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| Jane Bennett of Pride and Prejudice is a great example of the sort of proper lady that The Proper Lady always tries to admonish to its readers. |
Jane Austen is a definite, as a popular society novelist. The literary quality of her work is often debated and can be debated by anyone who has read more than one of her novels and opinions differ. As a matter of fact, if you worship her as a prime example of devilishly high-caliber writing, you are welcome to email me and start a debate as I am one of those people who find her work to be poorly written (although with great stories), however that is not the point of this particular article. The point of this particular article is to give examples of proper ladies from her work and if a writer is judged solely on his ability to write about proper ladies and feminine glory, then she is the most brilliant of all.
Firstly, I would like to give a warning to my readers that some of the characters mentioned on this list are feminine antagonists with traits that The Proper Lady neither encourages nor condones. They are mentioned here because they had traits that today, in the modern time period, would help to make a woman seem to be a "lady" and at the time period, a poor personality did not detract from one's state of being a proper lady.
At the time period of Jane Austen's work, qualities valued in ladies (and most rigorously developed in the daughters of prominent families) were:
- musical ability
- appeasing nature
- grace/composure
- feminine beauty
- wit / being accomplished
Musical Ability
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| The character of Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) had an elegant sister named Georgiana who was such an accomplished musician that he had an entire room in his estate set up just for her music. |
Being accomplished at classical musicianship was seen as one of the layers of class, the traits of class, the principles of elegance during the time period. During that time period, it was impossible to be considered an elegant woman without any knowledge of music and without the ability to play at least one classical instrument. The character of Caroline Bingley in Pride and Prejudice spoke that a woman of good society must have a thorough knowledge of "music [and] singing" to even deserve the word of a "lady."
In the Austen novel Mansfield Park, the character of Mary Crawford is an accomplished musician of the harp:
"A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as elegant as herself; and both placed near a window cut down to the ground, and opening on a little lawn, surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer, was enough to catch any man's heart."The character of Jane Bennett from Pride and Prejudice was also a reasonably accomplished musician of the piano forte.
Appeasing Nature
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| Jane Bennett's sweet, soft, and appeasing nature add to her feminine beauty. |
"Miss Crawford's attractions did not lessen. The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste which were particularly becoming, and there was something clever to be said at the close of every air."
-Mansfield Park, page 57.
'There goes good-humor, I am sure,' said he presently. 'There goes a temper which would never give pain! How well she walks! and how readily she falls in with the inclination of others! joining them the moment she is asked.'"
-Mansfield Park, p. 99.
It is viewed as an attractive quality because it hints to a woman being free of selfishness. It hints to her more traditionally feminine qualities: selflessness and obligingness to both the needs and the wants of others, qualities which hint at her being built for both a good wife and a good mother. Men wanted women who were soft, gentle, and sweet.
Grace and Composure
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| Caroline Bingley has great posture and a great manner of movement and deportment. |
Mary Crawford has exactly what is described as can be seen by this passage:
"Miss Crawford's attractions did not lessen. The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste which were particularly becoming, and there was something clever to be said at the close of every air."
-Mansfield Park, page 57.
Feminine Beauty
I think the reason for this is that she has feminine beauty. Her type of beauty reflects the grace, softness, obligingness, and sweetness that was so valued during that time period.
Wit/Being Accomplished
Okay, for this last trait of being ladylike in Jane Austen's world, I'm going to give you the entire quote from Miss Caroline Bingley because after all, despite her snobbery, the woman knows what she's talking about. She seems to have been bred for this sort of thing since infancy. So, as Caroline Bingley said, for a woman to even deserve the title of a "lady" she must:
"have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages ... and possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions..."
Despite the fact that women could not hold jobs and were looked down upon if they did not get married, it's interesting how in the 1700s for a woman to be accomplished was seen as a very attractive thing. Music was obviously a very important thing at the time period and although Austen never mentions it in the novel, Caroline Bingley was assumably a very accomplished musician. She was also an accomplished singer, artist and dancer and she also knew multiple languages (French and Italian were the most popular ones for "ladies" of Caroline Bingley's sort to know).
Intelligence and wit were also seen as attractive things. Women, despite their pre-decided roles in life, were not expected to dumb themselves down. After Caroline Bingley gives her opinion on what makes a woman deserve the title of a "lady", Mr. Darcy adds that a woman should also improve her mind by a lot of reading if she is to deserve the title.
One can also see an example of the wit of women being appreciated when one reads Mansfield Park:
"Miss Crawford's attractions did not lessen. The harp arrived, and rather added to her beauty, wit, and good-humour; for she played with the greatest obligingness, with an expression and taste which were particularly becoming, and there was something clever to be said at the close of every air."
-Mansfield Park, page 57.
We were fortunate enough to have this post mentioned at The New Elegant Black Woman. Visit the post here.
