Jane Austen

Chabahar Maritime University
Faculty of Humanities
Jane Austen
Professor
Dr.Behtash
Student
Z.Dehghan
November 2013

I . Introduction
II. Life
III. Early works
IV. Later works
V. Illness and Death
VI. Pride and Prejudice
VII. Reasons for novel's everlasting popularity

 Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English
novelist.
 Noted for her witty studies of early-19th-century
English society.
 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.

 There are two common themes in Austen’s
books:
 The loss of illusions—usually leading characters
to a more mature outlook
 The clash between traditional moral ideals and
the everyday demands of life
 Because of her sensitivity to universal patterns
of human behavior, Austen was one of the
greatest novelists of the 19th and 20th centuries

 Jane Austen was born on16 December 1775 in
Steventon , Hampshire, England.
 Jane was the seventh child of eight.
 Apart from three years of school in Oxford
which she attended with her older sister,
Cassandra, she was educated at home.
 At age 13, she was writing amusing and
instructive parodies and variations on 18th-century
literature—from sentimental novels to
serious histories.

 At age 23, she had written three novels:
 Elinor and Marianne
 First Impressions
 Susan
 In 1801 the family moved to the town of Bath.
 After Jane’s father death in 1805 Jane,
Cassandra, and their mother moved to the
village of Chawton, very near Steventon.
 She led a secluded life with her family, never
marrying.

 The first period of her writing lasted from
1795 to 1798. During this time she wrote the
first versions of:
 Sense and Sensibility
 Pride and Prejudice
 Northanger Abbey

 Austen’s family preserved the writing she did
as a teenager which was published more than
a century after her death as:
Love & Friendship
 It is a comic parody of 18th-century
melodramatic fiction.

 Austen’s second important period of writing
lasted from 1811 to 1816:
 revised and prepared Sense and Sensibility
and Pride and Prejudice for publication
Wrote her last three completed novels:
 Mansfield Park (1814)
 Emma(1816)
 Persuasion (1818)

 Several other incomplete works were
published after Austen's death.
 The Watsons (1923)
 Fragment of a Novel (1925)
 Plan of a Novel (1926)
 Her correspondence has been published as
Jane Austen’s Letters (1932; revised edition,
1952).

 Although the cause of Austen's final illness is
not known for certain, the symptoms seem to
suggest that she may have been affected by
Addison's disease.
 Austen died in Winchester on 18 July, 1817,
at the age of 41.
 She was buried in Winchester Cathedral on
24 July , 1817.

 Pride and Prejudice is a complex novel
mixing romance with realism.
 Austen used a variety of features to make
this novel seem more realistic and relevant
to the period of the 19th century.
 At the same time it has also the touch of
romance.

 The plot of Pride and Prejudice is like the
plot of a romance.
 The social reality for women during 19th
century was that it was almost impossible to
survive without a man’s care, so it was
typical for a young woman to live in her
father’s house until she moved into her
husbands.
 Because of this social climate, the reality is
that the five Bennet sisters do not have a
choice about marriage. They must marry in
order to secure their financial future.

 Austen addresses the social realities of the
time and also satisfies the reader’s desire for
romance by having Jane and Elizabeth’s
suitors not only be rich but also be dashing,
attractive and moral.
 Realism of characters makes the novel more
believable and they also contribute to fulfill
romantic appeal of the novel.
 A special emphasis has been placed on the
way Austen portrays her character’s speech
and thoughts. Dialogue is described as the
most appropriate means in order to achieve a
close approach to reality.

 We also find the touch of romance in the
dialogues.
 There are elements of conventional romance
in the novel. Since the picture drawn is of
everyday life and activities, it is easy for us
to comprehend it and is that much more real
to us.

Her most famous works
include six well-read
novels:

1. Limitations and range
 she takes the reader into the minds of the
characters, and her acute observation makes
us really feel we know them.
 Her use of irony is masterly.
 She has a good ear for dialogue, and her
characters represent universal failings and
strengths, and so are instantly recognizable
and interesting.

 Jane Austen’s world, with its ability to ignore the
outside world and comforting absence of disaster and
horrific suffering is one to which the modern reader
can escape and find a certainty and tranquility that
perhaps his life does not offer.
2. Manners and morality
 Manners matter greatly in Jane Austen's world.
 Behavior must be controlled.
 Austen admires love, generosity, compassion and
common sense.
 She can sometimes be seen as callous, mercenary and
heartless.

3. Style
 Clarity, economy , skillful use of dialogue, tight
plotting and satisfying completeness to her plots
are the main features of Jane Austen's style.
4. Other themes and topics
 Houses ,estates, and family wealth run like an
undercurrent through many of the novels.
 Duty and decorum are used to describe manners.
 Rank and money matter greatly in the novels.

“It isn't what we
say or think that
defines us, but
what we do”
Jane Austen

Jane Austen

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