In her novels, Jane Austen used archetypes -- such as the mother, the sister, the shrew -- but let them develop into entirely new characters. Understanding the impact of detail is essential for appreciating her various novels. The merits of the film adaptations of Jane Austen's novels lie in the fact that they prove the many possibilities in the texts: the films are concerned with highly distinctive individuals.In By a Lady, the images of Jane Austen's female characters in Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Persuasion are compared with their twentieth-century interpretations in film. The changes in the films' representations of the heroines are explained by referring to the spirit of the age: technical, cultural, as well as social developments have left their marks on the contemporary Elinor, Marianne, Emma, and Anne.
