CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1. Background 1
1.1 Jane Austen’s Personal Life and Education 1
1.1.1 Jane Austen’s Personal Life 1
1.1.2 Jane Austen’s Education 2
1.2 Jane Austen’s Literary Life 2
1.2.1 Jane Austen’s Principle Works 2
1.2.2 Jane Austen’s Literary Achievement 4
2. The Changes of Jane Austen’s Narrative Strategies 5
2.1 The Change of Narrative Perspective 5
2.1.1 The Narrative Perspective in Jane Austen’s Early Works 5
2.1.2 The Narrative Perspective in Jane Austen’s Later Works 6
2.2 The Change of Narrative Voice 7
2.2.1 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s First Novel 7
2.2.2 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s Later Four Novels 7
2.2.3 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s Last Novel 8
2.3 The Change of Narrative Mode 9
2.3.1 The Narrative Mode in Jane Austen’s Early Five Novels 9
2.3.2 The Narrative Mode in Jane Austen’s Last Novel 9
2.4 The Change of Narrative Style 10
2.4.1 The Narrative Style in Jane Austen’s Early Five Novels 10
2.4.2 The Narrative Style in Jane Austen’s Last Novel 11
3. The Reasons of the Change of Jane Austen’s Narrative Strategies 12
3.1 The Social Reasons 12
3.1.1 The Status of Women in Jane Austen’s Day 12
3.1.2 The Situation of Women Writers in Jane Austen’s Day 13
3.2 The Personal Reasons 13
3.2.1 The Fate of Jane Austen’s Novels 13
3.2.2 The Love Life of Jane Austen 14
4. Conclusion 15
Bibliography 18
Introduction
Jane Austen, a great English novelist, focused on middle-class provincial life with humor and understanding. Her books, such as Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice, remain widely-read and have been successfully adapted for television and cinema.
There are many academic research books on the study of Jane Austen abroad. These books are mainly memoirs or collections of papers of Austen. For example, Maggie Lane published Austen’s world (1996); Helen Lefroy wrote Jane Austen; Deirdre Le Faye published Jane Austen A Family Record (2002); Kathryn Sutherland edited A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections (2004). Besides, in David Lodge’s The Art of Fiction, the author discussed the writing art in Austen’s novels.
Recent decades, researches on Jane Austen have even evaded China and a lot of papers on Austen have appeared in some important journals.
This thesis analyzes the changes of Jane Austen’s narrative strategies in four aspects. That is: narrative voice, narrative perspective, narrative mode and narrative method. Besides, it also tries to explain the reasons why Jane Austen changed her narrative strategies.
1. Background
The knowledge of Jane Austen’s background is obviously helpful for readers to understand her novels. This chapter will give a brief introduction of Jane Austen’s personal life and education as well as her literary life.
1.1 Jane Austen’s Personal Life and Education
It is said Jane Austen transformed the stuff of her peaceful life in the Hampshire countryside into six novels that are amongst the most popular in the English language. At first, we should learn more about her personal life.
1.1.1 Jane Austen’s Personal Life
Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon, a small village in southern England. Her father was rector of that parish. Jane Austen had six brothers and an elder sister, Cassandra. Austen lived a pleasant life in her hometown until she was twenty-five when her father retired. The family moved to Bath. After the death of her father in 1805, she lived with her mother and sister in Southampton for a short time. Finally, in 1809, the family moved to a pleasant cottage in the village of Chawton. In 1817, Jane Austen died of illness in Winchester and was buried in Winchester Abbey.
1.1.2 Jane Austen’s Education
Jane Austen was educated at school with her sister Cassandra for two years and acquired the remainder of her education by reading books at home, largely guided by her father and her brothers James and Henry. The Austens were zealous readers and they often went to some private lending libraries. As a result, Jane received a broader education than many women of her time.
1.2 Jane Austen’s Literary Life
Austen started to write for family amusement when she was a child. Her earliest known writings dated from about 1787.
Generally, Jane Austen’s literary career can be divided into two periods. The early period encompassing the juvenilia, as well as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey while the later period including Emma，Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. They are separated by an intermission of eight years.
1.2.1 Jane Austen’s Principle Works
The principle works of Jane Austen are six complete novels, not counting some of her early efforts, such as Lady Susan and the fragment The Watsons, and the last unfinished work Sandition. The main subjects o
f her novels are money and marriage. She focused on the life of young girls in gentry class families with keen observation. In all of Austen’s novels, her heroines are ultimately married.
Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen’s novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen’s Memorandum, Susan (as it was first called) was written about the years between 1798 and 1799. It was revised for the press in 1803, but unfortunately remains for many years in a publishing house. The novel was further revised and published posthumously in 1818. It is a fine satirical novel, making sport of the popular Gothic novel of terror, but it does not rank among her major works until recent decades.
Sense and Sensibility
Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen’s first published novel. The first draft of the work was written in 1795 under the title “Elinor and Marianne”. According to some sources, the form of the novel was written in letters. In 1797 Austen rewrote the novel and titled it Sense and Sensibility. After years of polishing, it was finally published in 1811. The novel described a contrast between the Dashwood sisters’ characters. It is believed that the title of this book describes how Elinor and Marianne find a balance between sense and sensibility in life and love.
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is the most famous of Jane Austen’s novels and one of the first “romantic comedies” in the history of the novel. Austen began to write the early version of the story and titled “First Impressions” in 1796, when she was 21 years old and had completed it the next year. The work was rewritten and first published under the title Pride and Prejudice on 28 January 1813. The book went to three printings during Austen’s lifetime. Pride and Prejudice described the clash between Elisabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner. Their relationship starts from dislike but at last they fall in love and are happily united.
Mansfield Park
In 1811 Jane Austen began Mansfield Park, which was published in July 1814. It is her most severe exercise in moral analysis and presents a conservative view of ethics, politics, and religion.
Emma
In January 1814, shortly before Mansfield Park was published, Austen began a new novel, Emma. Austen completed it in March of the next year and published it in 1816. Emma was written in comic tone and told the story of Emma Woodhouse, who finds her destiny in marriage. During the story Emma, a snobbish young woman develops into someone capable of feeling and love. There is much evidence to support the contention of some critics that Emma is Austen’s most brilliant novel. The saturation of a narrow human situation with the author’s satirical wit and psychological penetration is here carried to its highest point.
Persuasion
Persuasion, begun in 1815 and published posthumously, together with Northanger Abbey, is Jane Austen’s last complete novel and is perhaps most directly expressive of her feelings about her own life. The title refer to the heroine, Anne Elliot as well as several other characters, who find themselves being persuaded or refusing to be persuaded. The predominant tone of Persuasion, however, is not satirical but romantic. It is, in the end, the most beautiful love story that Jane Austen ever wrote.
1.2.2 Jane Austen’s Literary Achievement
Although Jane Austen’s novels were widely read, her works were published anonymously and brought her only a few positive reviews during her lifetime.
Sir Walter Scott highly-praised Jane Austen in his journal of March 14, 1826: “That young lady had a talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I have ever met with.” (Scott, 1826)
George Henry Lewes, a famous Philosopher and literary critic also admired Jane Austen very much. He expressed his opinion in one of his letters that one must “learn to acknowledge her as one of the greatest artists, of the greatest painters of human character, and one of the writers with the nicest sense of means to an end that ever lived”.
Two centuries later, Jane Austen is now considered as one of the greatest novelist in English Literature. In The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf, Woolf called Austen “the most perfect artist among women”. More and more scholars rank her with Shakespeare. Her works, in the meantime, are admired by many scholars and still brought her growing fame.
2. The Changes of Jane Austen’s Narrative Strategies
Jane Austen’s works give a good picture of country life in England two hundred years ago. Her skilled narrative strategies aroused many people’s concern. Ho
wever, Jane Austen did not adopt the same narrative strategies in all of her works. In this chapter, we will analyze the changes of Jane Austen’s narrative strategies in four aspects. That is: narrative voice, narrative perspective, narrative mode and narrative method.
2.1 The Change of Narrative Perspective
Jane Austen adopted the third-person narrative in all of her six novels. In her early novels, there is an omniscient narrator, that is to say, a narrator who seems all-seeing or all-knowing about the events of the story. Then Jane Austen gradually adjusted the point of view and adopted the limited third-person narrative perspective. Comparing with the early novels, Jane Austen adopted the limited third-person narrative very early in the text of her later works.
2.1.1 The Narrative Perspective in Jane Austen’s Early Works
Take Sense and Sensibility as an example. When reading the first few chapters, readers can immediately find a narrator who is narrating the story like a god standing outside the world of the work. Through the eye of this narrator, readers see characters and events clearly.
With the development of the plot, especially from the chapter 11, the world of the novel began to be viewed through Elinor’s point of view. For instance, after the cancel of the intended excursion to Whitwell, people ordered some carriages to drive about the country. Then Marianne and Willoughby “were out of sight”. Instead of telling readers where and how they spend the morning immediately, for some reason, the narrator only make mention of their claim that “they had kept in the lanes, while the others went on the downs”. Not until Mrs. Jennings told others the fact at dinner, were the readers “informed that they had gone to Allenham, and spent a considerable time there in walking about the garden and going all over the house.” (Chapter 13, Sense and Sensibility)
According to Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms:
The omniscient narrator has a full knowledge of the story’s events and of the motives and unspoken thoughts of the various characters. He or she will also be capable of describing events happening simultaneously in different places—a capacity not normally available to the limited “point of view” of first-person narratives.(p156)
In that case, we may wonder why the narrator holds the fact at first since she knows everything. This, in my opinion, could be explained by the following two aspects. On the one hand, Austen wanted to keep the plot in a state of suspense as such kind of narrative strategy could make the plot more attractive. On the other, Austen intended to make the heroine Elinor be a focalizer, through whose eyes the world is observed. Therefore, Austen had to conceal the truth because Elinor was not present and did not see what had happened at that time.
In the following chapters, along with the establishment of the heroine’s commanding position, Jane Austen gradually adjusted the point of view. Then the whole story is almost observed through Elinor’s eyes.
2.1.2 The Narrative Perspective in Jane Austen’s Later Works
In Jane Austen’s later works, however, it seems that the narrative perspective makes a little different. Take Emma as an example:
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. (Chapter1, Emma)
Here, Jane Austen introduced Emma Woodhouse at the very start of this novel. It is easy for readers to confirm that Emma is the heroine of this novel. No matter Emma is at present or not, she always occupies a commanding position. All the stories happened around Emma. Through her eyes, readers see characters of every description: Harriet Smith, a very pretty but unsophisticated young girl; Jane Fairfax, a very beautiful, clever, and elegant woman, with the best of manners; Mr. Frank Churchill, an amiable young man and so on. Therefore, Austen eliminated the barriers between the narrator and the readers and brought the readers into the world of works from the start.
In this period of time, Jane Austen adopted the limited third-person narrative very early in her works. It is evident that she had much confidence in the use of this narrative perspective.
2.2 The Change of Narrative Voice
“Voice in narration is a question of who it is we ‘hear’ doing the narrating.” In Jane Austen’s first novel, she made comments openly in an authorial narrative voice. Then she changed her narrative voice and chose an indirect and implicit narrative voice in her later four novels. Finally, she attempted to regain the female authorship in her last novel.
2.2.1 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s First Novel
In her first novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen tried
to seek for female authorship. From the first chapter of his novel the narrator began to make comments on issues such as women and novels openly in an authorial voice. For instance, she manifested an explicit attitude to criticize the bias against novelists: “Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried. From pride, ignorance, or fashion, our foes are almost as many as our readers.”(Chapter 5, Northanger Abbey)
2.2.2 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s Later Four Novels
Sense and Sensibility, however, shows a suppression of authorial voice. In the book Fictions of Authority: Women Writers and Narrative Voice, Susan Sniader Lanser pointed out that Sense and Sensibility “…avoids overt authoriality almost entirely: the narrator does not use the first person, almost never takes an explicit stance, and says virtually nothing about either gender or literature. Nor will any subsequent novel call attention, in the way that Northanger Abbey does, to its narrative voice. While the presence of the narrative ‘I’ is not in itself significant, there is a significant contrast to Northanger Abbey in the fact that there is only one use of the ‘I’ in Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion respectively, none in Emma, and a brief flurry late in Mansfield Park. Except in Sense and Sensibility, all these instances of authorial “I” are located in the final chapters of the novels.” (Lanser 1992:72)
In those later novels, these kind of sharp criticisms were almost made by characters through some trivial talks. Look at the following examples.
In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet yelled at Mr. Bennet that “I do think it is the hardest thing in the world that your estate should be entailed away from your own children” and then “rail bitterly against the cruelty of settling an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favour of a man whom nobody cared anything about”. (Chapter 13, Pride and Prejudice)
“With all due respect to such of the present company as chance to be married, ”said Mary Crawford, a character in Mansfield Park, to her sister Mrs. Grant, “there is not one in a hundred of either sex who is not taken in when they marry. ”(Chapter 5, Mansfield Park)
If Austen had continued the narrative voice adopted in the first novel, all these opinions would be voiced by an all-knowing narrator openly, rather than be stated in the direct speech of female figures who were “foolish, misguided, or morally ambiguous” (Lanser 1992:76).
2.2.3 The Narrative Voice in Jane Austen’s Last Novel
After had written five novels, in Persuasion, Austen attempted to regain the authoriality which had disappeared after Northanger Abbey’s failure. The whole story is narrated by a non-ironized tone of voice. Therefore, the narrative voice is given more authority.
In addition, Austen created a completely reliable character, Anne Elliot, as the heroine of this novel. Here, through the discourse of these characters, Jane Austen made her narrator return to some controversial issues，such as issues on writers (Scott and Byron) and writing (poetry and prose) as well as issues on gender and authority. For example, near the end of Persuasion, in a discussion with Captain Harville, Anne Elliot clearly pointed out the literary advantages of men: “Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands.” (Chapter 23, Persuasion) Readers would agree with what Anne said involuntary for this character are authoritative. As a result, Austen “builds up a bridge of sympathy between the reader and the heroine so that they could possibly reach an agreement and share the value judgment, which strengthens the female authorial voice.”
2.3 The Change of Narrative Mode
Cinderella is widely known as an old famous fairy tale in the western world. As a matter of fact, Jane Austen adopted the narrative mode in Cinderella in all of her six novels. According to the mode of this tale, Jane Austen created a series of female figures with many virtues. Like Cinderella in the fairy tale, the heroines of her works are not only beautiful but also kind-hearted. On the other hand, they had to face all kinds of frustrations in life or marriage. Finally, according to this narrative mode, the “happy ending” is always together with a pleasing wedding. Most of the heroines change to noble women after they get married with a noble man as Cinderella did.
2.3.1 The Narrative Mode in Jane Austen’s Early Five Novels
In traditional Cinderella’s narrative mode, men are always regarded as the guardians of female. Therefore, the heroines stand low
er social positions and need to be protected by the heroes.
In Jane Austen’s early novels, the heroines are either having a lower position than the heroes or having some shortcomings which led these female figures meet a lot of hardships in their way to pursuing happiness. On the other hand, the heroes have the spiritual superiority and play the role of “ideal gentleman and tutor” and help the heroines to perfect themselves. The heroines would not have had happiness were it not for the guidance of those men figures.
For example, Catherine Morland, the heroine of Northanger Abbey, who had read too many Gothic novels, made many mistakes of applying Gothic novels to real life situations. Besides, owning to lack of experience, Catherine was deceived by her new friend Isabella, a self-serving young woman. Eventually, Catherine gradually began to be single-minded and properly mature individually under the help of the hero of Northanger Abbey, Henry Tilney.
2.3.2 The Narrative Mode in Jane Austen’s Last Novel
However, in Persuasion, Austen broke with this tradition, and tried to change the role of her female figures in her novel. The heroine, Anne Elliot is more mature than the hero.
Just look at an accident happened in Chapter 12. In Lyme, Louisa undergone a concussion in a fall caused by her own impulsive behavior. Her companions, including Captain Wentworth, stood around dumbstruck when onlookers cried that Louisa was dead. The heroine, Anne Elliot, in this critical moment, administered first aid and summoned assistance with self-possession.
In this novel, under the influence of Anne, Captain Wentworth “had learnt to distinguish between the steadiness of principle and the obstinacy of self-will, between the darings of heedlessness and the resolution of a collected mind.” (Chapter 23, Persuasion) Here, it is not the hero but the heroine who perfected the other.
2.4 The Change of Narrative Style
As we all know, Jane Austen’s artistry is apparent in the invention of the minor characters. One of her most crucial tools is dialogue. Her works, so to speak, are various kinds of dialogues. Except characterization, dialogue is also bestowed by Austen with other functions, such as hiding clues, describing settings, and so on. When we are reading her early five novels, we often feel like listening to witty and fascinating dialogues.
Although there are still many witty dialogues in Persuasion, descriptions, especially emotional descriptions are used to create the characters to a great extent.
2.4.1 The Narrative Style in Jane Austen’s Early Five Novels
In Sense and Sensibility, Lucy told Elinor the secret that the former and Edward Ferrars had been engaged for four years. It seems that Lucy trusted Elinor very much and treated her as an old acquaintance. But from her hypocritical and affected tone in conversation with Elinor, her real intentions stuck out a mile. In fact, Lucy wanted to irritate Elinor for knowing the latter was on close term with Edward. Her artificial sadness disguised an inner gaiety when she disclosed her engagement to Elinor. By this way, Jane Austen portrayed the character of Lucy: a deceitful and selfish figure successfully.
Furthermore, as one of Austen’s most popular novel, Pride and Prejudices also could be a good illustration. From the excellent dialogues in Pride and Prejudices, we can understand the characters of figures easily: the intelligence of Elizabeth, the sarcastic wit and dry humor of Mr. Bennet, the fatuity and boorishness of Mrs. Bennet as well as the superciliousness and peremptoriness of Lady Catherine.
These dialogues throw light on the mentalities of the figures in Jane Austen’s works. We can say without exaggeration that Jane Austen created her novels by means of dialogues as a playwright did.
2.4.2 The Narrative Style in Jane Austen’s Last Novel
As a matter of fact, in her last novel, Austen weakened the method of creating characters by using a lot of dialogues. More and more emotional descriptions could be found in Persuasion.
In the following passage, Austen manifested the complicated emotions of Anne in a rainy day: though desirous to be gone, she could not quit the Mansion House, or look an adieu to the Cottage, with its black, dripping and comfortless veranda, or even notice through the misty glasses the last humble tenements of the village, without a saddened heart. Scenes had passed in Uppercross which made it precious. It stood the record of many sensations of pain, once severe, but now softened; and of some instances of relenting feeling, some breathings of friendship and reconciliation, which could never be looked for again, and which could never cease to be dear. She left it all behind her, all but the recollection that such things had been. (Chapter 13, Persuasion)
Here, to be more exact, the rainy day is close related to the feeling of the heroine.
In addition, it is seldom to f
ind the delicate description of nature in Jane Austen’s other novels. Persuasion, however, is an exception. In this novel, she depictures the wonderful natural scenery: “the very beautiful line of cliffs” in Cobb; “the woody varieties of the cheerful village” in Up Lyme; the “sweet, retired bay” in Charmouth, which is “the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation”; and, above all, “the scattered forest trees and orchards of luxuriant growth in Pinny.” (Chapter 12, Persuasion)
3. The Reasons of the Change of Jane Austen’s Narrative Strategies
In the previous chapter, we have discussed the changes of Jane Austen’s narrative strategies in four aspects. How do these changes come about? This chapter will give a detailed analysis of the reasons of these changes.
3.1 The Social Reasons
Women of Austen’s day were in lower positions and they had to rely on men in social life. Furthermore, they had no right to voice their opinions in public. Novels written by women were depreciated at that time. Therefore, in such a male-dominated society, Jane Austen had to adjust her narrative strategies.
3.1.1 The Status of Women in Jane Austen’s Day
Though Austen herself never married, she lived at a time when women had to marry, and not always for love, but, like Charlotte Lucas, for financial security.
A woman could not legally own land because entailment laws required estates be passed to a male heir. This unfair situation forced women who cannot support themselves to take marriage as their only way to obtain social status. Under these circumstances, it is quite natural that Jane Austen should adopt the Cinderella narrative mode. This narrative mode demonstrates the desire of women in Jane Austen’s age. “Frustrations of love” in Cinderella manifests the passive role of woman in love and marriage. “The happy ending of marriage” reflects the dependence of women who lay their only hope of life in marriage. Furthermore, the ideal male images reflect the deep dependence of woman upon man.
Although Jane Austen could not revolt to the male-dominated society, she made an attempt to challenge it. In Persuasions Jane Austen adopted but overwrote the traditional Cinderella narrative mode. Captain Wentworth, the hero had greatly matured his characters under the influence of his “Cinderella”, Anne. Here, the heroin had spiritual superiority over all other characters. Jane Austen wanted to challenge the male-dominated society on her way by placing such kind a female character in a very high position.
3.1.2 The Situation of Women Writers in Jane Austen’s Day
In Austen’s age, women had no opportunity to participate in social and political life. Moreover, they had no right to voice their opinions in public. Writing, for a woman of Jane Austen’s class, was not a respectable means of income.
Susan Lanser pointed out the disadvantaged position of women writers in the eighteenth century: “it was conventional virtually” for them to “apologize in prefaces for either their gender or their genre, and of course for their own inferior artistry” (Lanser 1992:64) Novels, especially novels written by women, were depreciated at that time.
Young Jane Austen took her stand in her Northanger Abbey, ignoring this unfair situation. In this novel, she tried to build a kind of female authorship by an authorial narrative voice. There is no doubt that her attitude of gaining the female authorship would call forth a lot of criticism and encounter a lot of difficulties and danger in a male-dominated society. Besides, compared with a covert narrative voice, an open narrative voice is more likely to risk the reader’s objection, reduce the credibility of the narrator and make the works unacceptable. In such a state of affairs, Jane Austen had to make a concession to the male-dominated society. As a result, Jane Austen made her narrator speak less openly in order to guarantee this female authority.
3.2 The Personal Reasons
After analyzing the social reasons which led to the changes of her narrative strategies, I would like to explore the personal reasons. The fate of her novels, as well as her eventful love life, is responsible for these changes.
3.2.1 The Fate of Jane Austen’s Novels
Obviously, Jane Austen tried to seek for female authority in Northanger Abbey. In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen openly defended novelists from bias in literary world. Unfortunately, this kind of brave action resulted in the failure of this novel’s publication. For many years the novel remained on the shelves of a London bookseller to whom she had sold it. In the face of such result, Jane Austen reflected on what to do and then chose an indirect and implicit narrative voice. She avoided making any open commentary on these issues in her la
ter works.
Lanser, Susan Sniader is of the opinion that the failure of Northanger Abbey’s publication “led Austen not to write different stories but to write them differently, changing the shape and scope of her narrative voices” (Lanser 1992:72).
It is believes that “had Northanger Abbey been published when it was accepted, a similar overt authoriality would have been the hallmark of Austen’s literary debut.” Besides, Lanser is “speculating that these changes in Austen’s narrative practices result at least in part from her devastating first experience in publishing-an experience that, especially in its historical moment, might well have suggested to Austen that reticence made sense, that a woman ambitious for money and recognition in a conservative war time economy would be wise to curtail the authority her narrators would openly claim.” (Lanser 1992:63)
Fortunately, the success of later works made her regain the confidence to pursue female authority and had courage to challenge the male society again.
3.2.2 The Love Life of Jane Austen
Why are there so many emotional descriptions in Jane Austen’s later works? Part of this is of course explained by her eventful love life. Of all Jane Austen’s six complete novels, the main theme is marriage, and yet Jane Austen never married as mentioned above.
It is said that Austen fell in love with Tom Lefroy, a nephew of neighbors in her twenty-first year. However, neither of them had any money which made their marriage impractical. The Lefroy family intervened and sent Tom Lefroy away and Jane Austen never saw him again thereafter.
Another eventful affair, which is likely to make a great impact on Jane Austen, happened several years later. During the holiday in Devon in 1801, Jane Austen was acquainted with a charming young man. The latter expressed his intention of soon seeing her again when they parted after three weeks’ holidays. Unfortunately, Jane Austen heard of his sudden death within a short time.
In the book A Memoir of Jane Austen, her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh said: “... I believe that, if Jane ever loved, it was this unnamed gentleman: but the acquaintance had been short, and I am unable to say whether her feelings were of such a nature as to affect her happiness.” (Chap.2)
In this time, just when Jane Austen thought herself finally had met an ideal husband, suddenly she found herself lost him. Many scholars believe that this affair was really a cruel blow for her. Therefore, the bitterness of spirit the character Anne Elliot suffered probably could be a clue to Jane Austen’s own unhappy experiences.
Later, during a round of visits to Hampshire in 1802, Jane Austen accepted a proposal from Harris Bigg, but then broke the engagement the following morning. Obviously, she did not want a marriage without love although her chances of marriage were faint since she was 27 years old.
All these experiences must be branded on Jane Austen’s mind. Therefore, her personal feelings come into play when she writes Persuasion. After experienced so many unhappy affairs, Jane Austen had a deep understanding of people’s emotions. The result is that she wrote the novel Persuasion with a sentimental spirit and depicted the beautiful scenery to express the emotions of her heroine.
Virginia Woolf once made a comment in her admirable essay on Jane Austen: “She is beginning to discover that the world is larger，more mysterious，and more romantic than she had supposed.” Maybe，Jane Austen, just like her heroine Anne, is “unhappy herself”, and yet “has a special sympathy for the happiness and unhappiness of others”. Therefore, she wrote her later novels by using some new narrative strategies.
4. Conclusion
Jane Austen restricted her subject matter to the middle-class circle, a narrow range society and did not touch upon other social problems of her time. In fact, she knew clearly about her limitation and expressed her opinion in one of her letters: “I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.” Therefore, she tried her best in writing the daily life of this class which she had the first-hand knowledge of. In order to perfect her works, she changed her narrative strategies to a certain degree. The popularity of her works is a positive proof that such action is reasonable.
Jane Austen’s works provide a mirror of her time and reflect various aspects of English society. The fact that she depicted the social life vividly with limited materials, more manifest her great ability. She knew how to sketch vivid characters, how to unfold witty dialogues and how to design tight plot.
It is not without reason that Jane Austen is “the most perfect artist among women”. She really deserves to have suc
h kind of favorable reception.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis.
First of all, I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor Ms. Guan Manning for her constant encouragement and guidance in my preparation of this thesis.
Secondly, I am greatly indebted to Ms. Han Xiaoya, my literature teacher, for her stimulating lectures and valuable advice in the choice of my topic.
Deep gratitude is also expressed to other professors and teachers at the Foreign Language Department who instructed me in the past four years, from whose lectures I benefit greatly.
Last but not least, my heartfelt appreciation would go to my classmates and friends for their good companionship and generous help all through these years.
Bibliography
[1] Jane, Austen. The Complete Novels of Jane Austen [M]. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 2004.
. Cornell University Press, 1992.
[3] Sutherland, Kathryn. A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections [M]. Oxford University Press Inc, 2002.
[4] 波尔蒂克. 牛津文学术语词典 [Z].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2000。
[5] 李颖韫. 论《劝导》中对声音权威的追求[D].浙江：浙江大学，2004。
[6] 乔翔. 简•奥斯丁及其小说研究[D].内蒙古:内蒙古大学，2004。
[7] 申丹, 韩加明, 王丽亚. 英美小说叙事理论研究[M]. 北京：北京大学出版社，2005。
[8] 万青. 简论《劝导》中的女性意识与叙事策略[J].长春理工大学学报(高教版), 2007,2（2）。
[9] 王桂琴. 论简•奥斯丁的女性叙事策略[J].襄樊学院学报, 2006,27（4）。
[10] 王霞. 奥斯丁小说艺术中的创新[J].黑龙江教育学院学报，2006,25（5）。
[11] 运海红. 试述《傲慢与偏见》叙事艺术的独特性[D].西北师范大学，2006。
[12] 郑红艳. 论简•奥斯丁叙事策略的转化[J].安康学院学报, 2007,19(3)。
[13] 朱虹. 奥斯丁研究[M].北京:中国文联出版公司, 1985。
