Jane Austen saw the hypocrisy of an entire class of the most powerful empire on Earth taking tea and planning balls while the world burned. And from a young age she took up arms against that hypocrisy with the only weapon she had: her pen. Join the community at: bit.ly/EHPatreon
Actually thinking about that idea, do you think she had something to hide? Or did the family want to cut ties to her by burning all known letters of past conversation?
I would love to see someone do a take on Jane Austin's life (and what mysterious things she might have been up to that her family wanted to cover up) in the style of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
@@beaste1970 It's likely they just became overprotective of her image. You see that a lot even with modern authors who pass away, that their surviving family gets extremely possessive of their relative's image and curating it to be as positive as possible. This kind of attitude can lead to some truly absurd lengths, scrubbing even the most innocent personal correspondence from the record, often in ways the actual writer never would have approved of. A similar thing happened to Lewis Carol and it was even worse, because the decision backfired and made everyone posthumously think he was a pedophile.
Fun fact: Jane Austen is on the British £10 note. It is accompanied by the quote "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!" The quote was spoken by one of her characters in Pride and Prejudice, Caroline Bingley, who had no interest in reading and was actually being sarcastic. Oof.
Those words are spoken by Caroline Bingley, who was not really interested in reading but was being sarcastic at Lizzie Bennet's expense and trying to show off to Mr Darcy.
hmm. I didn't really interpret that line as Caroline being sarcastic, but rather as Caroline trying to appeal to Mr.Darcy through less than genuine sentiments.
This is basically why I love Jane Austen. She gets written off and underestimated even today because people don't see past the surface of her work. To me, Sense and Sensibility is about determining what we value most and about growing up, emotionally. Pride and Prejudice's moral is to be willing to change your mind and laugh at yourself. Mansfield Park is a morality play that cautions against people who choose appearances and status over what actually matters. Emma is about humbling the privileged. Persuasion is about the advantages of a mature mind. And Northanger Abbey basically pokes fun at girls who take Gothic romance too seriously.
She was absolutely wonderful. Polite, shy and quiet but with steely determination. I get emotional about her but don't know why. Crazy I know but that is how she affects me.....
Northhanger Abbey is legitimately like one of those popular Genre Parody movies, or maybe one of the many Historical-But-Modern Comedies on UK television. It's hilarious.
"That criticized Victorian society." Except she died in 1817, and was a product of the Regency. Victoria herself would not yet be born for another 2 years, in 1819.
Well, say what you will. Jane Austen was a woman who refused to give into the Social Norms of how women should act during the age. She is a pioneer of the age before even the Age was officially named. Ponder on that.
(Comment from Belinda) I don't know if anyone else has had this experience with Jane Austen's works, but in the educational culture I grew up in, the historical context of Austen's writing was almost never emphasized. Pride & Prejudice in particular is frequently reduced to being the original formula for romantic comedies (to say nothing of its own spin-off movies of the same name). I remember in high school class it seemed really weird to me that we would be talking about this 19th century novel as a progressive feminist work because it's already a given in the 21st century world that marrying for love is extremely commonplace. I'm really proud of our writers Jac and Rob, and our artist Ali, for bringing to life the "extra History" of Jane Austen that gets glossed over by popular culture.
Yes, the first time I heard about Jane Austen, it was not "a progressive feminist who write until her death", but rather a stupid chick who wrote stupid books full of sentiments, not really a good image ^^'
Lots of writers have taken Austen and run with it. For example, Wickham turns up in the Sharpe novels. There is err an erotic novel about one of the ladies in Pride and Prejudice too. I think one thing that happened, was the BBC serials, etc have been made as Romcoms, and do not want to show, how dangerous Wickham is (He may be the first functional psychopath in literature ) Mr Bennett, is almost trapped in a situation where the only way out, is to fight a duel, or have his daughters reputations ruined.
I agree. In the absence of historical context, it was really difficult to see a novel seeming to present "rich-snobby-negging-asshole-as-romantic-deal" as progressive.
I agree. Never saw the point of her novels. Until this video puts her into context and the very popular ideas in her books being at the time revolutionary and new.
P.S. There's a scene in Mansfield Park which is a metaphor for slavery. Fanny Price is made to spend a long time outdoors picking flowers - a luxury product, like sugar - on a hot day. She becomes exhausted. One of her aunts, Mrs Norris, is the overseer - she forces Fanny to do some extra work while the other aunt, Lady Bertram (wife of the estate owner), lounges about enjoying the nice sunshine and pretty flowers. Fanny's suffering is not one-thousandth of that of the enslaved field-workers, but the system of cruelty is the same.
Scene? The entire novel is metaphor. How many times is the word plantation used as a description of Mansfield Park? 3 or 4? Or naming the house after Lord Mansfield, the famous abolitionist and guardian of Dido Belle? How about the supposed protagonist's name, Fanny Price? That's not an accident. (I'm of the opinion that Mary Crawford is the real protagonist, but that's just me.) The entire story is about the subjugation of the lesser orders. Lesser sons, women, poorer relations, the working class - but especially women.
@@PaulfromChicago Poor sister giving away her daughter to the rich sister. Sir T. Bertrum lets his daughter marrie a dummie that has a large estate and money.
@erni muja Yeah, i don't think Jane would've agreed with that statement lol. Even when she did anted more rights for women. the reversed is just as bad.
wu1ming9shi No, she thought contemporary women's dependence on men was awful, but she knew it was true. That's the sarcastic joke Austen is making, the single young women desperately want to believe that the rich single men need to marry them, but it's the other way around. All the daughters of a gentleman needed to marry a gentleman to stay in that class, but only the eldest son inherited the land that made him a gentleman. So there was a massive shortage of single gentlemen. There was no alternative for the vast majority of women. Be supported by a man or be poor in a world with no welfare state. Austen herself earned very little money from her works, and depended on her brothers' charity.
From my understanding, it was fairly common in her time to burn letters of deceased family members. I believe it was to keep the relationships between people "personal". That is one of the reasons we know little about the personal lives of people from that time.
Loved this video. I do know who Jane Austen was when I first read Mansfield Park, the first book of hers I had ever read and immediately loved her “subtle” ways of criticism. Still my favorite line is “If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow."
I know it's not relevant to her legacy, but I am nevertheless deeply disappointed you didn't mention Mark Twain's borderline irrational loathing of Austen's work. Some of the funniest things he ever wrote were in reaction to her novels. It's a pity he didn't enjoy her work, though.
That's his short-sightedness. Twain and Austen came from different worlds, and the audience's expectations of each would have been vastly different. Jane's novels reflect the society she lived in - on the surface genteel, but underneath highly Conservative and judgmental. The latter aspect she was subject to as she came from a lower middle class family. As a female, her course in life would have been very restricted, and she might have chafed against the restrictions and norms of her English society. The fact that whilst alive she felt it necessary to publish her work anonymously, perhaps not to embarrass her family, would support that view. Twain however, was a different dish altogether. Male, independent, and American, he would have had much more freedom in what he could write. If he critique his society, he would not experience anything other than disapproval. So, I try to reserve judgment.
Burning the letters of departed relatives was commonplace at the time. Even the letters of people who by all accounts were the most upstanding individuals you could meet in both their public and private lives were burned upon their death. Don't assume the person deceased did something scandalous just because their surviving family burned their letters.
Not a common thing though. As an Indonesian one of our local hero and female right movement from 1800s exchange letters with several of her female friends in Dutch and when she died rather than burning her letters they gather them and send it to my country as a support for female right movement. They never intended to burn her letters after she died.
@@SoAS26 Depends on the culture. Some burn letters, hide pictures, and restrain from mentioning the dead's name to ease the grieving party's sorrow and move on easier. Some are superstitious about ghosts and the dead's belongings (my country is that type, but I am not a believer) because the occult is still a thing especially in the 1800's. Some are like you who keeps great great granny's letters to pay homage and remember the good days she lived.
Another reason they may have done so was to respect her privacy. Letters after all are generally private correspondence, and since the writer was no longer there to say what they were happy to have others besides the recipient know they prevented any breach of trust by destroying the letters.
It's entirely possible that the destruction of the letters was simply an effort to keep her private life private. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've always had a vague discomfort with the idea that if I became significant to history, suddenly messages I sent to family and friends with the implicit understanding that they were only intended to be read by their recipients, would become resources for historians. I'm not trying to suggest it's a legitimate source of historical information, but it's kinda the equivalent to when archaeologists dig up grave sites - weirdly ghoulish and invasive. I mean, odds are I'm not going to become a historically significant figure - most people who do show signs of that by my age - so it's largely irrelevant, but.... *shrug* In my mind it's entirely possible that Jane Austen, or her family, had similar reservations about that sort of prying, and, knowing that she was likely to become historically relevant, decided to ensure that such invasions of her privacy would not occur.
rashkavar maybe i could buy that reasoning for Jane Austen's time, but not in your case... I mean you'll be dead, what value will "privacy" have to you then?! -.-
As John Green said: "A plea to the relatives and lawyers of published authors: no matter how much they ask you, DON'T burn their correspondence and unfinished works after they die! Those are historical documents now! Unless you are MY relative or lawyer, in which case BURN EVERYTHING!"
Ancient Accounts - Animated History so basically "if you don't like something I subjectively like then you have shit taste". Not a good quote to be remembered for.
Of course the goodness of a novel is subjective but the greatness of certain writers seem to be nearly universal and most will enjoy at least one book that society will consider a good novel. However there are those that read nothing and with the context of the line (Henry, Catherine and Eleanor are talking about books and Catherine mentioning that she thought someone such as Henry's library of books is lacking which causes the quoted line) those are the ones who are intolerably stupid.
Then, of course, there is General Douglas MacArthur's "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." Isn't it an odd dance where the pen arouses the sword arouses the pen? The pen ultimately seems to always triumph as those brandishing weapons diminish their numbers whereas the ideas in the written word can have a certain immortality. Humanity, you'd think we would learn. So, with that said: "If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have left and what they taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind." Major Michael Davis O'Donnell 1/1/70 Dak To, Vietnam Did I sense a pen? Hmmm...
It's not supposed to be taken literally, silly. The point is that you can influence the minds of entire populations by controlling their information without holding guns to their heads, for better or for worse. Sure you could just nuke everybody, but then what have you accomplished?
I have to say, Extra Credits is one of the best channels on RUclips. And I do not mean that sarcastically. History and the history of ideas should be fun. And it helps society if everyone is acquainted with it in some way. Socrates and the greek Philosophers would be a nice subject.
I mean they are fun but there is mistakes in every video. You can look at them in comments. There are history channels which are entertaining and don’t have this level of mistakes or barely at all. Extra Credits has been going on for years now and should respond to criticism. Their issue seems to be they’d use only one book as a source (hard to tell since they don’t site their sources but that’s what some videos have indicated) and even though big series get Lies episodes they often ignore lots of things people have pointed out but by doing Lies they appear to be more responding to issues they are.
More episodes about famous authors please. This is one great episode. As an avid reader and someone who never really thought about reading anything by Jane Austen, this suddenly gave me a respect for the woman.
One thing I love about Austen's work is not just the social satire but also the way it reacts to the existing literary trends. Austen doesn't resort to too many stock characters; all her characters seem fairly fleshed out as people. She particularly avoids the "paragon heroes" that earlier books like Evelina used. Even her most admirable characters have flaws.
Thank you so much for covering Jane Austen! I haven't read all her books (something I should remedy) but I have always loved Pride & Prejudice, and I appreciate Ms. Austen getting a treatment here on extra credits
You can check Overly Sarcastic Productions. They suggest good books, ranging from classic to modern classics. You can try All quiet on the western front, a truly compelling read.
I always hated how people reduced Jane Austen from "Progressive Feminist" to "The One Who Wrote All Those Chick Flicks". Her stories were subversive. At a time when a woman could be thrown in a mental asylum for disagreeing with a man or not wanting kids, she wrote female characters who had their own opinions and goals. Jane Eyre, supposedly the most boring and least compelling heroine, not only leaves the romantic lead because he had imprisoned his wife in the cellar, she also turns down another dude who tried to force her to be with him by pulling the Nice Guy act (or in this case the "I'm a priest and God said you should marry me" act). She only comes back when she and Rochester are on equal footing. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth full on fucking roasts Darcy to his actual face. They don't get together until he apologizes for being a dick to her and her family. I hate that her contributions to literature are watered down to "trite romance"
honestly i think that is because nowadays such books just dont seem progressive, even if they were at the time. especially if the reader lacks the cultural context to know
Thank you for covering Jane Austin. For too long i have tried to talk about her in to friends to just have her dismissed as a "silly romance novelist" It infuriated me to hear this as she was so much more and work so much commentary into her novels. So thank you.
I really like this new trend of showing a picture/portrait of the historical figure at the end of the video. They did that for the Sun Yat Sen series and now in this video too. I hope this becomes a permanent feature.
I love the little details you put into the art for these videos. Especially the “this is fine” refrence and the dirty corgi to stand in for the british crown
this is why I watch you guys because you always inform me to the point where I have to think differently when I started this video I though Jane Austin was just ok but by the video's end I now know she is invaluable and am so happy she had the impact she did
A thought: Not long after The Promised Neverland began, I always thought that Emma was named after the Jane Austen protagonist and Norman was named after Norman Rockwell. Both of them embodied life in a seemingly idyllic world with many comforts and luxuries but with things that are very, very wrong beneath the surface, which also describes the setting of The Promised Neverland. Anybody else a fan of the series and thought that? I never figured who Ray may be named after though.
Thank you for this. My favorite story of all times is Pride and Prejudice. Pity her family destroyed her letters. Whatever else she was, she was brilliant.
Personally I think that when it comes to social commentary in society at their said times it is Charles Dickens, Jane Austen more on the problems with the human character and its flaws in situations.
It should be noted that Austen's works had a reasonable but unspectacular reception in her own time, were little known for 50 years, and then repopularized in the 1870's.
In her essay, "A Room of One's Own" Virginia Woolf suggests that the reason we do not know Austen from her work is the same reason we do not know Shakespeare from his, both expressed their genius without impedance of the mind, they live not as a trait of their writing, but as their writing itself.
Did someone else though of Alexander Hamilton('s musical) while Jane Austen's story? "Our [girl] saw [her] future drip, dripping down the drain🎶 Put a pencil to [her] temple, connected it to [her] brain And [she] wrote [her] first refrain, a testament to [her] pain. 🎶" "A voice saying, "[Jane] you gotta fend for yourself"🎶 [She] started retreating and reading every treatise on the shelf🎶" " Scanning for every book [she] can get [her] hands on🎶" "Why do you write like you're running out of time? 🎶 Why do you write like you're running out of time? 🎶 Every day you write like you're running out of time, Like you're running TIIIIME! 🎶" "And the world is going to know your name! 🎶 What's your name [girl]? 🎶 Jane Austeeen. My name is Jane Austeen 🎶 And there's a million things I haven't done🎶, just you wait just you waiiit 🎶" AMAZING! That's why I love reading! Let's get some more Jane Austen and Hamilton in us =P. ... " I'm burning the memories Burning the letters that might have redeeeemed you🎶." 👀 (last part doesn't fit bzt there are also burned letters X))
(9:45 to 9:49) "How do you write like you're running outta time? Write day and night like you're running outta time? How do you write ev'ry second you're alive, ev'ry second you're alive?" these three lines from Hamilton sum up Austen's life
I must admit to having completely disregarded Austen as a writer because I believed that she was too supportive of the contemporary lifestyle of the time but that seems to of been a greately gragarious misinterpretation of her writing. I will have to go back and actually read her work this time I think.
It can be difficult with old novels to know what kind of meta narrative might be taking place if you don’t know enough about the period. A reading guide can help with that.
At [7:32] Sir Thomas did not respond with "uncomfortable silence" when Fanny Price asked him about the slave trade in Mansfield Park. Read the book. His son and Sir Thomas both wanted to discuss the issue more. He answered the question. The text says Fanny was pleased by his answer. The "dead silence" refers to the silence of Sir Thomas's other adult children, who don't care about the issue. Sir Thomas was not angry when Fanny asked her question.
I'm always wary about trying to reason out a person's life based on their works, because that way anti-stratfordianism lies. (aka, people who don't believe Shakespeare wrote his works because HOW CAN FALCON IF NOT POSH?!?)
I was lucky to have a brit lit teacher in high school and a classical literature loving mother who gave "Pride and Prejudice," and Austin herself the respect it deserves. They still encouraged me to find the comedy in her work (Heck my favorite line from that book is when Elizabeth's dad turns her mom's words around to help Elizabeth win an argument.) but they also spoke of it as an important character study and made us ponder how prejudice plays out in the world the characters live in and comes from both sides of the story. Sadly, I have yet to read any of Austin's other works, although Emma is on my list of books I want to read before I die.
I have to disagree with what you said about prejudice. Obviously Elizabeth's problem is with prejudice and Darcy's fault is pride. Through their interactions in the book both learn about their faults and become better and more rounded people. All done within a very entertaining story.
Look at how much more powerful a machine for change her writing was, with it's subtlety and sarcasm, than the kind of confrontational LISTEN TO ME I AM RIGHT! kind of writing happens in modern times. You can never change someone's mind for them, but if you can show them something that makes them think and come to the conclusion on their own, they will change every time. A fantastic writer, a fantastic woman, a fantastic person. And a fantastic motivator for positive change in the world.
I went to Winchester and visited Jane Austen's burial place in the cathedral in December. I was the only one on the tour who had read her works. That made me quite sad. She was a hell of a woman, a hell of a person, and a hell of a writer.
Truth be told, when I read P&P in high school, I found it to be the most boring book I have ever read (not that I read many books in those days). I couldn't fathom why people thought a book about olden days gossip was so important. Eventually came to appreciate the ideas that Austen expressed after listening to people that understood what it was she was writing about. Even though I haven't gone back to read her works, I still hold her in high esteem despite my initial impressions.
I greatly enjoy all her work and have also read the completed novel Sanditon, as well as the murder mysteries based on her life, Jane and the [Man of the Cloth], for example.
It boggles the mind to think that this was only a few generations ago yet it feels like the tales of an alien species. It also boggles the mind that despite all this, her novels still manage to be relevant and engaging.
Jane Austen saw the hypocrisy of an entire class of the most powerful
empire on Earth taking tea and planning balls while the world burned. And from a young age she took up arms against that hypocrisy with the only weapon she had: her pen.
Join the community at: bit.ly/EHPatreon
What happened to the other dude from Extra Credits?
Extra Credits I love the accuracy using calligraphy/Victorian steel pens instead of ballpoints gel rollerballs or fountain pens
You guys should do a series on Andrew Jackson
T Blue I agree
This story made me cry a bit :,3
"Burn all my letters" was the Regency equivalent of "delete my browser history."
*suddenly W O K E*
Maybe we should stop deleting our browser history...IDK...
Actually thinking about that idea, do you think she had something to hide? Or did the family want to cut ties to her by burning all known letters of past conversation?
I would love to see someone do a take on Jane Austin's life (and what mysterious things she might have been up to that her family wanted to cover up) in the style of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
@@beaste1970 It's likely they just became overprotective of her image. You see that a lot even with modern authors who pass away, that their surviving family gets extremely possessive of their relative's image and curating it to be as positive as possible. This kind of attitude can lead to some truly absurd lengths, scrubbing even the most innocent personal correspondence from the record, often in ways the actual writer never would have approved of. A similar thing happened to Lewis Carol and it was even worse, because the decision backfired and made everyone posthumously think he was a pedophile.
"I find you agreeable."
"I also find you agreeable."
British marriage proposals are so romantic
*were*
Better than "You're what??", I think.
Is it ok that this reminds me of Avatar The Last Airbender: "...I don't Hate You" "...I don't Hate You too..."
Marrying for love is a 20th century notion.
@@karry299 _Rich_ people marrying for love is a 20th century notion
Fun fact: Jane Austen is on the British £10 note. It is accompanied by the quote "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!"
The quote was spoken by one of her characters in Pride and Prejudice, Caroline Bingley, who had no interest in reading and was actually being sarcastic. Oof.
Yep.
Those words are spoken by Caroline Bingley, who was not really interested in reading but was being sarcastic at Lizzie Bennet's expense and trying to show off to Mr Darcy.
Frank Upton maybe use the "Read more" next times?
Trolligarch I played Caroline Bingley in a school production and Caroline was so sarcastic
hmm. I didn't really interpret that line as Caroline being sarcastic, but rather as Caroline trying to appeal to Mr.Darcy through less than genuine sentiments.
This is basically why I love Jane Austen. She gets written off and underestimated even today because people don't see past the surface of her work. To me, Sense and Sensibility is about determining what we value most and about growing up, emotionally. Pride and Prejudice's moral is to be willing to change your mind and laugh at yourself. Mansfield Park is a morality play that cautions against people who choose appearances and status over what actually matters. Emma is about humbling the privileged. Persuasion is about the advantages of a mature mind. And Northanger Abbey basically pokes fun at girls who take Gothic romance too seriously.
Monique Ocampo 👌
Now you got me interested.
She was absolutely wonderful. Polite, shy and quiet but with steely determination. I get emotional about her but don't know why. Crazy I know but that is how she affects me.....
What exactly is gothic romance anyway?
Northhanger Abbey is legitimately like one of those popular Genre Parody movies, or maybe one of the many Historical-But-Modern Comedies on UK television. It's hilarious.
"That criticized Victorian society." Except she died in 1817, and was a product of the Regency. Victoria herself would not yet be born for another 2 years, in 1819.
Well spotted. That would deserve mention of they did an episode on lies.
In a comment above, they mentioned they didn't read Austin's works within context. This shows it very clearly.
Let's bump this up to the top with likes.
Thank you. Regency England != Victorian England.
Well, say what you will. Jane Austen was a woman who refused to give into the Social Norms of how women should act during the age. She is a pioneer of the age before even the Age was officially named. Ponder on that.
One of Austen's burned letters:
"It was Walpole"
*wallpole
Zander Cloud sry mate, it’s Walpole
Zander Cloud Walpole*
@Dylan Chouinard "Winter is coming"
I still trying to imagine how Jane would react to "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"...
Holy shit that's a real thing
@@historiammundi619 Dude, they even made a movie out of it.
I think from her books that it is clear she had a good sense of humor, so she probably would have seen it with a morbid sense of amusement.
@@historiammundi619 Woath! Is that really a thing? Wtf!
ahahaha, omg it IS a thing! 🤣
"That can't be real. There's no way." *looks it up* "god damn it hollywood."
(Comment from Belinda) I don't know if anyone else has had this experience with Jane Austen's works, but in the educational culture I grew up in, the historical context of Austen's writing was almost never emphasized. Pride & Prejudice in particular is frequently reduced to being the original formula for romantic comedies (to say nothing of its own spin-off movies of the same name). I remember in high school class it seemed really weird to me that we would be talking about this 19th century novel as a progressive feminist work because it's already a given in the 21st century world that marrying for love is extremely commonplace. I'm really proud of our writers Jac and Rob, and our artist Ali, for bringing to life the "extra History" of Jane Austen that gets glossed over by popular culture.
I loved how Ec crew, also give some comment about its topics, it gives history "another" perspective to learn 🤓
Yes, the first time I heard about Jane Austen, it was not "a progressive feminist who write until her death", but rather a stupid chick who wrote stupid books full of sentiments, not really a good image ^^'
Lots of writers have taken Austen and run with it. For example, Wickham turns up in the Sharpe novels. There is err an erotic novel about one of the ladies in Pride and Prejudice too. I think one thing that happened, was the BBC serials, etc have been made as Romcoms, and do not want to show, how dangerous Wickham is (He may be the first functional psychopath in literature ) Mr Bennett, is almost trapped in a situation where the only way out, is to fight a duel, or have his daughters reputations ruined.
I agree. In the absence of historical context, it was really difficult to see a novel seeming to present "rich-snobby-negging-asshole-as-romantic-deal" as progressive.
I agree. Never saw the point of her novels. Until this video puts her into context and the very popular ideas in her books being at the time revolutionary and new.
P.S. There's a scene in Mansfield Park which is a metaphor for slavery. Fanny Price is made to spend a long time outdoors picking flowers - a luxury product, like sugar - on a hot day. She becomes exhausted. One of her aunts, Mrs Norris, is the overseer - she forces Fanny to do some extra work while the other aunt, Lady Bertram (wife of the estate owner), lounges about enjoying the nice sunshine and pretty flowers. Fanny's suffering is not one-thousandth of that of the enslaved field-workers, but the system of cruelty is the same.
Scene? The entire novel is metaphor. How many times is the word plantation used as a description of Mansfield Park? 3 or 4? Or naming the house after Lord Mansfield, the famous abolitionist and guardian of Dido Belle? How about the supposed protagonist's name, Fanny Price? That's not an accident. (I'm of the opinion that Mary Crawford is the real protagonist, but that's just me.) The entire story is about the subjugation of the lesser orders. Lesser sons, women, poorer relations, the working class - but especially women.
@@PaulfromChicago Poor sister giving away her daughter to the rich sister. Sir T. Bertrum lets his daughter marrie a dummie that has a large estate and money.
*“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”*
@Ned Kelly Ah, a man of culture.
@erni muja Yeah, i don't think Jane would've agreed with that statement lol. Even when she did anted more rights for women. the reversed is just as bad.
WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS WAS SARCASM?!
wu1ming9shi No, she thought contemporary women's dependence on men was awful, but she knew it was true. That's the sarcastic joke Austen is making, the single young women desperately want to believe that the rich single men need to marry them, but it's the other way around.
All the daughters of a gentleman needed to marry a gentleman to stay in that class, but only the eldest son inherited the land that made him a gentleman. So there was a massive shortage of single gentlemen.
There was no alternative for the vast majority of women. Be supported by a man or be poor in a world with no welfare state. Austen herself earned very little money from her works, and depended on her brothers' charity.
I wonder what she would have to say about 2D waifu culture...
From my understanding, it was fairly common in her time to burn letters of deceased family members. I believe it was to keep the relationships between people "personal". That is one of the reasons we know little about the personal lives of people from that time.
Loved this video. I do know who Jane Austen was when I first read Mansfield Park, the first book of hers I had ever read and immediately loved her “subtle” ways of criticism. Still my favorite line is “If this man had not twelve thousand a year, he would be a very stupid fellow."
I know it's not relevant to her legacy, but I am nevertheless deeply disappointed you didn't mention Mark Twain's borderline irrational loathing of Austen's work. Some of the funniest things he ever wrote were in reaction to her novels. It's a pity he didn't enjoy her work, though.
The OG anti-feminist reactionary? 😅
One of the Brontë sisters wasn't Bronx of her work either. Wuthering Heights is to some extent a reaction against it as well.
Same as the Brontë sisters. Virginia Woolf, however, adored Austen.
Probably because he hate sarcasm and subtle text and prefer more direct approach?
That's his short-sightedness. Twain and Austen came from different worlds, and the audience's expectations of each would have been vastly different. Jane's novels reflect the society she lived in - on the surface genteel, but underneath highly Conservative and judgmental. The latter aspect she was subject to as she came from a lower middle class family. As a female, her course in life would have been very restricted, and she might have chafed against the restrictions and norms of her English society. The fact that whilst alive she felt it necessary to publish her work anonymously, perhaps not to embarrass her family, would support that view. Twain however, was a different dish altogether. Male, independent, and American, he would have had much more freedom in what he could write. If he critique his society, he would not experience anything other than disapproval. So, I try to reserve judgment.
Burning the letters of departed relatives was commonplace at the time. Even the letters of people who by all accounts were the most upstanding individuals you could meet in both their public and private lives were burned upon their death. Don't assume the person deceased did something scandalous just because their surviving family burned their letters.
Not a common thing though. As an Indonesian one of our local hero and female right movement from 1800s exchange letters with several of her female friends in Dutch and when she died rather than burning her letters they gather them and send it to my country as a support for female right movement. They never intended to burn her letters after she died.
That's kinda sad though....letters are something which should be kept and cherished....
@@SoAS26 Depends on the culture. Some burn letters, hide pictures, and restrain from mentioning the dead's name to ease the grieving party's sorrow and move on easier. Some are superstitious about ghosts and the dead's belongings (my country is that type, but I am not a believer) because the occult is still a thing especially in the 1800's. Some are like you who keeps great great granny's letters to pay homage and remember the good days she lived.
¨IM burnig the letters that might redeem you, you ¨
Another reason they may have done so was to respect her privacy. Letters after all are generally private correspondence, and since the writer was no longer there to say what they were happy to have others besides the recipient know they prevented any breach of trust by destroying the letters.
Austen's works pre-date the Victorian era, just fyi.
... by 20 years.
I want a Hamilton style musical about this amazing woman
"I'm burning the letter you wrote me."
They could sing burn
me too, but is the world ready for that?
What is Hamilton
"Why do you write like you're running out of time?"
It's entirely possible that the destruction of the letters was simply an effort to keep her private life private. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've always had a vague discomfort with the idea that if I became significant to history, suddenly messages I sent to family and friends with the implicit understanding that they were only intended to be read by their recipients, would become resources for historians. I'm not trying to suggest it's a legitimate source of historical information, but it's kinda the equivalent to when archaeologists dig up grave sites - weirdly ghoulish and invasive.
I mean, odds are I'm not going to become a historically significant figure - most people who do show signs of that by my age - so it's largely irrelevant, but.... *shrug*
In my mind it's entirely possible that Jane Austen, or her family, had similar reservations about that sort of prying, and, knowing that she was likely to become historically relevant, decided to ensure that such invasions of her privacy would not occur.
rashkavar maybe i could buy that reasoning for Jane Austen's time, but not in your case... I mean you'll be dead, what value will "privacy" have to you then?! -.-
As John Green said: "A plea to the relatives and lawyers of published authors: no matter how much they ask you, DON'T burn their correspondence and unfinished works after they die! Those are historical documents now! Unless you are MY relative or lawyer, in which case BURN EVERYTHING!"
"The person who be it gentlemen or lady, who had not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid" -Austen
@Ned Kelly In all fairness when she wrote it, EDIT: --other- new forms of media didn't exist, even then shes a author so she's biased
what form of media exists today for which there was no analogue back then?
Ancient Accounts - Animated History so basically "if you don't like something I subjectively like then you have shit taste". Not a good quote to be remembered for.
I agree, i just figure the quote is relevant
Of course the goodness of a novel is subjective but the greatness of certain writers seem to be nearly universal and most will enjoy at least one book that society will consider a good novel.
However there are those that read nothing and with the context of the line (Henry, Catherine and Eleanor are talking about books and Catherine mentioning that she thought someone such as Henry's library of books is lacking which causes the quoted line) those are the ones who are intolerably stupid.
Jane Austen the first meme lord
The pen is mightier than the sword, as some might say
Then, of course, there is General Douglas MacArthur's "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons."
Isn't it an odd dance where the pen arouses the sword arouses the pen?
The pen ultimately seems to always triumph as those brandishing weapons diminish their numbers whereas the ideas in the written word can have a certain immortality.
Humanity, you'd think we would learn.
So, with that said:
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have left and what they taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1/1/70
Dak To, Vietnam
Did I sense a pen? Hmmm...
"The pen might not be mightier than the sword, but maybe the printing press was heavier than the siege weapon"
John Wick can confirm
but is a pen mightier than a nuke?
It's not supposed to be taken literally, silly. The point is that you can influence the minds of entire populations by controlling their information without holding guns to their heads, for better or for worse.
Sure you could just nuke everybody, but then what have you accomplished?
I have to say, Extra Credits is one of the best channels on RUclips. And I do not mean that sarcastically. History and the history of ideas should be fun. And it helps society if everyone is acquainted with it in some way. Socrates and the greek Philosophers would be a nice subject.
I mean they are fun but there is mistakes in every video. You can look at them in comments. There are history channels which are entertaining and don’t have this level of mistakes or barely at all. Extra Credits has been going on for years now and should respond to criticism. Their issue seems to be they’d use only one book as a source (hard to tell since they don’t site their sources but that’s what some videos have indicated) and even though big series get Lies episodes they often ignore lots of things people have pointed out but by doing Lies they appear to be more responding to issues they are.
More episodes about famous authors please. This is one great episode. As an avid reader and someone who never really thought about reading anything by Jane Austen, this suddenly gave me a respect for the woman.
One thing I love about Austen's work is not just the social satire but also the way it reacts to the existing literary trends. Austen doesn't resort to too many stock characters; all her characters seem fairly fleshed out as people. She particularly avoids the "paragon heroes" that earlier books like Evelina used. Even her most admirable characters have flaws.
Thank you so much for covering Jane Austen! I haven't read all her books (something I should remedy) but I have always loved Pride & Prejudice, and I appreciate Ms. Austen getting a treatment here on extra credits
You guys made me want to read her books thank you I'm always looking for something really nice to read
You can check Overly Sarcastic Productions. They suggest good books, ranging from classic to modern classics. You can try All quiet on the western front, a truly compelling read.
Read Persuasion by her! It’s absolutely beautiful.
I always hated how people reduced Jane Austen from "Progressive Feminist" to "The One Who Wrote All Those Chick Flicks". Her stories were subversive. At a time when a woman could be thrown in a mental asylum for disagreeing with a man or not wanting kids, she wrote female characters who had their own opinions and goals.
Jane Eyre, supposedly the most boring and least compelling heroine, not only leaves the romantic lead because he had imprisoned his wife in the cellar, she also turns down another dude who tried to force her to be with him by pulling the Nice Guy act (or in this case the "I'm a priest and God said you should marry me" act). She only comes back when she and Rochester are on equal footing. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth full on fucking roasts Darcy to his actual face. They don't get together until he apologizes for being a dick to her and her family.
I hate that her contributions to literature are watered down to "trite romance"
Nowadays she would probably be declared a SJW. I sometimes think the Internet was a mistake.
Fun fact: The Brontë sisters really disliked Jane Austen's novels.
Progressive feminists thrown in asylum? Rare oult times
Jane Eyre was written by Charlotte Bronte though.
honestly i think that is because nowadays such books just dont seem progressive, even if they were at the time. especially if the reader lacks the cultural context to know
One of my favorite authors, I still read P&P when I am down, it is my comfort literature
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must watch extra history.”
One must only hope that they live a life sufficient enough to have an episode on Extra Credits
Jane Austen is my favorite writer! She was my gateway into classic literature.
My favourite Austen line was from Northanger Abbey 'I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.'
'The pen is mightier than the sword'
Huh, I guess the phrase actually *DOES* make sense
Thank you for covering Jane Austin. For too long i have tried to talk about her in to friends to just have her dismissed as a "silly romance novelist" It infuriated me to hear this as she was so much more and work so much commentary into her novels. So thank you.
I really like this new trend of showing a picture/portrait of the historical figure at the end of the video. They did that for the Sun Yat Sen series and now in this video too. I hope this becomes a permanent feature.
I love the little details you put into the art for these videos. Especially the “this is fine” refrence and the dirty corgi to stand in for the british crown
I'm a simple man. I see a video on Jane Austin, and I click it.
Legitimately gave me an appreciation for Jane Austen that I never had before
this is why I watch you guys because you always inform me to the point where I have to think differently when I started this video I though Jane Austin was just ok but by the video's end I now know she is invaluable and am so happy she had the impact she did
It was Walpole!! ......But not Robert, a different one.....
LOL.
It's Walpole all the same
“…with the only weapon she had; her pen.”
Me : starts to panic thinking she stabbed aristocrats to death with a pen
Yes, use the right tools for the job. Don't ruin pens.
A thought: Not long after The Promised Neverland began, I always thought that Emma was named after the Jane Austen protagonist and Norman was named after Norman Rockwell. Both of them embodied life in a seemingly idyllic world with many comforts and luxuries but with things that are very, very wrong beneath the surface, which also describes the setting of The Promised Neverland. Anybody else a fan of the series and thought that? I never figured who Ray may be named after though.
Can you do the Spanish Inquisition
No
They will, but not when we expect it
@@gufosufo337 Nobody will ever expect it...😨
@@connorbetsinger5177 yes it would be so unexpected! And no reason not to
nobody will expect that episode
Thanks for making a video about my favourite autor 😍😆
So happy that there was a one-off about one of my favorite writers! :-) Thank you!!
I love your Chanel btw it helped me get good grades
Thank you for this. My favorite story of all times is Pride and Prejudice. Pity her family destroyed her letters. Whatever else she was, she was brilliant.
At 9:05 , I love the little CGP Grey reference of 'Pride & Prejudice & Zombies'
Thanks for this EC this really opened my eyes to writing and the changes that can be made. Thank you 😊
Personally I think that when it comes to social commentary in society at their said times it is Charles Dickens, Jane Austen more on the problems with the human character and its flaws in situations.
It should be noted that Austen's works had a reasonable but unspectacular reception in her own time, were little known for 50 years, and then repopularized in the 1870's.
In her essay, "A Room of One's Own" Virginia Woolf suggests that the reason we do not know Austen from her work is the same reason we do not know Shakespeare from his, both expressed their genius without impedance of the mind, they live not as a trait of their writing, but as their writing itself.
Did someone else though of Alexander Hamilton('s musical) while Jane Austen's story?
"Our [girl] saw [her] future drip, dripping down the drain🎶
Put a pencil to [her] temple, connected it to [her] brain
And [she] wrote [her] first refrain, a testament to [her] pain. 🎶"
"A voice saying, "[Jane] you gotta fend for yourself"🎶
[She] started retreating and reading every treatise on the shelf🎶"
" Scanning for every book [she] can get [her] hands on🎶"
"Why do you write like you're running out of time? 🎶
Why do you write like you're running out of time? 🎶
Every day you write like you're running out of time, Like you're running TIIIIME! 🎶"
"And the world is going to know your name! 🎶
What's your name [girl]? 🎶
Jane Austeeen.
My name is Jane Austeen 🎶
And there's a million things I haven't done🎶,
just you wait just you waiiit 🎶"
AMAZING! That's why I love reading! Let's get some more Jane Austen and Hamilton in us =P.
...
" I'm burning the memories
Burning the letters that might have redeeeemed you🎶." 👀 (last part doesn't fit bzt there are also burned letters X))
(9:45 to 9:49) "How do you write like you're running outta time? Write day and night like you're running outta time? How do you write ev'ry second you're alive, ev'ry second you're alive?" these three lines from Hamilton sum up Austen's life
Loved emma so much. I’ll have to dive in to her other published vooks as well.
I must admit to having completely disregarded Austen as a writer because I believed that she was too supportive of the contemporary lifestyle of the time but that seems to of been a greately gragarious misinterpretation of her writing. I will have to go back and actually read her work this time I think.
It can be difficult with old novels to know what kind of meta narrative might be taking place if you don’t know enough about the period. A reading guide can help with that.
A lot of her fanbase do not realize Austen is satire.
@@mavsworld1733 Do you think?
Like the video said, she both criticized and was found of her society.
Were you looking for "egregious"?
Really appreciate that the jump start picture shows one clip attached to the car body instead of the battery.
Thank you for making this. I was just thinking about Jane Austin yesterday, so it's real convenient.
I might've only read / watched the version of her work that had zombies, but the spirit of her work shined through, which was impressive.
At [7:32] Sir Thomas did not respond with "uncomfortable silence" when Fanny Price asked him about the slave trade in Mansfield Park. Read the book. His son and Sir Thomas both wanted to discuss the issue more. He answered the question. The text says Fanny was pleased by his answer. The "dead silence" refers to the silence of Sir Thomas's other adult children, who don't care about the issue. Sir Thomas was not angry when Fanny asked her question.
My sister literally started watching pride and prejudice right as I go on RUclips, and see this video!
Hey guys big thank you for the Austen summery, appreciate your work 👍
I live only a short drive from Jane Austen's birthplace, and that makes her a very important author in my local area
*Standing applause* That was magnificent, you made me cry tears of joy.
I'm always wary about trying to reason out a person's life based on their works, because that way anti-stratfordianism lies. (aka, people who don't believe Shakespeare wrote his works because HOW CAN FALCON IF NOT POSH?!?)
I was lucky to have a brit lit teacher in high school and a classical literature loving mother who gave "Pride and Prejudice," and Austin herself the respect it deserves. They still encouraged me to find the comedy in her work (Heck my favorite line from that book is when Elizabeth's dad turns her mom's words around to help Elizabeth win an argument.) but they also spoke of it as an important character study and made us ponder how prejudice plays out in the world the characters live in and comes from both sides of the story.
Sadly, I have yet to read any of Austin's other works, although Emma is on my list of books I want to read before I die.
I have to disagree with what you said about prejudice. Obviously Elizabeth's problem is with prejudice and Darcy's fault is pride. Through their interactions in the book both learn about their faults and become better and more rounded people. All done within a very entertaining story.
*looks through RUclips* What do I want to watch...? *sees Extra Credit video about Jane Austen* Whooo-hooo! 😁
Imagine if she manage to publish all her novels 😍😍 That would be really great.
Its amazing that anyone in any age can make history
A person who writes for the soul idea of change and purpose with the strength of a humble soul is a person I could see lead.
Look at how much more powerful a machine for change her writing was, with it's subtlety and sarcasm, than the kind of confrontational LISTEN TO ME I AM RIGHT! kind of writing happens in modern times. You can never change someone's mind for them, but if you can show them something that makes them think and come to the conclusion on their own, they will change every time. A fantastic writer, a fantastic woman, a fantastic person. And a fantastic motivator for positive change in the world.
"Horace" Walpole...
We all know that Walpole is one Walpole.
Learned lots, thanks.
Thanks for sharing!
I would kill for a graphic novel adaptation of her books!
BRAVO BRAVO!! VERY NICELY DONE!!
I went to Winchester and visited Jane Austen's burial place in the cathedral in December. I was the only one on the tour who had read her works. That made me quite sad. She was a hell of a woman, a hell of a person, and a hell of a writer.
Great video
What about "Sense and Sensibility"? I haven't read it, but being written by Austen, I'd think it deserves a mention.
Thank you for this enlightening look at Jane Austin's life! What an inspirational figure :)
You missed out Sense and Sensibility? Also it's not Victorian, it's Regency.
Truth be told, when I read P&P in high school, I found it to be the most boring book I have ever read (not that I read many books in those days). I couldn't fathom why people thought a book about olden days gossip was so important. Eventually came to appreciate the ideas that Austen expressed after listening to people that understood what it was she was writing about. Even though I haven't gone back to read her works, I still hold her in high esteem despite my initial impressions.
4:16 Walpole? WALPOLE?!!
5:08 Loving the "Jane Austin Firehose" image.
2 episodes in 3 days? Count me in!
A VIDEO, I LOVE THESE VIDEOS.
I greatly enjoy all her work and have also read the completed novel Sanditon, as well as the murder mysteries based on her life, Jane and the [Man of the Cloth], for example.
the little baby reading the book gets me every time
Amazing work! Hope to see more. -sincerely, Rocky Top Tennessee
I personally love Jane Austen. She writes so many great books that are entertaining. Extra history, you guys are the best!
"... couch opinions in satire." That really cracked me up.
Great video! I think I should read some of her books. The pen is mightier than the frailty of our meaty bodies.
It boggles the mind to think that this was only a few generations ago yet it feels like the tales of an alien species. It also boggles the mind that despite all this, her novels still manage to be relevant and engaging.
Thank you so much. I never knew this much about her.
I admit I'm not a fan of her work, but I'm still so happy seeing she subverted what her society expected of her and is still remembered today.
Walpole's back
I literally read this quote from pride and prejudice while studying before reading this.
Great video. Like a more wholesome TedEd on why to read Jane Austen.
THAT INTRO ALWAYS GETS ME EVERYTIME
I hope Jane is up there in heaven smiling down at you for making a honest reading of her works and accomplishments.