Which Jane?

Firstly I am so so so sorry for the delay in posting this, I had an extremely busy week last week (I will tell you all about it in another post) and then the silly poll widget/gadget thing wouldn't work, so I had to use an external poll thing (yeah, I have no idea what half the stuff on computers are called so 'thing' is the best I can do). Anyway the new poll Which Jane? is now up on the sidebar. There are 10 Jane's in the poll, they are as follows:

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre,

Jane Bennet from Pride & Prejudice

Jane Fairfax from Emma.

Miss Laurie of Old Fashioned Charm suggested:

 Miss Jane Marple from some of Agatha Christie's novels

Jane Andrews from the Anne of Green Gables series

Jane Murdstone from David Copperfield

Lady Jane Crawley from Vanity Fair

 Lady Jane Grey from Lady Jane (1986)

and Jane Banks from Mary Poppins. 

Abby from Newly Impassioned Soul also suggested:

 Miss Jane Marple from some of Agatha Christie's novels.

and Melody from Regency Delight- Jane Austen etc suggested:

 Jane Austen- here I am going to go with the character from Becoming Jane (2007)

Thank you ladies! and have fun voting :)

Polls: Results and Future

A little while ago the poll "Which Austen heroine has the best first-name?" finished. Before I list the results I just want to say thank you to everyone who voted because I am very pleased to say we had 54 votes, the highest amount of votes I have ever had on a poll.

Now to the results:

The winner, in first place was Elizabeth- 18 votes (33%)

There was a four-way tie for second place:
Elinor- 7 votes (12%)
Emma- 7 votes (12%)
Jane- 7 votes (12%)
Marianne- 7 votes (12%)

3rd was Catherine- 5 votes (9%)

At 4th  was Anne- 2 votes (3%)

and in the final position, Fanny- 1 vote (1%)

I thought the results were very interesting, I did not expect that Elizabeth would rate so much higher than the other. Don't get me wrong it is a beautiful name, and is definitely one of my favourites here but I thought it would be a much closer result between 1st and 2nd since I had so much trouble picking a clear favourite. I loved the fact that 2nd place was a four-way tie, It shows that Jane Austen picked so many beautiful names for her heroines and it was obviously very hard for all of us to choose from!

If you enjoyed these poll's and would like to learn more about the names Jane Austen used in her novels I encourage you to check out these blog posts that Miss Laurie over at Name Enthusiast wrote:

Jane Austen and English Nicknames

English Nicknames in Jane Austen's Day

Both of these posts are extremely informative and enjoyable to read!

 

Now that the above poll is finished, It is prime time to start thinking of a new one. I wanted to continue on the theme of names but have decided to stray a little bit from the meanings and the which name do you like better theme and focus on the character in reference to a name.

So this is what I plan to do, it is going to be a series of Poll's titled

"Which ______ ?"

I know that makes no sense at all right, so let me explain...where the line/blank space is I will substitute it with a name, for example the first one will be Jane in honour of the lovely Jane Austen. Therefore the first poll is: Which Jane? I will then list a selection of characters who are named Jane in literature or in a period drama film and create a poll to see which Jane is the favourite.

Now I have been thinking I may need your help with this poll series so a week before I plan to post the poll I will include the new name along with a list of those I characters I have thought of and leave a few spots open for you to come up with any other characters to add (of course I will credit you with your submission, when I officially post up the poll).

Anyway so the first one as I said above will be: Which Jane? so far the contestants are:

Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre 

Jane Bennet from Pride & Prejudice

Jane Fairfax from Emma

I have a few more to add later on if we don't get any suggestions, but I am going to leave it open for now so.... Can you think of anymore "Jane's"

ps. I will also post up small profiles on each of the characters who are contestants in the poll, so that we know who they are. And also each poll series will alternate between a female character name and male character name.

New Poll: Which Austen heroine has the best first-name?

The second poll in the name poll series is up! Following on from the first one, "Which Austen hero has the best first-name" the new poll is:

"Which Austen heroine has the best first-name" 

Once again we have 8 heroes and 8 names, all of which are the female *halves* of the heroes which were represented in the last poll. Just a reminder this poll is supposed to be based upon the name (not which heroine is your favourite) and as before I have also given the origin and some of the meanings. You do not have to vote on which meaning is your favourite, I personally just find that if I am stuck between two names the meaning may help me to pick between them. Have fun :)

*in alphabetical order (not preference)
  

ANNE 

Origin: Hebrew, French, English

Meaning: "He (God) has favored me", "gracious", "grace"

CATHERINE

Origin: Greek, English, French

Meaning: "pure"

ELINOR

Origin: Greek

Meaning: "sun ray, shinning light", "light"

ELIZABETH

Origin: Hebrew

Meaning: "God's promise", "God is my oath", "consecrated to God"

EMMA

Origin: German

Meaning: "entire", "universal", "whole"

FANNY

Origin: Latin

Meaning: "from France", "free"
*A diminutive or pet name of Frances (which was Fanny's mother's full name. I am not entirely sure but personally I think it is highly likely Frances was also Fanny's full name)

JANE

Origin: Hebrew

Meaning: "God is gracious"

MARIANNE

Origin: French

Meaning: A combination of MARIE (meaning "star of the sea") and ANNE (meaning "grace")





Didn't Jane choose some beautiful names with equally lovely meanings for her heroines! They all also seem to suit the characters so very well.


Much love,

Mel xx

PS. Sorry for the delay in posting this up- I've been having a little trouble with the poll gadget. Hopefully it is working now- even if the question/title does appear twice.

Poll Results: Villains we sympathise with

A little while back I posted a series on villains we sympathise with (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4), well the voting has finally closed and the results are in.

  In order of votes:

John Willoughby (Sense and Sensibility) - 22 votes (73%)

  

Guy of Gisbourne (Robin Hood BBC) - 12 votes (40%)

 

Carver Doone (Lorna Doone) - 6 votes (20%)

Henry Crawford (Mansfield Park) - 6 votes (20%)

Mr Elton (Emma) - 3 votes (10%)

Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Pride & Prejudice) - 3 votes (10%)

Mr Preston (Wives & Daughters) - 2 votes (6%)

Mr Elliot (Persuasion) - 2 votes (6%)

John Thorpe (Northanger Abbey) - 1 votes (3%)

Morris Townsend (Washington Square) - 1 votes (3%)

* voters were able to select more than one answer

I am so impressed with the results, and I am so glad that I am not the only one who sympathises with these villains (especially Willoughby and Gizzy). Thank you to everyone who voted and the next poll (along with an accompanying post) will be up very shortly.


With Much Love,

Mel xx

ps. sorry for the absence of images in this post, at the moment the images just wont load for me :(

Villians we sympathise with (Part 3)

A big "Thank you" to Miss Laurie from Old Fashion Charm (which is one of my favourite blogs, I encourage you to check it out if you haven't already), who has been kind enough to give us 6 more suggestions:

Mr Elliot

Mr Elliot is a villain in Jane Austen's Persuasion. He is the cousin of the main character Anne Elliot who re-unites with her family after a falling out when he married a very rich woman who was of inferior birth. After the death of his wife he desires to move up socially, to do this he reconcilles with the Elliots to gain higher social connections. Mr Elliot is very sly in his actions and changes his thoughts, opinions, manner and actions to suit whatever situation he is in. He also proposes to Anne with the intention of setting her up as his wife whilst still keeping Mrs Clay as his mistress.  
Personally I cannot even force myself to sympathise with Mr Elliot, I find him to be a slimeball, he is totally creepy and the only two villains I can think of right now which are worse than he is are Mr Collins (Pride & Prejudice) and Alec D'Urberville (Tess of the D'Urberville's). I am not sure whether I believe his admiration for Anne's character is sincere but I supose you could sympathise with him in the fact that he does lose Anne and is ultimately left with Mrs Clay who is just alike him in disposition and perhaps she will also play him just as she played everyone else.

Mr Elton

Mr Elton is one of Jane Austen's villains in her novel Emma. He is a clergyman who after being rejected by Emma literally runs-off and picks up a wealthly wife as if to shove it in Emma's face. If I had to name why I sympathised with Elton it would be because of his wife, although it could be said they deserve each other, or like many other villains this is in fact his punishment, his wife is a horrible character. Mrs Augusta Elton is much worse than Mr Elton she is a social climber, annoying and utterly ridicuclous. She is rich and constantly reminding those around her of the fact, she sticks her nose into everyone business because ultimately she believes everything is her business. She believes she is the best thing to come to Highbury and is determined to control every situation, ball, party and person! The information given to us in the novel about Augusta is not much however it is enough to give us an insight into the person she is, I cannot begin to imagine what it would be like for poor Mr Elton living with Augusta as his wife :)

John Thorpe 

John is a character out of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (my favourite novel!) and although I have never really thought of him as a villain, most likely because I like him so much, he is such a great character and absolutely hilarious, he can definitely be counted as a villain. John is, I think, one of those characters you love or hate as he is quite dimwitted, rude, obnoxious and always talking about horses or carriages especially at the most inopportune times. John is the chief instigator of all the trouble the befalls Catherine Morland during the course of the novel as he lies to General Tilney about Catherine being wealthy. I find it quite easy to feel sorry for John, particularly because he is such a hilarious character but also because he did intend to marry Catherine and the lie about her wealth ultimately brought her closer to Henry Tilney, the man whom he was contending against for Catherines attentions. We never really get to know what happens to John, his character disappears after he helps the plot in the right direction, so i must admit I feel sorry for him in the fact that he is a character who unintentionally points the story in the right direction but doesn't gain the anything, and is never heard of again.

The last 3 suggestions were:

- Mr Tulkinghorn (Bleak House)

- Mr Smallweed (Bleak House)

- Bradley Headstone (Our Mutual Friend)

Unfortunatley I don't know anything about these characters so I am going to have to do a little research on them before I post up their small profile. If you know of them I would love to hear why you think people may feel sympathetic towards them despite that they are villains.

Also have you noticed all our villains are males!? I wonder if in general we sympathise more with male villains then female ones? I would love to know any female villains you sympathise with?

*UPDATE (14/05/11):
As you are most likely already aware Blogger has had some issues the past couple of days, the result for this blog was some posts being temporarily taken off. Although the posts were restored the comments were not :) so if you posted a comment on this post I have re-posted it from the notification email I received :)

Which villains do you sympathise with?

Lately I have been thinking a lot about villains (most likely due to the fact that I have been discussing the villains of The Abduction Club over at my other blog) and I have realised that I don't dislike all villains actually I rather sympathise with a lot of them. With that said I thought it would be interesting to, over the next week, compile a list of villains or antagonists in period dramas/ classic novels with whom we sympathise with.

Here is my first suggestion:

Mr Willoughby:

John Willoughby is a character from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. He is one of those characters who is his own worst enemy and that is why I feel sorry for him. It is only himself that he can blame for the events that transpired throughout the novel and he knows this. I believe that despite his past actions, which of course I do not condone, he tried to change - because he truly loved Marianne Dashwood. He had every intention of marrying her but when  his past was exposed and his world came crashing down about him he could not cope with the possibility of poverty. It was this desire for wealth and status and his own vanity which were the driving motivation for his leaving Marianne. Also perhaps he believed that Marianne would not have forgiven him for what he had done in the past (just a thought). In order to prevent what he thought was his life falling apart before his eyes, John married the respectable Miss Grey- with fifty thousand pounds and this marriage was indeed his punishment,

 "If you can pity me, Miss Dashwood, pity my situation as it was then. With my head and heart full of your sister, I was forced to play the happy lover to another woman!"  (chapt.44)

Although John's obvious punishment is that of his marriage to Miss Grey, I think what is the worse punishment is the emotional one - the fact that he once had possession of love and lost it. He knew what it was like to be loved and to love and because of his own vanity lost it all, and knowing that never again would he possess all that was dear to him, or ever feel that feeling again. It's tragic and I believe what redeems him as a character is that he shows remorse and blames himself entirely for what he has done.

"But I have done it. To avoid a comparative poverty, which her affection and her society would have deprived of all its horrors, I have, by raising myself to affluence, lost everything that could make it a blessing."  (chapt. 44)

I will post more up for you to see during the week and once the list is big enough I will put it up into a poll and we can see who is generally acknowlegded as the villain/antagonist we sympathise with the most.

I would love to have your thoughts and suggestions on which villains/antagonists you sympathise with!