{"id":239,"date":"2017-03-21T16:34:26","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T16:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=239"},"modified":"2020-08-31T20:38:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T20:38:41","slug":"jane-and-maria-jane-eyre-and-the-sound-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2017\/03\/21\/jane-and-maria-jane-eyre-and-the-sound-of-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane and Maria – Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

I may be going out on a limb here, but what if\u00a0The Sound of Music\u00a0<\/em>is actually the 1964, re-interpreted filmic version of Jane Eyre’s story? Ever since I was\u00a0introduced to the idea of Jane Eyre as\u00a0a governess, I have had difficulty wiping my mind clear of Fr\u00e4ulein\u00a0Maria from the musical. After all, when thinking about it, Jane and Maria’s stories aren’t all that different. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
This photo features Mia Wasikowska playing Jane in the 2011 film adaptation of Jane Eyre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/a>
This photo features Julie Andrews portraying Maria in the 1965 film, The Sound of Music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here, I am going to quickly compare the two women’s stories. Then, I will show how, despite their similar backgrounds, there is actually a difference (within the similarity) that is quite\u00a0revealing.<\/p>\n

To be honest with you, I was waiting for Jane to break out in song multiple times throughout the novel, especially when traveling to Thornfield (remember… “I have confidence in sunshine!”). Now consider the similarities between the two stories: before becoming a governess, Maria is a nun in an abbey. Before becoming a governess, Jane is a student at a devout Christian school, Lowood. Later, Maria, as a governess, falls in love with Captain Von Trapp, a wealthy man who is her employer. Similarly, governess Jane falls in love with her employer, the wealthy Mr. Rochester. Meanwhile, Captain Von Trapp is engaged to the beautiful and wealthy Baroness Schraeder of Vienna. At the same time, Mr. Rochester is engaged to the beautiful and powerful Blanche Ingram.\u00a0Nevertheless, these relationships crumble. However, different entities get in the way of their possible marriages: Bertha Mason (in Jane Eyre<\/em>) and the nazis (in\u00a0The Sound of Music<\/em>). In the end, both Jane and Maria marry who they want and live their lives happily ever after (kind of).<\/p>\n

On the forefront, Jane and Maria’s stories are quite similar. However, let’s think about a difference: the fact that the stories take place in different centuries. While The Sound of Music<\/em> occurs slightly before World War II (probably the early 1940s),\u00a0Jane Eyre\u00a0<\/em>takes place within the early decades of the 19th century. The differences in class and gender are made apparent too. While Jane battles frequently for equal footing throughout the novel (she wants women to be treated equally as men), Maria doesn’t fight for this equality (at least, this battle\u00a0isn’t presented throughout the musical). She takes the children\u00a0throughout the city, rides bikes with them by the river, and yet she really isn’t treated\u00a0subserviently.\u00a0Although I don’t have an exact answer, I am presuming that, by the 1940s, gender and class were understood differently than in the early 1800s (of course, with more progress needed to go). The fact that she was a governess may have played apart too – perhaps they were more appreciated in the mid-1900s?<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, to throw in another similarity (I guess that makes this similarity-within-difference-within-similarity), “expected” gender roles – and female subservience – are still interfused throughout The Sound of Music <\/em>(in bits and pieces).\u00a0For instance,\u00a0<\/em>Liesl, the youngest daughter of Captain Von Trapp, sings to her beloved Rolf (who later becomes a member of\u00a0the Nazi Party):<\/p>\n

“I am sixteen going on seventeen<\/div>\n
Innocent as a rose<\/div>\n
Bachelor dandies, drinkers of brandies<\/div>\n
What do I know of those?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Totally unprepared am I<\/div>\n
To face a world of men<\/div>\n
Timid and shy and scared am I….<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
…I’ll depend on you.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here, Liesl is painted as an “innocent” girl of 16, “unprepared to face [the] world of men” that lie beyond her. Not only is she described as a virgin, she is “timid and shy and scared,” hinting that\u00a0the pure, innocent, female was expected by society – and she knows it.\u00a0In addition, she acknowledges her dependence on man.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The point is this: while Jane and Maria’s stories take place over a century of each other, expectation was still placed on women, as Liesl makes that clear. However, we see progress at the same time because Maria is never really treated subserviently from those she encounters (especially in the town). Rather, she is living in the Von Trapp household as a governess to care for the children. Perhaps, because we see two different treatments of females, we are at a time when gender roles, in particular, were beginning to be redefined.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I may be going out on a limb here, but what if\u00a0The Sound of Music\u00a0is actually the 1964, re-interpreted filmic version of Jane Eyre’s story? Ever since I was\u00a0introduced to the idea of Jane Eyre as\u00a0a governess, I have had difficulty wiping my mind clear of Fr\u00e4ulein\u00a0Maria from the musical. After all, when thinking about … Continue reading Jane and Maria – Jane Eyre and The Sound of Music<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2975,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138876,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2017","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}