Austen Quote by Charlotte Bronte
“Jane Austin was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible (not senseless) woman. If this is heresy, I cannot help it.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: Personal Reflections, 1865
A paradoxical view of a woman who balances sensibility with incompleteness, highlighting the tension between societal expectations and personal truth.
In simple terms: She is both sensible and incomplete.
Key Takeaway
Embrace contradictions.
Themes
gender
society
identity
paradox
Mood
analytical
critical
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- literary criticism
- gender studies
- personal memoir
- public speaking
Key Concepts
feminist theory
self‑acceptance
social norms
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you reconcile opposing traits?
- What does “incomplete” mean in your life?
A Different Perspective
Oversimplifying her traits may ignore deeper context.
![“To me [Edgar Allan Poe's] prose is unreadable—like Jane Austin's [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.” quote by Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/370/mark-twain-22_allan-poe_to-me-edgar-allan-poe-s-prose-is-unreada_175729.jpg)
![“So, Fabricius, I already have this: that the most true path of the planet [Mars] is an ellipse, which Dürer also calls an oval, or certainly so close to an ellipse that the difference is insensible.” quote by Johannes Kepler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/a6b/johannes-kepler-4278_differences_so-fabricius-i-already-have-this-that-th_311054.jpg)
![“[Jane] Austen was not a novelist for nothing: she knew that our stories are what make us human, and that listening to someone else's stories -- entering into their feelings, validating their experiences -- is the highest way of acknowledging their humanity, the sweetest form of usefulness.” quote by William Deresiewicz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2bb/william-deresiewicz-15471_austen_jane-austen-was-not-a-novelist-for-nothi_62623.jpg)
