Edited by Sreya Sayeed
We have all come across the magnificent Jane Austen novels. Be it Pride and Prejudice or Emma her novels always give the sense of a fairy-tale. It made this image of the Victorian era — the girl always gets her prince charming. But I always wondered — how was the era really like? What were the issues people faced around Austen? Watching Becoming Jane completely mesmerized me. Honestly, the ending gave me much more satisfaction than any other Jane Austen novel ever did. It’s because it was so genuine and relatable. It brought about how real-life instances all jumble up together to form novels and how every day we live a part of a novel, but the truth remains that our life is not a 400 page book.
As I mentioned before, the ending was amazing. It was crazy to see how ideas in her novel were experienced by Jane at some point but never led to the same conclusion. The Victorian era was no different than ours — people experience ecstasy in moments of their life but it is hardly in their hands to re-experience it, conclude it, and as much as we want happy endings, our life is subject to calamity. Most importantly, women had to make hard decisions and choose between marrying the man they loved and staying afloat financially. It was not easy to elope with someone — there were so many other factors governing people’s lives. Novels just touched upon elopement like it didn’t matter much, but this movie actually showed what people went through if they would elope and how it was not always as simple as getting a happily ever after.Â
Sure the Victorian era had its rules and regulations — the bonnets, dresses and hats with all the bowing and formalities — but inside the layers of clothing were the same human beings with real feelings. They were struggling too. They wanted to end this patriarchy as well. And authors like Jane Austen started the new era. New eras don’t just emerge, they are the result of people’s actions. People were seen in the movie being frustrated by the laws. With ambition in their eyes, they wanted to be set free from conformity. They were slowly giving way to a new world. And here we are today — in a society where we can do anything we want, dress and behave anyway as long as it’s not offensive. We have pushed out of the cocoon.