Jane

Au

ste

n1775 - 1817

LifeBorn at the parsonage of Steventon, a

small town in Hampshire, where her father was a rector.

When he retired, in 1801, the family moved to Bath, a famous holiday resort on the sea.

After the death of her father she went to a town called Chawton together with her family.

Although her family was upper class they were not very rich.

She was the last of seven children and her older sister Cassandra was her lifelong friend

Jane Austen lived a quiet and uneventful life. Except for the four years spent in Bath and Southhampton and rare visits to London she lived entirely in the countryside.

Here is a map of Britain showing the places where Jane Austen spent her life

She and her family went to parties, danced and loved reading

At the age of 20 she fell in love with an Irish man,Tom Lefroy. He was young and not rich enough to get married so his family obliged him to leave England and return to Ireland.

Although she got a great deal of marriage proposals, Jane Austen never married.

She died suddenly on 18th July 1817 in Winchester where she went to receive medical care

She was buried in Winchester Cathedral

Austen’s house in Winchester

Jane Austen the novelistJane Austen began to write to amuse her

family.Four of Jane Austen’s novels were

published in her lifetime. Two other novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously.

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Austen NovelsPride and Prejudice 1796 (Pub. 1813)Sense and Sensibility 1797 (Pub. 1811)Northanger Abbey 1798 (Pub. 1818)Mansfield Park (Pub. 1814)Emma (Pub. 1815)Persuasion (Pub. 1818)

All her works were published anonymously, (her identity was revealed later by her brother Henry) and were welcomed by the reading public.

One of Jane Austen’s fans was the Regent Prince who asked her to dedicate the novel Emma to him

The Novel of Manners In both style and content Jane

Austen’s novels belong to the 18th century tradition. She was not interested in passion or great events, but was concerned with everyday life in the English countryside. She focused on the values of the provincial middle class and country gentry she knew very well: property, decorum, money and marriage. Her real concern was with people, and the analysis of character and conduct.

The Novel of Manners

Set in the countryfew insights into towns

Characters belongto upper/middle

class

Influence of classdistinctions oncharacter and

behaviour

Visits, balls, teas as occasionsfor meeting

Third personnarratorDialogue: the main

narrative modePassions,emotions

not expresseddirectly

Use of irony

Main themes:Marriage,

complicationsof love andfriendship

Style She constantly

revised her novels achieving a polished, detailed and clear style.

From Fielding she derived the omniscient narrator and the technique of bringing characters into existence through dialogue. She made each character speak in a way suitable to his/her social class.

From Richardson she derived the use of letters to sum up events or to reveal the personality of the letter writer.

The point of view is usually the protagonist’s

Verbal and situational irony instead of open interpretation and comment on the action

Happy ending: all her novels end in the marriage of hero and heroine

Themes

LoveMarriageMoneySelf-knowledgeHuman relationship

Marriage was based on money and social standing in Jane Austen’s times. Without some money a young couple was not able to survive.

Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, for example, was engaged for several years without being able to marry, due to lack of money.

“Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor, which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony”. And yet, none of her heroines or herself married for money.

Since a woman wasn't supposed to work, her only two possibilities for the future were:to inherit money from her parents or to marry someone wealthy. If there wasn't any money to inherit or if she didn't manageto get married, she was completely dependent on her relatives‘ generosity. In the worst scenario she was forced to look for a position as a governess. After the wedding, a woman's money became her husband's property, although she could sign a contract to establish what would happen to this money in the case of her husband’s death or how this money should be divided between her children.

      In 1753 England promulgated a law called the Marriage Act according to which the age of the bride or the groom was to be at least 21. If not, consent had to be given by the parents. It also required, that banns should be published some weeks before the ceremony was celebrated.       Men and women who didn't have their parents' authorization and were younger than twenty-one, could get married in Scotland, where no law prohibited weddings. Even a ceremony was not necessary: if two people declared to be married in front of a witness, they could consider themselves legally married

LoveJane Austen didn’t disapprove of the

concept of romantic love but only of its extremes. She gave importance to moderation and control. She thought that strong impulses

and emotions should be controlled and brought to order by private reflection

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Pride and Prejudice P & P is a humorous portrayal of the social atmosphere of late 18th and early 19th century. The novel is much more than a comedic love story .

Through Austen’s subtle and ironic style, it addresses economic, political, feminist and psychological themes, inspiring a great deal of diverse commentary on the meaning of the work.

The novel is concerned with the patriarchal society in which men held the economic and social power.

The Characters

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Major Themes P&P contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression , while Darcy prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a time.

LOVE

REPUTATION P&P depicts society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. It is when Lizzie walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, shocking the others. Another example is the ridiculous behavior of Mrs. Bennet contrasting the refined Darcys and Bingleys.

CLASS The lines of class are strictly drawn and Austen points out faults in the system, raising questions about the values of English society and the power structure of the country.