Written on May 11, 2008, MSN space
—————————————————————
I'm no stranger to Jane Austen, but I don't know it either. I don't know why she is so popular in recent years, from the remake of "Pride and Prejudice" in 2005, "Becoming Jane Austen" in 2007, to this year's "Regrets of Jane Austen". Her works and her life are widely talked about. I only read "Pride and Prejudice" superficially when I was in high school, and I watched "Sense and Sensibility" directed by Ang Lee in college. Apart from those classic plots, I don't know what I remember. I only know a little about her life, and the interpretation of her life can only be restored by the director's narration to restore her understanding of the character. Therefore, I can only talk about the film's impressions on the facts.
I have been thinking about what the regret in the title refers to. After reading it again, I didn't understand it at all, so I had to drag and review the important passages again. The film echoes before and after. Although Austin was terminally ill at the end of the film to tell the whole story of her refusal to get married (I believe this is a deliberate arrangement by the director to avoid a straightforward description), the key to revealing the true meaning of the film is that Jane is in her brother’s life. The dialogue between Henry's family and the French maid, the film is precisely through the mouth of the French maid to implicitly express Jane's true thoughts. Jane clarified her thoughts in the exchange with her. Although those words did not come from her own mouth, she had no objection to it. It can be inferred that what the maid said was consistent with what she thought.
Jane passed away with regrets, and her life's regrets, as we have seen, did not marry the rich Mr. Bigg without bringing life security to her mother, sister and family? Or is it conventionally understood that she has not lived her ideal married life? Both of these possibilities can be ruled out. First, she said that she never regretted her choice, because she has always opposed loveless marriages. The only regret she said was that her own life was coming to an end, leaving nothing to her mother and sister. If you only take the literal meaning, she regrets her incompetence, not her choice, but notices that she is speaking to her sister, who can only use her sister as a housewife It was conveyed to her in an understandable way. In fact, that sentence had subtext. Second, after being rebuked by her mother's old story, she was so disgusted by her mother's pity that she said something like a warning to her niece who had always loved her: "You can be mad at me, Fanny, but You don't want to have pity on me!" She didn't feel sorry for being alone, but she was deeply in pain because of the incomprehension of the people around her. She never regretted her choice. Sadly, the people around her wanted her The choice is seen as a mistake. Third, she said before her death that she was very satisfied with her current life. She did not choose marriage, but she gained freedom because of it. Although she never got rid of poverty in her life, she found her own shelter in writing. So she devoutly thanked God for the arrangement for her.
In one detail, when she talks about her only regret, the first words she spit out are: "I'm going to die" - which is actually what she really wants to express, and the following sentence "I'm going to die" to leave you and Mother with nothing." It was for her sister. Why is death a regret? That kind of regret does not mean any specific regret in her life, but more meaningfully points to the depths of her life, a regret that cannot be repeatedly chosen in life. This is what the maid said, any woman, no matter an old maid, a wife, or a widow, every woman has regrets. Our regret is that we can only choose one kind of life and accept the birth, old age, sickness and death that everyone must face. The real regret is that I chose this kind of life, which means that I will never be able to experience another life that was not chosen. After all, life is only once. As for Jane, what she escaped is not just marriage, but the choice she faced in reality. Even though she never married can be regarded as a choice, she escaped from reality to her writing world, where she She can have several choices and several kinds of life; she can put her endless imagination and wisdom on the characters in the pen, and let them write the possibility of various lives on her behalf; there, passion and youth will never fade away. Is the book her ideal love? Not quite. Even Mr Darcy was not her ideal lover. It's just that the stories in the book can fill the gaps in her real life. With the help of writing, she jumped out of reality and escaped from the pain of choice. She became a viewer of life, a viewer who will never be pained by choice. She enjoys creating beautiful recipes, but she doesn't bother to cook them herself. She said that the happiness of a marriage depends entirely on luck, however, she does not want to be a victim of her destiny.
The encounter with Mr. Haden in London was an episode in her life. The appearance of Mr. Haden aroused unrest in her heart, she developed an admiration for him, not to mention fascination, fascination is the patent of young people, she has an attitude of appreciation for him more, he is in her What a perfect creation in her eyes, she had a shred of expectations for him, at least expecting him to be the one who understood her. This moment was born from a beautiful feeling in reality, but it was because of Mr. Haden's frivolity towards Fanny after the banquet. The performance is broken, and the description in that paragraph is quite brilliant. The ups and downs of Jane's heart, from the joy of knowing the encounter at the beginning to the sudden fall of her mood, are portrayed delicately and vividly. That kind of loss and anger can be easily read by any woman. It was after this that she had the conversation with the French servant. Jane denies that she has ever been in love in reality, the love affair with Tom when she was young, she interprets it as an emotional out-of-control when she was young, and the momentary feeling for Mr. Haden, which she describes as unreasonable happy. So she will tell her sister to burn the letters she once wrote after her death and destroy the evidence she was once intoxicated. She doesn't want people to capture traces of her romance from her few words, because her own attitude towards reality is negative, and she denies that she has been trapped by worldly emotions.
But she hopes that people around her can find their own happiness through her book. You can definitely find the right and wrong standards involving love and marriage in her books. Even for modern young people, her book is still a well-deserved example of marriage and love. No matter what choice you face, the most important thing is to listen to your heart. Fanny finally recognized her life and followed her advice. For the arrangement at the end of the film, viewers can finally get some spiritual comfort from Jane's death, and the depression and deepness of the whole film are also found here. An exit, along with the piano music at the end of the film, slowly flows away.
Digression: Olivia Williams, who plays the heroine, is somewhat similar to Anny Hathway, the heroine of "Being Jane Austen", in terms of looks, expressions and demeanor, but she is a bit older. After all, she plays a forty year old Austin. I personally think that the material selection and thematic significance of this film are better than "Being Jane Austen". "Becoming Jane Austen" is more based on Jane Austen's popularity, inventing a lace affair that everyone loves, and giving Jane Austen a life like a drama, and this "Jane Austen's Life" Regret" is more like a prose, describing a story that is plain and true, as if walking on the boulevards of the 19th-century English countryside, savouring the breath of the deceased character in the mottled tree shadows... She has no connection with the happiness of this world, and God resides in her heart.
View more about Miss Austen Regrets reviews
