Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Performer - Culture & Literature

Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2012
 Jane Austen

1. Jane Austen’s life

• Born in Steventon in Hampshire in 1775.

• Her father was the rector of the local church.
• Spent her life within the circle of her affectionate
family.
• Her sister Cassandra was
her lifelong companion.
• Educated at home by her
father.
• Showed an interest in
literature at an early age.

The cottage in Chawton where Jane Austen lived the last

years of her life. Now it is Jane Austen’s House Museum

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

1. Jane Austen’s life

• Her earliest writings date from 1787.

• After her father’s death the family settled in Chawton,
a small country village.
• There she produced her
most mature works.
• Died in Winchester
in 1817.

The cottage in Chawton where Jane Austen lived the last

years of her life. Now it is Jane Austen’s House Museum.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

2. 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).

Portrait of Jane Austen

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

3. The debt to the

18th-century novel

From the 18th-century novelists she learnt:

• the insight into the psychology
of the characters;
• the subtleties of the ordinary events
of life  balls, walks, tea-parties
and visits;
• the omniscient narrator;
• the technique of dialogue;
• the use of verbal and situational irony.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

4. The national marriage market

• Austen’s values: property, decorum, money and

marriage.
• Austen’s 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.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

5. The theme of love

In Austen’s novels
•No place for great passion.
•Concern with analysis
of character and conduct.
•Romantic element of happy
ending  marriage between
the hero and heroine.
•Focus on the steps through
which the hero / heroine
reaches this stage.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

6. Pride and Prejudice (1813)

• 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.
• Elizabeth cultivates a dislike of Mr Darcy.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

6. Pride and Prejudice (1813)

• Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth but she rejects him.

• She accuses him of separating Jane and Mr Bingley.
• She accuses him of ill-treating Mr Wickham, a young
officer.
• Darcy writes her a letter
to reveal that Wickham
is an adventurer without
scruples.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

6. Pride and Prejudice (1813)

• Wickham elopes with Lydia.

• Darcy finds them and organises their marriage.
• Elizabeth accepts Darcy’s renewed proposal.
• Bingley and Jane also get married.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

6. Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Themes
•The relationship between the individual and society.
•The conflict between the individual’s desires and the
individual’s responsibility to society.
•The use that the individual
makes of freedom and its
consequences.
•The contrast between
imagination and reason.
•Love, courtship, and
marriage.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

7. Elizabeth and Darcy

Elizabeth Bennet Fitzwilliam Darcy
• has a lively mind; •knows the principles of
• is capable of complex right conduct;
impressions and ideas; •is selfish and unsociable;
• has a strong spirit of •accuses Elizabeth of
independence; prejudice;
• refuses to take on the •is prejudiced by his
roles which her family upbringing and disgusted
or society tries to by the vulgar behaviour of
impose on her; Elizabeth’s mother and
• accuses Darcy of pride. younger sisters.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

8. The message of the novel

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.

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

9. The Novel of Manners

Jane Austen is the undisputed master of the

novel of manners.

there is a vital
relationship between
Premise manners, social
behaviour and
character

Performer - Culture & Literature

 Jane Austen

9. The Novel of Manners

Main features
•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.

Performer - Culture & Literature