonita Rhoads, Ph. D.

2014

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

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Author‟s signature

I would like to thank my supervisor Bonita Rhoads for an ongoing support and invaluable advice. Table of Contents

1 Introduction ...... 1 2 The Canon ...... 3 2.1 Introduction ...... 3 2.2 Pride and Prejudice ...... 4 2.2.1 Pride and Prejudice – The Narrative ...... 4 2.2.2 Pride and Prejudice – The Representation of Women ...... 10 2.3 Compulsively Mr. Darcy ...... 20 2.3.1 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – The Narrative ...... 20 2.3.2 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – Representation of Women ...... 28 2.3.3 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy ...... 32 2.4 Conclusion ...... 35 3 The Cult ...... 38 3.1 Introduction ...... 38 3.2 Me and Mr. Darcy ...... 39 3.2.1 Me and Mr. Darcy – The Narrative ...... 39 3.2.2 Me and Mr. Darcy – The Representation of Women ...... 44 3.2.3 Me and Mr. Darcy – Emily, Mr. Darcy and Spike ...... 48 3.3 Austenland ...... 51 3.3.1 Austenland – The Narrative and Characteristics ...... 51 3.3.2 Austenland – The Representation of Women ...... 55 3.3.3 Austenland – Jane and Henry ...... 58 3.4 Conclusion ...... 62 4 Conclusion ...... 65 5 Appendices ...... 68 5.1 Vladimir Propp's narrative structure points used for analysing the romance ... 68 5.2 Pride and Prejudice, 1995 ...... 69 5.3 Austenland, 2013 ...... 70 6 Bibliography ...... 71 7 Summary ...... 73 8 Resumé ...... 74 1 Introduction

With the last year‟s 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice

(P&P), the topic of Jane Austen‟s most famous novel and its modern spin offs is being discussed more than ever. Both Jane Austen‟s work and the modern takes on her novels are often labelled as romances and dismissed as trivial pieces of writing. The aim of this thesis is to find out if and to what extent is this statement justified. By detailed analysis of P&P and three modern spin offs, the thesis shall prove that the romance label is at least partly undeserved and the novels in question can offer more than just a simple love story presenting unequal or even abusive relationships. Since most of the discussed novels are written by contemporary writers, the findings from the respective subchapters shall be used to detect what are the prejudices people have to face while working towards a satisfying relationship and what prides they have to conquer to be on equal position with their partner.

Throughout the thesis, the analysis always focuses on three main areas – the narrative composition and devices, the portrayal of women, and the dynamics of the relationship between the hero and the heroine. In the first half, the canonical story of

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy is analysed: first as originally written by Jane Austen in P&P, second as re-imagined by Nina Benneton in Compulsively Mr. Darcy. The analysis of

P&P sets a number of devices that distinguish it from the romance novel formula and the second subchapter analysing Compulsively Mr. Darcy shows that not all of these devices are always kept in use and thus this modernization is paradoxically partly reactionary compared with its almost 200 year-old predecessor.

The second half of the thesis presents two novels: Me and Mr. Darcy and

Austenland, which do not update the story of P&P, but build their plots on its vast

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popularity. Following the histories of two Austen aficionados, commonly known as

Janeites, they show how the cult of Austen is perceived by the contemporary readership.

The part dedicated to the narrative analysis focuses on comparison with the postfeminist genre of chick lit, which is the commonly used label for modern Austen spin offs; taking into account the important narrative functions established in the first half of the thesis. The respective second and third subchapters investigate how the novels in question work with feminist themes and to what extent they follow the course of gender equality set by Austen.

The conclusion compares in whole how the chosen novels work with the established narrative devices and summarizes to what extent the spin offs do more than trivialize Austen‟s plot to a romance. Through the analysis of the portrayal of women and the relationship dynamics, the new prides and prejudices are outlined. The chosen texts by no means represent the full extent of Austen modern takes, but they depict one distinct subgenre of Austen-inspired fiction and provide a solid base for discovering the general patterns and themes of the narratives.

The main purpose of this thesis is to present a picture of different ways how the

Austen‟s canonical text is updated to the modern-time settings, moralities and social bias and proving that neither Austen‟s work nor her successors should be condemned on the basis of plot trivializations, as after a close reading, they offer more than just a love story.

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2 The Canon

2.1 Introduction

All Jane Austen‟s novels, and Pride and Prejudice as her most popular work in particular, have often been called romances by both the general readership and academics. The genre of romance was established and acknowledged decades after

Austen‟s death, but it has been used retrospectively as one of descriptions of Jane

Austen‟s writings. On international book web sites such as Goodreads, the romance tag is one of the most used when describing P&P. Scholar Pamela Regis calls P&P “the best romance ever written” and claims it to be a predecessor of “the twentieth century romance novel”. The aim of this chapter is to examine to which extent P&P meets the definition of a romance and what other readings are possible. As a guideline for this comparison, Janice A. Radway‟s analysis of the romance novel shall be used, as it provides a clear outline and seems to meet the general notion of what the romance novel should look like. Apart from that, the representation of women and the dynamics of

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy‟s relationship will be examined in detail.

Over the course of the twentieth century P&P has become a cult, inspiring first dramatic and filmic adaptations, and later also literary sequels, prequels and modernizations. One of the modernizations is the novel Compulsively Mr. Darcy, which is the topic of the second part of Chapter 2. It has been chosen because it admittedly rewrites the story of P&P, using eponymous characters in the contemporary world.

After examining the same features as in the first part of the chapter, the findings will be compared in the conclusion. The topics in question will be discussed in relation to feminism with emphasis on gender equality. Taking into account the social climate and

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the developmental stage of the feminist movement at the time the novels were written, each of the novels will be evaluated according to individually set criteria.

2.2 Pride and Prejudice

2.2.1 Pride and Prejudice – The Narrative

As a courtship novel, P&P can be and often is read as a romance only. When compared with Vladimir Propp‟s analysis as used by Janice A. Radway (134), many points of correspondence can be found. From the thirteen points Radway presents, ten of them can be applied to the narrative structure of P&P (App 1). The points that can be found in the narrative are those concerning the dynamics of the relationship between the hero and the heroine and the gradual change from the heroine‟s antagonism to appreciating the hero‟s qualities and understanding his character. But there are three functions that do not correspond with Radway‟s outline and all of them can be – more or less – considered as extremely anti-feminist.

First, the heroine‟s social identity is not destroyed. At the beginning of the story, the society does not consider Elizabeth Bennet in any way deficient. Even though she could already be married and thus be made more respectable, she is not yet too old to be considered a spinster, unlike her friend Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte, being unmarried at the age of 27, is already seen as a spinster and her chances of marrying, and thus securing herself socially and financially, are considerably lowered. She is being pitied, for example by Mrs. Bennet, and she serves as a kind of warning for the Bennet sisters.

Charlotte‟s marriage with Mr. Collins proves that being a spinster usually robs the woman of her chance to find an equal and respectable partner. This, nevertheless, is not the case with Elizabeth. She has not suffered from any other humiliation either, such as being suddenly orphaned and left without means of providing for herself, being deserted 4

at the altar, neither has she shown any inclination to frivolities or unguarded behaviour in the local society. Her starting point in the narrative is thus a promising one – as a woman, she does not have to be humiliated or socially destroyed to deserve the chance to find an equal partner. Unlike in the romances described in Radway, Elizabeth is seen as a respectable young woman and even though she needs to get married to secure herself, her situation is not destitute yet. Elizabeth is threatened by future poverty but her social position is yet unshaken.

The second function not preserved in P&P narrative is that the heroine does not interpret the hero‟s behaviour as evidence of a purely sexual interest in her. In fact, in the first third of the story where the function is placed, Elizabeth is not even aware of being an object of Mr. Darcy‟s interest at all. Even though sex, sexuality and sexual tension are present in Jane Austen‟s novels, sexuality is never discussed openly and sexual descriptions are never used; unlike in the romance novels or in some modern takes on Austen including Compulsively Mr. Darcy. From the contemporary point of view, such novels are then lacking one of the principal parts of human relationships, but on the other hand, without the focus on sex, more substantial and complicated relationship issues can be examined. Sexual passion in romances is almost exclusively seen as something unwanted by the heroine, an emotion which she is not familiar with and which, under the pressure of the prudent society, she is trying to suppress. It is the task of more experienced hero to show the heroine that her sexuality is normal and healthy, but only when being a part of monogamous relationship. This status quo underlines the inequality of gender relations presented in the romances, that rob women of their right to explore their sexuality without guilt, being it only learning about it in theory or even in experience by having more subsequent sexual partners. The fact that

Austen did not employ the theme of sex in the main plot of P&P helps to draw another 5

distinction between her novel and the contemporary romance formula. Only in the side plot line with Lydia Bennet, Austen presents a picture of how damaging the unguarded sexual passion is for women and how unequally it is judged by the society from men‟s sexual adventures.

The third function not employed in P&P is that the hero, Mr. Darcy, does not retaliate by punishing the heroine for her antagonism. This is probably the key feature of the narrative that distinguishes P&P from the contemporary romantic novel to which it is being likened by part of the readership. In romance novels, the hero is a real alpha male who is allowed to treat the heroine cruelly for the sake of demonstrating his masculinity. Later in the story, this brutality is tamed by the heroine‟s tender care and the hero learns to express his emotions and balances his masculinity with more gentle part of his nature. The romances are apologetic to male violence as long as it is later quietened by the heroine and explained as a result of “a pervious hurt by another woman and . . . [hero‟s] justifiable distrust to all females” (Radway 128). Mr. Darcy never goes as far as hurting the heroine or any other woman and he always treats women with respect, if not always with cordiality. He is, nevertheless, blamed by Elizabeth for emotional and material hurt of her sister Jane and of George Wickham. Mr. Darcy‟s behaviour towards George Wickham is later explained and is, in the end, seen by the heroine and by the whole society as a justified and civilized answer for Wickham‟s mischief. Separating Jane from Mr. Bingley is thus the only case when any hurt can be spoken of. But this act, motivated by fear for Mr. Bingley‟s happiness, is very different from violent rapes usually employed in the romances. Mr. Darcy‟s hurt of Jane, and of

Elizabeth in the long run, is not caused by his contempt for women or presuming women to be only instruments for his pleasure, as is the case of rape in romances. His

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behaviour is the result of the pride of his rank, of concern for his friend‟s happiness and it is only a partial reason for Mr. Bingley‟s and Jane‟s separation.

The missing functions of Radway‟s analysis show an important difference between the narrative structure of the usual romance novel and P&P, showing that P&P focuses on more equal representation of the romantic relationship. But apart from the functional analysis, other differences in the narrative structure and techniques are present. One of the significant differences between the classic romance and P&P is the narrative technique. The authors of romances use either first person narration or they employ third person narration with strong inclination for the heroine‟s point of view.

The narrator is usually very descriptive of the story and focuses on the heroine‟s emotions, thoughts and desires. The reader is offered a very limited perspective on the story and the descriptiveness makes any attempt of critical perception of the narration difficult. Radway claims that:

In fact, all of the linguistic practices . . . mask the reader‟s active collaboration

in the production of textual meaning. The simple syntax, elementary realism,

repetitive vocabulary, and authorial interpretation characteristic of romantic

fiction together create a verbal structure that can be “decoded” easily and

quickly on the basis of previously mastered cultural codes and conventions.

(197)

The romance novels are usually linguistically plain, offering no second meanings and

demanding only limited attention and critical abilities of the reader.

Austen, by making use of free indirect discourse, also focuses on the heroine‟s point of view, but other literary elements are employed, too. The irony, for some readers difficult to distinguish, makes a whole second plan to the story and enables to read it not only as a courtship novel, but also as a social critique. The very first sentence of the 7

story, so often quoted in the media and paraphrased by authors world-wide, is an example of the effect Austen‟s irony has on the whole story. By using the words “. . . a truth universally acknowledged . . .” Austen points out the power of the society that makes their own claims and perceptions of the state of things. The society serve a codifying function and once they take a “truth” as their own, there is no escaping it. The rest of the sentence “. . . that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (5) with the word “must” strengthens this codifying power of the society and shows that the rules of the society and their “universally acknowledged truths” make any attempt of individualism impossible. The society, in this case represented by Mrs. Bennet and other mothers of yet unmarried daughters, project their own wishes into the lives and behaviours of others, regardless of the real intentions of the “single men in possession of a good fortune”. Nevertheless, the society act according to these “truths” and do everything in their power to fulfil them, in this case by trying to marry Mr. Bingley. This single sentence is an example of how layered

Austen‟s narration is and that her writing is open to many interpretations. This feature is usually missing in the narration of romances with very rare use of irony.

Another significant difference between the romance novels and P&P is the number of minor characters and the degree to which they are developed. In romance, secondary characters are usually presented as means of highlighting the hero‟s and heroine‟s uniqueness; the secondary characters‟ defects are being compared to virtues of the major characters who then appear the more desirable. Radway points out that:

. . . the significance of heroine and hero as ideal feminine and masculine types is

established by the existence of two abstract foils who embody those features of

the female and male personalities that must be eradicated if women and men are

to continue to love each other and fill one another‟s need. (131) 8

The secondary characters are only a few, being more personality types than real individuals, as are the hero and the heroine, who embody stereotyped ideals of manhood and womanhood. Minor characters usually do not have a story of their own and their function is only to second the major characters, being it seconding in positive or negative way.

The world of P&P is, on the other hand, inhabited by a significant number of secondary characters and a considerable portion of them have their own story and unique voice. The love story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy actually starts as only a secondary effect of another relationship – Jane and Mr. Bingley‟s. Jane and Mr. Bingley are employed in the very opposite pursuit than secondary characters in romantic novels usually are; instead of highlighting Elizabeth‟s and Mr. Darcy‟s virtues, they point out their flaws. Jane‟s patience and good-heartedness is compared with Elizabeth‟s prejudiced, proud and sometimes almost malicious nature. Mr. Bingley‟s openness and easy social manners are in contrast with Mr. Darcy‟s reserve, pride and social awkwardness. Following secondary characters‟ fortunes, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are constantly being thrown together, their relationship is developing, but they are almost never in the focus of the narrative. This enables the vast number of secondary characters to be sufficiently presented to the reader and their characteristics and behaviour can be discussed in depth. Other secondary characters, such as Mr. Collins, Lydia, Mary, Mrs.

Bennet or Wickham, are indeed employed to help the hero and heroine appear in more favourable light. But because their motives are skilfully described, their behaviour, even when portrayed critically, is understandable and represents another life approaches based on different human natures. Mr. Collins‟s ingratiation, Lydia‟s flirtation, Mary‟s prudishness, Mrs. Bennet‟s hysterics and Wickham‟s opportunism are means of establishing their position within the borders of the society and they all serve their 9

purpose, even though they are not presented as reasonable. With the minor characters,

Austen offers the reader various examples of pursuing favourable position in the society and various examples of gender relations. Each couple in P&P has different dynamics and level of equality, with Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy being in the lead. But all the other matches have their advantages and disadvantages, none of them being seen only black and white, as they would be in romance.

In conclusion, P&P has some similar features with romance novels and might be read as one. But unlike a romance, it does not include anti-feminist narrative functions; it is narrated in more complex way with richer linguistic devices, one of them being irony. The number of secondary characters is higher, serving more functions than being foils of the main characters. The secondary characters represent another layer of the story, showing alternative ways of trying to fit into the society.

2.2.2 Pride and Prejudice – The Representation of Women

From the very beginning, Elizabeth is breaking the image of what a young lady should be like. By constant comparison with other women, many other characters start to recognize Elizabeth as somewhat different as well. Whether the difference is perceived as something favourable or unfavourable depends on the particular character and her or his idea about the feminine ideal. In the first chapter, Elizabeth is singled out by her father as having “something more of quickness than her sisters” (Austen 6). Mr.

Bennet, a man who values intelligence and wit, prefers Elizabeth to other daughters of his, even to Jane, who is generally thought an ideal of femininity because of her beauty and mild nature. Mr. Bennet‟s appreciation of Elizabeth‟s seemingly unfeminine qualities has probably grown in time while he has been constantly attacked by his wife‟s and daughters‟ frivolities and follies. Not being a very supportive or understanding

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father in general, he is ready to disregard social expectations if it means to secure his favourite daughter‟s happiness. He demonstrates this strong opinion for the first time after Mr. Collins‟s marriage proposal to Elizabeth. Even though the union of Mr.

Collins and Elizabeth would be a decent one and it would materially help the whole

Bennet family, he encourages Elizabeth to refuse it. Mr. Bennet understands that

Elizabeth would not be able to respect Mr. Collins and, having to endure a marriage with no respect to his spouse himself, he places respect for partner in marriage and self- respect higher than material profit. The same issue concerns Mr. Bennet after Mr. Darcy announces he wants to marry Elizabeth and only when Elizabeth‟s father learns she is able to respect Mr. Darcy, he blesses the union. This situation is quite unusual, because if Mr. Collins‟s proposal would be beneficial for the family, the marriage of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy brings the Bennets into a whole new social circle and presents even the other daughters with fresh new opportunities in the marriage market. However, Mr.

Bennet is still willing to sacrifice this opportunity if it means his favourite daughter would not be appreciated as she deserves. The fact that Mr. Bennet, representing the most powerful family member in the regency era, is being active in securing his daughter‟s happiness in marriage shows an important twist in the parent – child dynamics of the time, when daughter‟s possible antipathy for her suitor would be outweighed by the suitor‟s social status and financial security. Mr. Bennet considers

Elizabeth his equal and lets her choose her own destiny.

But Elizabeth‟s strong will and unfeminine qualities are sometimes an object of reprobation. The one who disagrees with Elizabeth‟s behaviour and character the most is Caroline Bingley. In the story, Caroline functions as Elizabeth‟s counterpart, who is different from her in every possible aspect. The main difference between these two unmarried young women is in their social position. Elizabeth, a gentleman‟s daughter, 11

lacks both money and connections, as is often pointed out by Caroline. Caroline, on the other hand, is from wealthy and old family, even though she is not of aristocratic descent. Both Caroline and Mr. Darcy‟s aunt, Lady de Bourgh, see Elizabeth‟s family and friends as a major obstacle for her upward social mobility. Even Jane, who lacks her sister‟s strong will and outspokenness and is praised by Caroline, is not considered good enough to marry Mr. Bingley exactly because of the aforementioned low social connections.

When Caroline criticizes Elizabeth in front of Mr. Darcy, she highlights

Elizabeth‟s unladylike qualities. First, she starts criticizing her looks: “She really looked almost wild! Her hair, so untidy, so blowsy!” (30). Later, Caroline does not hesitate to objectify Elizabeth, representing her as a mere set of imperfect body parts:

Her face is too thin; her complexion has no brilliancy; and her features are not at

all handsome. Her nose wants character – there is nothing marked in its lines.

Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes,

which have sometimes been called so fine, I never could perceive anything

extraordinary in them. (Austen 207)

The same strategy Caroline employs when discussing the definition of an accomplished woman. The qualities enumerated by her:

A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing,

and the modern languages, to deserve the word [accomplished]; and besides all

this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the

tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half

deserved. (33) are those that Elizabeth in large part does not possess. But these qualities are also of superficial, “ornamental” nature, as Mary Wolstonecraft calls them (qtd. in Brown 331). 12

Each and every of these activities that should be practiced for gaining accomplishment is based on simple repetition of what is presented. None of them develops deeper understanding or critical thinking, unless the woman turns from simple performer into a creator. But this turn is not supported by the society, because, as Wollstonecraft remarks: “in the education of women, the cultivation of the understanding is always subordinate to the acquirement of some corporeal accomplishments” (qtd in Brown

329). Caroline Bingley mentions all these demands to contrast Elizabeth‟s lack of elegance with her own accomplishments. Later, when she asks Elizabeth to join her in walking around the room, she does this again to show how different they are and she hopes to prove that she is the more accomplished woman and thus the better choice for marriage.

With her view of what an ideal wife should look like, Caroline mirrors the then general image of feminine ideal. A woman is seen as a set of physical features, character traits, accomplishments and social status. All of these qualities are assessed and the value of women is based on them. Even the notion that a young woman enters the marriage market supports the idea of a woman as a piece of goods with various labels, ready to be sold. After the transaction is completed, the woman is supposed to be a decoration of her husband, with her understanding and experience always inferior to his. Caroline‟s comments about Elizabeth suggest that Elizabeth would be neither. Such merciless critique of one of her own sex shows how very determined Caroline is to get what she wants – Mr. Darcy‟s affection – and with it his money, social status and protection. Caroline‟s reasons for marriage are, as they usually are in the times of P&P, practical. Even though Caroline is wealthy and of considerable social status, having a husband is her ultimate goal. As a woman used to be respected, she does not have any other chance to gain this respect than to get married; none of her personal 13

accomplishments can help her once she is considered a spinster. Mr. Darcy, probably the wealthiest and highest in rank of all her acquaintances, is the right husband material for Caroline, as she is determined to use her marriage to better her already satisfying social status. But unlike Elizabeth, she does not seek an equal companion for life. Her behaviour to Mr. Darcy – constant flattering and deceit – shows that she does not respect Mr. Darcy enough to be open with him. Her behaviour also proves that Caroline does not know Mr. Darcy at all, if she knew his nature, she would use different strategies to awaken his interest. In the end, she achieves the very opposite of her plans.

In comparison with her, Elizabeth appears as an open, honest and intelligent woman who can offer more than being just her husband‟s appendage.

In P&P, the character of Elizabeth Bennet introduces a new type of woman – a woman who is by no means ideal and does not fulfil some of the demands of the society. She lacks the passive, ornamental accomplishments that Caroline Bingley proclaims to be the core of women‟s value. But as is shown in Elizabeth‟s relationship with her father and later with Mr. Darcy, the ability to think critically and be honest and open are more valuable and can secure happiness for her. Austen does not write

Elizabeth as a simple set of feminine values, but as a creature of understanding who is men‟s equal.

2.2.3. Pride and Prejudice – Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy‟s relationship evolves gradually throughout the whole novel. To keep the tension between them, Austen does not only make them members of different social circles, but shows them as contrasting personalities. Even though they are amidst various social pressures, their high individualisation and open communication ensures them a satisfying relationship. In regard of equality, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy‟s love story represents a very modern relationship that is often not 14

achieved even in the present times, since many social and gender prejudices are still deeply embedded in the social consciousness, as will be shown in the following subchapter on Compulsively Mr. Darcy.

The core of Elizabeth‟s complete misapprehension of Mr. Darcy‟s character is probably their very different personalities. Even though they have a lot in common, from the way their behaviour is described, it seems that the clash between Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy is the clash of an extrovert meeting an introvert. Mr. Darcy‟s stiffness and reserve are from the very beginning contrasted with the open and inviting manners of

Mr. Bingley and George Wickham. His behaviour in the Longbourn society is being interpreted as haughtiness and aristocratic pride, but it actually corresponds with introvert behaviour. For introverts, it is difficult to fit into a new society, especially if the society enjoys different pastimes than the person concerned. Mr. Darcy is not only new to the Longbourn company but he is also of different rank and does not enjoy the usual social entertainment, such as balls: “You [Mr. Bingley] know how I detest it, unless I am particularly acquainted with my partner . . . Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman . . . whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with” (Austen 11). This remark may be taken as highly offensive if the reason for such a dislike were the lower social standing of the said women. Partly, this may be true, but more importantly, Mr. Darcy‟s punishment lies in the uncomfortable situation of stepping out of his comfort zone and dancing with a woman unknown to him, regardless of her social rank. This fact makes it even more difficult for him to fit in and he probably does not even try, as he already has his own circle of good friends. As an introvert, Mr. Darcy does not pursue new friendships and acquaintances and he rather nourishes the relationships he already has, in his case his friendship with Mr. Bingley,

Colonel Fitzwilliam and with his sister Georgiana. Mr. Darcy‟s fortune and rank, which 15

would serve as an advantage to him if he were of open and sociable nature, become a burden and a reason of dislike against him.

When Mr. Darcy comments unfavourably on Elizabeth when they first meet, his remark is probably not meant as harshly as it seems and as it is interpreted by Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, used to her portion of popularity due to her pleasant looks and open nature, takes offence when being described as: “tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt

[Mr. Darcy]” (Austen 11). For understanding what exactly Mr. Darcy meant, it is once again important to take his introvert nature into account. Firstly, he uses this remark as a means of stopping Mr. Bingley‟s constant persuasion to join the dancing. Secondly, he probably does not mean that Elizabeth is not good enough for his fine taste in women and that she cannot meet his standards. Rather she, as a woman completely unknown to him, simply does not possess such appealing charm to make Mr. Darcy overcome his reserve and engage in a dance in which he would find more torture than pleasure.

Elizabeth, overtaken by the offense, cannot possibly sense this deeper meaning and, based on this unpleasant first impression, she judges Mr. Darcy immediately. Even though she prides herself mainly on account of her intelligence, she is apparently vain of her looks too, a flaw perhaps not expected given her father‟s and Mr. Darcy‟s foremost appreciation of her wit. But given the already discussed importance of ornamental qualities of women, her unease is understandable. As much as Elizabeth does not want to follow the social norms and values intelligence over beauty, depriving her of her portion of beauty is depriving her of one of the means of securing herself for the future. Elizabeth refuses to be objectified, but still partly objectifies herself.

Elizabeth acknowledges how much her pride has been wounded and presents it as a reason for her inclination to George Wickham: “But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on 16

the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned” (Austen 162). Wickham not only flatters Elizabeth‟s vanity by singling her out of all young ladies in the neighbourhood, but he also blandishes her reason by choosing her to be his confident. Because she felt slighted by Mr. Darcy on behalf of her looks, the more powerful this acknowledgement of her intelligence is for her, especially because it is the same quality her father admires in her. The act of confiding in Elizabeth seems to acknowledge both her intelligence and character and also to enable her to enter, even if as a listener, the world of men, power and responsibility. No story of her female friends could be ever so special to her, as no female has such a power over the life of others as Mr. Darcy and no female has so powerful means of revenging another man‟s wrongdoing as George Wickham.

Wickham‟s confession is a sign to Elizabeth that she is good enough to be a part of the world of men.

The same act of confession, but from Mr. Darcy, makes her completely reconsider her opinion of the two gentlemen and her own conduct too. The first marriage proposal from Mr. Darcy and his letter to Elizabeth are turning points in their relationship and also key points showing one of the most important parts of their relationship: complete frankness with each other. Although those moments are very unpleasant for both of them, their openness enables them to reconsider their own conduct and their opinion of each other as well. Acknowledging the status quo is a new chance for their relationship and it bears its fruit during Elizabeth‟s stay in Lambton with the Gardiners. There she has the advantage of observing Mr. Darcy in his own environment where he feels comfortable and where he is surrounded by people he knows and respects. This setting, so different from unfamiliar Longbourn, alongside with Elizabeth‟s acknowledged critique, helps him to be open and relaxed with 17

Elizabeth and show her the caring and sociable part of his personality. Since Elizabeth acknowledges the reason for disliking Mr. Darcy, she is able to correct her behaviour to him and reinterpret his past conduct. This new opinion of him is complete when she learns that he helped her sister Lydia to marry George Wickham. Not being for Mr.

Darcy‟s strict order to remain anonymous in this business, his intervention could be seen as an attempt to manipulate Elizabeth‟s feelings and take advantage of her gratitude. But because of the fact he does everything in his power to conceal his share in

Lydia‟s wedding, it becomes an act of altruism. Elizabeth is finally able to see Mr.

Darcy‟s nature unbiased and value him because of his actions, taking into account his introversion. When Mr. Darcy is determined to overcome his introversion and Elizabeth is determined to overcome her vanity, open communication helps them to establish their relationship and disregard whatever the society tries to dictate them, basing their union solely on their own conditions and wishes.

When deciding to become engaged to each other, neither Elizabeth nor Mr.

Darcy follow the societal rules. From the very beginning, Mr. Darcy has been teased because of Elizabeth‟s lower social standing and her imperfect looks which make

Elizabeth an unsuitable wife material. Elizabeth seems to be only gaining by her union with Mr. Darcy, but her decided refusal of his first proposal shows that she is not willing to give up her requirements for a life partner for social advancement. When choosing their life partners, they place their own judgement and wishes above the demands of the society that dictates to objectify women and to take advantage of men‟s favourable social and financial position. By refusing to be objectified to an ornamental appendix or means of financial security, Elizabeth‟s and Mr. Darcy‟s marriage is in the end an equal partnership professing the values of individualism and communion of personalities, a principle in the core of contemporary relationships. 18

Even though Elizabeth Bennet considers herself a contemplative woman short of vanity, it is this vice she has to overcome in order to be able to judge Mr. Darcy‟s character justly. Only then she can acknowledge his introvert nature which places his words and actions into a very different light. Placing themselves in the uneasy situation by being completely honest to each other Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are able to build their relationship against the pressure of the society. By choosing different requirements for their life partners than those dictated by the society, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy set an example that shall be followed in the modern rewritings and its right interpretation will be the core of the contemporary narratives.

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2.3 Compulsively Mr. Darcy

2.3.1 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – The Narrative

Nina Benneton‟s novel Compulsively Mr. Darcy takes on the ambitious task of providing a modern equivalent to the story of P&P. It also contains most of the functions of Proppian analysis of romance novel and portrays a strong wilful heroine with broad understanding and successful professional career. This description might suggest that the novel is quite pro-feminist, often letting the heroine being the one in the lead of the love story.However, as an analysis of other aspects of the novel will show, this is not always the case.

As in P&P, in Compulsively Mr. Darcy the first function – the heroine‟s social identity being destroyed – seems to be omitted. Benneton truly follows Austen‟s lead and presents a capable and independent heroine whose position in the society is respectable. Benneton‟s Elizabeth Bennet is a successful professional – an infection disease specialist volunteering in contemporary Vietnam. Both Elizabeths lack financial resources, but the contemporary one has the means of providing for herself and could acquire a better work position if she wished to. She is thus in even more favourable position than Elizabeth1 because she truly does not need a man to better her social position or financial situation. Benneton fully utilises the possibilities women have in the twenty-first century and lets her Elizabeth enjoy everything women were not able to enjoy in Austen‟s times – the same education as men, the ability to financially secure themselves and gain general respect both by their nature and their professional abilities.

1 To distinguish the characters from Pride and Prejudice from those from Compulsively Mr.

Darcy, italics will be use for P&P characters.

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There is only one point which has not been modernized in Benneton‟s version of

P&P and that is Elizabeth‟s sexual inexperience. In P&P, leaving Elizabeth a virgin was the only possible choice given her social status and respectability. From Lydia‟s elopement with Wickham and from other back-stories in Austen‟s novels it is evident that not all young women remained virgins until their wedding night, but losing their virginity came at the cost of their reputation. Benneton, on the other hand, does not have to make her heroine a virgin to keep Elizabeth‟s respectability. But still, Elizabeth is, in her age of twenty eight, a virgin. The reason stated is that she suffered from an attempted rape in her teens. Suddenly, the picture changes and it is apparent that even though the heroine‟s social identity was not destroyed, her sexual identity was. This change is probably due to the individualism stressed in the whole novel. The society has, at least in Compulsively Mr. Darcy, no longer power over the hero and the heroine and their decisions, they do not have to delimit their position in society and defend their relationship as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy do. The act of rape is a very personal one, experienced and felt only by the heroine who has not acknowledged it to anyone for years. The rape is mentioned only late in the story and completely shifts the perspective of the heroine and her sexuality. Her sexual restraint is first explained by her bad luck in relationships, when all of her boyfriends turn out to be homosexual. This improbable explanation is apparently employed to justify Elizabeth‟s conviction that Mr. Darcy, whom she finds very attractive, is in a relationship with Mr. Bingley, even though there is no direct proof for such a conclusion. However Elizabeth herself admits she was not hurt when she found out about her boyfriends‟ orientation, the question why she did not try to find a suitable partner is at hand. Only when the fact about the attempted rape is revealed, her behaviour is explained as self-protective – being afraid of sexual relationship, she instinctively chose those men who did not seem threatening to her and 21

who did not, because of their unacknowledged different sexual orientation, demand intimacy in the relationship. Because Elizabeth assumes Mr. Darcy to be homosexual, she feels safe from his sexual attempts and has enough time to acknowledge her own attraction to him. During their frequent interactions, she sees that his nature is mild and caring and by no means threatening to her. Only then she is able to overcome her frustrating sexual experience and move on to a new relationship. Thus, even though the heroine‟s social identity is not destroyed, on the personal level an important part of her character is damaged and she has to be rescued by the one right man, as in the typical romance novel. Regardless of her general independence and respectability, Elizabeth needs a man to complete her.

Another crucial issue of the first function is that Mr. Darcy in Benneton‟s novel is acknowledgedly more sexually experienced than Elizabeth. As stated earlier, this is an indispensable feature of the typical romance as presented by Radway and is not missing from the novel in question. Not only is Mr. Darcy more sexually experienced than Elizabeth, but he gained his experience from unequal relationships with women and this fact is, by the heroine, accepted as a positive explanation. This is, from the feminist point of view, extremely problematic. There is no reason why Elizabeth should not be sexually experienced too, but the author carefully structured her story to keep

Elizabeth a virgin for Mr. Darcy. What more, Mr. Darcy‟s previous girlfriends are called old flames not worth speaking of (Benneton 223) and the fact that their relationships meant nothing for Mr. Darcy is a consolation for Elizabeth. This is a twisted conception from the gender equality point of view. Firstly, it suggests that Mr.

Darcy did not care for the feelings of the women he dated and that he used them only as sex toys. This might be acceptable in a relationship that is openly built only on satisfying sexual needs and this fact is acknowledged and agreed upon by both partners. 22

But this not being the case, Mr. Darcy took advantage of his appeal to women and probably hurt many of them in his attempt to feed his sexual desires. Secondly, it also shows that Elizabeth does not care about gender equality in general when she not only ignores Mr. Darcy‟s wrongdoings to other women, but she actually rejoices in it as long as it ensures Mr. Darcy‟s regard for her: “„You put yourself at risk . . . just because you were jealous of a woman in a picture that‟s at least ten years old? And whose name and face I don‟t even remember?‟” (Benneton 268). This quote suggests that if Mr. Darcy had had a loving relationship in the past that actually did not work out and if he had really cared about the woman in the picture, it would be worse than using her only for sex. Benneton draws a classic distinction between sex used for fulfilling sexual needs and sex representing a culmination of the romantic relationship of deeply loving couple.

The first form of sex is restricted only to men and should be understood and pardoned by the society and the future spouse. In this form of sexual relationship, the female counterpart is not taken into account and is actually being slut-shamed in between the lines. In Mr. Darcy‟s case, his previous partners are accused of being adventurers and thus it served them right to be used for sex and then abandoned. The second form of sex is saved only for the hero and the heroine, and after it takes place, neither of them can ever have another sexual partner, as the intercourse is now seen as a sacred act sealing the loving relationship. This double standard perfectly copies the romance formula:

. . . the heroine's innocence is often contrasted explicitly with the hero‟s previous

promiscuity, behavior that is made tolerable to both the heroine and the reader

because it is always attributed to his lack of love for his sexual partners. His

exclusive preoccupation with them as tools for achieving sexual release is never

blamed on his callousness or lack of respect for women, but rather on his virility

and his fear of emotional involvement with calculating women. This 23

rationalization conveniently transforms his sexual promiscuity from an arrogant

proclamation of his adherence to the double standard to a sign representing an

absence, that is, of the nonpresence of love. (Radway 130)

Benneton could give Elizabeth the same sexual freedom as she gave to Mr. Darcy. It is nothing unusual in today‟s Euro-American society, as proven by the genre of chick lit that will be discussed in the next chapter. But because she did not do it, she continues in the anti-feminist tradition of romance authors presenting the reader with unequal relationships where women are, to some point, degraded and their sexual freedom is highly restricted.

Another function that is not preserved in Benneton‟s narrative is the moment when the hero punishes the heroine. As in P&P, Mr. Darcy‟s masculinity is not shown by violent behaviour to the heroine. The only moment when Mr. Darcy is being mildly aggressive is when he first meets Elizabeth and accuses her of neglecting her duties as a doctor. But Elizabeth is not afraid of his “intimidating CEO voice”, she even strikes back with a rude command: „“I don‟t have time to deal with obnoxious British pricks.

Get yourself up and out of my operating room”‟ (Benneton 7). Elizabeth is thus introduced as a fearless woman who does not hesitate to stand her ground and who can deal with any attempt to intimidate her. The fact that she escaped her rapist is another proof that she can take care of herself and there is no danger of any man hurting her physically. In addition, this scene also reveals an important part of Mr. Darcy‟s character. Unlike Austen‟s Mr. Darcy, this one is not shy or very introverted. As a successful CEO, he is used to getting his way and he is deliberately frightening people around to get what he wants, instead of politely communicating his demands. Because

Elizabeth is not afraid of him, she does not see this part of his personality as a problem, but in general this could be seen as a considerable flaw of Mr. Darcy‟s character. Once 24

again, Elizabeth is willing to overlook Mr. Darcy‟s problematic behaviour as long as she profits from it. Although Mr. Darcy is not violent towards the heroine and his character is closer to Austen‟s Mr. Darcy than to the hero of the typical romance, still he sometimes behaves in a way that is quite similar to the romance alpha male‟s violence and dominance.

With the narrative functions being very similar to the ones of the classic romance, the other narrative strategies have to be examined to see to what extend

Compulsively Mr. Darcy offers more than just a romantic story. Following the guidelines set in the previous chapter, the language and the style of narration will be examined. Benneton sometimes uses free indirect discourse, but she tends to be more descriptive than Austen. The narrator oscillates between Elizabeth‟s and Mr. Darcy‟s point of view, making Elizabeth the principal character and occasionally describes other characters‟ feelings and thoughts. Benneton focuses on physical descriptions of her characters, another strategy often employed by romance novelists. There are several scenes where Mr. Darcy observes Elizabeth, who is unaware of his gaze, and he concentrates on her appearance:

Framed by dark wavy hair, the long strands barely contained by the tie at the

back, her perfect, oval-shape face showed smooth, flawless skin, a straight

impertinent nose, and a heart-shaped pair of pink, tantalizingly full lips . . . His

eyes tracked her full, undulating hips walking away from him, his senses stirred

and shaken. (Benneton 49-50)

The physical descriptions are not limited to the hero and heroine, as will be shown later by the description of Anne de Bourgh‟s masculine looks. The descriptive language detracts the space for other linguistic instruments that could make the narration more layered and challenging for the reader. 25

Instead of using irony, Benneton usually lets the characters, primarily Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, misunderstand each other, which leads to funny situations.

Misunderstanding each other is actually the most typical trait of Elizabeth and Mr.

Darcy‟s relationship. This amusement is, however, short lived, as it is often at variance with other, very serious, parts of the story. There is, on the one hand, Elizabeth‟s silly conviction that Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley are a homosexual couple, and, on the other hand, Anne Darcy‟s miscarriage and death, and death of Lady de Bourgh at the court when being judged for dealing with child pornography. If Benneton stuck with the light tone throughout the whole book, it might make the story and the characters more believable. However because the discrepancy between the light and serious parts and events of the story is so marked, it is difficult to see other layers in the story and read it as a social critique.

Another way of offering more than just a love story is layering the narrative and providing the reader with background stories and strong and believable minor characters. Benneton borrows an array of secondary characters from P&P and gives them new characteristics and roles in the story. Since the narrative highly centres on

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, the secondary characters do not have enough space to provide another layer of the story. The greatest depth is given to Mary Bennet and Richard

Fitzwilliam, who function as sidekicks to Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. They appear in the story often enough to have their own distinctive voices, which are very different from those Jane Austen gave them in P&P. They even have their own romance, but it is only commented upon in a few sentences and it is thus left to readers‟ imagination:

“And your sister Mary and Richard? Are they progressing?”

“Now that‟s a relationship I‟m not even going to comment on.” Elizabeth shook

her head, bemused. “Who‟d ever have thought – ” (Benneton 340) 26

This is all the readers will ever know about the surprising relationship between Mary and Richard, that started by Mary literally almost killing Richard for trying to contact

Elizabeth. Jane and Mr. Bingley have even less space to function on. Their roles as

Elizabeth‟s and Mr. Darcy‟s counterparts are omitted, their relationship establishes long after Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy marry, and it is also only hinted at to the reader. Even

Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, who have quite an important role in P&P as the sensible complements of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, marrying solely for practical reasons, only flit in the narrative and their relationship is not ruminated on. It is

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy‟s relationship that is the centre of the narrative and keeps the other relationships going. The story thus loses some of its variety where different characters and life choices are contrasted. This is yet another effect of the individualistic approach to the story trying to closely observe the dynamics of a relationship of two very different individuals that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy certainly are. This deprivation of the narrative is not balanced by deeper psychological profiles of the hero or the heroine; rather it is complemented by the descriptive parts of the narrative. The language and the simplification of the plot places Compulsively Mr. Darcy closer to the romance novel formula than to the colourful narrative of P&P, being deprived of the social critique and the variability of minor characters.

To conclude, Compulsively Mr. Darcy offers some additions to the romance formula, as does P&P, for example by presenting a non-violent hero or an independent and socially respected heroine. But other features of the narrative resemble more the romance novel formula than the complex narrative of Austen‟s most popular novel.

What is missing is the ironical narrator and well-developed minor characters with their alternative life views. In general, the romance tag is more fitting than it is in case of

P&P. 27

2.3.2 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – Representation of Women

As mentioned earlier, representation of women in Compulsively Mr. Darcy is quite problematic. On the one hand, there is Elizabeth Bennet being shown as a completely capable young woman, financially independent, and a respected professional in her field. Also Elizabeth‟s sisters and Georgiana Darcy are all shown as intelligent and talented, each of them having an endearing flaw that makes them even more attractive to men. On the other hand, there are Caroline Bingley and Anne de Bourgh, who are presented in a very different light. Caroline is, faithful to her model from P&P, focused mainly on ornamental accomplishments and superficial knowledge: “„Please,

Charles, didn‟t you see that Crouching Tiger movie? Asians are born with good balance. I always educate myself about the countries we visit. It‟s helpful to have a vast cultural knowledge of the world”‟ (2). In front of Mr. Darcy, she indirectly calls

Elizabeth a “long-haired, dirty hippie” (42), while she herself tries to look as attractive as possible. Her reasons for trying to befriend Mr. Darcy are clearly stated: “There were nine reasons why [Bingley‟s] sister always wanted the man: the row of nine zeros after the first digit in Darcy‟s bank account” (Benneton 24). That she is not after a particular man but after money is later proved by her marrying a rich and successful homosexual plastic surgeon. Because she is not able to act accordingly to Mr. Darcy‟s character and bores him with fashion and baby clothes, and because she does not see that her husband is homosexual, she appears extremely silly and cannot be taken seriously as Elizabeth‟s opponent. If Caroline Bingley in P&P was mischievous, superficial and unpleasant, all these qualities are intensified in her modern reincarnation and thus she seems more a caricature than a counterpart for Elizabeth, fitting the part of an abstract foil described by Radway (131).

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Anne de Bourgh, a minor character in P&P, has a very different role in

Compulsively Mr. Darcy – she is one of the proclaimed villains of the story. Alongside her step-mother, Catherine de Bourgh, and George Wickham, she is plotting to get married to Mr. Darcy and get a substantial share in his company. Unlike Caroline

Bingley, Anne is clever and capable, but she is described as quite unsightly with masculine features:

Catherine glanced across the table and swallowed a disappointed sigh. Time to

gently remind Anne to make an appointment to get her mustache waxed and to

trim those few hairs from that mole by her nose. Her eyes swept lower. Some

work on that flat bosom wouldn‟t hurt, either . . . Anne‟s chin jutted out,

highlighting her manly jaw and the loose folds of her neck. (Benneton 80-1)

Later in the story, Richard sees Anne‟s pornographic pictures and he is so disturbed by the sight that he vomits. The fact that the most malicious female character is also the ugliest one is disturbing, going back to the nineteenth century fascination with physiognomy. The notion that the person‟s character is revealing itself in the person‟s features has no scientific foundation and thus it is surprising that physiognomical principle is used in the twenty-first century romantic novel. Anne is being objectified both by men around her as well as by her own step-mother and it is partly her bad looks that makes her unpopular and thus revengeful. She also lacks important social skills, not being able to make friends or to communicate with men. The fact that even Georgiana

Darcy feels uncomfortably in her presence should show how rotten a character Anne is, even though Mr. Darcy tries to see the good in her until the very end. Surprisingly, he is the only one who tries to look under the unpleasant surface and who appreciates her abilities as a loyal and efficient employee. But when her cooperation with Wickham is revealed, Mr. Darcy discovers her true character and happily reprobates her. 29

It seems that as opposed to the “good girls” in the story, who are practically perfect, the “bad girls” suffer from serious deficiencies in character, social skills and looks and with these defects they do not deserve their happy ending. Only the girls who are pretty, clever, and successful get their chance to find love. This view is very biased and completely anti-feminist, as it does not allow for ordinary or flawed women to have their own story. Each woman is marked either as good and has a positive life story, or as bad and has a negative life story. Benneton does not create any ambiguous characters such as Lydia, Charlotte or Mary, who would differ from the heroine, but still had their own chance to lead a more or less contended, even if compromised, life.

The last problem regarding the seemingly feminist stance the whole novel adopts is the earlier mentioned double standards for men and women. Male sexuality is judged benevolently, as shown by Mr. Darcy‟s sexcapades. None of the major female characters, on the other hand, has any sexual experience that would not be redeemed by trauma. It is not only Elizabeth suffering the attempted rape, but also her sister Jane, who experienced an abusive relationship Georgiana also has a negative experience – even though she saved her virginity, she got blackmailed for her provocative pictures made while dating George Wickham. Each of these women experienced some kind of relationship with a man who was not the right one and instead of leaving the relationship before it could hurt them, they had to suffer a traumatic experience to move on. It seems as if they are being punished for being involved with men who were not destined for them, as none of them has any other experience than the traumatic one.

Benneton does not admit the possibility that a relationship can be happy for a long time and that the partners can just grow apart and break up because of that. The only reason for leaving a relationship is a traumatic experience; otherwise it has to be maintained.

Another example of an unnecessarily stigmatised woman is Caroline Bingley, who is 30

assumedly asexual: “„She is frigid. That‟s why I‟m marrying her. She‟ll be happy for me to leave her alone,‟ Hussein said” (239). The last woman in some kind of relationship is Chau Luc, the Vietnamese reincarnation of Charlotte Lucas, marrying

Bill Collins for merely practical reasons. As a woman from strict Vietnamese community still living under the protection of her family, she is probably also sexually inexperienced. It seems as if Benneton castrated all the major female characters, unless they are in a loving relationship with the right kind of man. Moreover, if a woman does date a man who she is not in love with, she is being in the position of Mr. Darcy‟s flings: “„I mentioned to Elizabeth about going out with one of your old flames. What‟s her name now? She left me a nasty note‟” (Benneton 223). Such woman is not to be pitied or considered a partner in serious relationship, as shown by Richard‟s behaviour to Helena, one of Mr. Darcy‟s ex-girlfriend. He asks her out only because he knows she would not oppose to sex on the first date, but he does not consider starting relationship with her and he does not even remember her name. Only at the very end, Mr. Darcy acknowledges that he used his previous girlfriends wrong:

How could he admit to [Elizabeth] that he had used other women, used their

fascination with his looks, his wealth, and his position to take advantage of the

brief moments in their bodies, never caring how they really felt about him or

how he had felt about them? (Benneton 252-3)

He also says he would not blame Elizabeth for being with other men after their break- up. His understanding moderates the double standards presented earlier in the book and presents a new, freer view on female sexuality, but this option is not further explored by any of the female characters.

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These examples show that even though Benneton‟s female characters to some extent represent modern independent women, still they are burdened with double standards and cannot explore their sexuality freely.

2.3.3 Compulsively Mr. Darcy – Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

Despite its claim to be a modern retelling of P&P, the story of Compulsively Mr.

Darcy is very different from Austen‟s classic. Featuring eponymous characters, Nina

Benneton twists their mentality, characteristics, motivations and behaviour. This difference is most visible in the relationship of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, which is the centre of Benneton‟s narrative. What Benneton preserved are the contrastive natures of

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and the extrovert – introvert dynamics is, to a degree, still present in the narrative. But more distinctive characteristics are shaping the story – not only character types, but also mental illnesses and specific character traits are in play.

As stated in the name of the novel, Mr. Darcy suffers from OCD – obsessive- compulsive disorder. Using this particular mental disorder should probably reflect the amount of responsibility Mr. Darcy has to face in P&P – losing his parents in his early age, taking care of his sister Georgiana, dealing with George Wickham and managing the Pemberley estate. As OCD can be set off by stressful events, there is a possibility of

Mr. Darcy having this kind of mental condition if he were predisposed to it. In Jane

Austen‟s times, this condition was not yet recognised, being referred by several different names with different symptoms and treated either by the local physicians or, in the more severe cases, in the mental asylums (The Growth of Asylums). The only possible proof that Mr. Darcy really suffers from OCD are his ideas that it is him who is responsible for Lydia’s elopement with George Wickham. Other than that, Mr. Darcy in

P&P does not show any symptoms of OCD, but while modernising the characters to the

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present times, when such mental conditions are not tabooed and are often diagnosed, it definitely is a believable extension of the original character.

Benneton uses this condition for several purposes. First of them is to provide entertainment - for example when comparing Mr. Darcy‟s need to control everything and act premeditatedly with Mr. Bingley‟s carelessness caused by another mental illness

– hyperactivity: “Behind closed eyelids, Darcy‟s eyes attempted a roll. He hoped the bouncy Tigger next to him had remembered to take his daily Ritalin. He didn‟t feel up to dealing with an impulsive Bingley” (Benneton 3). Mr. Darcy‟s condition is clearly stated at the very beginning and it is used as an explanation for his domineering and rude behaviour. But unlike in P&P, the misunderstanding between the hero and the heroine caused by Mr. Darcy‟s behaviour does not last for long. After their first meeting in the hospital, when Elizabeth disregards Mr. Darcy‟s rudeness, they meet anew and are immediately attracted to each other. Before acknowledging their attraction and professing love to each other, which happens in the first third of the novel, they are good friends and spend a lot of time together, being comfortable in each other‟s company. This gives their relationship completely new dynamics and the author invents different ways of keeping the tension between them. This tension is, partly, based on

Mr. Darcy‟s mental illness, because the second function of Mr. Darcy‟s OCD is to provide an obstacle in his relationship with Elizabeth.

The obstacle is not, surprisingly, Elizabeth being uncomfortable with his condition. On the contrary, once she learns about it, she accepts it as it is and supports

Mr. Darcy in keeping his compulsive rituals as long as they help him to feel safe. The function of the condition as an obstacle is different – Mr. Darcy is conscious of his behaviour being unusual and potentially harmful for him or his partner and he supposes no woman could possibly want a man with such a diagnosis. Despite Elizabeth‟s 33

unconditional understanding and support, he does not believe she could accept his condition for good: “„. . . she realized I was a liability, excess baggage‟” (Benneton

219). The OCD lowers Mr. Darcy‟s self-assuredness and instead of trying to communicate with Elizabeth about the cause of their break-up, he readily ascribes it to his mental condition and general worthlessness.

Even though Elizabeth is also slightly mentally affected by the attempted sexual assault, her anxiety about men is only mentioned as a reason for dating latent homosexuals; it is not present in her relationship with Mr. Darcy. What is the major obstacle from Elizabeth‟s side in the relationship is an intensified trait inherited from her literary predecessor from P&P – the temptation to jump to conclusions without thinking the situation over. In P&P, this tendency is caused by Elizabeth’s prejudice against Mr. Darcy and is not applied elsewhere. With the heroine of Compulsively Mr.

Darcy, the case is more serious. She repeatedly forms her own conclusions without trying to objectively see the situation or discuss it with the people involved, this mainly being Mr. Darcy. Her false surmises are constantly complicating the relationship – first, it is her belief that Mr. Darcy is homosexual, later, that he is unemployed and in the end, that he is engaged to another woman. She always acts according to her conclusions and tries to do what she thinks is the best in the situation and, usually, what she thinks is the best for Mr. Darcy without discussing it. Partly, Elizabeth shows symptoms of Messiah complex, trying to save and protect Mr. Darcy whatever it takes. Her actions end up in completely reversing the masculine and feminine roles in the relationship – she plans to be the breadwinner, earning enough money for both of them, enabling for Mr. Darcy to follow his passion in working with art. Her decision to leave the volunteering job she loves and to immediately move to the place where her partner lives is another consequence of her impulsive nature. Instead of showing her independence, she 34

subordinates all the new possibilities she has in addition to what Elizabeth has in

Regency Era to the happiness and comfort of her partner. And it is miscommunication and her impulsiveness that drives her once again to leave Mr. Darcy and work as a volunteer again. Instead of confronting Mr. Darcy with her fears and insecurities, she runs away from him and does not even give him a chance to speak for himself. In P&P, the act of communicating even the unpleasant opinions about each other and risking refusal is the cornerstone of Elizabeth’s and Mr. Darcy’s relationship. In Compulsively

Mr. Darcy, the inability to communicate successfully is the main dynamics of the relationship and only when Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy see the pattern in their behaviour and realize how damaging it is, they can finally start to have a satisfying relationship.

2.4 Conclusion

P&P and Compulsively Mr. Darcy seemingly tell the same story, but after a careful examination of both novels, it is clear that there are as many differences as similarities. Both novels are considered by the general readership to be, to some degree, a part of the romance genre. This assumption is not unfounded, as they share a great number of narrative functions with the romance formula as it was established by Janice

A. Radway according to Vladimir Propp‟s functional analysis. However, there are some significant differences between these novels and the traditional romance narrative.

Firstly, the social position of the heroine is not destroyed and she does not need to be saved and protected by a man. Elizabeth in P&P eventually needs to marry to provide for herself and for her sisters, but she is not yet considered a spinster and her social position is still favourable. The modern Elizabeth Bennet is a completely independent woman with a stable social position, but it is her sexuality that is damaged and needs to be saved. This represents an interesting twist of the classic function of the romance

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formula. Another difference is that neither hero is being violent towards the heroine or other women. Both Mr. Darcys show some degree of inconsiderable behaviour, but they never intentionally hurt anyone, unlike the machistic heroes of the romance novels they are being likened to.

The narrative style of the discussed novels is not the same. They both use free indirect discourse, but P&P employs this narrative tool in greater extent and enables it to ironise the narrative and employ the society as one of the voices in it. Compulsively

Mr. Darcy is written in a more descriptive tone, drawing the narrative closer to the romance conventions. The number and sophistication of minor characters also differ, with P&P introducing more secondary characters with distinctive voices and independent back stories. The secondary characters from Compulsively Mr. Darcy are overshadowed by the individualistic romance of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, which is being described in significant detail.

The representation of women is more balanced in P&P, with even unimportant and flawed female characters having their right to lead a decent life. Compulsively Mr.

Darcy offers seemingly developed female characters represented mainly by skilled and independent Elizabeth Bennet, but after closer examination the possibilities for female characters are limited. Those who do not fit the pattern of a positive character are mortified and denied their share of contentedness. The female characters are also subject of double standards and sexual restrictions unnecessary in the contemporary novel.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy share some similar features, but their relationship is powered by different dynamics. In P&P, the main obstacle of their happiness is Mr.

Darcy’s introversion which is not understood by Elizabeth and which leads to

Elizabeth’s wounded pride. Only by communicating with each other they are able to 36

understand their natures and correct their behaviour. Their modern counterparts do not have such strongly contrasting personalities and they like each other from the very beginning. The motor of their relationship is different, as they suffer from common miscommunications and are not able to confront their insecurities about each other, caused partly by their mental problems. Only when they learn to overcome their fear of honest conversation and addressing problematic issues, they are able to have a satisfying relationship.

To conclude, P&P and its modern rewriting, Compulsively Mr. Darcy, do use the same characters, but they do not tell the same story, because they do not use the same means of narration and they present a very different picture of women and relationship. Even though Jane Austen‟s classic is almost two hundred years older than

Nina Benneton‟s modern take, it, within the limits given by the social climate of her time, provides a more favourable and unbiased depiction of women and equal relationship. When compared with the other discussed novels, Compulsively Mr. Darcy is an example of partly anti-feminist text because of its strong inclination to the romance formula. It proves how rooted the trivialisation of the plot of P&P is in the literary spheres and that even some of Austen‟s followers use only superficial parts of the narrative to present their own version of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy‟s love story.

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3 The Cult

3.1 Introduction

During the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century there has been a dramatic rise of Austen-inspired novels, many of them using the conventions of a relatively new genre of chick lit. One of the first novels in this genre, Bridget Jones’s

Diary, was admittedly inspired by Pride and Prejudice and this trend has survived until nowadays. It seems that a new genre of Austen-inspired spin-offs with its own conventions and rules emerges now, inspired partly by chick lit, partly by romance, and using certain features of Jane Austen‟s writing.

In the third chapter, two instances of this new genre will be analysed. They both share many similar features – they employ the same type of the heroine, use the same settings and can, to a certain extent, provide an outline for the conventions of a modern

Austen-inspired spin-off. However as the narrative analysis will show, there are differences both in the formal aspects of the novel and in the topics and issues they deal with. In Me and Mr. Darcy, the key problem is the fight against objectification, laid out in a layered first-person narrative. Shannon Hale in Austenland presents a narrative very similar to P&P in tone, but deals with different obstacles that the contemporary women have to face, the most arduous being the change in the social conception of romantic relationships and marriage.

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3.2 Me and Mr. Darcy

3.2.1 Me and Mr. Darcy – The Narrative

Similarly As a romance novel, the chick lit novel also has some kind of outline that it follows. This outline is, however, focused more on the stylization of the heroine and background of the story than on specific narrative functions as is the case in romances. Me and Mr. Darcy definitely fits some of the chick lit criteria, as described by Stephanie Harzewski in her publication Chick Lit and Postfeminism:

. . . a characteristic chick lit novel features a first-person narrative of a twenty- or

thirtysomething, white, middle- or upper-middle-class, never-married, childless,

Anglo or American, urban, college educated, heterosexual career woman

engaged in a seriocomic romantic quest or dating spree. (29)

The heroine of Me and Mr. Darcy, Emily Albright, fits this description quite closely. In this respect chick lit represents a turn from the classic romance formula, which is partly its predecessor, when employing an independent heroine who is able to take care of herself. But, as in the romance, the ultimate quest of a chick lit novel, and the Austen- inspired subgenre in particular, is finding the right partner. As Potter paraphrases

Austen in her first sentence of Me and Mr. Darcy: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single girl in possession of her right mind must be in a want of a decent man” (1). It is apparent that the heroine of chick lit, as represented by Emily, can function by herself and live quite a content life without a man, but still she acknowledges the need to find a suitable partner. The word “decent” is quite important here, as it shows a new trend – the heroine does not want a partner for the sake of having one, she wants a man she can respect and who fulfils a set of criteria she has, often unconsciously, set. If she cannot have that partner, she will rather stay single than 39

share her life with a man not fitting her requirements: “Don‟t get me wrong. I‟m not

Renée Zellweger2. I don‟t need a man to complete me. I have a career, I pay my own rent, I have a set of power tools and I know how to use them. And as far as for the other thing, well, that‟s what battery-operated toys were invented for” (Potter 2). Emily wants a man to fulfil her emotional need for a partner and this need cannot be fulfilled by just anyone. In the novels of Austen successors, the requirements for the right partner are usually influenced by the most beloved of all Austen‟s heroes, Mr. Darcy. Emily wants:

“A dark, handsome, faithful man, with impeccable manners, brooding good looks, witty conversation and one of those big, broad, manly chests you can rest your head upon . .

.” (2). From this description it is clear that Emily‟s demands for her partner are of rather a superficial nature, focusing mostly on looks. This view of Mr. Darcy is in all probability shaped by 1995 BBC adaptation of P&P where Mr. Darcy is portrayed by

Colin Firth. This adaptation focuses very much on Mr. Darcy’s character, adding new scenes where his body and face are at the centre of attention of the camera. It accentuates his gaze as a means of communication with Elizabeth. Firth‟s portrayal of

Mr. Darcy also emphasizes his grumpiness and proud apparel, unlike the 2005 version by Joe Wright that shows a rather shy version of Mr. Darcy. Emily adopts this visual take on Mr. Darcy and does not try to see his other, more important qualities and she does not try to imagine Mr. Darcy’s behaviour adapted by men of 21st century.

Emily‟s unwillingness to reinterpret Mr. Darcy for herself and to seek for his modern equivalent rather than for his identical twin leads to an inevitable dissatisfaction with her love life. She says that: “To be honest, I blame Mr Darcy” (1) and she is not

2 Rennée Zellweger portrayed aforementioned Bridget Jones in the filmic adaptation of the novel.

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the only one to blame him. Novels such as Jane Austen Ruined My Life or Mr. Darcy

Broke My Heart by Beth Pattilo also show that when focusing too much on a resemblance between a man and a literary hero, woman‟s love life can be destroyed.

This trend of blaming some men for being too perfect and causing unrealistic expectations appears even in real life, as proved by a vastly popular Facebook page called “I blame Tom Hiddleston for my high standards on men”, with Tom Hiddleston being a talented, good looking young actor who is also known to be a skilled musician, a polyglot, and a charity promoter with a major in classic literature from Cambridge.

There are currently 175 000of women blaming Mr. Hiddleston for being unbeatable.

Focusing on one successful individual whom a woman does not know in person leads to idealisation and later not only to setting the standards for other man too high but to dissatisfaction with anything else than the idealised man. The question of expectations, high standards and one-sided view of literary characters is one of the most important issues in Austen-inspired chick lit. It is the core one in Me and Mr. Darcy, and one of the features that distinguish it from the classic romance or chick lit formula.

Another important difference between Me and Mr. Darcy and the romance formula and number of chick lit novels is that the hero, Spike Hargreaves, is by no means a socially superior or aristocratic male. Mr. Darcy is, without a doubt, socially and financially superior to Elizabeth Bennet and this difference is one of the sources of conflict between them. Mr. Darcy, the compulsive CEO, is also superior to Elizabeth

Bennet in terms of finances and social circles, albeit he is not an aristocrat as such. In chick lit, “men are not really valued as individuals as much as a means to lifestyle, wedding or in some cases a beauty boost” (Harzewski 33). Spike is, on the other hand, in roughly the same social and financial position as Emily, he being a journalist and she being a bookshop manager. Their relationship does not bring Emily any material or 41

social profit. But still there is a difference between them that gives Spike a slight resemblance to an aristocrat – he is British while Emily is American. Potter is using this nationality issue as a partly mocking way to provide an equivalent for Mr. Darcy’s pride of his aristocratic origin: “„I‟ve even managed to overlook the fact that you‟re an

American . . . I always swore I could never go out with an American – you know I always had this thing about French girls . . .‟” (Potter 229). Being from different countries gives Emily and Spike a slightly diverse cultural backgrounds, but because they are both humanistic members of middle-class, this distinction is not important in the end. If Emily were to marry Spike, which is not stated in the novel, she would not follow him to Great Britain because of her business and thus she would not even get

British nationality, which might be perceived as some kind of equivalent of marrying into aristocratic circles. So far Emily and Spike represent the most balanced couple, when considering their social and financial status.

The last deviation Me and Mr. Darcy represents from the general chick lit formula is that Emily is by no means a typical consumer of designer goods. The

“postfeminist issue of whether a woman can be sexy and taken seriously at the same time” (qtd. in Jones 68) is not an issue at all. Emily is aware of her looks and she is slightly dissatisfied with them, but she does not pay them much attention. Her relaxed attitude to her appearance and clothes is contrasted with her friend Stella, who seems to fit the fashionista chick lit heroine profile considerably better. The heroines in Austen- inspired chick lit have another obsession, being it Jane Austen and her work in general or only P&P. Some heroines do not even bother reading the novels and skip to admiring the 1995 BBC adaptation only. Emily is part of the first category, loving the novels by

Jane Austen and literature in general. As Carrie Bradshaw, a heroine from popular chick lit Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell, cannot do without her Manolo Blahnik 42

stilettos, Emily cannot do without having a good book at hand. The Austen obsession gives Emily, and other Austen-inspired chick lit heroines, an air of an intelligent and well-read person that is probably meant to contrast with the chick lit heroines‟ superficial interest in designer goods and body image. By using the P&P narrative throughout the whole novel, Potter manages to make Emily‟s Austen obsession more than a shallow characteristics. Emily interprets the characters and situations in P&P throughout the whole novel and thus shows the effects of misinterpretation and reinterpretation of Austen‟s work in daily life.

Apart from some of the general characteristics, Me and Mr. Darcy uses the typical narrative style of chick lit – the first person narration which gives the novel a very personal feeling. The omniscient narrator, who in P&P often represents Elizabeth‟s views and ideas, is now admittedly the voice of the heroine. The first-person narration offers a unique opportunity to see the heroine‟s ideas in the making, to observe her views changing throughout the narrative and how she comments on the change herself.

Unlike Jane Austen, Potter uses very informal language, but manages to be ironical too:

“Emily, quit panicking. It‟s a bookstore. What kind of emergency is there going to be, for Godsakes? You run out of copies of He’s Just Not That Into You?” (Potter 142).

Emily does not hesitate to comment sharply on her foolishness and point out her own flaws, as the flaws of the people around her. Potter employs physical description of her characters, but unlike Benneton, who uses them to affirm the exceptionality of the hero and the heroine, she does that to show how Emily‟s perception of physicality changes, which is one of the eminent topics of the novel. Even though sex is being mentioned quite often, there are no explicit scenes of sexual nature, leaving more space for dialogues and describing the dynamics between the principal characters.

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The last topic associated with the narrative that needs to be mentioned is the way how Potter treats her minor characters and their back stories. In this regard, Me and Mr.

Darcy is closer to P&P than to Compulsively Mr. Darcy, as it presents well written minor characters, whose stories are pursued throughout the novel. It actually, to a certain degree, copies the narrative structure of P&P not only in the way the hero and the heroine are getting together, but also in the way how their relationship is treated – as a side effect of the stories of others. It is while pursuing the story of Maeve, a minor character, when Emily gets into conflict with Spike and they unite only after all other storylines come to an end. Because of the first person narration, the side stories still do not have as much space as they do in P&P, but they consistently shape Emily‟s life views and provide her with invaluable impulses for changing her life.

In conclusion, Me and Mr. Darcy represents an interesting blend of a chick lit narrative using certain features from P&P and a new, distinctive genre of Austen- inspired fiction. In representation of the main couple, it is quite far from the common romance formula and it shows a socially balanced relationship of the hero and the heroine. It changes the chick lit heroines‟ obsession with designer goods for obsession with Jane Austen, which provides a new sphere for layering the narrative. While using the first-person narration typical for chick lit, it manages to provide a diverse narrative with significant minor characters and their own stories shaping the heroine‟s character.

3.2.2 Me and Mr. Darcy – The Representation of Women

In Me and Mr. Darcy, women play a key role, not only because the narrator herself is a woman, but because most of the minor characters are female, too, representing a generation different from the heroine. Romances and chick lit usually focus solely on the story of the heroine and possibly on some of her friends in her age.

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But in Me and Mr. Darcy, there is not only Emily and Stella, in their late twenties, but also Emily‟s new friends from the Austen tour, who are in their fifties and older. This great age span provides a unique opportunity not only to show the lives of women in their prime, but to show that elderly women can also live to the full, have careers and even experience love.

Following the fate of Maeve, an elderly Irish spinster, Potter provides the reader with a new story of Lydia Bennet. Probably in late 1950s or early 1960s in Ireland,

Maeve gives birth to an illegitimate child and is forced by her brother, who acts as her guardian, to give her child up. Maeve is scared by this event and Emily meets her as a shy and fearful woman. The strictly moral patriarchal society, which the strongly

Catholic Ireland was in the time of Maeve‟s young days, has the power to ostracise any woman who is not careful enough to protect her virtue. By placing this event into the past, Potter makes the heroine fully appreciate that the patriarchy is no longer in power over women‟s decisions: “Times have changed. Being unmarried and pregnant is no big deal. It‟s practically the norm these days. How sad to think that something that would barely raise an eyebrow today had such a devastating effect upon her” (Potter 172).

Maeve is punished for her seeming wrongdoing before the start of the novel and to confirm that no punishment of erring women is in place. Her stigma is removed when she meets her adult daughter who is happy to meet her real mother. What more, her spinsterhood, unlike in Austen times, does not make her an object of pity or scorn and the others actually do not care about her marital status. For Emily, she is not being an object of pity, but an object of sympathy and later of inspiration to consolidate her own relationship with her parents. And even in her elderly age, Maeve is given the opportunity to step out of her role as a spinster and come to the verge of a love affair, which would be unthinkable in Austen‟s time and probably also in the universe of 45

Compulsively Mr. Darcy, where the only characters experiencing some kind of love relationship are in their twenties. With Maeve, Potter declares her belief that it does not matter how old a woman is or what she experienced, she always has a chance to love and be loved and she can decide for herself in issues that concern her.

Potter‟s favourable image of elderly women does not finish with the matters of love. An important part of Emily‟s experience in the novel is rebuilding her view of older women. By this, she is, in fact, contradicting Austen herself, who, according to

Victoria Owens, does not ever “show a woman who is at once old, virtuous and wise”.

With her numerous minor female characters, Potter represents a set of confident and capable older women who actually surpass the heroine with their life experience and who advise her. Emily is a product of her age that with its cult of youth and beauty pushes the elderly to the margins of the society. Elderly women in particular are in a problematic position, as there are two contradicting forces pushing on them – one that demands them to remain attractive as long as possible, using plastic surgery and anti- aging cosmetic products; and the other that ridicules any attempt of elderly woman to look younger than she is, asking her to age gracefully. None of this pressure is present in Me and Mr. Darcy and Maeve‟s ordinariness is taken as matter-of-factly as fussiness of Rose, another elderly female character. Emily, first surprised by the activity and appearance of her new friends, soon accepts them as they are, adapting her view of the possibilities and restrictions of elderly age.

Emily and her friend Stella are also pictured in positive light and both of them prove that women have their right to do whatever they want without being judged.

Emily and Stella are quite contrastive characters – Emily is a nerdy book lover who does not care much about her appearance; Stella, on the other hand, is an enthusiastic fashion lover who does not pursue intellectual aims. Stella‟s description is quite similar 46

to the description of Caroline Bingley from Compulsively Mr. Darcy, but the fact that she is not interested in highbrow matters is not a reason to contempt her. Both hers and

Emily‟s life choices are seen as equal and the author does not privilege one over the other. Even their approaches to men differ, with Emily being more restrained and picky and Stella enjoying various romantic adventures – neither approach is being disfavoured. Despite both of them having a stable monogamous relationship in the end, none of them is punished in any way for having more consequent sexual partners. There are no double standards imposed on men and women – women in Me and Mr. Darcy are as free in enjoying sex and talking about it as men are. What more, the constitution of marriage is challenged by Stella, who married a friend in need of a green card, enjoys sexual freedom after setting the rules for her marriage of convenience. Only when she finds she is actually in love with her husband and they decide to take their marriage seriously, she commits to monogamy that is traditionally connected with the married state. Potter shows that no social constructs have place in the relationship between man and woman and it is only them who set the rules. Both men and women have the same right to enter whatever kind of relationship they wish to, without being judged by the society, as long as they do not harm anyone by their behaviour. But when they do intentionally harm their partner, the disdain is the greater, as shown in the case of Ernie, an elderly marriage imposter, who is a double of Wickham from P&P.

Me and Mr. Darcy offers the reader a very balanced and positive representation of women. There are no double standards imposed on anyone and the key for judging a person is solely their behaviour to others, not their past, age or gender. With carefully elaborated characters, Potter shows how women can overcome various obstacles in their lives. She gives them the power to decide for themselves and the same opportunities as

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are given to men. There are no sexual taboos concerning women and they can enjoy the same sexual freedom as men, provided the terms of the relationship are made clear.

3.2.3 Me and Mr. Darcy – Emily, Mr. Darcy and Spike

In Me and Mr. Darcy, the reader is not presented only with the main couple, but with a kind of a love triangle with Emily being desired by both the hero Spike and Mr.

Darcy who appears in the story as a relic from the past, half a real person, half fantasy.

This triangle enables a constant comparison between the two men and Emily‟s changing relationship to them is the dynamics of the whole novel. Only in comparison with Mr.

Darcy‟s behaviour she can see Spike‟s qualities and realize what she really wants in her partner. Spike is experiencing the same process, but the first-person narration disables the reader to see how his opinions are changing. In the end, both Emily and Spike have to abandon their shallow demands of a partner, focus on the partner‟s behaviour and with refusing superficial partners they also have to refuse superficial relationships.

As mentioned earlier, Emily‟s view on Austen‟s original character of Mr. Darcy is very much influenced by visual media and Colin Firth‟s representation of the character. In her essay, Marina López ascribes to Emily the power of the gaze and demonstrates it with her encounters with Spike. But Emily, from the beginning, possesses the “gaze [that] projects its phantasy on to the [male] figure which is styled accordingly” (837) and for her “looking is a pleasure . . . and [her] sexual satisfaction

[comes] from watching” (Mulvey 835), with the object of the gaze being Mr. Darcy.

The behaviour of Mr. Darcy only supports this objectification – he barely speaks, he lacks a voice of his own and his reasons and motivations for his behaviour are left unexplained. Whatever activity he prepares for Emily, it is presented more as a scene from a film than a real life situation – a midnight boat ride, a picnic near a decoy castle

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or a night horse ride. Being almost mythicised by romantic literature and films, all these sceneries appear very appealing and Emily desires to feel them, but once she is experiencing them, she finds they lack depth and a personal touch. Instead of conversing with Mr. Darcy she usually only watches him while he is brooding and she admires his manly features: “I slide my eyes across his firm-set jaw, his Roman nose, his dark eyes staring directly ahead, the gleam of his white shirt in the moonlight”

(Potter 155). But objectification cannot lead to a mutually satisfying relationship and thus Emily slowly discovers that despite Mr. Darcy‟s dreamboat status, she cannot be happy with him. For Emily, Mr. Darcy is not a person, it is only a visually pleasing image with several vague characterisations such as gallant, faithful or brooding. She forgets that the core of the character lies in his behaviour to others and in his willingness to work on his relationship to his partner.

At the beginning, Emily tries to use her objectifying gaze on Spike too, but he is no Mr. Darcy‟s rival in his looks: “I think about him for a moment, his old corduroy jacket, shirt that‟s buttoned up the wrong way, and under which I‟m pretty sure love handles are lurking, and his messy hair that needs a good cut” (Potter 47). Spike does not fit the characteristics of a handsome man, even though he is later described as

“cute”. And he has a visual obsession of his own: “„Blondes are my type. In fact, I‟m a total sucker when it comes to the whole glamorous red-lipstick thing‟” (Potter 229). In the tradition of the objectifying male gaze, Spike has his ideal female type in mind. But unlike Emily, whose ideal type of man is probably a very rare species, Spike even tries to have a relationship with an object of his admiration. Spike‟s relationship with a

French girl Emanuelle does not work out, because apart from her good looks there is nothing else that they can build their relationship on. Through his experience with

Emanuelle, Spikes realizes that he overrated the effect of appearance on the relationship 49

and in Emily he finds a different kind of woman whom can he value for who she is and what she does rather than what she looks like. Emily, on the other hand, lacks this experience and at the moment Spike asks her out, re-enacting the first proposal scene from P&P, she still cannot get over her visual fascination with Mr. Darcy. There are other reasons for her refusal, but she could not accept Spike not being for her ambiguous experience with Mr. Darcy.

Only when both Emily and Spike overcome their fascination with the outstandingly beautiful members of the other sex, they can start discovering each other‟s real character and estimate if and how well they can work together. With both her main characters Potter shows how objectification damages relationships and that only when it is overcome on both sides, there is a chance to build a mature and lasting relationship. The fact that Potter gave the objectifying gaze primarily to Emily proves that in the modern world it is no longer only men who are prone to this sexist behaviour and that both genders have to work on their perception of the others to make their relationships work. And it is yet another example that a modern rewriting of P&P, which Me and Mr. Darcy partly is, can function with equal gender representations without imposing double standards on any of them.

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3.3 Austenland

3.3.1 Austenland – The Narrative and Characteristics

Shannon Hale‟s Austenland is, as Me and Mr. Darcy, another example of the newly emerging genre of Austen-inspired chick lit. The core of the story is another enthusiastic Janeite‟s quest to find her very own Mr. Darcy. In this respect, Austenland perfectly fits the pattern of the chick lit formula, with an independent heroine who is quite content without a partner but still longs for one to fulfil her emotional and sexual needs. The narrative of Austenland is focusing solely on Jane Hayes, who redefines herself through her experience at Austen-themed vacation. In general, Jane is very similar to Emily from Me and Mr. Darcy and according to them, a profile of a typical

Austen-inspired chick lit heroine can be presented – a thirtyish white American woman, an independent professional, who loves Jane Austen‟s novels and who has an unhealthy obsession with Mr. Darcy.

Yet, there is another similarity in the narratives of Me and Mr. Darcy and

Austenland – the heroines leave their homes in the United States and travel to Britain in quest to finally get rid of their obsessions. The same pattern can be seen in other examples of Austen-inspired chick lit, such as Jane Austen Ruined My Life, What Would

Jane Austen Do? or Midnight in Austenland. Britain, with its rich history, picturesque landscape and old architecture seems to be better surroundings for an Austen-themed story than urban United States. British setting replaces an important feature of general chick lit narrative – the metropolises such as London or New York. Through her stay in

Britain, the heroine gets closer to the Regency Era and experiences, to a certain point, a connection with Jane Austen. In Austenland, Jane‟s stay in Britain is a total immersion in Austen‟s time, as she spends three weeks at regency-themed vacation park where she 51

is encouraged to fully adopt regency lifestyle. The change of the familiar location of the heroine‟s hometown for completely different surroundings serves as a convention breaker. The stories of standard chick lit novels are usually based on the heroine‟s daily routine and her struggle to change it. Austen‟s contemporary followers employ, on the other hand, a change of location that brings a break of the heroine‟s lifestyle. This break then enables the heroine to think through her life views, her romantic history and to spot the recurring patterns that enable her to have a balanced relationship. What more, for urban women from the over-populated American cities, little English towns help them to experience a different lifestyle, which is simpler and more settled. Some of the heroines enjoy it while others come to a realization that despite their admiration for

Austen and her stories, the simple provincial lifestyle is not suited for them. This is also the case of Jane, who party enjoys her Austenland experience, but realizes she could not endure such a life forever. Thus the preoccupation of the Janeite-centred novels with the phenomenon of the country and Regency Era gives the narrative a slightly escapist feeling.

The hero, an actor Henry Jenkins playing the part of Mr. Nobley, does not fit the basic chick lit hero formula either – he is neither rich nor from the higher social circles and his acting job could actually be viewed with contempt, as it is by no means prestigious. The only possible aristocratic feature he has is that, like Spike in Me and

Mr. Darcy, he is British. Not only Britain is partly glorified in Austen-admiring chick lit novels, but British men are usually the heroes, probably because of the assumption that they somehow inherited the gentlemanliness from Austen‟s own heroes by living in the same country. This assumption is obviously mislead, hence the heroes like Spike or

Henry Jenkins are just another variations of the mythical prince Charming riding the white horse, but now his indispensable complement is British citizenship. Nevertheless, 52

even Henry goes to live with Jane in the United States, so his Britishness is only a decorative attribute that by no means influences the heroine‟s financial or social position for the better. On the opposite – by moving to a different country, he has to search for a new employment, becoming partly dependent on his partner, which is quite a new feature in the relationship dynamics in chick lit.

The story leaves Jane and Henry at the very beginning of their relationship, a stage where the story of Me and Mr. Darcy is left as well. This decision is quite significant, as it shows two instances. Firstly, the happily ever after ending is probably too unbelievable for the contemporary readership, especially given the love lives of both of the heroines. Moreover, with leaving the endings partly open, the writers underline that even if the heroines change their perception of men and relationships, it does not fully guarantee their future happiness and stability of their relationships. Only through communication and hard work the relationships can be maintained. Secondly, the importance of marriage and wedding has changed. It no longer secures social nor financial advantages and with the high divorce rate, the benefits of marriage for overall happiness can be doubted too. For Austen, marrying her heroines was the means of sealing the characters‟ development and securing their social position. Because this no longer applies and the prestige of the institution of marriage has deteriorated, leaving the ending open better reflects the current view of relationships. The endings make the message of the novels more realistic and thus fit in the pattern of chick lit, where happily ever after formula usually does not work either.

Shannon Hale uses third-person narrative and, following Austen‟s example, often employs the free indirect discourse, which adds to the text a portion of irony and amusement. Physical description is used in the narrative, but its usage is quite limited, usually giving each of the characters his or her typical characteristics – Jane has a 53

“fabulous hairdo” (Hale 1), Henry is being “Darcy-esque” (Hale 83) or his rival, Martin, is “taller than a man should be if he doesn‟t play basketball” (Hale 28). Despite the novel‟s preoccupation with Firth‟s portrayal of Mr. Darcy, the physical appearance plays only a minor role. Notwithstanding the third-person narration, the narrative is very much focused on the heroine and her experience, with all the minor characters being always described from her point of view. Because of that, the minor characters are represented mostly by dialogues that give them their own distinctive voice, but the reader is not familiarized with their inner feelings or ambitions. This limited description of the inner lives of all the characters except for Jane is caused by the fact that half of the Austenland inhabitants are hired actors and revealing their feelings to the reader would ruin the plot. Instead of description of the minor characters, the reader is offered

Jane‟s interpretation of their feelings and intentions, which accurately resembles a real- life experience, where individuals are left with nothing more than their interpretations of the others that may or may not be close to what is really happening. The power of

(mis)interpretation also points out why Jane has experienced so many disappointing relationships – she was unable to correctly interpret the behaviour of her boyfriends‟ and suffered when she realized she had put a different value on their relationship. The narrative technique in Austenland is simpler than in P&P, but it is not a result of sloppy writing – it underlines one of the main themes of the novel.

Austenland represents a clear outline of the discrete genre of Austen-inspired chick lit novel. It lays out a story of the typical heroine set in Britain, with a hero who has no longer any financial or social significance for the heroine. The liaison of Jane and Henry represents a possibility of relationship for two like-minded and equal individuals. The narrative is partly copying Jane Austen‟s style, but instead of providing the reader with colourful array of minor characters and their back stories, it focuses on 54

the power of observation and interpretation of the heroine, adding a different layer to the narrative apart from the romantic plot.

3.3.2 Austenland – The Representation of Women

The heroine, Jane Hayes, is defined by her love to Jane Austen‟s work and she is being accused of Mr. Darcy obsession. Her task is, as is Emily‟s in Me and Mr. Darcy, to try to overcome this obsession and to start a healthy relationship. Jane, after a series of unsuccessful dates and relationships, decides to “embrace spinsterhood” (Hale 19) because none of her previous relationships were emotionally satisfying for her. This is a common feature of the chick lit narrative, where the heroine acknowledges her problematic love life and tries to move on from clearly unsuitable partners, such as

“alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynist, megalomaniacs, chauvinists, emotional fuckwits or freeloaders, perverts”

(Fielding 1) to men ready and willing to have a mature relationship. As a typical chick lit heroine, Jane Hayes is a self-sufficient young woman with a fairly good career, as well as she is “pretty enough and clever enough” with a “little to distress her” (Hale 1).

Unlike the Bridget Jones-type heroines, she is content with her life in general, with her career and with her looks, her only dissatisfaction being her romantic life. As such, Jane is an apt portrayal of a Euro-American middle class woman who is no longer limited in her career and it is only her abilities and determination that influence her career and general satisfaction in life.

As the number of female characters in Austenland is quite limited, the portrayal of women is shown mainly through Jane, her description, behaviour and ideas. The other distinctive female characters, Miss Charming and Miss Heartwright, representing personality types very different from Jane, give a hint about Jane‟s benevolence to

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others. Jane learns that Miss Heartwright, whom she witnesses passionately kissing one of the actors, is actually married and visits Austenland yearly. Miss Charming, who is a divorced woman over fifty, behaves extremely childish and refuses to admit her age.

Both of these women might be seen by the society as ridiculous or immoral because of their behaviour, but Jane does not judge them at all. She respects their choices and does not contempt them for being different from her.

Not only Jane has an understanding for the other females, but her own life and choices are shown in an unbiased way. She has a romantic and sexual history that is being revealed throughout the book in description of the men she was involved with.

Even though every of her relationships ended and left her disappointed, she neither blames herself, nor men in general. But after a series of unsuccessful relationships she feels exhausted, hence her decision to give up men. The fact that she can do that and does not feel any pressure because of staying single is another important point in the portrayal of women – it shows that a single woman is no longer stigmatised. Obviously,

Jane is not happy about the decision, but it is her emotions that suffer because of her singleness, not her social status. Jane is able to decide for herself what kind of, if any, relationship she wants and she acts according to that decision, without any pressure of the society. A single woman is no longer ostracised or financially disadvantaged; what more, even in her thirties, she can still easily find a suitable partner. The cult of singles, partly connected with the rise of chick lit, enables women to give preference to their happiness and self-worth from acquiring their social status by marriage. In Austenland, marriage is presented as one of the choices that can, with a well chosen partner, lead to happiness. But marrying for the sake of it is pointed out as at least a problematic decision that does not guarantee satisfaction.

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As will be discussed in greater depth later, Jane is fixed on the idea of a long- term and stable relationship and her despair springs from the fact that she repeatedly cannot build any. This fixation is ascribed to her love for Jane Austen: “At a very young age, she had learned how to love from Austen” (Hale 18) in whose days the dating business was very much restricted. It may seem that Jane‟s wish to have a long-term relationship is only a continuation of the patriarchal marriage system, but it is not the case. During her visit in Austenland, Jane is attracted to all of the actors and she is not afraid to admit it. As the stay breaks her routine and gives her time to think, she realizes that her decision to give up men is impetuous and does not make her happy. Even if she does not intend to marry the man, she does not deny herself the pleasure of his company. By a brief involvement with Martin, a member of the Austenland staff, she experiments if she wants and is able to have an affair and she finds out that she can enjoy it. Finally, Jane is in the position where it is her who can pick and choose and breaks the unhealthy pattern where she desperately clung to any men who showed her any kind of attention. What more, she finally finds the strength to say no to a man who does not suit her well enough - something she was unable to do before her Austenland experience. Jane is by no means dominated by rigid patriarchal structures and her behaviour is not judged by double standards. The fact that Henry is aware of her affair with Martin and does not mention it shows that according to Austenland, women have the right to enjoy various relationships and decide on any that feels right to them. It is just a coincidence that Jane inclines for the traditional relationship model and it, without the pressure of the society and after a thought-out and well informed decision, certainly has its perks. The important change Jane undergoes is that she becomes active and takes control over her love life, accepting her desires and acting according to them.

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The portrayal of women in Austenland is favourable, showing that the social pressure is no longer present in their lives or that they choose to ignore it for their own sake. Even though Austenland does not bring any other issues concerning women than relationships, it professes a healthy individualistic stand where respect for one another is the key for success. By exploring Jane‟s love life and letting her experiment in the field of relationships, Austenland shows that women have the same rights and opportunities as men.

3.3.3 Austenland – Jane and Henry

At the core of the Austenland narrative, there is also a love triangle, with two men competing over Jane‟s affection. Apart from choosing between two very different men, Jane also has to come to terms with her previous romantic experiences and her supposed obsession with Mr. Darcy. But unlike Emily, Jane does not objectify Mr.

Darcy to the point where his image ruins her relationships and so the obsession with him is quite questionable. On the contrary, by choosing to start a relationship with

Henry, who as an actor impersonates a Mr. Darcy-like character in Austenland and who, in real life, possesses some of Mr. Darcy‟s personal characteristics; Jane adverts to the importance of her interpretation of Mr. Darcy as a man of strong and honest character.

Because Jane does not objectify Mr. Darcy and focuses on his virtues, she does not need to give him up.

The reason for Jane‟s relationships collapsing lies elsewhere. Even though she is described as an accomplished woman able to take care of almost every area of her life, she cannot fully control her love life. With the social norms for courtship loosening and with high individualisation of the society, the act of choosing the right partner is very difficult. Women have to depend only on their observation skills and empathy when

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deciding for their partner. This situation is being complicated, as Jane‟s example shows, by the fact that the expectations of men and women are often very different, but the partners do not acknowledge this fact to each other. And sometimes one of the partners even deceives the other about his or her intentions just to enjoy the comfort of the relationship as long as it is pleasant to him or her. Jane‟s ex-boyfriends hold the idea of liquid love, as described by Zygmund Bauman:

In lasting commitments, liquid modern reason spies out oppression; in durable

engagement, it sees incapacitating dependency. That reason denies rights to

binding and bonds, spatial or temporal. There is neither need nor use for them

that the liquid modern rationality of consumers could justify. Bindings and

bonds make human relations „impure‟ – as they would do to any act of

consumption that assumes instant satisfaction and similarly instant obsolescence

of the consumed object. (Bauman Chapter 3)

The concept of liquid love describes the contemporary relationship conventions where people usually do not want to make effort to retain the relationship, as changing the partner is considerably easier. This is exactly the case of most of Jane‟s partners, who entered the relationship with certain expectations, not knowing they are different from what Jane expects. After finding out, the men stay in the relationship as long as it is comfortable for them and then end it. At this point, Hale addresses a very topical issue in the society, as the popularity of Bauman‟s publication confirms.

There is an enormous clash between what the men Jane dates offer her and

Jane‟s own idea of love. For her: “. . . there was no such thing as a fling. Every romance was intended to lead to marriage, every flirtation just a means to find that partner to cling to forever. So for Jane, when each romance ended with hope still attached, it felt as brutal as divorce” (Hale 19). In general, this instance supports the view of men and 59

women as different species with women longing for long-term relationships and emotional support and men enjoying short relationships and complete independence. To decide to what extent this is a fact determined by biological differences between women‟s and men‟s brains is to be left to the scientists, but the fact that people still marry and some of them even do not divorce shows that there has to be some kind of longing for a secure relationship in both genders. Hale‟s portrayal of men and women demonstrates certain relationship preferences of men and women, but does not present them as a dogma, as shown by the relationship of Jane and Henry or by the happy marriage of Jane‟s best friend.

When Jane asks her best friend Molly how she knew she was marrying the right man, she answers: “„He . . . he makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, every day of my life‟” (Hale 19). This quote is quite problematic, because it suggests that the woman‟s utmost value is her beauty and he who can appreciate it or praise it the most is the right partner for her. Physical attraction is definitely an important part of the relationship, but to base a marriage only on physicality is very unsafe, as explained in the previous chapter by the example of Spike and Emanuelle.

Nevertheless, Jane adopts this idea and the topic of making women feel beautiful appears several times. First, Jane admits that another male character involved with her,

Martin, “[had] been the first real man in a long time who‟d made her feel pretty again, whom she‟d allowed herself to fall for” (Hale 164). And when Henry professes his love to Jane, he uses the words: “„And if I don‟t make you feel like the most beautiful woman in the world every day of your life, then I don‟t deserve to be near you‟” (Hale

190). Surprisingly enough, Jane promises nothing of that kind, no pledge to make Henry feel the most beautiful of men. However, close reading of the quotations shows that objectification is not the case, as the key phrase is to “make feel beautiful”, not to be 60

beautiful for someone. The beauty is not necessarily at the object being looked at, but determinedly set in the eyes of the beholder and reflected in his, or in her, behaviour.

The decision to make someone feel beautiful can be translated as deciding to make the person feel happy and employing a positive life approach. It is probably the general obsession with physical beauty that determines the wording. But the key to Jane‟s and

Henry‟s relationship lies elsewhere – they both want to have a long-term, stable relationships and both of them were unlucky with their previous partners, who did not feel the same. Henry admits, that: “„I need to admit up front that I don‟t know how to have a fling. I‟m not good at playing around and then saying good-bye. I‟m throwing myself at your feet because I‟m hoping for a shot at forever‟” (Hale 190). Basing their relationship on the same life-view and having a common goal in mind, they have a chance to be happy. Jane confirms that to her friend Molly: “„I didn‟t think it was possible, but I found a man as crazy intense as I was‟” (Hale 190). Very soon after its publication, Austenland was made into a movie with the script by the authoress herself and Jerusha Hess, who also directed the movie. The script made quite a few fundamental changes to the story, one of them being leaving out the whole question of beauty and stating straightforwardly that it is Jane‟s and Henry‟s view of love that connects them. Henry explains his involvement in Austenland thus: “I enjoyed stepping into history, the idea of the simple world where love is straightforward and lasting. I believe we have that in common” (Hess, Austenland 2013, 1:26:35). This shared view of relationship, not the idea of making a woman feel beautiful, is the real cornerstone of their relationship.

Because of Jane‟s healthy interpretation of Mr. Darcy‟s character, she does not need to redefine him for herself. On the contrary, she has to strictly follow her principles inspired by him to find a stable relationship and refuse to deal with liquid 61

lovers. Even though the topic of female beauty and male appreciation of it is presented as the key aspect of relationships, a closer look at the text and comparison with the filmic adaptation reveal that the real base of Jane and Henry‟s relationship is their understanding and the same concept of love they profess.

3.4 Conclusion

Me and Mr. Darcy and Austenland depict the new genre of Austen-inspired chick lit and use many of its vital components. Both the narratives are light, partly ironical, focusing mainly on the heroine‟s experiences and her perception of the society.

Me and Mr. Darcy gives the reader first-hand experience of Emily‟s story through the first-person narrative, but manages to focus on other characters as well. Austenland uses the third-person narration, but the heroine‟s perception of the world around her is the key component of the narrative and all the other characters are perceived through her lens. Me and Mr. Darcy provides a wide array of secondary characters with significant back stories, following the example of P&P. Austenland focuses more on the story of the heroine, but still employs varied minor characters portrayed mainly through the dialogues. The traditional urban setting of chick lit is replaced by partly mythicised

Britain, which gives the story a different dynamics, forcing the heroines to slow down and through escape from their daily routines to reconsider their beliefs and past behaviour.

The depiction of the heroines differs from the classic chick lit formula in their refusal of accumulation of designer goods, they ignore the postfeminist imperative of looking sexy and trying to change their looks or personalities to the ideal of independent yet physically highly attractive woman. Both the heroines have surprisingly balanced and content relationship with their bodies, they do not wish to modify them to follow

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the changeable trends in body image dictated by the society. Instead, they wish to change their behaviour and mental patterns that disable them from having a satisfying relationship. Emily has to overcome her tendency to objectify men and Jane has to reset her belief that every relationship can work out, regardless of the mind-set of the partners and she has to become active in the choice of the partner. Even though it seems that

Hale strongly promotes the female attractiveness, it is only a seeming objectification influenced by the contemporary cult of beauty, referring to the broader concept of an active care for the partner.

Jane and Emily show outstanding understanding of and respect for the other female figures in the story and thus the portrayal of women is very balanced and positive. Me and Mr. Darcy adds an interesting topic into the discussion, because Potter employs several female characters of elderly age. There are no double standards imposed on the female characters and both Jane and Emily enjoy sexual freedom without any stigmatisation. The heroes do not fit closely in the chick lit pattern where they are presented as means of upward social mobility. In both novels in question, they are highly individualised and they are socially and financially equal with the heroines, bringing them emotional satisfaction, not social or financial profit. Even though both novels have the romantic storyline in the centre of the narrative, the quest for the partner is not a result of blind following the patriarchal structures. Instead, it is an outcome of a careful examination of the heroine‟s psyche, and only after realizing her demands of the partner and standing by them, she can enter a successful relationship. The open endings correspond with the chick lit conventions, successfully reflecting the contemporary view of marriage.

Upon the whole, both Me and Mr. Darcy and Austenland manage to keep the important narrative devices used by Jane Austen while merging them with the 63

contemporary chick lit, the outcome being its distinctive subgenre. They represent a positive image of women unburdened by gender or social bias and point out possible problematic in contemporary relationships, while reconciling them within the boundaries of gender equality.

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4 Conclusion

Pride and Prejudice and its modern spin offs certainly focus very much on love and relationships, but as the narrative analysis proved, none of the chosen novels can be considered an unalloyed example of the romance novel. Pride and Prejudice sets a model of well-crafted novel that apart from some of the romantic narrative functions offers the reader a layered text, its main strengths being the use of free indirect discourse, irony and well-written minor characters. All of the modern takes follow, to certain extent, this example, while focusing on different components of the narrative.

The closest to the original in the means of the construction of the narrative is Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter. The free indirect discourse is substituted with the first-person narrative, but the irony, social critique and well-crafted minor characters are markedly present in the novel. Shannon Hale‟s Austenland is close to Austen‟s tone by using free indirect discourse focused on the heroine and her perception of the world.

Compulsively Mr. Darcy, written by Nina Benneton, drifts away from Austen‟s narrative the furthest, as its frequent physical descriptions, lack of detached view of the hero and the heroine, and black-and-white characters place the novel very close to the cliché of the romance novel. Me and Mr. Darcy and Austenland merge their narratives with the conventions of chick lit novels, establishing a new sub-genre and representing some of its key points, such as the Janeite heroine, her escape to romanticised Britain, fighting her obsession with Mr. Darcy and meeting a British equivalent of his, no longer in possession of an aristocratic descend or superior social position.

In the representation of women, Austen sets a stance against objectification and reducing women to ornamental appendixes of their husbands. The topic of objectification is presents in all the spin offs, but treated differently in each of them.

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Compulsively Mr. Darcy continues to objectify women, as shown in the contrasting physical descriptions of Elizabeth and Anne de Bourgh. Me and Mr. Darcy shows objectification from a new point of view, giving the objectifying gaze to the heroine as well as to the hero, who manage to overcome their obsession with physicality. In

Austenland, the objectification of the heroine is only seeming, being influenced by the contemporary cult of beauty. The issue of objectification can be pointed out as one of the key issues of all the novels, being both the old and the new prejudice in the society.

Women in Pride and Prejudice and Compulsively Mr. Darcy are still objects of double standards. In Pride and Prejudice, it is the true picture of the regency society, the real extent of the double standards being exposed by Lydia‟s elopement. Me and

Mr. Darcy shows double standards as a problem of the past experienced by the character of Maeve, while the heroine enjoys complete sexual freedom. In Austenland,

Shannon Hale employs a heroine with a long relationship history, and even the heroine‟s romantic involvement with a rival does not concern the hero. Hale represents both men and women as completely equal, not needing to judge each other because of their past relationships.

Regarding the relationship of the hero and the heroine, the difference in social status represented in Pride and Prejudice is only partly preserved. The hero and heroine of Compulsively Mr. Darcy are also from different social circles and their relationship is powered mainly by their miscommunication and united by physical attraction. The heroines and heroes of the other two novels represent socially balanced couples united by the same life views and relationship demands. The problem of Emily and Jane is that they do not believe men can fulfil their desires highly inspired by the portrayal of Mr.

Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. However when interpreting the character of Mr. Darcy according to his nature and behaviour, not his appearance and air, they are able to find 66

suitable partners. Rather than taming a new type of pride, they have to conquer the prejudice that men of today are unworthy and cannot stand up their literary embodiment in Mr. Darcy.

The contemporary novels show that the cult of Austen is still very much alive and inspires various genres of texts. While Me and Mr. Darcy and Austenland can be considered as clear examples of an independent genre of Austen-inspired chick lit,

Compulsively Mr. Darcy with its anti-feminist stances and the tendency to follow the romance formula proves that not all of Austen‟s contemporary followers use the genre of chick lit as their spring. The interpretation of Pride and Prejudice is still highly influenced by the plot trivialization and even though some authors follow Austen‟s example of pro-feminist writing, the voice of her literary followers is not unanimous.

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5 Appendices

5.1 Vladimir Propp's narrative structure points used for analysing the romance

1. The heroine‟s social identity is destroyed.

2. The heroine reacts antagonistically to an aristocratic male.

3. The aristocratic male responds ambiguously to the heroine.

4. The heroine interprets the hero‟s behaviour as evidence of a purely sexual

interest in her.

5. The heroine responds to the hero‟s behavior with anger or coldness.

6. The hero retaliates by punishing the heroine.

7. The heroine and hero are physically and/or emotionally separated.

8. The hero treats the heroine tenderly.

9. The heroine responds warmly to the hero‟s act of tenderness.

10. The heroine reinterprets the hero‟s ambiguous behavior as the product of

previous hurt.

11. The hero proposes/openly declares love for/demonstrates his unwavering

commitment to the heroine with a supreme act of tenderness.

12. The heroine responds sexually and emotionally.

13. The heroine‟s identity is restored.

(Radway 134)

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5.2 Pride and Prejudice, 1995

Fig. 1 – Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the first scene presenting the character purely as an object of female gaze in a scene written exclusively for the script.

Fig. 2 – Firth in the famous wet-shirt scene that changed the perception of the Mr.

Darcy character forever, shifting the focus from his personality traits to his looks.

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5.3 Austenland, 2013

Fig. 1 – The creators of Austenland make another shift in the depiction of the

Darcy character, not hesitating to parody Firth‟s serious manly portrayal of the

character.

Fig. 2 – Austenland is a parodic mélange of Regency setting and modern characters. 70

6 Bibliography

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin,

1994. Print.

Austenland. Dir. Jerusha Hess. Screenplay by Jerusha Hess, Shannon Hale. Perf. Keri

Russel, JJ Feild. Sony Pictures, 2013. DVD.

Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Love: On the Frailty of Human Bonds. Cambridge, UK:

Polity, 2003. E-book.

Benneton, Nina. Compulsively Mr. Darcy. Sourcebooks Landmark: Naperville, Illinois,

2012. Print.

Brown, Lloyd W. “Jane Austen and the Feminist Tradition.” Nineteenth-Century

Fiction 28.3 (1973): 321–338. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.

Hale, Shannon. Austenland. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Print.

Harzewski, Stephanie. Chick Lit and Postfeminism. University of Virginia Press, 2011.

Print.

“I Blame Tom Hiddleston for My High Standards on Men”. Facebook. n.d. Web. 7 Apr.

2014.

Jones, Viven. “Post-feminist Austen.” Critical Quarterly 54.04 (2010): 65-82. Print.

López, Marina Cano. “Looking Back in Desire; or How Jane Austen Rewrites Chick Lit

in Alexandra Potter‟s Me and Mr. Darcy.” Persuasions Online 31.1 (2010).

Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.”.Film Theory and Criticism:

Introductory Readings. New York, N.Y. ; Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. 833-44.

Print.

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Owen, Victoria. “Jane Austen over the Styx.” Dancing with Mr. Darcy: Stories Inspired

by Jane Austen and Chawton House Library. By Sarah Waters. New York:

Harper, 2010. E-book.

Potter, Alexandra. Me and Mr. Darcy. London: Hodder, 2007. Print.

“Pride and Prejudice”. Goodreads. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.

Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Joe Wright. Screenplay by.Deborah Moggach. Perf. Matthew

MacFadyen, Keira Knightley. Focus Features, 2005. DVD.

Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Andrew Davies. Screenplay by Andrew Davies. Perf. Colin

Firth, Jennifer Ehle. BBC, 1995. DVD.

Radway, Janice A. Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature.

2nd ed. University of North Carolina Press, 1991. Print.

Regis, Pamela. A Natural History of the Romance Novel. University of Pennsylvania

Press, 2011. Print.

“The Growth of Asylums.” The history of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Web. 7 Apr.

2014.

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7 Summary

The three main purposes of this study are firstly, to determine to what extent

Jane Austen‟s Pride and Prejudice and its contemporary spin-offs follow the outline of the romance novel; secondly, what other narrative strategies they employ; and thirdly, what claims these novels make about feminism and gender equality.

The first half of the thesis focuses on Pride and Prejudice and on a modern rewriting of this canonical story, Compulsively Mr. Darcy by Nina Benneton. The discussed novels are compared to Janice A. Radway‟s functional analysis of the romance novel and this comparison shows in what ways Austen and her followers deviate from the antifeminist stance of the romance novel and how they enrich the romantic plot by using various narrative devices.

The second part discusses two more Austen-inspired novels – Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter and Austenland by Shannon Hale – that blend the Pride and

Prejudice characters and plot with the chick lit conventions to build a new genre of its own. While discussing the same concepts as in the first part of the thesis – the narrative, the representation of women, and the relationship of the heroine and the hero –the development of the pro-feminist themes set by Austen is evaluated.

The aim of this thesis was to prove that both Pride and Prejudice and its spin- offs offer more than a trivial romantic story and to identify how the canonical themes from Pride and Prejudice are adapter for the contemporary readership.

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8 Resumé

Tato práce si klade za úkol tři cíle – za prvé určit, do jaké míry Pýcha a předsudek Jane Austenové a další romány jí inspirované odpovídají definici románu pro

ženy, za druhé zhodnotit, jaké další narativní postupy tyto romány obsahují, a za třetí, jak se tyto romány staví k otázkám rovnosti pohlaví a feminismu.

První polovina práce se soustředí na Pýchu a předsudek a současné přepracování tohoto kanonického díla, Compulsively Mr. Darcy od Niny Benneton. Tyto romány jsou porovnány s funkční analýzou románu pro ženy vytvořenou Janice A. Radway a toto srovnání ukazuje, v čem se Austenová a její následovnice odlišují od anti-feministického vyznění červené knihovny a jak použitím různorodých narativních prostředků obohacují romantickou zápletku.

Druhá část práce rozebírá dva další romány inspirované dílem Jane Austenové, –

Já a pan Darcy Alexandry Potter a Austenland Shannon Hale – které kombinují postavy a zápletku Pýchy a předsudku s konvencemi tzv. chick lit a tím vytvářejí vlastní svébytný žánr. Rozbor konceptů z první poloviny práce – narativních prostředků, reprezentace žen a vztahu hrdinky a hrdiny – umožňuje zhodnotit vývoj pro-feministických témat, která v Pýše a předsudku použila Jane Austenová.

Cílem této práce bylo dokázat, že jak Pýcha a předsudek tak příběhy jí inspirované nabízí více než jen triviální romantickou zápletku a zjistit, jak jsou témata z tohoto románu přizpůsobována současnému čtenáři.

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