"Pride and Prejudice" depicts the character Charlotte Lucas as asexual and aromantic.

Austen's understanding of identity is centuries ahead of its time. We've caught up with her.

Although Jane Austen has been viewed as a writer of typical rom-coms and a chronicler of polite society, both Austen and her work have alternatively been characterized as queer. Beginning in the 1990s, a discussion known as “the Queer Austen debates” looked at Austen’s life and characters in light of various queer identities, above all homoeroticism between characters and the Austen sisters themselves.

Twentieth-century writers had laid the groundwork for queering Austen by observing that many of her characters defy gender norms and that her female characters have intense emotional relationships with other women. Even earlier, the Victorians recognized the gender-bending potential of her life and work, primarily in the theater, where the first women to play Jane and Cassandra on stage were lovers in real life and many actors “cross dressed” playing her characters. If you do a search titled “queer Jane Austen,” you’ll find additional references to essays, blogs, and scholarship as well as lists of the many queer retellings of her novels.

While the queering of Austen has revealed some crucial aspects of her work, it has been incomplete. With the exception of a handful of essays, blog posts, and internet discussions, asexual and aromantic identities have been largely ignored. But not by Austen! Charlotte Lucas of Pride and Prejudice fits the criteria for both identities: she is aroace, experiencing neither sexual desire for another nor a special warm, magnetic longing to be with someone that differs in quality even from close friendships.

Both identities are........

© Psychology Today