Becoming Jane (2007)
James McAvoy: Tom Lefroy
Photos
Quotes
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Tom Lefroy : What value will there ever be in life, if we are not together?
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Tom Lefroy : I have no money, no property, I am entirely dependent upon that bizarre old lunatic, my uncle. I cannot yet offer marriage, but you must know what I feel. Jane, I'm yours. God, I'm yours. I'm yours, heart and soul. Much good that is.
Jane Austen : Let me decide that.
Tom Lefroy : What will we do?
Jane Austen : What we must.
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Tom Lefroy : You dance with passion.
Jane Austen : No sensible woman would demonstrate passion, if the purpose were to attract a husband.
Tom Lefroy : As opposed to a lover?
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Tom Lefroy : How can you, of all people, dispose of yourself without affection?
Jane Austen : How can I dispose of myself with it?
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Tom Lefroy : [reading from Mr. White's Natural History] Swifts, on a fine morning in May, flying this way, that way, sailing around at a great hight, perfectly happily. Then -
[checks he has her attention and nods to let her know this is what he meant]
Tom Lefroy : Then, one leaps onto the back of another, grasps tightly and forgetting to fly they both sink down and down, in a great dying fall, fathom after fathom, until the female utters...
Jane Austen : [breaking out of trance] Yes?
Tom Lefroy : [looks at her for a moment, then continues reading] The female utters a loud, piercing cry...
[he looks up at her again]
Tom Lefroy : ... of ecstasy.
[smiles tantalisingly]
Tom Lefroy : Is this conduct commonplace in the natural history of Hampshire?
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Tom Lefroy : Good God. There's writing on both sides of those pages.
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Tom Lefroy : I am yours. Heart and soul, I am yours. Much good that is.
Jane Austen : I will decide that.
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Tom Lefroy : If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.
Jane Austen : I see. And what qualifies you to offer this advice?
Tom Lefroy : I know more of the world.
Jane Austen : A great deal more, I gather.
Tom Lefroy : Enough to know that your horizons must be... widened.
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Jane Austen : Could I really have this?
Tom Lefroy : What, precisely?
Jane Austen : You.
Tom Lefroy : Me, how?
Jane Austen : This life with you.
Tom Lefroy : Yes.
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Tom Lefroy : A metropolitan mind may be less susceptible to extended juvenile self-regard.
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Wine Whore : [comes to sit on Tom's lap] Glass of wine?
Tom Lefroy : Yes, thank you.
[lifts the glass]
Tom Lefroy : A toast from one member of the profession to another.
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Jane Austen : This, by the way, is called a country dance, after the French, contredanse. Not because it is exhibited at an uncouth rural assembly with glutinous pies, execrable Madeira, and truly anarchic dancing.
Tom Lefroy : You judge the company severely, madam.
Jane Austen : I was describing what you'd be thinking.
Tom Lefroy : Allow me to think for myself.
Jane Austen : Gives me leave to do the same, sir, and come to a different conclusion.
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Tom Lefroy : Vice leads to difficulty, virtue to reward. Bad characters come to bad ends.
Jane Austen : Exactly. But in life, bad characters often thrive. Take yourself.
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Tom Lefroy : I think that you, Miss Austen, consider yourself a cut above the company.
Jane Austen : Me?
Tom Lefroy : You, ma'am. Secretly.
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Tom Lefroy : I have been told there is much to see upon a walk, but all I've detected so far is a general tendency to green above and brown below.
Jane Austen : Yes, well, others have detected more. It is celebrated. There's even a book about Selborne Wood.
Tom Lefroy : Oh. A novel, perhaps?
Jane Austen : Novels? Being poor, insipid things, read by mere women, even, God forbid, written by mere women?.
Tom Lefroy : I see, we're talking of your reading.
Jane Austen : As if the writing of women did not display the greatest powers of mind, knowledge of human nature, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour and the best-chosen language imaginable?
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Jane Austen : [after Tom loses a boxing match] Forgive me if I suspect in you a sense of justice.
Tom Lefroy : I am a lawyer. Justice plays no part in the law.
Jane Austen : Is that what you believe?
Tom Lefroy : I believe it. I must.
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Jane Austen : I have read your book. I have read your book and disapprove.
Tom Lefroy : Of course you do.
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Tom Lefroy : What rules of conduct apply in this rural situation? We have been introduced, have we not?
Jane Austen : What value is there in an introduction when you cannot even remember my name? Indeed, can barely stay awake in my presence.
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Jane Austen : [she has just kissed him] Did I do that well?
Tom Lefroy : Very. Very well.
Jane Austen : I wanted, just once, to do it well.
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Henry Austen : What do you make of Mr. Lefroy?
Jane Austen : We're honoured by his presence.
Eliza De Feuillide : You think?
Jane Austen : He does, with his preening, prancing, Irish-cum-Bond-Street airs.
Henry Austen : Jane.
Jane Austen : Well, I call it very high indeed, refusing to dance when there are so few gentleman. Henry, are all your friends so disagreeable?
Henry Austen : Jane.
Jane Austen : Where exactly in Ireland does he come from, anyway?
Tom Lefroy : [coming up behind Jane] Limerick, Miss Austen.
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Tom Lefroy : Miss? Miss? Miss...
Jane Austen : Austen.
Tom Lefroy : Mr. Lefroy.
Jane Austen : Yes, I know, but I am alone.
Tom Lefroy : Except for me.
Jane Austen : Exactly.
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Tom Lefroy : I would regard it as a mark of extreme favour if you would stoop to honour me with this next dance.
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Tom Lefroy : [to Jane] Do you love me?
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Tom Lefroy : If there is a shred of truth or justice inside of you, you cannot marry him.
Jane Austen : Oh no, Mr. Lefroy. Justice, by your own admission, you know little of, truth even less.
Tom Lefroy : Jane, I have tried. I have tried and I cannot live this lie. Can you?
Tom Lefroy : [turns Jane's head towards himself] Jane, can you?
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Jane Austen : [at Laverton Fair] Trouble here enough.
Tom Lefroy : And freedom, the freedom of men. Do not you envy it?
Jane Austen : But I have the intense pleasure of observing it so closely.
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Tom Lefroy : If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be considered the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.
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Tom Lefroy : Was I deficient in propriety?
Jane Austen : Why did you do that?
Tom Lefroy : Couldn't waste all those expensive boxing lessons.
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Tom Lefroy : Was I deficient in rapture?
Jane Austen : In consciousness!
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Tom Lefroy : I... I depend entirely upon...
Jane Austen : Upon your Uncle. And I depend on you. So what will you do?
Tom Lefroy : What I must. I have a duty to my family, Jane. I must think of them as well as...
Jane Austen : Tom... Is that... Is that all you have to say to me?
Jane Austen : Goodbye, Mr. Lefroy.
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Tom Lefroy : Was I deficient in rapture?
Jane Austen : Inconsciousness!
Tom Lefroy : It was... It was accomplished.
Jane Austen : It was ironic.
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Tom Lefroy : [after reading an excerpt about swifts] Your ignorance is understandable since you lack... What shall we call it? The history?
Jane Austen : Propriety commands me to ignorance.
Tom Lefroy : Condemns you to it and your writing to the status of female accomplishment. If you wish to practice the art of fiction, to be the equal of a masculine author, experience is vital.
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Tom Lefroy : I depend entirely upon...
Jane Austen : Upon your uncle. And I depend on you. What will you do?
Tom Lefroy : What I must.
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Judge Langlois : Wild companions, gambling, running around St James's like a neck-or-nothing young blood of the fancy. What kind of lawyer will that make?
Tom Lefroy : Typical.
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Judge Langlois : Welcome...
Tom Lefroy : [walks in a circle and discreetly reminds his uncle] Madame le Comtesse.
Judge Langlois : Madame le Comtesse. Seldom, too seldom, my house receives the presence of nobility. And, of course, its friends. Please.
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Tom Lefroy : Good morning, sir.
Judge Langlois : Good morning? Has the world turned topsy?
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Judge Langlois : [Tom just joked about lawyers] Humour? Well, you're going to need that because I'm teaching you a lesson. I'm sending you to stay with your other relations, the Lefroys.
Tom Lefroy : Uncle, they live in the country.
Judge Langlois : Deep in the country.
[chuckles]
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Jane Austen : Tell me about your lady, Mr. Lefroy. From where does she come?
Tom Lefroy : She's from County Wexford.
Jane Austen : Your own country. Excellent. What was it that won her?. Your manner, smiles and pleasing address?
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Jane Austen : How many brothers and sisters do you have in Limerick, Tom?
Tom Lefroy : Enough. Why?
Jane Austen : What are the names of your brothers and sisters?
Tom Lefroy : They...
Jane Austen : On whom do they depend?
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Tom Lefroy : Jane, an old friend. Late as ever.
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Tom Lefroy : Hampshire, your home county.
Jane Austen : It was.
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Lucy Lefroy : Laverton Fair. Vastly entertaining. Monstrous good idea, Jane.
Tom Lefroy : Yes, Miss Austen, not exactly your usual society, I'd say.
Jane Austen : Show a little imagination, Mr. Lefroy.
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Tom Lefroy : ...your horizons must be... widened, by an extraordinary young man.
Jane Austen : By a very dangerous young man, one who has, no doubt, infected the hearts of many a young... young woman with the soft corrup...
Tom Lefroy : Read this
[hands Jane a book]
Jane Austen : -tion...
Tom Lefroy : and you will understand.