The Heroines of Jane Austen

Well, I'm going to do the same thing I did in my last post, but with heroines: ranking the heroines of JA from favorite to least-favorite.

Note: Just to make things match up with my Heroes of JA post, I will be including Marianne Dashwood but not Jane Bennet.

1. Elinor Dashwood

 Elinor is quite possibly my favorite literary heroine ever.  She feels deeply, but she has the self-control and sense to hide it, and she's very smart.  She basically manages her whole family and is the only one who has concerns about Willoughby's and Marianne's conduct.  I greatly admire her.

2. Catherine Morland

 Catherine is just so sweet.  She's rather like a more naive version of Jane Bennet- she doesn't want to see any bad in people and she is unaware of ulterior motives.  She's humble and kind, and she loves her (rather large) family.  She frequently indulges in (sometimes disastrous) flights of imagination, but she's willing to listen and act on advice.

3.  Elizabeth Bennet

 Lizzy Bennet: everyone's favorite Austen heroine.  She's almost mine, as well.  I love her wit, her sparkle, her wish to do right, and her mostly impeccable instinct for people.  When she makes mistakes, she acknowledges them and tries to correct them.  She's sensible and sees the faults of her family, but she loves them anyway.

4.  Anne Elliot

 Persuasion isn't my favorite Austen novel, but Anne immediately became one of my favorite Austen heroines.  She's bookish and shy, and despised by her proud, domineering family, but she loves them anyway.  She also keeps on loving Captain Wentworth even though he makes his dislike of her plain.

5. Fanny Price

 Fanny is generally overlooked as a "doormat."  It's true that she can be frustrating with her excessive timidity, but she has principles and sticks to them even though she's afraid.  Therefore, I still greatly esteem her.

6. Emma Woodhouse

 Emma can be downright infuriating sometimes, but she is a wonderful heroine nevertheless.  I love watching her grow throughout the story, and of course, her romance with Mr. Knightley is completely heart-melting.

7. Marianne Dashwood

Marianne Dashwood is even more infuriating than Emma, and she doesn't improve dramatically as Emma does, but she is likeable anyway- most of the time.  She's been encouraged in her romanticism since she was very small by her mother, and she's young and inexperienced, which make her behavior more understandable.  So while I don't like her as much as the others, I still have a certain fondness for her.