To Be Jane

The movie Becoming Jane is a harrowing tale. Based on the real life story of Jane Austin, this movie tells a story of events that counteract each other. In the setting of the 1800s, Jane is a budding novelist who lives in a world of constricted women's freedoms. While the only "suitable option" for the daughter of a poverty-stricken clergyman is to marry the prosperous, Jane's idea of a life well lived is a passionate, independent one seasoned with sensibility and propriety. She is determined to only marry for "affections", even if she has to do dig her own potatoes. And so the story begins. Jane effortlessly frustrates her parents with her tabooed wit, independent thinking, and refusal skills. No man seems to be able to tame or attract this vivacious and profound young woman. Nobody, that is, until she meets her match and challenge, Tom LeFroy. We see early in the plot that he is also a spirited young man in his 20s, driven by a lust for fun and rambunctiousness. A thinker himself, he and Jane Austin accomplish irritating each other with opposing concepts of writing and propriety. When it's seems they will lose each other at the hands of obligation and desperation, the two opposites realize that they are in love and that their happiness depends on each other. So we see another chapter in Ms. Austin's life begin as she and Tom fight against odds to be together and not lose financial security. Surprisingly, what causes their last separation happens not to be disapproval, but Jane's realization of Tom's financial responsibility to his mother's family. Caring about the future of Tom's family, she breaks off the elopement so Tom can continue to support his kin. Sadly, love is a two-sided coin, one of love and loss. Jane and her Lover are never able to be together, due to the cold world they live in. For a time they live lovesick lives; Jane forever inwardly repressed from marriage. At the conclusion of the story, you see Jane reading a part of her famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, to Tom's eldest daughter, Jane. This is a story lavished with unanswered questions and possibilities. It is a tale that will leave you yearning to be an author yourself, while revealing this truth: we are created to live for what we're passionate about.