Jane Austen joked that her genius was endless. Yet, her persistent habit of making any character named Jane beautiful and perfect seems like a rather ridiculous authorial self-insert, at least subject to further inspection. Austen’s most major Janes—Fairfax (Emma) and Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)—make up no small part of their respective novels, and by analyzing two scenes concerning these characters through the lens of their connections to each other and to Austen, we can illuminate how Austen used her humor, drama, and suspense to successfully satirize herself and subtly mock the gender constructs of the world around her.
The specific reasons why Austen chose the names she did for her characters can never be certain; multiple factors likely contributed. According to Douglas A. Galbi, in the UK, 53.2% of the female population from the birth year 1800 shared the same top three popular names. This percentage increases to 82%, or almost the entire female population, when considering the top 10 most popular names (Galbi, Table 1). Clearly, the pool of names in Regency England was not particularly wide, and there was a high likelihood that this forced Austen to reuse certain names, simply because there were no other acceptable options. After all, there are as many, if not more Marys, Georges, Charleses, and Annes, as there are Janes in Austen’s works. In this way, Jane Fairfax and Jane Bennet are not unique in their shared names, and their connection to Austen may be coincidental. Beyond this, the reader’s knowledge that these characters share a name with the author was unforeseeable to Austen. Austen’s works were not published under her name until her death, instead being attributed to “A Lady.” With this in mind, it is almost impossible to assume that Austen hoped the reader would see a connection, and more likely that Austen could have been injecting herself into her novels simply to leave some sort of private hint to her authorship. Simultaneously, Austen herself and her closest circles would have been acutely aware of these Janes because they were cognizant of their true creator, placing even more emphasis on the connection. There are many reasons why we cannot be certain that there is any significance in these characters bearing the author’s name, and only our best conjectures remain, but we also cannot definitively rule out the possibility that there was significance in her choices. Regardless, since Austen’s name has become public to the world, these faultless Janes have become a hilariously glaring detail that is unavoidable to many.
In Emma, Austen introduces Jane Fairfax by focusing on how she is perceived by other people, chiefly as an ideal specimen. In the first interaction between Jane Fairfax and Emma in the novel, when Jane Fairfax visits her aunt, Austen focuses on Jane Fairfax’s physical appearance, using this introduction of Jane Fairfax to simultaneously develop the reader’s understanding of Emma’s character and to reflect on Jane Fairfax’s place in the world. The scene in question opens thus: “Her height was pretty, just as almost everybody would think tall, and nobody could think very tall; her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin” (Emma 135). Austen shows how Emma sees Jane as ideal, not just possessing commendable qualities, but existing in a perfect balance of characteristics. Austen specifies that Jane Fairfax inhabits “a most becoming medium” (135) and is “...very elegant, remarkably elegant” (135). In fact, Austen repeats the word “elegant” no fewer than 5 times in this one paragraph. Austen creates an intense emphasis on Jane Fairfax’s manners, accomplishments, and vitally, her immaculacy through the repetition of these specific words. It is this understanding on the part of the reader that implies Emma’s immaturity and jealousy are the root of her mercurial feelings towards Jane. Austen illustrates just how absorbed Emma is in Jane’s beauty and mannerisms, showing that Emma is taken aback and impressed, creating the moment for Emma’s first change in feelings:
It was a style of beauty, of which elegance was the reigning character, and as such, she must, in honour, by all her principles, admire it… In short, she sat, during the first visit, looking at Jane Fairfax with twofold complacency; the sense of pleasure and the sense of rendering justice, and was determining that she would dislike her no longer. When she took in her history, indeed, her situation, as well as her beauty; when she considered what all this elegance was destined to, what she was going to sink from, how she was going to live, it seemed impossible to feel any thing but compassion and respect. (135-136)
At first, Austen’s characterization of her namesake as unbelievably perfect and beautiful seems like a subtle remark on “her genius” and a hidden compliment to herself. However, the irony in Jane Fairfax’s character description is that Austen uses it to criticize both characters. Whereas before Emma despised Jane, upon meeting her, Emma immediately vows to “dislike her no longer,” already showing the superficial and rather sanctimonious nature of Emma’s character. Simultaneously, by clearly presenting how Emma is stunned into acceptance of Jane Fairfax by her elegance and beauty in this scene, Austen illustrates just how much Jane’s outward appearance and manners impact how she is understood by others. This theme is further developed by Austen throughout this scene and the novel as a whole, as Austen explores the perfection (and imperfection) of both characters.
When Jane Fairfax behaves in a way that does not please Emma, her politely reserved nature becomes a flaw rather than an admirable quality. Gone is the sympathy of but a page ago; instead, Fairfax now “was the worst of all, so cold, so cautious! There was no getting at her real opinion. Wrapt up in a cloak of politeness, she seemed determined to hazard nothing. She was disgustingly, suspiciously reserved” (137). Just as she does with all of her other characters, Austen subtly satirizes both Emma and Jane Fairfax. Austen is exposing the negative side of Fairfax’s pristine appearance, showing how Emma misunderstands and crudely misinterprets Fairfax’s sensitive personality as “cold” and “disgustingly suspicious” (137), mocking Emma with her ridiculous judgment, but also subtly commenting on the way that the contemporary world judges its inhabitants. Austen establishes Fairfax as the role model of the novel, throughout the entire book, but chiefly through Emma’s immediate response to seeing her again in this scene. By then showing how Fairfax is criticized for her overly sensitive nature, Austen directly criticizes the caricature of the ideal female that she has created, and by extension, her society’s notions of female excellence. The flaw of Jane Fairfax is that she will never be flawless; the characters around her will never permit that, thus her existence is futile. The juxtaposition of Emma, a widely disliked and very flawed character, and Jane, a widely adored and almost flawless character, becomes the perfect interaction between reality and social perception, where the implication is cast onto Austen’s contemporary social structure and the rather ridiculous expectations that people have of each other in the first place. Conservatively, Austen is inviting the reader to consider the ways that even ideal characters are somehow flawed, while simultaneously pointing out the ways that their societies judge them or inevitably turn against them due to jealousy and insecurity, attacking their own standards of perfection.
This tension is not unique to the scathing exploration of judgment in Emma; Jane Bennet’s character in Pride and Prejudice is established in a similar manner to Fairfax’s. The sentiment that Jane Bennet is considered the most beautiful, amiable, well-mannered, and adored Bennet sister is reiterated several times throughout the book, especially at the beginning. In a scene in which Jane Bennet is not at all present, Austen uses her character similarly to Jane Fairfax’s. Elizabeth Bennet sees Jane’s private nature, especially in relation to her feelings about Charles Bingley, as a positive quality, thinking that the secret of Jane’s feelings “was not likely to be discovered by the world in general, since Jane united with great strength of feeling, a composure of temper and a uniform cheerfulness of manner, which would guard her from the suspicions of the impertinent” (Pride and Prejudice 18). However, Jane’s reserved behavior is also berated within this scene by characters other than Elizabeth, leading to a series of dramatic events that highlight Austen’s critiques. Elizabeth continues her conversation with Charlotte, who famously says the following:
It is sometimes a disadvantage to be so very guarded. If a woman conceals her affection with the same skill from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him; and it will then be but poor consolation to believe the world equally in the dark. There is so much of gratitude or vanity in almost every attachment, that it is not safe to leave any to itself…In nine cases out of ten a women had better show more affection than she feels. (18)
Apart from characterizing Charlotte as far more cynical and pragmatic than either Elizabeth or Jane and setting up the future conflict between Charlotte and Elizabeth, Austen is also using this moment to criticize Jane Bennet and to foreshadow Bingley’s ability to be convinced that she is not interested in him. Just as with Jane Fairfax, Jane Bennet’s gentle and reserved nature is misconstrued and interpreted as apathetic, and just as with Jane Fairfax, this misunderstanding has important consequences for the story. While Emma is shown to be judgemental and unempathetic through her harsh estimation of Jane Fairfax, Jane Fairfax is shown to be overly private and polite. While Charlotte proves herself too pragmatic and utilitarian with her views on marriage, Jane Bennet is shown to be too reserved and gentle. All of these traits are allowed to play out within the stories to their eventual consequences. In Pride and Prejudice as in Emma, Austen is again subverting the reader’s expectations of how a character named Jane fits into the world around her and analyzing the follies of an overly exaggerated “perfect” persona. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen uses this to explore how this character interacts with the world of relationships from an insider’s point of view (Jane Bennet’s relationship with the Bingley sisters), whereas in Emma, Austen explores the ways these traits fit into interactions with people and the way that society judges them from an outsider’s point of view (Emma’s relationship with Jane Fairfax). Once again, although the reader empathizes with Jane Bennet, rooting for her at every step, and judges negative reactions to her behavior, the result of Jane’s existence as a downright paragon of female perfection is simply her reduction to an incomplete and unbalanced caricature instead. It is this very paradox—an equilibrium so extreme as to be a dispositional imbalance—that is the root of Austen’s satirical work with these Janes.
Interpreting Austen’s choice in naming these strikingly similar characters as deliberate serves to widen the breadth of their function in her world. If we are to take her inclusion and repeated characterizations of the emblematic Jane as anything more than a coincidence or unintentional overlap, then we are left with only two conclusions. Either Austen has inserted herself, in some capacity, into the story via these characters and aims to compliment herself and explore her own character and experiences, or Austen is satirizing herself and mocking a fictional version of herself, as she does with all the other characters and the world around her. The idea of Austen complimenting herself through her inclusion of these Janes is the more obvious and humorous conclusion and would explain Austen’s intentions when accidentally naming her most elegant, beautiful, and admired characters Jane. Although less narcissistic and romantic, the other option is most likely the driving force behind Austen’s choice, if it is a conscious one, and serves to illuminate the most about Austen’s own character and works.
Jane Austen herself remains an enigmatic character. As with any famous author, generations of readers have characterized her in whatever way they saw fit, exploring her romantic life, investigating her relationships, and assigning her a personality to fit a chosen narrative. Unfortunately, deeply understanding Jane Austen and how she saw herself is beyond the grasp of even the most knowledgeable and talented expert, as Austen and many of her letters are no longer with us. However, her surviving letters and novels have given readers some understanding of how she may have thought and behaved. It is clear from the piercing mockery and sharp humor in her works and letters that Austen likely did not identify with the mild, kind, and introverted nature of Jane Bennet and Jane Fairfax. However, the image that Austen’s family paints of her rather resembles the socially acceptable and proper Jane evident in Janes Bennet and Fairfax. In his Memoir of Miss Austen, Henry Austen writes:
Her stature rather exceeded the middle height; her carriage and deportment were quiet, but graceful; her features…produced an unrivalled expression of that cheerfulness, sensibility, and benevolence, which were her real characteristic...her eloquent blood spoke through her modest cheek; her voice was sweet; she delivered herself with fluency and precision; indeed, she was formed for elegant and rational society, excelling in conversation as much as in composition. (14)
This description of Austen truly resembles Austen’s own descriptions of both Janes in Pride nd Prejudice and Emma. Far from describing a witty satirist and famous author, Henry Austen seems to paint a picture of Jane as an elegant and delicate woman. To what extent this is accurate, we have no way of knowing. As any woman living at the time, and as any person living even today, Austen was, to a certain extent, forced to present a version of herself to the outside world, behave in an appropriate way, and strive to achieve a certain ideal. Everywhere but in her work and in her innermost circle, she must have maintained a type of façade. When examined through this lens, Austen’s analysis of how Jane Fairfax and Jane Bennet are understood by the world around them and her subtle critiques of their overly gentle nature become her critique of the hypocrisy with which society views the ideal woman, and how even the most perfectly appropriate characters would be better off suffering the consequences of simply being themselves. Either these Janes stand in for Austen, illustrating the author's analysis of herself and her struggles, or, more likely, they represent a partially or even fully fictionalized version of the Jane so often seen and desired by the people around Austen, with which she explores and criticizes herself and others around her for the masks which they have all been forced to don.
This use of characters named Jane is perplexing and funny—Austen certainly reminds the reader how talented, smart, and beautiful she really is—which is why it stuck out to me, demanding further inspection. There had to be another element to this seemingly simple and silly coincidence, and based on an analysis of these two scenes, there is no doubt that Austen succeeds not only in developing her story, but in something deeper; by using the name Jane to connect herself with her characters, Austen satirizes herself, analyzing a version of herself so antithetical to the one evident in her works and letters, possibly paying homage to the character of Jane that she created to showcase every day to the world around her.
