In defense of Jane Austen's Unlikable Heroine

Brenda M. Hafera, Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation, at Modern Age.

"Fanny, the heroine of Mansfield Park, is not the kind of woman many of us aspire to become or immediately admire. She is serious and seemingly deferential. A more compelling feminine archetype is the witty and spunky Elizabeth Bennet. Preferring a Lizzy over a Fanny could merely be a personal preference. But if that were the case, we would expect Austen readers also to dislike Pride and Prejudice’s Jane Bennet, who, like Fanny, is patient, meek, mild-mannered, and humble.

"But Austen predisposes readers toward Jane and biases them against Fanny. ..."

See Austen, Emma, in Great Books of the Western World (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 46.