We Used AI To Show What Jane Austen Characters Would Look Like In Real Life Based On The Books, And Mr. Darcy Is Too Stunning
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I'm a huge bookworm: from thrillers to sci-fi to YA — I try to read it all. But one author will always be my favorite: Jane Austen. With strong female leads, well-written love interests, and an unhealthy dose of snark, Austen never fails to make me laugh and feel comforted.
Having just read all six of Austen's novels, I've noticed that Austen doesn't describe her characters in great detail. While I'm glad that we're spared the "honey blonde mid-length hair and teal-green orbs" spiel you find today, I was inspired to try to recreate Austen characters with a mix of in-book descriptions and my own imagination.
Some characters were very clearly described (like Harriet Smith), while others, especially male leads like Captain Wentworth and Mr. Knightley, had no physical description at all. Here are my best attempts to recreate possible Austen characters with the help of ArtBreeder!
1.Elinor Dashwood — Sense & Sensibility (1811)
What we know about Elinor: She's 19 years old at the start of the novel, and, though less attractive than Marianne, has more "correct" features and paler skin. She is also said to have light hair.
What I added to Elinor's photo: We don't know Elinor's hair color, but given that she automatically assumes the hair in Edward Ferrars' ring is her own, it can't be a common shade. I went with a blonde that's somewhere between strawberry and golden. We also don't know her eye color, but being pale, light-haired and British, I went with the greyish-blue that appears in a lot of European portraits from the time.
2.Marianne Dashwood — Sense and Sensibility (1811)
What we know about Marianne: She's 16 at the start of the novel, with "striking" features and tan skin. She's said to be more beautiful, but more unusual-looking, than Elinor.
What I added to Marianne's photo: If Marianne is more tan than Elinor, that means she spends much more time outside than her sister (plus, let's be honest, Marianne seems like the type to constantly ignore warnings about sun damage). To align with that, I made her hair blonder, as though it's gotten much blonder due to lots of sun exposure. I also added more expression to her face than Elinor's; unlike Elinor, Marianne is terrible at hiding her expressions.
3.Elizabeth "Lizzy" Bennet — Pride and Prejudice (1813)
What we know about Lizzy: She's 20 when she visits Charlotte at Rosings Park. Lizzy is said to be pretty, but somewhat average-looking at first glance. We get the best idea of Lizzy's appearance from Caroline Bingley: she says that Lizzy's face is "too thin" and that "her teeth are tolerable." Most important about Lizzy's appearance, however, are the intelligent "dark eyes" that make Darcy fall in love with her.
What I added to Lizzy's photo: We never find out her hair color, but based on Austen's letters about Jane Bennet, I'm assuming it's a shade of light brown similar to Jane's. I also wanted to add in a bit of her signature personality — if cameras had existed in the Regency period, you just KNOW that Lizzy would be in the middle of laughing or talking in every single picture.
4.Jane Bennet — Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Fun fact: We know more about Jane's physical appearance than any other Austen character! In a letter to her sister Cassandra, Jane Austen wrote that she saw Jane Bennet in William Blake's Portrait of Mrs. Q, saying that, "Mrs Bingley is exactly herself, size, shaped face, features & sweetness; there never was a greater likeness." I tried to modernize the portrait of Harriet Quentin and this was the result! I think it captures Jane's sweet, naïve beauty.
5.Fitzwilliam Darcy — Pride and Prejudice (1813)
What we know about Mr. Darcy: He's a tall, attractive 28-year-old man. Beyond that, we know nothing about his appearance!
What I added to Mr. Darcy's photo: I wanted to do what I could to make Darcy appear as intense as possible. It's a stereotype to have blonde Bingley/brunette Darcy, but after playing around with this AI, I found that keeping Darcy dark-haired with pale skin really did make him look more unapproachable. I also had to include the iconic Regency sideburns — Darcy might be socially inept, but he's just status-obsessed enough to care about looking his best.
6.Fanny Price — Mansfield Park (1814)
What we know about Fanny: She's 18 for most of the novel, and that's about all we know. She's said to be pretty, but painfully shy.
What I added to Fanny's photo: I used muted hair and eye colors to make her seem easy to ignore in the background. Though she's got a pretty face, she'd duck behind her mouse-brown hair so much that she'd fade into the background.
7.Mary Crawford — Mansfield Park (1814)
Since we know even less about Edmund's appearance than Fanny's, I wanted to turn to the Austen fan-favorites: the scheming Crawford siblings!
What we know about Mary: She's out in society but not married, so she's probably somewhere in the range of 18-22 years old. Mary is said to have brownish tan skin and dark eyes; she's pretty, but not pretty enough to threaten the vain Bertram sisters.
What I added to Mary's photo: Not much, other than a fitting Crawford smirk.
8.Henry Crawford — Mansfield Park (1814)
What we know about Henry: He's not particularly handsome, but he's so charismatic that it makes him seem more attractive than he is. He's said to be "black" which, in Regency England context, is a reference to his having black or dark brown hair.
What I added to Henry's photo: Since Henry's not married, but close with his sister Mary, he's probably a few years older, somewhere in the range of 22-26 years old. I used the same AI base for both Mary and Henry to very clearly mark them as siblings!
9.Emma — Emma (1815)
What we know about Emma: She's a beautiful 21-year-old girl; the most attractive girl in Highbury. Mr. Weston also makes a few comments about Emma's hazel eyes.
What I added to Emma's photo: Emma is blonde in pretty much every Emma adaptation (including Clueless) so I wanted to create an Emma who wasn't as blonde as her on-screen counterparts. Like Lizzy Bennet, I wanted to add Emma's scheming expression to her portrait.
10.George Knightley — Emma (1815)
What we know about Mr. Knightley: He's 37, and that's about it.
What I added to Mr. Knightley's photo: I wanted to make Knightley more approachable than Emma, while still emphasizing that he's much more mature than Emma, both physically and mentally. Most importantly, I wanted to convey the expression in Knightley's eyes, that constant "I told you so" judgment Emma constantly feels in Knightley's presence.
11.Harriet Smith — Emma (1815)
What we know about Harriet: She's actually one of the characters with the longest physical description, thanks to Emma's judgment of Harriet when she first meets her young friend. Harriet is 17, with light hair, blue eyes, and a sweet expression. She's said to be "short, [and] plump" which, in a Regency context, would have been seen as beautifully curvy.
What I added to Harriet's photo: Not much, other than choosing to make her "light hair" as blonde as possible, in order to make her seem fairy-like and even younger than she is. I tried to make her as naïve-looking as possible.
12.Catherine Morland — Northanger Abbey (1817)
What we know about Catherine: She's 17 for most of the novel, with "sallow" skin, "strong features," and dark hair. She was a complete tomboy as a child, but grew into her looks as a teenager.
What I added to Catherine's photo: I interpreted "strong features" as thick, dark eyebrows. They would have made her seem unusual in Regency England, but they help balance out her facial symmetry and make her unconventionally attractive.
13.Henry Tilney — Northanger Abbey 1817
What we know about Henry: Catherine says that he's exactly her type; she points him out to Isabella Thorpe as having "brown skin, dark eyes, and rather dark hair." He is 25 years old, and then 26 by the end of the novel.
What I added to Henry's photo: I made his eyes a little lighter than they probably are in the book, because the AI filter's dark brown eyes made him look more than a little haunted (then again, maybe Catherine's into that sort of thing). He's growing a beard, but, as he's still somewhat young, he hasn't let his hair grow in to form full sideburns yet.
14.Anne Elliot — Persuasion (1817)
What we know about Anne: She's Austen's oldest protagonist, as Anne is 27 years old. According to the novel, she was beautiful as a teenager, but the stress of parting with Captain Wentworth made her beauty "fade" earlier than it does for most women.
What I added to Anne's photo: Sir Elliot thinks she's ugly, but that's only because he doesn't look like her; I pictured Anne as the only dark-haired woman in a family of blonde and blue-eyed sisters. I also started with an AI base of an incredibly attractive younger woman, and then aged and thinned her face to show that Anne is still very beautiful enough to attract Wentworth, Benwick, and William Elliot, no matter what Sir Elliot says.
15.And Frederick Wentworth — Persuasion (1817)
What we know about Wentworth: Not much, other than he's 31 years old and was incredibly attractive when Anne first met him 8 years before the story.
What I added to Wentworth's photo: Although Wentworth is a sailor (and despite Sir Elliot's many complaints about how weathered sailors' skin is), there's no mention of Wentworth being tan, so I imagined him as fair-skinned and ruddy. His hair isn't quite as stylized as the other Austen heroes; I figured he'd keep his hair short for practicality while at sea.
