REFERAT la Literatura engleza

JANE AUSTEN

Studenta ZARZARA IRINA DANIELA Continuare de studii, Alexandria

JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen was the first important novelist of the 19th century . Her work reprezented a continuation of the realistic, humorous and satirical vein of the 18 th century, no less than a clear foreshadowing of the great realistic novel - writing of the Victorian period. She rejected Gothic writing, still present with a number of early -19th century writers. Jane Austens novels are notable for skilful characterization, dry wit, and realistic, penetrating social observation. The author came to worldwide fame through her miniature writing ( she actually called herself a miniaturist), characterized by minuteness of observation, delicacy of touch and a limited setting - that of not very rich country squires, i.e.the petty aristocracy - with their repetitive gossip and tea table or drawing - room novel ( cf. The drawing - room comedy of the 18 th century.) Jane Austens creation was amply conditioned by her social milieu. Born as the seventh of eight children of a learned clergyman in Hampshire - her father was a the rector of the Steventon parish- she had little formal education ( mainly benefiting from her fathers lessons), but she largely enjoyed the sympathetic affection, identity of tastes and ironic, detached outlook upon life of her family. Her father encouraged her to read a lot, and she began writing while still in her teens - the little pieces collected in Volume the First ( burlesques and parodies produced for the amusement of her family), then short novels and novelettes in letter form. One could imagine young Jane writing during social engagements, when she would spend most of the evening in the corner of the drawing room, observing the world around her, with the manuscript half - hidden with a blotter. Jane Austen began as a satirist of the current sentimental mode, tributary to a romantic view of life ( the age of sentiment, the dictate of the heart). Although a contemporary of the great romantic poets, Jane Austen was adverse to ( or at least disregardful of ) romanticism. Her literary career is usualy recorded by most critics and literary historians as starting with her parody of Gothic romance - in Nortanger Abbey ( seemingly written in 1798- 1803, but published as late as 1818). She appears to have treated the antiromantic theme in Nortanger Abbey- but only incidentaly- then in Sense and Sensibility ( through the contrasting feminine pair, typical of the common sensesentimental impulse conflict). The theme in Pride and Prejudice dwells upon the same moral parallel that Persuasion presents : the contrast between true

love and calculating atitudes ; in much the same sentimental line, Mansfield Park draws a parallel between worldliness and unworldliness, while Emma is a comedy study, presenting self - deception by vanity. Her first book , Sense and sensibility , started as the epistolary Elinor and Marianne in 1795 ; it was published as late as 1811 after several revisions. The plot is as it follows :Mrs Dashwood has two daughters - Elinor , who is possesed of much sense, and Marianne, who cultivates sensibility. The family money has gone to a half - brother John. Elinor loves Edward Ferrars, while Marianne is infatuated with an attractive rogue, John Willoughby drops Marianne in order to wed a woman of considerable wealth, and Edward, who has been engaged for four years to the selfish Lucy Steele, considers it dishonourable to break this engagement. Learning about his attachement to Lucy, Edward mother disinherits him in favour of his younger brother, Robert. Lucy promptly discards Edwards for the later, thus enabling the former to marry Elinor, Marianne realizes her immaturity and accepts the proposals of the staid, reliable Colonel Brandon. The personalities of the two girls are contrasted : Elinor wisely prefers a man of honour and character, while Marianne, giddy from sentimental novels, throws herself into an infatuation with an unworthy man. Tearful Marianne comes to realize that Elinor has stoically endured even greater trials, and she awakenes to the solid worth of Brandon, getting far better than her girlish sensibility might have justified. Elinor is Jane Austen depiction of the English lady, the best in literature up to then. Although at that time a lady sole career was marrriage, with money, if possible ( the only alternative being an arid, ignored spinsterhood), the author nonetheless abhors and condemns marriage of convenience. A lady must be guided by the logic of her position to select the proper man and then fix her affections upon him. Under such a code, a woman weighs a mans every word and glance, judging what it indicates of his attitude towards her. Meanwhile, she maintains impeccable dignity, betraying neither concern nor intensity. Although not Jane Austens best work, Sense and Sensibility contains some excellent things, notably the portrait of the selfish elder Dashwoods, who reason themselves into doing nothing for the two girls. Willoughby is not too succesfully modelled after Richardsons Lovelace ( the seducer in Clarissa Harlowe ).So, Sense and Sensibility is much more than a mere exercise in the moral contrast individualising the two sisters in keeping with her responses to disappointment in love; its narrative fabric also contains fully convincing comical studies of selfish, heedless or rude personalities, investigated by means of her favourite observation instrument: dialogue.

Jane Austens next novel in the order of publication , the greatest in importance and audience was Pride and Prejudice. It is considered one of the most widely read works of English fiction throughout the world. The story refers to the not very rich Bennet family and to their efforts to marry away their five daughters. Here is the plot, as related by Martin S. Day: since the property of Mr. And Mrs. Bennet is due to pass to a male cousin, William Collins, it is imperative for them to marry off all five of their daughters. Charles Bingley falls in love with Jane, the eldest.His friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, nephew of the haughty Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is attracted to the second daughter, Elizabeth, but she thinks him proud and condescending. She is further prejudiced by an unfavourable report of him from George Wickham , a young officer. Misunderstandings separate both pairs of lovers, and Elizabeth rejects Darcys haughty proposal. But when Elizabeths young sister Lydia runs off with Wickham, Darcy forces the latter to marry her, and he also reconcililes Jane and Bingley. Elizabeth refuses to promise Lady Catherine that she will not marry Darcy, and when Darcy hears this from his indignant aunt, he proposes again, and is accepted. Along with the main theme of the Bennet family, here is also the marriage of the pompous Mr. Collins, after Elizabeth refuses him, to her friend Charlotte Lucas. Although the materials of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are quite similar, they are obviously different in point of literary merit. The narrative fabric of Pride and Prejudice is detailed and densely woven: even little incidents are closely coherent and densely relevant. The plot is elaborately worked out, with lucid minuteness. Pride and Prejudice is one of the best plotted novels in English literature; its plot is exquisitely strong definite, and shapely. The theme and the title of his book- in wich Darcys pride and Elisabeths prejudice are eventually replaced by tender understanding - were suggested by Fanny Burneys Cecilia. The superbly managed plot deals with the four romances ( or at least husband - capturing schemes) : Jane - Bingley, Elizabeth - Darcy, Lydia- Wickham, and Charlotte Lucas - Collins- all of which are determined by the romance of the central character, Elizabeth. Unlike the sentimental women novelists of her day and earlier times, Jane Austen tells her story straightforwardly, revealing character through dramatic dialogues and behaviour. This is the first significant novel dealing with an entire family. Each of the Bennets is beautifully depicted: Mr. Bennet is imperturbable, Mrs. Bennet is playful, lively, and frivolous, all addle - headed worldliness, Jane is gentle and engaging, Elizabeth is vivacious, Lydia is reckless, all noisy fickleness, Kitty is catharrhal, and Mary is pompously moralistic. Elisabeth, wholly lady -like, is also lively, witty and resourceful. Likewise, Georgiana
4

Darcy is all fluttered reticence, Darcy is perhaps the best novelistic representative of a familiar type of Englishman; seemingly stiff and supercilious, he is actually a shy, well- intentioned gentleman encased in the shell of a reserved, inadequately communicating aristrocrat. Mr Bennet is virtualy inseparable from his witticisms. He is portrayed as an odd mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice. Henpecked by his wife, he finds in irony both comfort and revenge. The character of Mrs. Bennet reveals both satirical intemperance and crudity, and literary brilliance. Jane is at once the angelic character who charms the sentimental reader, and the tedious sham that horrifies the reader who is averse to the mawkish delectation of the middle class. Elizabeth possesses a summation of human, as well as womanly, features, but their manifestation may be said to be at least paradoxical - which includes her charming humour, which should mitigate the edgy excellence of her intellect. Darcy, who is the problem of the novel, can be said to be also one of its shortcomings; by and large, he seems to be merely the shell of a character. Out of the subsidiary characters, Bingley, though rather insubstantial as a character, has his own individuality, while Wickham is an excellent illustration of the comprehensively sketchy, multum in parvo form of character - delineation. Only some of Dickenss novels have equaled this book in the number of memorable characters in one work of fiction. Irony pervades this novel, as the character labour under their misapprehensions, but it is a gentle kind of irony, and even Wickham is rather a victim of weakness than a vehicle of evil. Life is viewed as a high comedy, certain to work out satisfactorily for decent men and women of good will. Irony is ultimately an ingredient of the observable humanity, part of what could be called real life . In Jane Austens novels - and especially in Pride and Prejudice - love has a major part to play. It is not sentimental love, nor does it defy social conventions. When conventions are denied, the heroines will suffer ( see Lydias elopement). Although Jane Austens feminine characters struggle in order to gain new status, as mens equals, they mostly comply with the times conventions there can be no love unless it ends up in marriage. Love is the attribute of well - balanced women, real prototypes of social decorum, well educated women, who should not be too gullible, nor too proud ( see Elizabeth inner conflict). A womans sensibility has to be there, untouched, natural and active, but it has to consciously accept the convention - this seems to be the real task a real English lady has to accomplish. Prudence and tolerance as part of the loversmorals ( and also, to a certain extent, psychology) are definitely and undoubtedly derived from the conventions of the time. Only, from an
5

ethical point of view, Jane Austens characters will have the upper hand. In a limited way, Jane Austens lovers message is an optimistic one: society cannot stifle love, it just has to end in a respectable marriage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Constantin Manea, Maria Camelia Manea Landmarks of nineteenth century english literature , Editura Neotonic, Pitesti