Lady Elliot is certainly "the preserver of his happiness, his chief counselor, and, to sum up all, the chosen friend of his bosom" (Wakefield, 287). Also in Jane Eyre we receive a taste of the idea of how a woman (or girl even) should behave. As the reader gets to know Helen Burns at Logwood, the school of where our protagonist Jane attends, Helen's calm and innocent nature symbolizes how an "ideal woman" should reason. Even if bad things happen, a woman should be grateful and forgiving, and foremost submissive. Wakefield talks about "the science of pleasing" (286) and this virtue in the "ideal woman" should be taught and performed from childhood. On the other hand, since both of these great examples of pleasant women die, one could also assume that our authors mean to access another perspective. Acting as the "ideal woman" will not matter when it all comes to an end, so maybe it's better to take chances and gain happiness while living. .
Another way that Persuasion and Jane Eyre implies the idea of an "ideal woman" is to compare Jane and Anne's looks and behavior to how they ought to be. Both Jane and Anne know what's expected of them and how they should behave; however, both of them have difficulties with living up to their own and others expectations. Jane, for example, reasons as a child, "I know that had I been a sanguine, brilliant, careless, exacting, handsome, romping child -though equally dependent and friendless - Mrs. Reed would have endured my presence more complacently" (Brontë, 643). Jane does not follow the idea of how a girl should be and she often gets punished for it. Emphasize here is not only on how an "ideal woman" should behave but also look; had Jane been "handsome", more faults would be forgiven. For example her beautiful cousin Georgiana, who is described as a quite awful and selfish girl, but because "her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her" (Brontë, 642), she is forgiven any mistake.