A SOUTHERN BRITISH WRITER OF THE ROMANTIC ERA: JANE AUSTEN - THE IMPORTANCE OF SPACE IN JANE AUSTENS NOVELS The

Romantic era is generally thought of as a period which reacted against the Age of Reason and against the drastic changes that were being brought into the daily lives of the people. In literature, subjective and private themes became increasingly popular and the once preferred public and general themes faded away. The popularity of novels, still relatively new as a form of literature, continued to rise. However, it wasnt until forty years into the Romantic era that a real fictional masterpiece was published. This masterpiece was written by one of Englands best novelist of the era, Jane Austen. Jane Austens middle class existence greatly influenced her writings, she focused on middle-class provincial life with humor and understanding, she expressed her contempt for the superficiality of the upper class and usually made them her most comical characters. Most of Janes writing was done during social engagements. Austen's heroines are determined to marry wisely and well. Two common themes in Austens books are the loss of illusions - usually leading characters to a more mature outlook - and the clash between traditional moral ideals and the everyday demands of life. In most of her novels, her characters correct their faults through lessons learned as a result of tribulation. Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns of human behavior, many people regard Austen as one of the greatest novelists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Pride and Prejudice has a wonderful epic, a delightful mix of irony, humor and romance, this is one of Jane Austen's most popular novels. The main subject in the novel is stated in the first sentence of the novel: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." The characters of Pride and Prejudice are exaggerated in such a way that their faults become obvious to the reader. Jane Austen uses this to play on the readers feelings about the characters. An example of this is Mr. Collins she portrays as an extremely foolish man, encouraging the readers dislike and disgust. Then she proceeds to play on the readers feeling about him so that he becomes so annoying that the reader cannot but laugh at him, and feel sympathy towards Mrs. Charlotte Collins. All the characters have

been portrayed in this way, including Lydia, Mrs. Bennet, and Mr. Bennet, although Jane Austen is sometimes more subtle with some characters, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth in particular. The novel is, in the words of the Penguin Classics edition editor Tony Tanner, a novel about how a man changes his manners and a woman changes her mind. Sense and Sensibility revolves around a contrast between Elinor's sense and Marianne's emotionalism; the two sisters may have been loosely based on the author and her beloved elder sister, Cassandra. The main theme is that sensibility - responsiveness, openness, enthusiasm - is highly desirable, but that it must be tempered by good sense and prudence. In other words, a person needs both sense and sensibility for fulfillment and survival. The novel focuses on the romantic affairs of two sisters. The notion of space has an important role in Austens novels, it almost becomes a character, because people react according to place, they reveal or hide their feelings in concordance with the place. Pivotal landscape settings reveal characters outlook and their social behaviour. Pemberley and its beautiful grounds, plays one of the most important roles in the plot of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice. Pemberly almost becomes a character, it reveals many hidden parts of its owner. In her novels, Austen places characters in settings that challenge or console them, that reflect or reveal a state of mind, that shape their behaviours. The space from all Jane Austens novels ranges in different locations, but all this locations are described in a detailed manner by the author herself or by the other characters. Jane Austen was well connected with the middling-rich landed gentry that she portrayed in her novels. Secrecy and concealment are very important themes in Jane Austens novels. The scenes allow for the characters to cover or discover different features of their personalities. Austens individual scenes contribute to an overall thematic unity, by exchanging outside settings for indoor settings. This transposition of the indoor/outdoor scenes displays Austens elegant metaphorical subtext., it shows the connection between

Tanner, Tony. Jane Austen, Harvard University Press, 1986.

dramatic action and thematic idea. The windows offer the characters the opportunity to reveal the inside of houses from the outside. All those who have studied Austen texts carefully soon realise that she develops her stories through a careful sequencing of time. Scenes, pictorial narratives, meditations are all placed in a rhythm which imitates diurnal time as all people communally experience it. The various settings make the novel more interesting and provide further insights into the lives of the characters Jane Austen's novels are considered social novels also because homes are important in her novels, they reflect the characters and characteristic of the owners. Country Homes in Austen's novels are often described in more positive terms than London homes which seem to be the setting for personal sorrow and tragedy. The various settings make the novels more interesting and provide further insights into the lives of the characters. With meticulous detail, Austen portrayed the quiet, day-to-day life of members of the upper middle class. Her works combine romantic comedy with social satire and psychological insight. We cannot forget the words of Thomas Macaulay who called Austen the writer to "have approached nearest to the manner of the great master" Shakespeare;

* Thomas Macaulay, "Lord Clive," Edinburgh Review, January 1840

REFERENCES: *Aaron, Blake Publishers. The Jane Austen map of England, Aaron Blake, 1987. *Barfoot, C. C. The thread of connection: aspects of fate in the novels of Jane Austen and others, Rodopi, 1982 *Batey, Mavis, Jane Austen and the English Landscape, Barn Elms Publishing, London, 1996 *Bloom, Harold. Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice, Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. *Bonnell, Henry Houston, Charlotte Bront, George Eliot, Jane Austen; studies in their works, Longmans, Green, 1902. *Booth, Bradford Allen , Pride and prejudice: text, backgrounds, criticism, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963. *Burlin, Katrin R, Pictures of Perfection at Pemberley: Art in Pride and Prejudice in Jane Austen. New Perspectives, J Todd , Holmes & Meier, New York, 1983 *Duckworth, Alistair M, The Improvement of the Estate: A Study of Jane Austens Novels, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1994 *Damrosch, David and Dettmar, Kevin J. H. The Longman Anthology of British Literature Volume Two, Pearson Longman, 2006 *Fergus, Jan S., Jane Austen and the didactic novel: Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice, Macmillan, 1983. *Lane, Maggie, Jane Austens England, Robert Hale Limited, London, 1986 *Lane Maggie, Jane Austens World, Carlton Books Limited, UK, 1996 *Nicolson, Nigel, World of Jane Austen: Her Homes in Fact and Fiction , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1995 * Macaulay, Thomas "Lord Clive," Edinburgh Review, January 1840 *Pool, Daniel: What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew , Touchstone, New York, 1994 *Tanner, Tony. Jane Austen, Harvard University Press, 1986. MARIA-LUIZA VASILE , TEACHER OF ENGLISH: