Jane Austen and celebrity culture: Shakespeare, Dorothy Jordan and Elizabeth Bennet

Abstract

Jane Austen imitated Shakespeare throughout her entire career, from Sense and Sensibility to Sanditon. To make up her characters, she mapped material from Shakespeare and other authors on to family members and celebrities. For Elizabeth Bennet, I argue that she remembered Dorothy Jordan, the most famous comic actress of her day. Jordan was particularly renowned for her roles in Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and Twelfth Night, the plays alluded to in Pride and Prejudice. The distinctive set of attributes that marked Jordan's celebrity status reappears in Elizabeth. Austen knew about Jordan, and may have seen her before she starting revising “First Impressions” into Pride and Prejudice. Jordan was considered best at “low” parts, and her unconventional femininity, her energy, her way of exhibiting her legs, and her signature “wild” hair inform Elizabeth's challenge to Miss Bingley about the definition of a truly accomplished woman. Neither musical nor beautiful, Jordan was particularly admired, like Elizabeth, for her brilliant, dark, expressive eyes. She was often painted, and when Austen hunted for a portrait of Mrs Darcy in yellow, as though she were a real person, she may have known that Jordan wore a yellow breeches suit as Rosalind. Dramatic events in the actress's life 1811 to 1812 could have sparked the revision of “First Impressions” into Pride and Prejudice. Thus, Austen “read” Shakespeare through the performances of Dorothy Jordan.