Of heroes and romance

[litlover12]

(Cross-posted at Dickensblog)

Just a few thoughts inspired by my recent viewing of North and South:

It occurs to me that many of the most popular 19th-century romantic heroes are the haughty, brooding ones, and that a lot of these were created by women. Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy, Charlotte Brontë's Mr. Rochester, Emily Brontë's Heathcliff, Elizabeth Gaskell's John Thornton -- they all fit this pattern. (Say what you will about Heathcliff -- I hear a lot of people say nowadays that he shouldn't be considered a romantic hero at all -- but I still think he counts.) This is not to say that Austen and the other women never wrote about sensitive men, or even sensitive heroes, but generally their best known heroes seem to be the proud brooders. There are probably at least five Mr. Darcy fangirls for every Captain Wentworth fangirl.

On the other hand, when Dickens gives us a romantic hero -- say, Arthur Clennam, David Copperfield, or Nicholas Nickleby -- that hero tends to be outwardly gentler and more warm-hearted. A "sensitive male," if you will, though I don't really care for the term. I find it fascinating that these are the sort of romantic heroes that the century's greatest male novelist was creating, while the women were fashioning a very different sort of model.

And personally, I also find it fascinating that the vast majority of modern women prefer the haughty types, while I, a traditionalist in many ways, am so much more drawn to the Dickensian heroes. If one adhered to stereotypes, one might expect it to be the other way around.

What this all means . . . I'm not really sure! But it's interesting to think about. At least, I think it is.

Comments

[tempestsarekind.livejournal.com]

Not to mention I have a serious problem with P&P being used as the "typical" and "best" Austen novel over, and over, and over, and over again.

Seriously! I mean, I love P&P, but the insistence on it totally skews the way people look at Austen--like the assumption that all of Austen's heroines are like Elizabeth Bennet. So you get all this criticism about how, say, Fanny Price is an aberration from Austen's "usual" style, when she actually has a fair amount in common with heroines like Anne Elliot and Elinor Dashwood.

Also, Emma/Mr. Knightley forever. :) The short dialogue between them at the Randalls Christmas party ("Your father will not be easy; why do not you go?") is one of my favorite things ever.