Where it all started…

We all need a beginning. I have always asked of myself to be a good reader for the irreplaceable advantage of holding the fundamental key to the door of extraordinary experiences that reading alone can provide, and to be adept in structuring myself as a writer.

It was a struggle for me. As much as I wanted to accomplish this scholarly enterprise, I was slow at reading. My writing was not totally deficient, but it absolutely lacked the strength of a mind that is only possessed by a natural reader. There lied my struggle. All I required of myself was to be able to read justly and be able to write without restrictions.

I always had an inclination towards classic literature. Technically speaking, my first love for classic literature began after I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott when I was just a kid. I still love that book exactly the same way I loved it then. The words and images of Little Women on my mind are as vibrant now as they were then. It was with this book that I found out what it is that I like to read.

However, I found my definite beginning when I found Jane Austen. I read my way through her six novels and then my journey began towards uncovering the matchless wisdom that lays hidden inside the pages of literature. I am still subtle with my pace of reading and writing. But I found my initiation into the literary world and I recognized this fact when I recognized Jane Austen.

As I read her books, I also began to study Jane Austen, the author. This article will be a modest interpretation of my perspective of Jane Austen and her works.

Jane Austen, with her stories and characters submerged into social and natural backdrops, has magnified my vision of early nineteenth century England. Her writing has a kind of simplicity and yet an inexplicable richness at the same time. When you are inside a Jane Austen novel or a Jane Austen movie, you kind of want to go live in that place and time. At least that is what happens to me. It is simply wonderful.

Jane Austen became to me the centre and holding point of an umbrella, the canopy of which I would compare to the vast arena of English literature. After being introduced to and enthralled by her works, I started to explore more. I started to know the names and writings of other English and American authors. I began reading Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John Steinbeck etc. I felt a kind of distinct satisfaction when I completed a book. I discovered the excitement of exploring many open and colourful worlds through the medium of black and white.

Coming back to Jane Austen, I would say she is historical. In her own lifetime, she would not know that. But what she would have given for just one glance of the vision of this future time! A time when her name is not ordinary or forgotten, but a name that generally tops the lists of legendary literary figures. I really wish she could have seen that.

When we read Jane Austen, we tend to be with her, following her into her world of imaginations, her plots and her characters. She guides us into her vision of Elizabeth Bennet and Anne Elliot with equal influence. We are drawn into their worlds and somehow, for that much time when we are reading or watching her characters, it feels like nothing else could be more important. We want to be like them. We wish for ourselves to be as charmingly strong as Elizabeth Bennet and as modestly reinforcing as Anne Elliot. We hope to be as young and alive as Catherine Norland and as vibrant and energetic as Marianne Dashwood. We aspire to be as strong willed and bright as Emma Woodhouse and as patient and giving as Elinor Dashwood. And last but not the least, who would not want to embrace the devotion and selflessness of Fanny Price. So with her characters, Jane Austen has not only given us grounds of exploration, but she has given us unalloyed insights into the possibilities of what a person can be.

Jane Austen's novels possess a very distinct and characteristic image of the English society, mostly the society of a typical English countryside. We also find this society compared with the fashionable community of Bath and London, where sometimes her protagonists are found visiting. In any case, while reading or watching her stories, we can discern the workings and makings of the society of England during the time of Jane Austen.

It was a time when women had little choice but to marry well to secure their future. It is comprehended that Austen herself knew this feeling by experience. Her family had many financial issues, and she had not many options but to follow the social norm of marriage if she wanted her future to be sheltered. So, we can see this reflected in her books, where her characters are trying to keep this balance between not completely being unprotected in the future and at the same time, not disappointing their souls by marrying out of love. How spiritedly her principal characters are shown marching into the unknown and coming out on the other side settled and undefeated in their aspirations!

The stories written by Jane Austen are two centuries old and yet there are certain aspects in them, which can be related to, even today by women, especially in our part of the world. The society holds the power to dominate us. It needn't always be in the negative sense. It could be either way. But it is inevitable that the social norms tend to conflict more often than not with the individual makings. And this is exactly what Austen's characters are seen struggling against and how incredibly they seem to strike a balance between giving society its due respect and yet not losing their own unscathed human desires.

Nature is another element that thrives in the works of Jane Austen. There are beautiful walks that she emphasizes where her characters are known to roam about and have chance meetings. There are woods and hills and wonderful paths. Probably because I am not able to see and walk around such places while living in my city, for me this kind of vision is almost divine and something that I seek. The rustling of dried leaves under the feet, the sound of shoes walking on damp ground, the fresh air breathed in and the feeling of being alive amongst untouched nature are some beautiful sensations that I perceive while I read Jane Austen. There is nothing that can replace the calm and repose of nature. And this certainty is reflected in all the writings of Austen.

Old English countryside architecture can be seen described in the novels of Jane Austen. This imagery is very well executed in all the movies that are based on her books. And easily we are transported to a world far away in time and situation than ours. When we think of the words Pemberly, Netherfield Park, Longbourn, Norland Park, Hartfield, Donwell Abbey, Mansfield Park, Kellynch Hall or Northanger Abbey, we are filled with visions of buildings, gardens and parks where the characters of Jane Austen lived their everyday lives. Some are big structures while others are modest cottages. In any case, they are part of Austen vocabulary and they are as dear to us as the names of the characters themselves. Haven't we all wanted once to step inside the gates of those places and see for ourselves what architecture at its best could look like, how buildings in Jane Austen's time stood, and how their walls and ceilings were carved. I surely am intrigued by the plain thought of it.

One of the most esteemed aspect of Austen is the inspiration she ignites to write. She has been able to create characters and plots that are unforgettable, interesting and influential. Anyone who has the slightest inclination to write has no chance of escaping her prevailing inspiration to create something consequential with words. Also, in most of her characters we notice this inclination to write, mostly journals and letters. That in itself is encouraging. So Jane Austen and her characters have the power to bring out the writer in us if we delve into her world, open to this possibility.

In all her works, Jane Austen has given humour its due importance. No matter how serious we need to become to get things done in this world, one thing that should never be compromised is humour and we see this in the works of Austen. She makes a point to make us smile through her novels. The characters and circumstances are interwoven in such a manner that while some momentous event is happening in the storyline, the readers are at the same time humorously touched. It only designates the truth that no matter how solemn a situation, there is always a possibility of making it light so that life does not become a big chain of severe and rigid moments.

What could be more rapturous than the delight of dancing! Jane Austen sure as anything knew that. It is absolutely pleasurable to read and watch the parts in a Jane Austen story where all the characters get together and dance. The patterns and routines in which an English country dance is performed are righteously capturing. I never knew there was such a thing as English country dance till I came to know about it through Austen. In words and on screen, it looks riveting. It was also considered as a means of socializing. Sometimes it is good to do things together like that as a group. Even today we have our own versions of it. This could lead to a metaphorical insight as to the vitality of coming together as a community.

Saving the best for the last, Austen in all her novels, advocates practically and yet mesmerizingly the distinction of love over every other constituent of life. Love to her is priceless and so it is to her characters. Like all of us, they are seeking and treasuring love. She weaves situations and events in such a manner that every reader can feel what being in love must be like in Austen’s world, which is not very much different than falling in love in this part of the world in the twenty-first century. The basic loving instinct of every human being, anytime, anywhere, is just the same. We cannot help but be awed by how, through trials and almost lost hopes, Austen’s characters find their way to love- honest, heart-warming and inspirational love.

Blending all these brilliant aspects of life into timeless stories, Jane Austen has furnished the realm of literature with such profundity that cannot easily be compared with. I have prized every word, every image, every sensation and every inspiration that has arisen from my knowing Jane Austen two centuries after her lifetime!

Impressions: Reading Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit is one of the brilliant imaginations of Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit refers to Amy Dorrit, a meek, shy, quiet, yet in character- one of the strongest that I have read about. It takes strength to be out-going, extroverted, to be able to speak one’s mind in this ocean of a world. But it takes more strength than that to fight one’s day to day battles with quiet, unspoken, inward fortitude. Amy Dorrit falls under the second category.

 

Little Dorrit was the daughter of William Dorrit, who had been living in the Marshalsea Debtors Prison in London for a very long time, probably sometime during the mid of nineteenth century. He was put inside there when he was unable to pay his creditors. Thinking he would somehow get out of that dreadful place, he passed one long day after another. But he did not get out. When the story begins, he had been in there for around twenty-three years.

Little Dorrit was born in Marshalsea and the only “home” that she came to know till half of the story was the Marshalsea. She had taken her first breath with the tainted air of the place and she had lived there so long that she came to be known to everyone around as the Child of the Marshalsea.

She had two siblings, a sister and a brother. Both of them could not exactly be called morally strong characters because even after being completely aware of the fact of their sad situation, they had airs about them. They looked at themselves as high ranking people in low ranking circumstance, humility completely absent from their human nature. However, Little Dorrit was something else. She was not only absolutely aware of her situation but she did all that she could to not fall further down in the ladder of life. She toiled and toiled hard to keep the little that her family had and did not mention one word of her struggles to anyone. Quiet, yielding and productive are the few words that would describe her justly.

I am nearly half-way through the book and what I want to share is the impressions that I received about her selflessness and her ability to take in, without any negative reaction, the harshness of her surroundings and people around her. It touched me very deeply because that blessed nature of selflessness must have surely gone through tremendous trial to be able to defy its severity.

Little Dorrit was the last born in the family. In age she was the smallest of all. Her father, uncle (who lived outside of Marshalsea, but a regular visitor), sister and brother were all above her in age and experience of life. But she stands out on every page as the “sage”, blessed by some unknown and unfathomable wisdom that guided her through and through.

Her father could never leave the prison. Her sister lived with her uncle and worked in a theater (the arrangement of which rooted in Little Dorrit’s endeavours. Her brother was always in and out of trouble, nevertheless, more often than not lived and breathed in the free air. But Amy Dorrit had committed herself to live with her father and take care of him. She went out every day to work as a seamstress and earn their living, but at night she returned back to the prison and called it her home. She made sure her father was not deficient of any provisions that she brought home. She made sure he ate well, slept well and was warm enough. What she did is what every daughter should do, undoubtedly. But the only thing that would break any reader’s heart would be fact that her unselfish efforts were never acknowledged by her father for what they were. William Dorrit, not for once, up until now realized the sacrifice his daughter was making. She did not care for his acknowledgement. She was only happy that she could do it. She did not expect or want her exertions to be taken extra notice of. She was satisfied discharging her duties as silently as possible. That was her generous love for her father and her family.

But as readers and unattached observers of Little Dorrit’s situation, we feel the injustice. For every time she was checking her father was okay, her father should also have been doing the same. We would understand his inabilities to actually provide for her because he was entrapped, but few kind words and honest concern would not have been so hard for him to give his poor child.

Instead, every once in a while he complained and became disappointed at his own helplessness and became unable to restrain his emotions. He showed his unrest and disordered state of mind to his youngest and kindest daughter in the most distraught matter. Likewise her sister and brother, though they cared for her at some level, did not care to make things easier for her. And yet Little Dorrit had nothing to complain about, if there was anything at all, it would be her thinking that she was somehow not able to do it right by her father and her family.

Can anyone be that selfless? I doubt. But what a character to learn from! Because the one trait that we all need to survive the ‘sometimes kind sometimes harsh’ reality is patience. Little Dorrit, I think, is teaching us all that.