A Look At The Unique Journeys Of Jane Austen’s Heroines

Diverse Personalities, Aspirations, Challenges, And Growth

Hello!!! 

This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books! 

This week, I caught up to the manga I was reading, and then got back to The Bell Jar. I’m hoping to finish it next week. Have you been reading anything this week?

Now, recently, I saw a post on bookstagram, asking everyone which Jane Austen heroine they are like. That got me thinking, and I realised, I actually am like none of them? Maybe I am in a similar zone with Elinor, but it’d be a stretch to claim I am like her.

But as I was considering all her seven heroines, I realised how very different they are from each other. Not just in their personalities, but also in the challenges they face and the growth they undergo. So, that’s what I’ll be talking about in today’s letter.

Elizabeth Bennet: Pride And Prejudice

Starting off with Lizzy, easily the most popular Austen heroine. Elizabeth, despite her unfavourable financial and societal circumstances, is strong-willed and opinionated, quick to judge and unafraid to speak her mind. Through her interactions with Mr. Darcy, she learns that first impressions can be misleading. She learns to re-evaluate her assumptions and recognises her own faults, overcoming her prejudices and learning to balance her independence with humility.

Emma Woodhouse: Emma

Unlike other Austen heroines, Emma doesn’t have any pressing problems in her own life. So, she borrows problems from other people’s lives, trying to solve them for fun. However, she lacks the empathy needed to do that due to her privileged upbringing, and it ends up causing people pain instead. Throughout the story, Emma comes to recognise the impact of her actions, becoming more self-aware and compassionate. 

Marianne Dashwood: Sense And Sensibility

Marianne is passionate, impulsive, and wears her heart on her sleeves. Being young, she has an overly romantic vision of love that she clings to, to the point that it blinds her to ground reality, ultimately leading her to heartbreak. Through this pain however, she matures. She learns the value of moderation and the dangers of letting passion completely overtake reason, in the end finding a balance between the two. 

Catherine Morland: Northanger Abbey

Catherine is naïve and imaginative, with her head so full of melodramatic Gothic novels that she treats reality like it’s an extension of those novels. However, letting her imaginations run free leads her to misinterpreting people and situations. Her journey is more of coming-of-age. As she interacts with the real world, Catherine learns to separate fiction from reality, becoming more grounded and capable of navigating real-life relationships.

Elinor Dashwood: Sense And Sensibility

Elinor is pragmatic, calm, composed, and responsible– often acting as the adult in her family despite her young age. When her heart is broken, she endures it internally, without complaint or any outward display of distress, remaining strong for her family’s sake. Throughout the novel, she learns the importance of balancing sense with emotional openness, and allows herself to be more vulnerable without losing her pragmatism.

Anne Elliot: Persuasion

Anne once rejected the man she loved because of her family’s financial and social expectations. Ever since, she’s been living regretting that decision, but still devoting herself to her family despite their lack of appreciation of her. Through the course of the story, as she reconnects with Wentworth, she reclaims her sense of self-worth and the courage to assert her own desires, even when it means going against societal expectations and family pressure. 

Fanny Price: Mansfield Park

Fanny has been given up by her own family and feels unwelcome among her wealthy relatives. Very shy and timid in nature, she’s often overshadowed by her self-assured cousins and their friends. However, she has very strict morals and a strong sense of right and wrong which she refuses to give up, even when pressured by those holding power over her. Ultimately this earns her the respect and admiration of those around her. 

Austen’s heroines are very diverse, be it in their age or maturity level, personalities, life aspirations or means of navigating the world around them, which I think often doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves because somewhere, Austen gets seen as a ‘just’ courtship novel writer where all her novels are about her heroines marrying rich men. 

What about you? Which Austen heroine do you think you are like? I'd love to hear about it!!!

For more of my bookish ramblings, you can also find me on Instagram

Also, if you’d like me to write for you, you can contact me at joyiewrites@gmail.com

That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻