The (mis)adventures of Super-S

…that a woman will always fall for a man who does not deserve her. At least once in her life. I’m not speaking currently. I am just saying, in general I think this is true. But the only reason I bring it up at all is because I just finished watching Becoming Jane with GG and another housemate, and it has made me think about my love of Jane Austen, as well as my general love of unsuitable or unavailable men. Over the years I have developed an unofficial but yearly tradition of re-reading Pride&Prejudice, and falling in love with it all over again. I have read 3 of Austen’s 6 completed novels, but I always come back to that one as my favorite.

Because, of course, I’m completely in love with Mr. Darcy. And I’m completely in love with Elizabeth Bennet, and completely in love with the idea that everything works out for them. That all misunderstandings are swept aside, and that two people truly deserving of one another are able to see past all the bullshit. Which is more or less what happens in Becoming Jane, except that there is no happy ending. We, the audience, are left looking longingly into James McAvoy’s beautiful, tragically sad eyes, with only Jane’s unwillingness to accept anything less than absolute true love to keep us going.

The movie left me wondering though, what is it about the Austen set up that I love so much? I will admit I am a true romantic in the sense that I believe true love is only born out of some sort of struggle and turmoil (not so much the type of romantic who likes flowers and open declarations of affection - gag me with a spoon), but I’m also the sort of person that believes that no person can truly change another, and no person should ever change just for another person. Which I think is sort of an essential part of the Austen appeal, no? I mean, either Darcy and Elizabeth, like, totally loved each other from the beginning and were just trying to cover up their true feelings, or one or both of them really sort of did a turnaround in their thoughts about the other person. No?

This, from the girl who when she realized she really kinda liked her best friend (now boyfriend) actually said to herself, “Oh my god, I love Josh!” which, any educated person should know is a quote from the movie Clueless, which in turn is based on Jane Austen’s Emma.

So mostly my question is - why do we love to love the misunderstood man? Why do we love to love the person we thought we never could love? I know I’m not alone in this. There is a reason why Jane Austen remains so popular, and it’s not her never ending descriptions of the English countryside.