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Ten Facts About Appearance in P&P
Aug. 18th, 2009 11:37 pmI cannot say how many times I have heard certain fanon "facts" about appearance repeated over and over - and they're not just popular and prevalent, like a good deal of fanon, either. With appearance, people will actually insist that they're what Austen/the book says. e.g., Jane is listed under the TV Tropes entry "Hair of Gold," with this explanation:
Following the frequent book descriptions as 'fair-haired', in the two most recent film adaptations of Pride And Prejudice, the prettiest (and most innocent) daughter, Jane, is a blonde
It's stretched far beyond purely Internet fanon, too: Colin Firth's hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were actually dyed for the 1995 P&P; blonde Jennifer Ehle wore a dark wig for Elizabeth and even Susannah Harker's naturally blonde hair was lightened. Mary got spots, and Mr Collins grease. The 2005 P&P likewise gave Keira Knightley a wig much darker than her naturally light brown/dark blonde hair, and Matthew Macfadyen insisted that he wasn't dark enough to physically resemble Austen's Darcy.
So, given the rampant assumptions and clichés, I decided to track down what canon actually tells (or more often, doesn't tell) us about what the characters look like.
( Read more... )
Following the frequent book descriptions as 'fair-haired', in the two most recent film adaptations of Pride And Prejudice, the prettiest (and most innocent) daughter, Jane, is a blonde
It's stretched far beyond purely Internet fanon, too: Colin Firth's hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were actually dyed for the 1995 P&P; blonde Jennifer Ehle wore a dark wig for Elizabeth and even Susannah Harker's naturally blonde hair was lightened. Mary got spots, and Mr Collins grease. The 2005 P&P likewise gave Keira Knightley a wig much darker than her naturally light brown/dark blonde hair, and Matthew Macfadyen insisted that he wasn't dark enough to physically resemble Austen's Darcy.
So, given the rampant assumptions and clichés, I decided to track down what canon actually tells (or more often, doesn't tell) us about what the characters look like.
( Read more... )