Austen's works themes, subject, text

Dave Mayuri P.

                         M. A. English SEM 2

                                  Roll no. 13

              Paper no. 5 The Romantic literature

Assignment topic: Austen’s works –        themes, subject, text

Submitted Department of English  M.K.B.U.

                        

                                 Jane Austen Works 

-: Introduction of Jane Austen:- 

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, at Steven ton rectory in Hampshire, England. Her father Reverend George Austen (1731-1805) was the rector at Steventon.in 1764; he married Cassandra Leigh Austen [1739-1827] who was from a patrician family. Jane Austen was the youngest of   George and Cassandra’s   eight children.  She had six brother   and one sister .The family was tightly-knit, and Jane was particularly close to her sister, Cassandra and her brother, Henry. Who would later become her literary agent? 
   

                  George and Cassandra   Sr. sent Cassandra   and Jane (who was only 8years old at the time) to oxford and Southampton to be educated. However, after Jane nearly died during on outbreak of typhus as their boarding school, both girls returned home to continue their studies. From 1785 to 1786, Jane and Cassandra attended the reading ladies boarding school where they studied French, spelling needle work, music, and dancing economic hardships forced the girls to return home once again. Their father maintained a large library and indulged his daughter s curiosity with plenty of reading material. As a result, Jane and Cassandra continued to develop their literary talent despite their lack of a formal education. 
  

                       Begging   in her ten years Austen wrote poems, stories and comic pieces for the amusement of her family. She complied several of the pieces she wrote between 1787 and 1793 into three bound notebooks, which scholars now refer to  as Austen’s “juvenilia” Austen expressed an interest in drama and comedy ; she often staged theoretical productions at home with her siblings. As she continued to experiment with writing, Austen became adapt at parodying the sentimental century novel. Among Jane Austen’s early work is a comic novel with the deliberately misspelled title “Love and friendship” a satire of the “history of England”, and “Lady Susan”, an epistolary work. During this time, Austen also began to sketch out ideas for novel that would later become “Sense and Sensibility. 
   

                           In 1795, Austen met Tom Leroy the nephew of her neighbor at Stevenson. In her letters to Cassandra, Austen wrote about spending a great deal of time with Leroy   and hinted at her romantic feeling for him.

                          Unfortunately, a marriage between then was impractical, and Leroy’s family soon sent him away. After the conclusion of her brief romance with Leroy, Austen began work on a second novel called first impressions which would later became “Pride and Prejudice”, after that Austen began to revise her initial outline for sense and sensibility and developed “Northanger Abbey”.  A satire of gothic   genre.  
  

                  The Austen family resided at Stevenson until 1801, when reverend Austen announced his retirement from the ministry. He then moved the family to Bath. Jane was unhappy about leaving her childhood home, which resulted in sudden decreases in her productivity. During her time at Bath Austen only made minimal revision to her draft of Northanger Abbey and started (but soon abandoned) a fourth novel.  

                    While in bath, Austen also received her only marriage proposal; from Harris Biggs -wither, the younger brother of a family friend and an oxford graduate who was six years Austen’s junior.  Biggs- wither, was supposedly unremarkable both physically and intellectually, but his considerable fortune made him an attractive bachelor. Jane Austen initially accepted his proposal, but changed her mind the following day and rescinded her promise. Turning down a marriage proposal was significant decision for a woman during. This time period, as a marriage was the only way Jane would have been able again independence from her family. Marrying big-wither would also have allowed Jane to provide a home for her sister, Cassandra and could even have helped Austen’s brothers in their efforts to secure better careers. 
 

                         After George Austen’s death in 1805, Jane her mother and her sister had to move in with her brother Francis because of their unstable financial position. In 1809 they moved to a cottage at chaw ton where Jane’ wealthy brother Edward had an estate. Life in chaw ton, where Jane’s wealthy brother   Edward had estate. Life in chaw ton was much quitter then it had been in bath, which gave Jane Austen the opportunity to write more often. While living at chaw ton, four of her novels were published anonymously;    “Sense and Sensibility” in 1811.  “Pride and Prejudice” in 1813.  Mansfield Park” in 1814. And “Emma in 1815. In July of 18, Austen completed the first chaff of her next novel,  entitled “The Eliot’s.” It would later be published as “Persuasion.”     

                        In early 1816, Austen suffered on ones of illness that culminated in her death the following years. most biographers believe that she suffered from Addison’s  disease. Despite her illness, Austen continued to write revising the ending of “The Eliot’s” and starting works on “sedition”. She died at the age of 41 on July 8, 1817 and was buried at the famous Winchester cathedral. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously cassette in 1817. However, Austen was unable to finish “sedition” before her death.   

                            Austen novel mostly focus on themes of courtship and marriage. However .her works stand out because of sharp satirical depiction of late 18^th century English society .she is still one of the most studied and influential novelist of her time largely because she was creating strong unusual female characters during this period known as the regency period .and also for her mastery of  from satire and irony.in 1833 publisher Richard Bentley published the first collected addition of Austen’s novels .since then her works have been continually in print . 
                   

                                      As with May great authors Austen died before she gained significant public recognition although her novels were fashionable with members of British society. like prince regent critic largely ignored her work.in the daughter of the prince of regent critics largely ignore her work.in the 20 century Austen’s novels began to attract attention from literary scholars who conducted serious academic studies on her texts. However the past several decades there have been more than 200 literary adaptions of Austen’s novels as well as numerous film versions
.

                                 Work by Jane Austen

 

                             1.  ‘’Emma.’’(1815)

                             2.  ‘’Mansfield park.’’(1814) 

                             3. ‘’North anger Abby. ‘’   
                          

                             4.  “Persuasion.”

                             5. “Pride and Prejudice.”(1813)   
                

                             6. “Sense and Sensibility.”(1811)

1.   Emma: -      Emma was first published by Jane Austen and first published by john Marry in December of 1815. It was the last of Austen’s novels to be published before her death, and like her earlier works, was published anonym sly. Shortly before publication of  “Emma”  Austen.    

2.   “Mansfield park”:- Mansfield park considered the authors most ambitious novel, was published anonymously, as were all of Jane Austen’s novel in 1814. While sense and sensibility. And Pride and Prejudice are considered, as one critic remarks.  

3.   “Northanger Abbey”:- Jane Austen wrote “North anger Abbey” while she residing in her childhood home in Stevenson England, but the novel is largely set in the resort town of Bath, where Austen visited for a month vacation in 1797.originally entitled  Susan.   

4.   “Persuasion”:- Persuasion is Jane Austen’s last completed novel. She began work on it in the summer of 1815, and completed it by the summer 1816. The work was published with Northanger Abbey posthumously in December of 1817. Six months after Austen’s…. 

5.   Pride & Prejudice..

      Pride & Prejudice is Jane Austen Second novel, Publish in 1813. Some scholars consider it one of her most mature novels. Austen began writing Pride & Prejudice under the title finest impression in 1796. At the age of twenty one.

6.    Sense and sensibility

        Sense and sensibility was Austen’s first published novel. Its first edition came out in three volumes in 1811. And the Novel was reasonably well liked and success full. These was much to the relief of  Austen, who financed the printing of the book.

   

-: Themes in Jane Austen’s:-  

              Themes of love and marriage.
    

               -: Pride and Prejudice:-   

One of the major themes of the novel ‘Pride and prejudice’ is love and marriage. Besides the marriage of Mrs. and   Mr. Benet, four marriages take place in the novel, mostly emanating from the love between each other. More ever, the main concern of the novel is courtship and love , particularly the coming close of the  hero, Darcy and the heroine, Elizabeth by stage.   

          The first marriage that attracts our attention is that on Mrs. Benet and managed her. This helped before the start of the novel. But Mr. Benet was not a fit match for Mr. Benet. She is nervous ridiculous lady but Mr. Benet is a conscious and sensible man. So they are people apart in their thoughts and temperaments. Thus, this marriage is the worst examples of its kind in the novel.   

                   The second examples of marriage in the novel are that of Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins .Mr. Collins is an affluent but stupid clergyman. He first proposes to Charlotte Lucas and she accepts his proposal because she wants ‘social economic’ security. So, this is marriage of conveniences, not a marriage of love.  

                       The third examples of marriage in the novel, is that of Lydia and Wickham. Wickham is a philanderer and cheat. He cheats Lydia in his meet   and she falls in love with him. Not only that, she elopes away with him. Lydia action is bound to bring disgrace to the family. It is Darcy who bibles Wickham and makes him Mary Lydia and thus save the family of Mr. Benet from disgrace.  

                 The fourth examples marriage is that of Jane and  bigly . they truly love each other. Boringly is a well to do young man. He marries Jane without   dowry .this is an example of a successful marriage. 

              

           The fifth and final example of marriage is that of Elizabeth and Darcy. It is an example of an idol marriage based on true understanding and cross examinations as their love develops slowly, steadily of and after carefully observation of each other.  Before marriage, they have encountered deep differences and critical confrontations resulting from the preoccupation of the pride by Elizabeth. They get married only after Darcy has given up her prejudice. The two try to understand each other and learn that they will be able to leads a life and learn that they will life be able to lead a life of social and economic security. There is an example of an ideal love.     

       

           - : Themes of Sense and Sensibility. :-  

       - : Themes of love and Marriage. :-  

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” 

                  These opening statements strike the keynote of Jane Austen’s   themes in novel –marriage in a society governed by economic considerations; as indicated by the words Fortune.
  

              Jane Austen’s usual theme is love and marriage.in all her novels. They are beautiful girls waiting for really eligible bachelors to get married to them.  

              In Sense and Sensibility There are love stories of:-   

   Eleanor – Edward.  

   Edward – Lucy.     

    Lucy – Robert.  

    Marianne – Willoughby.  

    Willoughby –Eliza.  

     Marianne – Colonel Brandon.   

                

               The love stories are related to the chief characters of the novel. Other stories are co-related to them. These love stories provide interest to the readers. They reveal the characters mind-set. Their understanding, faithfulness and psychological aspects are woven with them. Lovers are tasted and rewarded. They fail and succeed but they become an instrument to give us a social background of time.   

             In sense and sensibility there is a little misunderstanding & delay in Eleanor and Edwards’s marriage. Edward was believed in the love with Lucy. When Lucy declared that she is going to marry with Mr. Farrar’s. but actually she married to Robert Farrar as she married to Robert Farrar as she gradually falls in love with him.  

                 

                   Marianne younger sisters of Eleanor falls in love with Willoughby was a showy and literary kinds of a person. He flirts with Marianne. For her marriage of Willoughby proved a great shock & medium to realize reality. Finally, she marries to colonel.                       

                  

           However, Jane Austen’s characters are Conway of the contemporary events. The motto of Austen is to provide handsome husband to girls they do not have any, deep spiritual insight or religious attitude, marriage & love is the central these both the novels.