...On Jane Austen’s Point of View of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice Acknowledgements This thesis has finally come into being to meet critical eyes through two months of hard work. From the very beginning when I chose the topic till the completion of the thesis, I have benefited from many people . First of all I would like to show my sincere gratitude to my tutor, Shen Guozheng. Without his sincere and trustworthy guidance，valuable suggestions and critical comments，it would be difficult for me to accomplish this thesis．His loyalty to teaching and punctilious work style has profoundly impressed me. Moreover, I heartily thank all the teachers who have helped me in the past four years, who have provided me with incentives and direction for my study. Thanks are also due to my classmates and friends for their constant encouragement and their ways of assistance in the course of writing. Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family members, for their selfless support，thoughtfulness and encouragement． Abstract Jane Austen was one of the distinguished realistic novelists in the nineteenth- century-English literature．Pride and Prejudice is a world wide popular novel published in 1813．Austen set the story in the first decade of the nineteenth century．At that time，marriage was the only way for women to gain social status and recognition. The author of the present thesis will analyze the five marriage patterns from the perspective...
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...tuberculosis (Weldon 37-39). Jane Austen, born 1775, in Hampshire, England, was removed from most of these challenges due to her wealth, but the constriction she felt and debasement she observed still disturbed her (Life v). Her entire life was channeled toward marriage, and her thoughts and opinions were seen as trivial and lesser because she was female. Austen found escape in literature, and channeled many of her life’s frustrations into her last novel, Persuasion. The novel became a place where she could immortalize herself and those close to her, live out...
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...began writing and expressing themselves through novels and other literary works, such as Mary Shelley, Jane Austen. The feminist novels have tested the central “I” of women and also have shaken up gender roles of men. The female writers focused on the moral and ideological issues arising out of daily life and basic human relationships, and they advocate for female equality during romantic period fought to obtain better rights for women. The images of women across genres can be varied as the authors themselves. Mary Wollstonecraft is the radical feminist who contributed to those debates and typically revolted against the social condition of women. In her work of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, she believed in a push for growth in women and was disturbed by the lack of education. For most romantic feminists, their literary works focused on both the source of women’s inequality and its potential solution. The feminist novels in romantic era raised concerns about the ability of women to reject silence and express themselves. A feminist view from William Blake pointed out that female liberation some kind can make men free from the relationships based on power. Mary Shelley in her novel Frankenstein questioned prescribed social roles of women and illustrated the female oppression, and she reveals women as captive servants in the household. Similar with Shelley, Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice creates strong, spirited, independent, free-thinking female characters. Austen’s...
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...The Use of Irony in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: “The most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an Authoress” Irony serves as a fundamental literary tool for authors. It enables them to express their themes and views through characters whose words are often inconsistent with their actions, and in situations where the intended result differs from the actual result. Irony works in a clever manner by showing the reader what the author wants to express by making these inconsistencies apparent to the reader, if not to the characters themselves, and exposing it, more often than not, in a satiric fashion. Yet, while irony works with satire, the power it holds for those who wield it well is no laughing matter. Famous writers such as the sardonic H.L. Mencken and Jonathan Swift, a true satiric master, have used irony to promote real, legitimate change. In Swift’s case, his famous piece, “A Modest Proposal,” used extreme satire and irony to promote change in Irish policy. Perhaps the greatest satirist of all time, William Shakespeare used irony in almost every piece he created. In his play Julius Caesar, the speech he has Mark Antony give in which he repeats the phrase “but Brutus is an honorable man” when he is trying to convey the exact opposite serves as a truly timeless example of this literary tool. It is unique in that it does not simply throw the author’s point of view directly in the reader’s face, but rather enables the reader to discover the author’s...
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...woman’s intelligence. Some may be ecstatic, but Jane Austen almost did not meet him because she disliked him. Although the era she lived in almost prevented her from being published, it also heavily impacted her novels. Jane Austen’s writings were greatly influenced by her prosperous late eighteenth century village and city homes, enlightening education, and numerous romantic interests. It all began when Austen was born into an upper middle class English family. One of the major influences on Jane...
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... (Kinsella 617) The Romantic view on nature was that nature was a wild free force that could inspire poets through instinctive spiritual understanding, which was much different from the eighteenth-century view on nature . Romantics wrote about nature and a pure, simple life...
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..."Jane Austen: Irony and Authority" Critic: Rachel M. Brownstein Source: Women's Studies 15, nos. 1-3 (1988): 57-70. Criticism about: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1775-1817) Nationality: British; English [(essay date 1988) _In the following essay, Brownstein focuses on several of Austen's novels, including Pride and Prejudice, to support her argument that Austen uses irony to convey a "discursive authority" from which women can derive pleasure in a patriarchal society.] It is a truth universally acknowledged, right now, that language is involved in giving and taking both power and pleasure. Whether we begin by asking if the pen is a substitute for the penis, or think about why we read stories of love and adventure, or consider, from any point of view, pornography or psychoanalysis, we end by analyzing ways people please themselves and assert authority over others by using words. (To observe that critics writing about pleasure and power have managed to get what measure of the good stuff they can is to state the merely inevitable.) Claiming that women writers are powerful--i.e. effective and influential--has been a focus of feminist critics concerned to dispute the canon, to rehabilitate forgotten writers, and to revise women's relation to the languages of power. That Jane Austen, unforgotten, canonized, and stunningly authoritative, has been a problem for feminists is not surprising: in the struggle for power between politically radical and conservative critics...
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...ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2015-2016) MEG-03 British Novel Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tuthors/Authors for the help and Guidance of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% accuracy of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/ Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer and for up-to-date and exact information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university. Answer all the questions. Q. 1. Trace the development of modern English fiction with specific reference to the major shifts in literary perspective during the nineteenth century. Ans. While Ian Watt in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the novel came into being in the early 18th century which witnessed the rise of increasingly realistic fiction, and...
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...for Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and provides the bones of the novel. It also serves as bait, bait that hooks readers onto Pride and Prejudice and will not let them go. Austen was exceedingly successful in her opening chapter in trying to entice the audience to read on, and drew on multiple literary techniques to tease the reader’s curiosity, compelling them to read further. Austen used irony, dialogue and an direct authorial comment to display several of the novels themes and create an appealing opening chapter. Jane Austen used irony to create a successful opening chapter. Irony in the first chapter is found in the opening line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This is ironic as we find out shortly that this statement is certainly not a ‘universally’ held belief and is only accepted by Mrs Bennet who is a very small minded woman of ‘mean understanding’. Austen is saying that many ‘universal’ statements, are certainly not believed by everyone, they are contrived by a selection of a societies population. In this case, the emphasis on the adverb ‘universally’ is provided as these views about marriage are Mrs Bennet’s whole ‘universe’, as her only goal in life is to marry off her daughters. This made the opening effective, as the reader is introduced to an intriguing connection between the views of society towards marriage at the turn of the 19th century and the views of Austen at this...
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...Comparative Analysis of Point of View of Joseph Andrews and Emma Point of view is the mode of narration that an author employs to let the readers “hear” and “see” what takes place in a story. In this essay, the point of view of Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding and Emma by Jane Austen will be analyzed in comparison to one another. The comparison will be made on each aspect of the point of view, such as subjective/objective, partial/impartial narration and the perspectives through which the point of views are presented. The point of view of Joseph Andrews is third person omniscient. In Third person omniscient narration the narrator lies outside the plot and knows everything about the characters, their emotions and feelings and various events happening in the story, such a narrator is a God like character who is aware of everything. The narrator of Joseph Andrews is an intrusive narrator who keeps the reader aware of the fact that they are reading a fiction and the truth of the novel lies not in its facts but in the depiction of human nature. The intrusive nature of the novel can be felt by the descriptions provided at the beginning of each chapter, like the description of chapter V says, “The Death of Sir Thomas booby, with the affectionate and mournful Behaviour of his Widow, and the great Purity of Joseph Andrews”(24). In the very beginning even before reading the chapter the mind of the reader is made to think in a particular way that the behavior of the widow will be affectionate...
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...extent of gender equitability within society has always been a prevalent and contended concern. An engagement with this contention will define gender politics for this essay. Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, writing at the beginning of the nineteenth-century, joined their female contemporaries in a growing generation of authoresses who forged careers in discipline of male authority. In this respect, they are inescapably engaging with gender politics. Margaret Kirkham comments that ‘this burgeoning of the female talent...was bound to have a profound effect upon any young woman beginning to write once it had occurred’, suggesting that, regardless of whether the female intended to represent female concerns within their work; a female, in becoming ‘an author, was, in itself, a feminist act’ (Kirkham 33). With the status of the authoress in mind whilst analysing Northanger Abbey and Frankenstein, this essay will focus how Austen and Shelley engage with gender politics through characterization and narrative form, and the female concerns they address, both implicitly and explicitly, throughout their texts. Austen predominately engages with gender politics through her protagonist Catherine. Catherine is presented as the unlikely heroine; ‘no one...would have supposed her born to be a heroine’ (Austen 3). Austen subverts the expectation of an heroine as Catherine possesses ‘feelings rather natural than heroic’, provoking a reading of Catherine as a satire of the passive, unnatural, gothic...
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...Austen’s Portrayal of Money, Marriage, and Happiness by Character Usage in Pride and Prejudice Throughout the novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays her views on money, marriage, and happiness through the coupling of several characters she created. Austen uses the characters and their relationships to show what true love should really be like in her opinion. One of the ways she showcased marriage in the book was that marriage created love and happiness, as opposed to the idea that love and happiness were a direct result from getting married. I have chosen ten characters from the novel, and through their coupling, will portray Austen’s views on money, marriage, and happiness in the nineteenth century. The coupling of Elizabeth and Darcy is the kind of pairing that is common in present day society. They seemed to fall in love before the decision to marry was decided. Elizabeth defies the general views of what society considers right. She makes her decisions on marriage based on her feelings and not on status, money, or pedigree. This is portrayed in the novel when Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth and she does not accept because she does not love Collins. Unlike other couples, Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship is not based on money, status, or name despite Darcy’s social status. Instead, it is based solely upon their feelings for one another. Elizabeth perfectly describes Darcy's affection for her when she stated, "'...you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious...
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...Are women the weaker sex and in need of constant care? Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice at the end of 18th century, in a time when women were considered to be weak and without options. Many literary scholars seem to agree that in her writing Austen tries to define her personal concept of feminism and she critiques the patriarchal, social, and marriage structures of her time. Pride and Prejudice portrays a male dominated society, in which women are expected to behave in ‘lady-like’ ways and forced to depend on males for social prestige and financial support. Through the plot of the novel and its main characters, Austen indirectly presents social problems to raise awareness of the then current issues of equality, respect, and options women lacked. Austen is recognized as a critic of gender and social codes of her time. According to Susie Steinbach “she was a harsh observer of the legal, economic, and cultural limitations placed on the women of the upper-middle classes who were her main characters” (Steinbach 131). In Pride and Prejudice Austen relates the prevailing attitudes toward women of the day, for example, by presenting how Bennets’ girls are not entitled to inherit Mr. Bennet's estate because of their gender. This entitlement belongs only to a male, which in this case is their cousin, Mr. Collins. Therefore, if they do not get married to someone affluent, who would ‘take care’ of them, they would stay dependant on the charity of a male relative. As Bennets’...
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...by Jane Austin, I believe the novel reinforces sexist stereotypes of women. One of the things that really struck me was the desire the women had to find themselves a husband. A husband who was wealthy was at the utmost importance for most of the women. A woman could talk bad of another woman in hopes of deterring a man of his interest in a particular woman as to give them a better opportunity that this man would desire them as their wife instead of any other woman. The very opening words of Pride and Prejudice give the reader their first taste of what to expect: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings of views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”(Austen 3) When the reader stops here and really thinks about what they are to expect from reading this novel, one might conclude that there would be some competition. The expectations could be that women may go to great lengths to get what they want. Jane Austen is able to create that initial interest as to the possibility the book will satisfy the readers want for juicy gossip. We are able to see this transpire when Elizabeth walks three miles to see her sister, who was ill and unable to travel, to the Bingley residence. Jane Austen writes...
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...Discuss the ways in which Jane Austen uses caricature to ridicule or point out the faults of a rigid class system in characters such as Sir Walter, Mr. Woodhouse, and Mr. Collins. Extend your explanation of these character's personalities and goals to those of one or two of today's politicians. Are there parallels between Mr. Woodhouse, for example, and members of the Congress or Legislature? Explain your Answer. Jane Austen uses caricature to ridicule and to point out faults of the rigid class system of her day. We can look at Sir Walter Elliot from Persuasion, Austen’s last completed novel in 1816. Secondly poor old Mr. Woodhouse from Emma, written by Austen and published in 1815. Lastly Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice also written by Austen and published in 1813. Sir Walter Elliot at first read comes off as pompous and vain. After finishing the novel I cannot seem to change my view of him and probably with good reason. “He maintains personal qualities that are abhorrent to Austen's protagonists. Selfish and self-absorbed, he is unable to think past himself and his own immediate desires. Yet Sir Walter is not at all evil or ill inclined; rather, he is comically ridiculous, a caricature of the old, titled class” (SparkNotesEditors). Austen explains his vain character well in this one statement. “Vanity was the beginning and the end of Sir Walter Elliot's character; vanity of person and of situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and, at fifty-four...
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