Jane Austen’s career followed novelists such as Ann Radcliffe and Laurence Sterne, at a time when the Gothic and Romance novels were very popular. However, Jane Austen did not look favorably upon these styles, believing them to be harmful to both literature and the reader. In writing her own novels, Austen parodied these genres, but not merely for a humorous effect. She had specific messages that she wanted to get through to her audience, through this method. She wanted to impress upon her reader the value of that which is ordinary, but real, the importance of thinking for oneself, and to make logical judgments of characters.
The first emergence of Austen’s use of satire was in her earliest works, the Juvenilia, which she wrote from ages 10 to 15. She was so well-read at such a young age that she was able to effectively parody the works of the famous novelists who came before her, such as Ann Radcliffe. In creating such mockeries, she makes criticisms that seem to serve very specific, crucial purposes in her Juvenilia, as well as her other novels. Jane Austen sought to provide her audience with reading lessons, illustrating clear messages to teach them how to act and judge, not only in literature, but in everyday life.
Love and Friendship, contained within Juvenilia, is an example of a parody of sentimentalism. Jane Austen describes overly dramatic scenes, similar to those that one would have read in a sentimental novel. She starts off by addressing the sentimentalist concept of the “perfect heroine.” Laura, the main character who fulfills this stereotype, describes herself early in the novel. “In my Mind, every Virtue that could adorn it was centered; it was the Rendezvous of every good Quality & of every noble sentiment” (p.78,...
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...y had no real life applications. They didn’t teach their audiences anything of value. This is likely why Jane Austen wrote her novels in the ways that she did. She includes various passages, characters, plots, and parodies in different ways to remind the reader of the importance of reality. She emphasizes the need to think for oneself, rather than on the basis of books or the word of someone else. She encourages her readers to make judgments based on her characters, using various tools. One might argue that Austen wrote in a very calculated way. Everything she put down on paper served a purpose, to make certain concepts clear and teach her readers things that she believes to be crucial, whether it be pertaining to reading, or in how to act in ones own life.
Works Cited
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
Love and Friendship, Jane Austen
Wallace, Tara Ghoshal. Jane Austen and Narrative Authority. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. 17-30.
Grey, J. David., A. Walton. Litz, B. C. Southam, and H. Abigail. Bok. The Jane Austen Companion. New York: Macmillan, 1986. Print.
Jane Austen's characters are extraordinary. Vividly painted, complete with personal eccentricities and short-comings, they make the reader laugh over the foibles of humanity. One of Austen's most memorable characters is Mrs. Elton, who could be considered the antagonist of Emma. The reader's very first introduction to this character invokes a strong feeling of dislike mingled with amusement. This strong reader reaction is the result of a carefully structured build-up to Mrs. Elton's introduction. Austen shapes this reader reaction first though the subjective opinions of others, specifically, the praises of Mr. Elton and the criticisms of Emma. Then, after building this foundation, Austen introduces the reader to Mrs. Elton through an objectively recorded conversation that cements the reader's opinion that Mrs. Elton is a snobbish, self-centred woman.
More specifically, women who were privileged, educated, and belonged to the higher class. As an example of young women, “Catherine 's enthusiasm for romantic novels is by no means a personal idiosyncrasy to be removed by education; she is at the crest of the wave of public taste-especially for girls of her age and class.” (662) (Socialization of Catherine Morland). Reading became a popular interests of young women, however, comparing Catherine as the novel 's heroine considers feminine traits,desires, and interests were changing. Women no longer identify with female hero 's that are whimsical, instead they enjoy feminine hero 's to be challenged, opinionated, and intelligent. According to Waldo Glock Austen 's “most significant function of the parody element is to suggest that the romantic and sentimental type of heroine is no longer relevant for the nineteenth century” (37
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Southam, Brian. "Jane Austen." British Writers. Vol. IV. Ed. Ian Scott-Kilvert. New York: Scribners, 1981.
In Northanger Abbey, Austen intended to reflect a contrast between a normal, healthy-natured girl and the romantic heroines of fiction thorough the use of characterization. By portraying the main character, Catherine Moorland, as a girl slightly affected with romantic notions, Jane Austen exhibits the co...
Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners by Jane Austen, published in 1813. This story follows the main character Elizabeth, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, and marriage in the society of early 19th-century England. Satire is used in Pride and Prejudice to make fun of human vices or weaknesses. Satire can be described as a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice is held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule (Satire). It is basically used to attack the characters to bring a change about them. The use of satire is often inclusive of a need or decision of correcting or bettering the character that is on the receiving end of the satire. In general, even though satire might be humorous and may “make fun”, its purpose is not to entertain and amuse but actually to derive a reaction of contempt from the reader.
Austen was a recondite writer with a new inside perspective with an outside view on life in the early 19th century. Born on December 16, 1775, Austen was a curious child given the unseal luxury of an education. Her father was a part of the gentry class and raised a family of ten, but was not well off by any means (Grochowski). Sense and Sensibility, written by Jane Austen, tells a dramatic story of three sisters and their emotional journey where they encounter love and betrayal. Because Jane Austen was raised in a liberal family and received a comprehensive education, her dramatic analysis of societal behavior in Sense and Sensibility was comparable to the hidden truths of social and class distinctions in 18th and 19th century Europe.
Although her book is based on a romance between a wealthy and a relatively middle class woman, she is able to show different aspects of society though a different lens than normal people. Austen grew up in an environment that stressed the importance of education and the ability to think in a creative way. Through her background of higher level education, she is smart enough give social commentary in a book addressing romance and realism. The ability to mock society while writing a completely different story is what makes Pride and Prejudice the great work of literature that it is. And example of this is in Pride and Prejudice, where she does so through Charlotte and Mr.Collins. In page 1112, “... and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were
Nardin, Jane. "Those Elegant Decorums: The Concept of Propriety in Jane Austen's Novels." Albany: State U of New York P, 1973.
She was very talented and passionate about her work. However, living in the 19th century made it especially hard to express her wonderful ideas as a woman. This forced her to publish most of her books anonymously so that people would not automatically dismiss her work (Christine, 2012, Writer Hero: Jane Austen). In fact, critics didn 't fully appreciate her style of writing at the time. They thought that Jane’s popularity was overrated because of her limited thought to her small world and it’s small concerns. In direct contrast, it was this exact idea that made her popular. It related her books to everyday life and appealed to the modern reader (Mullan, 2015, How Jane Austen’s Emma Changed the Face of Fiction). The way Jane wrote provided a gentle, easy-to-follow rhythm, using literary devices to move towards subjects floating through irony and criticism. This allows the reader to view the subject through humor and enjoyment but also clearly understanding the point Jane is trying to make (Collins, 2009, What Would Jane Do?). In her popular book Emma, it is the first time that an author writes in a third-person point of view, shares a character 's judgments, and follows the path to their decisions. This technique opened up a new world of opportunities, combining the internal and external world of a character in a novel (Mullan, 2015, How Jane Austen’s Emma Changed the Face of Fiction). Jane Austen had
English novelist Jane Austen was born to George and Cassandra Austen on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire England.
Jane Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Austen created a transition into Romanticism which encourages passion and imagination in writing instead of a strict and stale writing style. It is very emotional and follows a flowing not structured form. Mixing these two styles was one of Austen's strongest talents, which gave her an edge in the literary world. No other author in her time was able to create such a strong transition between writing styles. Austen used her sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing including in one of her most famous works; Pride and Prejudice. She could create a powerful and dramatic scene and immediately lead it into a satirical cathartic scene. We see these in various locations in Pride and Prejudice. She was able to use her experiences as well as her intense knowledge to create meaningful insights into her words, regardless of what topic she would be discussing. She often talks about marriage, or breaking the roles of what a person should be. She made controversial works that praised imperfections which praised the...
The literature output in Jane Austen’s creation is full of realism and irony. Janet Todd once asserted that "Austen creates an illusion of realism in her texts, partly through readably identification with the characters and partly through rounded characters, which have a history and a memory.” (Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, 28.) Her works are deeply influenced between by late eighteenth-century Britain rationalism phenomenon and early nineteenth-century of romanticism.