If your plot requires your characters to act out of characcter, it's not a good plot.

[beatrice_otter]

I like Regency romances.  I particularly like P&P fanfics, having been an avid Austen fan for many years.  Contrived plot devices where there's a huge misunderstanding/whatever keeping the two lovebirds apart and everything could be solved with a little direct communication are a staple of the genre (indeed, of any romance), and normally I don't mind that much.

But.  If Elizabeth Bennet knew she was being slandered, and knew there was bribery involved to fabricate a tale to ruin Mr. Darcy's good opinion of her, and knew there were several people ready, willing, and able to get to the bottom of things who knew she was innocent, would she sit at home going "Woe is me!" and swearing anyone who might possibly help to secrecy, and go way far out of her way to ensure that Mr. Darcy never figures out that people are lying to him about her?  No.  No, she would not.  And the writer's efforts to convince me of this only convince me that the writer is not a very good writer and doesn't know the characters at all, and that there's no point in finishing the story even to find out what the slander actually is.

This is not the Miss Elizabeth I know and love.  And if she were an original character, I'd like her even less.  I know melodrama can be fun, but really?  Really?!?

Comments

[laurajv]

I.

What?

Given Lizzie, I --

WHAT.

APPARENTLY THIS PLOT HAS RENDERED ME EFFECTIVELY SPEECHLESS.

[beatrice_otter]

I KNOW, RITE?

[lilacsigil]

Okay, that's not so strange a plot, even if it's one I intensely dislike. But why on earth would you write that plot and place Elizabeth Bennett anywhere near it?

[beatrice_otter]

I know. Why? Only a complete, total, and utter failure to understand even the simplest bit of her character. Or a blatant disregard for her character in furtherance of as much sickeningly illogical angsty melodramatic crap as you could possibly squeeze in.

[thothmes]

That's the thing about melodrama. Good, well done, knife-edge balanced melodrama is affecting and stirs the heart. Intentionally OTT melodrama can be a wonderful vehicle for humor. Bad melodrama is just plain painful, and somehow too revealing of the author's psyche. One feels like one is spying on their inner perscution fantasies or something. Eeeewwww!