My Fictional Role Models

19th century stories with strong-willed independent leading women always motivate me and after finishing a book or movie I feel ready to take on the world.

Think Pride and Prejudice or Little Women - I admire the strength and individuality of the women in these stories. They accept the cards dealt by life and play with passion and integrity.  Of course these are fictional characters, but they were based on people whom the writers, like Austen and Alcott, knew. Sometimes they were based of off the writers themselves. These characters vary from middle to lower-middle class, and in the mid to late 1800’s, in both England and the America’s, there were plenty of stresses for women of all walks of life. In patriarchal societies it was difficult to make lives for themselves and the state of their livelihood either depended on inheriting from a wealthy family member or marrying “well”.

Today, we have fewer restrictions and more ways to be successful. Women do not need to marry for security. Charities exist to help the poor. Yet many of us do not have the passion or strength to go after what we want. Many of us accept less than perfect relationships. We are scared to move up in the work place. We have dreams and goals, but make excuses for why they are unattainable. Why is it that with more vectors for success and happiness, we also have more excuses? Why do we cry and complain when a man doesn’t show us affection? Elizabeth Bennett laughed when Mr. Darcy called her plain and pointed out that he ‘wouldn’t give notice to women who were slighted by other men’. She walked away and joked about it with her best friend, Charlotte. Today, if the same situation happened, lots of us would walk to our best friends and either start bitching or start making fun of the guy too. Are there many of us who would hold our heads high with the integrity that this fictional character did? When Jo March was dissatisfied with her life, when she was miserable for rejecting Laury, she moved to Boston and got her mind wrapped around something new. And in this day in age, where travel has never been easier, lots of people are petrified because it’s new and different.

I want to be more like these fictional characters. I want to be a modern day Elizabeth Bennett or Jo March. I want to be as stubborn and motivated as Anne Shirley, fight for what I believe in but also know when it is right to fight or to walk away (well, maybe she isn’t a good example of walking away). These women didn’t pout when a guy didn’t come their way, and they didn’t give up when life got hard. They were confident and kept walking forward, with heads held high.

They might be fictional, but they definitely exhibit characteristics we can all learn to adopt. I know I’m working on becoming more like my fictional role models.