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therestoomuchcathair · 6 months

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Jane Austen. We're having a Ball.

(aka, it’s a truth universally acknowledged, that an angel in possession of a good bookshop, must be in want of touching his husband’s hand)

I have been asked to explain to those who are not familiar with Jane Austen whether I think there are references or parallels between her works and our Crowley and Aziraphale. It’s gonna be a long post - sorry in advance - so take a nice cupperty and make yourself comfortable. Before starting, let’s keep in mind that we’re talking about some visual parallels and loose references in the plot. We are not dealing with a retelling or anything like that. It’s just something niche that you may find interesting or somehow entertaining.

A brief introduction to contextualize Jane's novels. She lived in the Regency era (wouldn't you like to see a Regency GO flashback?), her six novels were published between 1811 and 1818 (posthumously). She may or may not have been a brandy smuggler or the mind behind the 1810 Clerkenwell diamond robbery, but she was certainly quite an interesting personality. Despite having written some of the most famous love stories of all time, she never married and had little experience of the world. But she was very cultured and an avid reader. At the time, gothic novels were spreading: overly dramatic stories, usually set in the Middle Ages, in places such as monasteries, abbeys, or haunted castles. The main characters were pure, innocent heroines, classic villains and fearless heroes. Jane read these novels - she even made some parodies of them - and thought, nope, that's not me.

“I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life […] No, I must keep my own style and go on in my own way.”

Basically, I’m doing my own thing, get over it. Jane was primarily a great observer of society, with its many ridiculous rules, and of human behavior, with all its contradictions. People's emotions, a great dose of irony and society’s criticism are the core of her novels.

Okay, but what does this have to do with Crowley and Aziraphale? Now we get there. I will talk briefly about the novels Emma and Persuasion, before the main course Pride and Prejudice. I apologize to all the Janeites out here, but I need to simplify the plots as much as possible to stay stick to the points that I believe are relevant as references for Good Omens.

1. Emma. The titular character, Emma, believes to have a real talent as matchmaker: she’ll spend the entire novel looking for the perfect husband for her friend Harriet, with disastrous results. She’ll come to realize to be not such a good reader of people as she thought she was.

Why should we care? Aziraphale mentions Jane Austen for the first time thinking about how to make Nina and Maggie fall in love. Like Emma, Azi and Crowley will try to play the matchmakers, with disastrous results.

More parallels: Emma herself appears to be not interested in romantic love and desire, until she has a big love epiphany moment. Rings any bell?

Relevant quote: “I cannot make speeches. If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am.”

In other words, “I'm so overwhelmed by my feelings that I'm incapable to talk clearly about them. But you know what I am, do you want me as I am?” This kinda reminds me of someone.

2. Persuasion. If I had to guess what Aziraphale's favorite Jane Austen book might be after season 2, I'd say Persuasion. The protagonist, Anne, is in love with a lower class man and, instead of following her heart, she takes some really bad advice and rejects him.

Why should we care? We could say that Aziraphale and Crowley belong to different classes, being an angel and a demon, and Aziraphale is indeed pressured by a bad advisor in the final 15 minutes.

More parallels: Anne regrets her decision to reject the man she loves and, when they meet again, their relationship is described as “Now they were as strangers; worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted”. In other words, there’s no anger between them, but they can’t be friends, because there’s too much history between them… season 3?

Relevant quote: “I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever”. Or, in simpler words, “please do that again”.

3. Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth (Lizzie), the main character, is clever, outspoken, with a great sense of humor. Her family isn’t properly poor, but they are not high class either. Enters Mr. Darcy, upper class, very emotionally guarded: due to his sense of social superiority he gains a reputation for pride and bad manners among the community. His apparent arrogance, mixed with some false allegations by his former friend, Wickham, creates a bad impression of Darcy in Elizabeth’s mind. Her prejudice towards him lingers for two thirds of the book and motivates her rejection of Darcy's proposal. But then she comes to realize the truth. Darcy’s arrogance is rooted in social awkwardness and distrust of others - because he was betrayed by his friend in the past. He doesn’t know how to show his feelings, but he has indeed a generous heart. His goodness is gradually revealed: Darcy proves himself, secretly helping Elizabeth's family in a delicate matter and by time she realizes to have misjudged him deeply.

Why should we care? You choose. Again, we have two different social classes (angels/demons), a prejudice (demons are supposed to be evil), lack of communication, trust issues, grumpy x sunshine trope, repressed feelings (and sexual tension). And, more importantly, despite all the dancing and the grand declaration, the love story evolve gradually. Elizabeth and Darcy get to know each other and by time they learn to trust each other and, doing so, they overcome the roles they should have played based on society's expectations. It’s a really slow slow burn. Not 6000 years slow, but still…

More parallels: Let’s compare some visuals of Good Omens and Pride and Prejudice 2005.

Hands. If you're not a fan of period dramas and you have only vaguely heard about them, you may have noticed a slight obsession from the audience for everything related with hands. The reason is that, during the Regency era, respectable people were supposed to wear gloves in public. Leather gloves, silk gloves, shorter during the day, elbow-length for women in the evening, gloves for dancing. If you were in public, you had to keep your hands covered. As a result, a physical contact skin-to-skin between hands was not only a big NO from society, but also something very intimate. And so we come to this scene from the 2005 movie. Mr. Darcy helps Lizzie to get into the carriage and their hands touch…

… which may remind you A LOT of this scene. Aziraphale’s finger brushes Crowley’s hand. A brief physical contact that is NOT supposed to happen and that, for this very reason, is extremely sensual.

The iconic hand flex™. After the carriage scene, Darcy walks away without saying a word. He flexes his hand, which has just touched Elizabeth's. He already has feelings for her, even though he would never admit them openly. The flexing of the hand indicates that he’s retaining the memory of that brief, unexpected contact. Trust me: fans of period dramas regularly swoon over this scene.

Now look at Crowley. He’s doing the exact same thing. I know, it's a detail, but details make a story emotionally compelling. Thinking that he’s holding onto the sensation of an unexpected skin-to-skin contact with Aziraphale adds flavor to the scene.

Balls. Cotillion Balls. Public dances were a crowded mess, but private dances were an opportunity for couples to realize they had misunderstood each other and were actually deeply in love. Or an opportunity to bicker, because they hadn’t realized yet to be actually deeply in love. A quite common shot for period dramas has the couple twirling and then suddenly stopping in the middle of the room to talk, to stare into each other's eyes or to argue, while the others continue to dance. They are so focused on each other that they don't notice that the dance is still going on. Here’s Darcy and Lizzie.

And here’s Crowley and Aziraphale. We have the twirling, the bickering, the staring to each other, the stopping in the middle of the room. Even the clothes match with Pride and Prejudice: Crowley/Darcy in black and Aziraphale/Elizabeth in white and cream.

And remember what I said about hands?

Without gloves?? In public?? In front of everyone?? Lizzie and Darcy could never. (Look at that poor guy behind, astonished by such shamelessness! I'm joking, but if they were really in the Regency era, intertwining bare hands like this during a Ball would be truly scandalous.)

Rain, bandstands, love declarations, rejection…Ok, visually this is INSANE. The setting is different from the book, but here Elizabeth and Darcy are caught in a sudden rainstorm, that forces them together beneath a canopy. I’m not even kidding. The parallel to the bandstand scene in season 1 is visual and not only. (Yes, I lost my last ounce of dignity and made some collages).

Elisabeth doesn't trust Darcy, Aziraphale doesn't trust Crowley enough to share the informations about the antichrist. Darcy and Elizabeth are divided by a social class gap, “we are an angel and a demon”. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, she refuses; Crowley proposes to Aziraphale to run away together, he refuses. Darcy leaves, Crowley leaves. Do both couples have repressed feelings and sexual tension for each other? Obviously.

Even more parallels: I have to be honest. The exact moment I heard Aziraphale mention Jane Austen, my first thought was: so who’s gonna propose and be spectacularly rejected? The answer is both.

The first one is a picture of Colin Firth as Darcy in the 1995 tv series. This adaptation is more faithful to the book, in regards of the setting of Darcy’s rejected confession. If you look at the pictures of Darcy and Crowley in comparison, visually the parallel is obvious. The background in Crowley's picture makes the whole atmosphere really period drama-style. There's even an ancient clock in both images. And, obviously, both Darcy and Crowley awkwardly confess their feelings and end up being rejected.

Up to this point, I have drawn a sort of parallel between Darcy and Crowley: the analogy between the two characters is the one that emerges most immediately. But let's also talk about Aziraphale. He may be the Elizabeth of Crowley's Darcy, but not only. Let's not forget that BOTH Crowley and Aziraphale propose a way to be together and end up being rejected. Let's read what Jane Austen writes about Darcy's failed proposal:

“His sense of her inferiority - of its being a degradation - of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.”

Basically, Darcy insists again and again about how Lizzie's social class and family are inadequate and how he’s from a superior background. He wants to be honest - from his POV, he’s doing the right thing - but this certainly doesn't help his case neither makes Elizabeth more willingly to accept his proposal.

Or, in another font…

“You're the bad guys.”

“Come with me... to Heaven. I'll run it, you can be my second in command.”

And especially…

“I don't think you understand what I'm offering you.”

Literally something Darcy might have said. So… they all screwed up in their own way.

Let's end this very long post on a light note. After the rejected proposal, Elizabeth and Darcy spend time apart before meeting again. And some more time will pass - and crazy events will happen - before the longed-for happy ending. During the time spent apart, they both come to terms with their feelings and their mistakes. And in the end there is a happy ending. A good omen for us all.

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