Jane Austen Heroes

I wanted to make a list of my top three Jane Austen Heroes but who am I kidding, that’s just completely impossible and terrible. For one thing, these fictional characters haunt my dreams with their steadfastness of affection.

Now, as a 19 year old college student, life is not easy. After a day of studying, excavating books and shelving them back in the library, supping liters of coffee, and walking in the busy streets of La Paz, a normal person would have talked to or would walked with someone who makes the dreadful day worthwhile. But not me. After a day of attending college, I would come home to a bunk adorned with nothing fancy and a stack of books piled up in my study desk, waiting to burst open, be read and everything around me will become distorted and deafened. Nothing else matters.

Fitzwilliam Darcy – Now, almost every Jane Austen lover I know wants a piece of Darcy. He’s a very dynamic character indeed; one can see how he started from being a blunt, arrogant prick towards being a tenderly affectionate heart. What makes him different is that he started from being one imperfect fellow to something that is deeper and gentler as the story goes on. At the end of the book, one can see a profound change in his person, brought about by his affection towards Elizabeth Bennet. He is no longer the cold, arrogant man. His faults have departed and his virtues are strengthened. These make him adorable to me, but he is not the only adorable Jane Austen hero.

Mr. Bingley – He is often portrayed in movies as the dumb, annoying one which is so unfair because he is described in the book as well-mannered and intelligent. There’s not much in Mr. Bingley except that he is rich and modest and friendly and yeah – like perfect! But what’s wrong with him being so easily persuaded by the people around him? Unlike the beloved Austen heroes he is not self-confident and stays constant.

Edward Ferrars – He is a constant character. He doesn’t change much in the story. He is a reserved person who is grave to be overpowered by her mother upon himself. But despite him being static, I adore him because he contrasts the character of Willoughby, the scoundrel. He stayed true to his duty towards his family being the male heir even though that means compromising his own happiness. He stayed with Lucy Steele because he was engaged to her. However, in the end, he overcomes all this bounds pressed against him a reader can only sympathize how he betrayed his feelings that left him forlorn for so long. But being with Elinor, who possess the same decided temper that he has, he is a content and happy person.

Henry Tilney – He is the supposed metro-sexual Jane Austen hero. Haha. He know’s muslin for Pete’s sake! But don’t be alarmed, he is one of the charming characters I have encountered. He has a sense of humor, well-rounded, he cares for people genuinely and when in love- he fights for it. Catherine Morland brought out the best in him. He defied the wishes of his father because of her which would be very different if Edward Ferrars was on his place.

Colonel Brandon- He has the Darcy sort of pride but he is in no way conceited. He is brave, noble and wonderful having been in the service of the navy for a long time. Though others perceive him as a boring bloke, I beg to differ. He has the steadfastness of affection that overshadows other Austen heroes.

Edmund Bertram- I didn’t really like Edmund at the start. He is a very fickle man made even fickle by scheming women. He can be easily deluded and I hate that. At the end however, he had a firm grip of himself and was able to see who really has been constantly there for him. He’ll be okay when he’s with Fanny though. They’re for each other.

Mr. George Knightley – Um, I like this guy. It’s like being smitten in a girly sort of way. He is the textbook example, the quintessential, nice guy. He sees the worst in Emma, which are grave distresses indeed but whatever they may be he’s unchangeable! He is fixed and constant as the sun in the blue. He is, of course saddened about her making mistakes, and is willing to change her juvenile tendencies. That’s what’s good in Mr. Knightley. He has faith in Emma, a belief that she will change for the better sometime very soon.

Captain Wentworth- This man is almost a Mr. Darcy but without the ‘untouchable’ aura. He is also a Colonel Brandon but just much longer – eight years! He is my beloved Jane Austen hero. The tops! First of all, he has the rag to riches transformation. He was an unknown who made his way to the top. Then, he transformed into an extremely bitter man to a sweet one. He wrote one of the finest love letters I’ve ever beheld and read. He struggled and betrayed his feelings for a very long time and that brought out the worst in him. Unlike Darcy, he doesn’t regard his rank and pride as the hindrance towards happiness and love. He fears rejected and resentment that he continues to thrust his feelings aside.

So yeah. There they are. Jane Austen created her heroes with weaknesses and merits resembling a human which makes them realistic. However her time period and story-telling is in such a way that these characters almost seem romantic. It’s impossible to pick only three, you see. Every Jane Austen hero will always have a space in my storybook.