She doesn't do the things heroines are supposed to. Which is rather Jane Austen's point - Fanny is her subversive heroine. She is gentle and self-doubting and utterly feminine; and given the right circumstances, she would defy an army.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the unconventional nature of Fanny, a character who embodies femininity while possessing the strength to defy expectations.
In this quote, Susanna Clarke discusses Fanny, a character who does not conform to traditional heroic ideals. Instead of being a typical action-oriented heroine, Fanny is portrayed as gentle and self-reflective, embodying femininity while still possessing an underlying strength that could challenge greater forces when necessary. This subversion of typical gender roles not only reflects Jane Austen's narrative style but also invites readers to appreciate strength in gentleness and self-doubt.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about female characters in literature.
But when the fairy sang the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy’s song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself.
It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.
Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends no one else could see.
I could always imagine more interesting places to be than where I was. And more interesting people than me being there. Eventually, this led to making up stories and writing things down.
All books are doors; and some of them are wardrobes.
If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.
...in other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama Interview - March 1964
At one time if you were a black writer you had to be one of the best writers in the world to be published. You had to be great. Now you can be good. Mediocre. And that's good.
Is 'The Wind in the Willows' a children's book? Is 'Alice in Wonderland?' Is 'Treasure Island?' These are masterpieces which we read with pleasure as children, but with how much more pleasure when we are grown-up.
Put simply the novel stands between us and the hardening concept of statistical man. There is no other medium in which we can live for so long and so intimately with a character. That is the service a novel renders.
All novels are sequels; influence is bliss.
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