'Becoming Jane': Adapting Female Authority

This essay explores the alterations 'Becoming Jane' (2006) makes to Jon Spence's depiction of Jane Austen's familial influences in his biography 'Becoming Jane Austen' (2003). Of particular interest is the film's construction of a characteristic type of authority for Jane—the authority of a female operating under patriarchy. This process of construction can be seen not only in the film's process of adaptation, but also in its use of the cinematic gaze to compare the authority wielded by Jane and those around her