Jane: Too good to be true?

Amy2, I think you have a good point. She is rather saccharine, as is Melanie in GWTW, but she is also a necessary foil to show Lizzie's "better understanding" and more realistic view of their world. I've always liked Jane but find her very sweet and not too bright - nothing like Lizzie.

We've talked about this before, but hey, let's talk about it some more... Jane is a great, unlikely vehicle, as is Caroline, for carrying the foreshaddowing messages. Lizzy is smart and clever -- and we identify with her. But the nice dumb one opines very early on that Mr Darcy might improve on further acquaintance. And the awful nasty one warns Lizzy not to believe all of Wickham's assertions.

I've been thinking, how Jane was going to answer is Collins was preposing to HER, I have no doubt she was to refuse him, but I can't imagine gentle and good- hearted jane hurting someones feelings. Any opinions on this subject?

Jane isn't "dumb" -- she knows what's likely and what's unlikely; but she merely chooses to resolutely believe in the most optimistic interpretation of appearances and events...

] Jane isn't "dumb" - No, certainly not. Sometimes I choose words for effect and to exagerate (kind of like espousing opinions that are not my own) But even their dear father, though he ranks Jane way up there, and groups her together with Lizzy most of the time, clearly favors Lizzy and near the beginning of the story singles Lizzy out as the only one with wit.

Jane's persistent, even stubborn, use of rose colored glasses insulates her from exposure to the more unpleasant aspects of life - the ones that cause Lizzy to observe that the more she sees of the world the more she is dissatisfied with it.

Just think what Jane would have been portrayed as if she had been a Charlotte Brontë caharacter -- a complacent and placid spoiled favorite of fortune, to be contrasted with a plain fiery heroine... (add 1/2 smiley here)

No, Jane is not too good to be true. I have known a few Janes. (Lucky me.) Cynic that I am and have always been, I "distained their generous candour" when we were young. They found the good points in everyone. I espied the faults. I watched that the Janes become successful teachers and supervisors, because they could see everyone's best qualities and encourage growth and development. Now we are in our fifties, and they are becoming the grandparents most of us only wish we had.

Katy, I think I'm a kind of a Jane too, I can't belive pepole can be BAD. I always try to understand them and to make them good.

] I can't belive pepole can be BAD. I always try to understand them and to make them good. _____ I know people can be bad. I try to understand them and show them how much more pleasant it can be to be good.

Amy, sounds like you should pull out the Pollyanna pic again

I tell my kids never, never, never to say this, but.... Shut up, Henry

When I first read Pride and Prejudice in school, my first impression was that Jane Austen had over-built her characters. Caroline was too snobbish. Jane was too good. Darcy was too cold. However, as the years have passed I have encountered people more snobbish than Caroline, more cold than Darcy and a few that matched Jane's kindness and optimism. I have concluded that my first impression of Pride and Prejudice was just as incorrect as Elizabeth Bennet's first evaluation of Darcy! Regards, Trenton.

Thanks everybody, for responding so eloquently to this topic! I must say, everyone has a valid point. However, as someone who works in Hollywood, I tend to be just a teensie-weensie _cynical_, so to me, Jane's goodness makes her into someone I would like to shake, almost to the extent of a Caroline Bingley, her Evil Twin in the opposite direction. I can almost hear Jane saying: "Scarlett, you killed him. I'm _glad_ you killed him."

To ayelet who says she is kind of a Jane too... I envy your grandchildren! To Amy Wolf who can almost hear Jane saying: "Scarlett, you killed him. I'm _glad_ you killed him." Uh-oh, you are treading on dangerous ground here. Don't you be knocking my fellow southerners and especially Miss Melly. I adore Melanie, and she get more believable to be every time I read the book. In the book there is a long moment in which S. realizes that M. was proud of her for that killing and would have done it herself one of those moments when I want to shake my dear Scarlett a little and make her see Melanie for what she really is.

Katy, I think I became so becouse I have a WONDERFUL grandma, may be I learned some of it from her.

Now now, Kendall, don't get me wrong - I'm a total GWTW fanatic, and I admit that Mellie grows on you - especially when Scarlett realizes her worth (right before she dies). But there is something about that staircase scene in the film that drives my sister & I into hysterics...

Amy2 - yeah it is a bad line - but how would you script the scene so show us and Scarlett that Melanie does indeed approve of this act and would have committed it herself. Maybe a gun instead of the useless sword? Katy

I think a less saccharine delivery by de Haviland would have done the trick. If she had just had some steel IN HER VOICE. . .

Come on, Amy2...Melanie's sick, and probably just realizing that she has it in herself to see evil and wish it upon others...! ;)

You're probably right. There's just something about de Haviland's delivery that makes me laugh. Must have had the same effect on others, since Carol Burnett more-or-less used this when Dinah Shore played Melly in the classic satire, "Went With the Wind."

Re Went With the Wind...I chuckle to myself everytime I even think of this parody..."I saw it in the window, and I just couldn't resist." ROTFLOL!

Amy2 - is Went with the Wind the one with the curtain rod still in the curtains? I loved it!!;-)

YES!!! That curtain bit must be the biggest laugh in the history of TV.