JANE AUSTEN

Main works:

Northanger Abbey, written in 1798 but published posthumously.

Sense and Sensibility (1811).

Pride and Prejudice (1813).

Mansfield Park (1814).

Emma (1816).

Persuasion (1818, after her death).

Jane Austen is the undisputed master of the novel of manners. There is a vital relationship between
manners, social behaviour and character.
Main features of the novel of manners:

Set in upper- and middle-class society.

Influence of class distinctions on character.

Visits, balls, teas as occasions for joining up.

Main themes: marriage, the complications of love and friendship.

Third-person narrator.

Dialogue: the main narrative mode.

Passions and emotions not expressed directly.

Use of irony.

The national marriage market

Austens values: property, decorum, money and marriage.

Austens England: based on the possession of land, parks and country houses.

Marriage: result of the growing social mobility.

The marriage market takes place in London, Bath and some seaside resorts.

Gossip, flirtations, seductions, adulteries happen in these places.

The marriage market produces a range of villains: unscrupulous relatives, seducers and
social climbers.

In Austens novels there is no place for great passion but romantic element of happy
ending marriage between the hero and heroine.

Pride and Prejudice (1813)

It is set in Longbourn, Hertfordshire. Mr and Mrs Bennet and their five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth,
Mary,Lydia and Kitty). Mr Bingley, a rich bachelor, rents the large estate of Netherfield Park
nearby. Mr Bingley falls in love with Jane Bennet. His friend Mr Darcy, a proud aristocrat, feels
attracted to Elizabeth who cultivates a dislike of Mr Darcy. Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth but she
rejects him because she accuses him of separating Jane and Mr Bingley and of ill-treating Mr
Wickham, a young officer. Darcy writes her a letter to reveal that Wickham is an adventurer without
scruples. Elizabeth accepts Darcys renewed proposal. Bingley and Jane also get married.
Themes

The relationship between the individual and society.

The conflict between the individuals desires and the individuals responsibility to society.

The use that the individual makes of freedom and its consequences.

The contrast between imagination and reason.

Love, courtship, and marriage.

Elizabeth Bennet has a lively mind; she is capable of complex impressions and ideas and has a
strong spirit of independence; she refuses to take on the roles which her family or society tries to
impose on her and accuses Darcy of pride.
Fitzwilliam Darcy knows the principles of right conduct; he is selfish and unsociable and accuses
Elizabeth of prejudice; he is prejudiced by his upbringing and disgusted by the vulgar behaviour of
Elizabeths mother and younger sisters.
The search for a balance through the gradual change of the main traits of the characters personality
leads to a reconciliation of the themes that they represent.