The Austen character in us all

So yesterday evening the BBC brough me the best of two worlds; Masterchef on location in Bath, catering to Austen-fans (because of the 200th anniversary of Sense & Sensibility). Followed by a fancy 5-course dinner for some distinguished guests, including several decendants of Austen's brother Henry (there obviously are none of herself), some critics who I now know from sight, which is slightly disturbing, and the guy who played Wickham in the 1995 tv version of P&P (seriously, his voice was still exactly the same (see here for a Youtube clip, appearently the BBC put the whole series online)! He looks really nice, though, not at all like his fictional counterpart).
So apart from looking at people who try to produce great food at high speed, I got to check out all the Austen-dress-ups, and play the game of "which Austen character are you?". Not that people dress up like a certain character, per se, but you can generally tell what someone is like, just from the way they talk and behave. There was an awkward, pale girl who was the perfect Chalotte Lucas, a sprightly, silly, giggly one that was Harriet Smith, a stern, serious, tormented Jane Fairfax and a pompous, arrogant Robert Ferrars. I think it's great how you can just see all the people that she wrote about, without them ever having the slightest idea that they resemble a certain character (let's hope so, at least, one wouldn't want to go through life realizing that one looks like Robert Ferrars). A great game to play, especially when dealing with real Austenites.
A word of warning though; don't try to do this on your friends or family, because firstly it will not fit (you know too much about their personality to squeeze them into any Austen character, because as much depth as she gave them, she could never draw out a full person) and secondly you will not be able to see them in any other light anymore. My boyfriend once commented, when I was watching Emma, that one of my friends behaved like that girl, and now I cannot help but see bits of Harriet Smith around the edges. Not something you want. Also, never ever try to figure out which Austen character you yourself are, for everybody probably wants to be Lizzy Bennet or Emma or Woodhouse something, but in truth there are a lot of Anne Elliots and Elinor Dashwoods, and even some Charlotte Lucases and Lucy Steeles, amongst us. No problem there, of course, the world needs all kinds of people, but it is generally best not to realise these things about oneself!