ipl-logo

Jane Austen Literary Analysis

3500 Words14 Pages

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Reading this quote any literary enthusiast can guess who the author is, as this has been one of the most talked about quotations in English literature. This is the first line of Pride and Prejudice, the single line that encompasses the theme of the entire novel. And who can be more efficient in bringing out all the pages of a huge novel into one single line than the most successful 19th century Romantic fiction author- Jane Austen. She is placed among the greatest authors in the world of literature. She wrote six novels in all- Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, …show more content…

Though her fictional world--seen as an idyllic bygone time and place, still in the present time it has entered into popular literary culture. Jane Austen is generally acknowledged to be one of the great English novelists, so it is no surprise that her novels have remained continuously in print from her day to the present.
‘Emma’ tells us of a delightful girl who is as essentially true to life today as she was in the years when the Napoleon was the emperor. The ordinary commonplace incidents and the day to day experiences formed the warp and woof of her novels.
Sir Walter Scott wrote in his diary that the talent of Jane Austen as a realist was the most wonderful he had ever met with. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements, feelings and characters of ordinary life .It is this quality of Realist that makes her appeal fresh forever .Literary enthusiast in all the ages and from everywhere in the world are able to associate themselves with her work
The realism of Jane Austen is more truly psychological than that of Richardson, for it is free from the tragic obsessions of moral conscience. With its greater freedom, it acquires greater purity.[Legouis …show more content…

Jane Austen’s first published work, Sense and Sensibility, a romantic novel, appeared in the year 1811. The world was first introduced to her portrayal of realism in English literature. Wisdom, self- control, emotion, enthusiasm, love, romance and heartbreak- all the basic realities of life are portrayed through Austen’s characters the Dashwood sisters- Elinore, Marianne and Margaret. At the end of the novel, the reader is given full freedom to decide whether sense and sensibility has emerged or not. This book is a beautiful and powerful introduction to Austen’s classics, a sensible, sensitive and delightful read about the extraordinary power of women ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is considered to be the finest novel of Jane Austen, and is a work of art in the history of English fiction. It has an incomparable freshness and sharpness of outline .It is modelled on Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. In Shakespeare’s scintillating comedy Benedick and Beatrice who hate each other in the beginning of the play ultimately married in the end. Similarly in Jane Austen’s novel we have the exhibition of pride and prejudice, and their ultimate union in the end. Pride is represented by Darcy and prejudice by Elizabeth. They are ultimately united in a hilarious

Show More
Related

  • The Foils In Jane Austen's Emma

    1263 Words  | 6 Pages

    In her writing, Jane Austen used literary techniques to display her character’s integrity, poise, grace and charm, or lack thereof. Throughout most of Austen’s works, a common theme is women and their behavior. In Emma, Jane Austen weaves a story between the differences of society through the actions of a young woman, Emma Woodhouse. The strongest literary technique in Jane Austen’s Emma is the use of a foil.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Honesty In Pride And Prejudice

    755 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses her wit to attract readers deeply. Different from other authors, Austen portrays characters vividly and every character’s personality is distinct from each other. We also can find humor everywhere in Pride and Prejudice that Austen expresses through conversations between characters. The dialogue always makes readers smile knowingly because it reminds us the social issues behind the words. In addition, Austen uses a variety of ironies to express her own view on characters, both in her book and in her society.

    Read More

  • Social Conventions In Jane Austen's 'Pride And Prejudice'

    1091 Words  | 5 Pages

    The book deals with themes that include love, reputation, and class. However, Pride and Prejudice received much criticism for being a novel full of female characters that fit the social norms for women in the 19th century. The female characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, while being seen as frivolous and typical representations of

    Read More

  • The Path To Self Discovery In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    1515 Words  | 7 Pages

    The path to self discovery is the most terrifying, yet the most rewarding journey a person can experience. Jane Austen portrays this journey throughout her novel Pride and Prejudice. All through the novel the reader gets to endure the ups and downs of this journey with Elizabeth Bennet. She begins off the book very prideful on the fact that she is different than her society. As well, she prides herself on knowing people and being able to read them very easily, unlike her older sister Jane.

    Read More

  • Intelligence In Pride And Prejudice By Charlotte Lucas And Elizabeth Bennet

    101 Words  | 1 Pages

    Intelligence is always powerful. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth Bennet are close friends in late 18th century England. Because they both have no fortunes finding a husband is not an easy task for either of them. Instead of bemoaning their fates, both Charlotte and Elizabeth use their positive traits to thrive in unpleasant circumstances. Charlotte uses her intelligence to snag Mr. Collins and Elizabeth uses her sense of humor to remain positive in the face of her mother 's constant nagging.

    Read More

  • Emotional And Character Development In Bronte's Jane Eyre

    1588 Words  | 7 Pages

    Bronte 's Jane Eyre transcends the genres of literature to depict the emotional and character development of its protagonist. Although no overall genre dominates the novel exclusively, the vivid use of setting contributes towards the portrayal of Bronte’s bildungsroman (Realisms, 92) and defines the protagonist’s struggles as she grapples with her inner-self, and the social expectations of her gender. The novel incorporates Jane’s frequent conflicts, oppression, isolation and self-examination as she defends her identity and independence. Set amongst five separate locations, Bronte’s skilful use of literal and metaphorical landscapes, nature, and imagery, skilfully intertwines with the plot and denotes each phrase of her maturity.

    Read More

  • Why Read Harrison Bergeron Analysis

    2213 Words  | 9 Pages

    Another factor Austen expresses in Pride and Prejudice is the detrimental effects of superficiality. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s marriage was one set on outward appearance; they fell in love only on the basis of youth and beauty. At the present, Mr. Bennet no longer has as much affection for Mrs. Bennet as he did in his younger age, as beauty and youth are but temporary. Austen reinforces the universal message concerning the downfall of society, when obsessed with merely physical value. Pride and Prejudice deals with many societal standards by exposing the flaws of the fictional characters; flaws, which are very much present in the struggles of people

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

    1277 Words  | 6 Pages

    Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is a great example of her works that looks at the role of women in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Austen shows us the gender roles inflicted on women during this time period and how they are perceived. We see the strict gender roles that women were adhered to and the struggle for identity as a woman. Central to this novel is the vulnerability of women and the expectations surrounding gender influence everything and produce define results. Gender definitely determines and structures the world in which these characters live.

    Read More

  • Pride And Prejudice Then Vs Now Analysis

    1470 Words  | 6 Pages

    Pride and Prejudice: Then versus Now Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen in the early nineteenth century portrays the life of women and their attitudes toward marriage. Marriage, the major theme in the novel, is depicted as a way of social verification. The only way women could have a standing in their class was through their husband’s finances. Men were the owners of any type of property, which means that women could only obtain anything through their husbands. Thus, women tended to marry based on the ideas of wealth and social gratification.

    Read More

  • Similarity Between Pride And Prejudice And Persuasion

    1828 Words  | 8 Pages

    1.4 Literature overview At the end of the nineteen century, was published a book, for the first time, concerning Jane Austen’s literary work. Exactly in 1890, the writer Godwin Smith gave for printing Life of Jane Austen, and from then he started a new era which values the author’s literary legacy, so others begun to write critics; thus, this moment marked the first step of the authorized criticism, focused on Austen’s writing style. In conformity with B.C. Southam Critical Heritage, the criticism attributed to Jane had increased after 1870 and became formal and organized. Therefore, “we see the novels praised for their elegance of form and their surface ‘finish’; for the realism of their fictional world, the variety and vitality of their characters;

    Read More

  • Social Status Between Men And Women In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    2801 Words  | 12 Pages

    Jane Austen lived in a period at the turn from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth century, which was a period of mixed thoughts, which conflicted all the times. Among all the conflicts, the most important one was the disparity in social status between men and women. Not only men’s status was in the center of the society but also common people thought it was right that men were much more important than women were. In those days girls were neither allowed nor expected to study much because they did not have to work for a living. They were supposed to stay at home and look beautiful in order to get suitable husbands.

    Read More

  • Essay On Feminism In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

    2036 Words  | 9 Pages

    In Jane Austen’s novel, Sense and Sensibility she discusses feminism through the challenges women may face in marriage. Austen’s portrayal of her characters Elinor and Marianne demonstrate the struggles and pressures women face. These challenges can be seen through primogeniture, Elinor and Marianne’s approach to love and marriage, and a man’s ability to ruin or help women. The familial succession of assets typically went to the first-born son or the next male heir. In the case of John Dashwood, he inherited Norland estate after the death of his father leaving his half-sisters and stepmother “to quit the neighborhood Norland” and move to a small cottage in Devonshire.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    1485 Words  | 6 Pages

    It is evident from reading Austen’s novel; Pride and Prejudice, that she possess a certain sense of empathy towards the female population and the roles they played in society. From the way in which the narrator speaks of the different female characters and how the female characters interact and develop throughout the plot, the women in this novel convey Austen’s distaste for the position women had in society during that period of time. In this essay I will discuss how the female characters view women and their roles in society and how they discuss topics such as; marriage, the ways in which a “proper” lady should behave, the roles of women in the family and finally how Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine in this story, portrays Austen’s subtle notion of rebellion towards these social constructs to which these women are tied to.

    Read More

  • The Social Class In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    866 Words  | 4 Pages

    The author tells about how young people leave their families for a wealthy man/woman, marriage is the goal. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, 5) Pride and Prejudice is a courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth; this novel is one of the most honorable love stories in the English language. In this love story they have to overcome many obstacles just as any normal couple would. Elizabeth has pride that makes her miss judge Darcy on their first time meeting, but Darcy’s prejudice which makes him misjudge Elizabeth because of her poor society standings.

    Read More

  • Romanticism In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

    924 Words  | 4 Pages

    During Jane Austen’s work on “Pride and Prejudice,” Romanticism started to reach its complex, and had strong influence on people’s life, but Austen chose to reject the tenets of that movement. Romanticism emphasized on the power of feeling, but Austen supported rationalism instead. She substantiated traditional principles and the established rules; her novels also display an ambiguity about emotion and an appreciation for intelligence and natural beauty that aligns them with Romanticism. Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is one of her most well-known works and even though the text is hard to understand, I would recommend it for high students because to me, it is the most characteristic and the most eminently quintessential work of Jane Austen.

    Read More

More about Jane Austen Literary Analysis

Open Document