Feminism of the Gratest Kind

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in the village of Steventon in rural Hampshire. She was born to Reverend George Austen and Cassandra Leigh, and was the seventh of eight children. Jane Austen was educated at home and was constantly with her family; therefore, Mr. Austen tutored all the children. Being one of the youngest of all her siblings, she had the best relationship with her older sister, Cassandra. Being as the family couldn’t afford a plethora of amenities, the children composed skits and numerous charades to entertain themselves on a daily basis. As a young girl Jane’s love of writing was apparent, although only a neophyte at that; she would venture off into her fathers library and read countless books which she would use to help her compose short satirical sketches. In the spring of 1785, Jane and Cassandra attended Abbey’s School of Reading where their education flourished and their love for writing continued. At age 14, Jane composed her first novel, Love and Friendship and later composed A History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced, and Ignorant Historian. In her early 20’s, Jane wrote novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey, all of which are among best sellers today.
In 1801 Jane’s parents announced that the family would be relocating to Bath, therefore Mr. Austen entrusted his son, James, with their Steventon estate and proceeded to Bath with his wife and two daughters. Jane disliked her new home and yearned for her Steventon life. In 1801 Jane went on holiday in the West Country where she fell in love. The man died in 1804 leaving her was deeply troubled. To make matters worse, in 1805 George Austen died. Mrs. Austen and her daughters relied on charity from the Austen sons. In the end of January of 1805, Jane visited the Bigg-Wither family at Mandytown. Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to Jane and she accepted. Unfortunately, she had a change of heart and rejected Harris’ proposal.
In July of 1809 Jane’s brother, Edward, offered Jane’s family to move into his Chawton estate. It was a quaint house with a picturesque garden which was deemed perfect for Jane to continue her career in writing and soon began a period of intense productivity. In the seven and a half years that she lived in her brother’s estate, Jane revised Sense and Sensibility published in 1811 an, Pride and Prejudice published in 1813. In 1816, Jane published Emma which she dedicated to the Prince Regent. In 1817, Jane formulated her will as a result of the Addisons disease which she was diagnosed at the age of 35 . At 42 years of age, Jane Austen died on July 18, 1817 in Cassandra’s arms. In the end of December, in 1817, Henry-James Austen had Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published with his own added “biographical notice” in honor of his beloved sister.
“But the greatest paradox of Jane Austen may be that her image (which seems to be that of bonnets, crinolines, tea, and gentility) is sometimes completely at odds with her writings, which are always sly, often biting, and sometimes actually vicious…in an extremely entertaining way.” [Michon and Norris, 1]. Jane Austen was a young, spirited writer who was writing in the two greatest culture movements in regards to literature for women, classicism and romanticism. Jane Austen composed and published an abundant of her own novels. Her three most compelling novels in my opinion are Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey. All of these novels contain satire, witty romances, flamboyant scenes, and perplexing plots. Jane Austen entrances her readers with both her own experiences in her novels as well as her feministic views.
In the novel Pride and Prejudice, the overall conflict was sparsely intriguing. The lovers must elude and overcome stumbling obstacles placed in front of them; this began with the tensions caused by Elizabeth’s self attributes and consciousness. The first impression that Elizabeth received from Darcy was not in Elizabeth’s point of view justifiable, and Elizabeth was in the lower social class, which doesn’t intrigue Darcy’s standards. Therefore Darcy was deemed as prideful, while Elizabeth was deemed prejudice, or vice versa. As a result, the desire for social connections interferes with their love or the mere potentiality of love. As time went on Darcy realized that Elizabeth has charm and began pursuing her, but Elizabeth saw him as obnoxious and refuses. As the novel progresses, Elizabeth and Darcy went for a leisurely walk and Darcy proclaimed his love for Elizabeth and she accepted his proposal and soon they were married. Two themes that were directly correlated in this novel were class and reputation; class and reputation were dubbed with the utmost respect in this time period and the novel clearly depicted this.
In this novel, Jane Austen portrayed courtship as a fairly imperative ideology. She demonstrated this by allowing all of her main characters to philander with one another. For example, Mr. Collins courted Charlotte Lucas as well as Elizabeth and Wickham’s steady pursuit of Elizabeth, Miss King, and Lydia was also present. This idea of courtship was probally influenced by Jane Austen’s personal experiences, since sheflirted with a man whom she met on holiday in the West Country. Jane’s fondness of flirting and it was evidenced in the novel Pride and Prejudice, “if a woman conceals her affection…from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him…In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.”[Austen, 87]
Jane Austen loved the countryside, canonized long walks when she was young, and implemented that love into Pride and Prejudice. The novel described how Elizabeth was entranced with Darcy’s home and began to feel the same towards him. Austen described the home as beautiful, charming, and picturesque; she also described the countryside in the same manner. Jane Austen moved into her brother’s estate where she composed this novel. His estate was said to be quaint and Jane adored the home much like Elizabeth did in the novel.
Another enticing novel that Jane Austen composed was Sense and Sensibility. The title comes about by contrasting the novels two main characters, Elinor and Marriane Dashwood. Elinor represented “sense”-social obligations, reason, and consent for others, and Marianne represented “sensibility”-spontaneity, passion, and emotion. The novel began with Willoughby courting Marianne, and their attachment towards one another was obvious. Willoughby then announced that he had to leave London due to business affairs. Anne and Lucy Steele arrived at Barton Park as guests of the Middletons. Lucy informed Elinor that she was secretly engaged to Mr. Ferrars for an entire year. Lucy was dumbfounded to learn that her beloved Edward was engaged to Elinor. The novel progressed and Willoughby returned and Marianne was rebuked by him; Willoughby sent Marianne a letter denying any feelings he had towards her, while the entire town was gossiping about an engagement between the two. The conclusion of the novel was when the Dashwoods returned to Barton and discovered that Lucy and Mr. Ferrars were engaged. Then Edward proposes to Elinor as well as Marianne and Colonel Brandon become engaged as well. The couples eventually live together at Delaford. Enticing themes that are found in this novel include “sense” requires “sensibility” much like how Elinor and Marianne both had to help one another to each gain success. “But we must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other, the balm of sisterly consolation”. [Michon and Norris, 46]. This showed how Elinor faltered without Marianne and vice versa. An additional theme was that both great love and compassion were equally hurtful as little feeling.
Jane Austen had “sense” and “sensibility.” She explored relationships as much as she did her novels, but never succeeded in the end to attain a man to marry. She almost married, but the next day changed her mind. This showed her spontaneity or “sensibility.” Austen also showed devotion through her work as an author, her family, and was level headed which demonstrates her “sense.” Jane Austen was both Marianne and Elinor and most likely wanted to portray how women needed fragments of both characters to succeed in life.
When Jane Austen began writing this novel she was in a culture movement, which greatly influenced it, therefore, Austen depicted both movements in each character. Elinor was designed to reflect the classical period. Elinor represented insight, judgment, and balance and never lost sight of her responsibilities as a young woman nor as a dedicated family member. In contrast, Marianne was engineered to represent romanticism. Marianne’s character was witty, imaginative, and she loved the beauty of nature. Jane Austen revealed how both characters go from one extreme to the other, and described the time period in which she wrote through her characters personalities and actions.
Northanger Abbey was yet another marvelous novel that Jane Austen composed. The novel surrounded a young woman named Catherine Morland and her coming of age. Catherine moved to bath and was taken by Henry Tilney, but Henry and Catherine, after their first meeting, don’t see one another for some time. Catherine and Isabella became close companions, while Isabella fell in love with James Morland, Catherine’s brother, and Catherine flirted with John Thorpe. Catherine however was attracted to Henry more so than John. Isabella and James pressured Catherine to ride with John, and Catherine briefly meets with John before he departs from Bath. He then left with the idea that Catherine was in love with him. In the end, Catherine returned home to Fulton in misery. She sulked around the house until Henry proposed to her, and the General grudgingly gave consent, and the two married. In this novel Catherine was unable to see what’s right in front of her, therefore she can’t “read between the lines.” A key theme was if you analyze situations and your surroundings, you will be better off.
Jane Austen as a young woman was very sociable, loved balls, dances, and shows much like her characters, Catherine and Isabella. Jane Austen portrayed her own unique characteristics in these two characters. The setting of Northanger Abbey was in Bath, which coincidentally was where Jane Austen lived for a period of time. Catherine was invited to go to Bath by family friends, the Morlands, which she eagerly accepted. Bath was a resort where the gentry of the British society lounged. Catherine adapted fairly well in contrast to Jane Austen when she lived there. It was ironic that Jane Austen would put Bath in such a light of superiority and excitement when she herself hated the area. She might have wanted to shed light on how she wished she could have lived in Bath in contrast to her Steventon life of excitement and bliss.
In the novel Catherine received a letter from her brother stating that his engagement to Isabella was called off. Earlier in the novel Isabella flirted with a man by the name of Frederick, so Catherine believed that he came between Isabella and John. John however, assured Catherine that it was Isabella’s fault as much as Fredericks. Jane Austen was once engaged to Harris Bigg-Wither, but the engagement was called off as well just like Isabella’s and John’s engagement. Another relation within the novel and Jane Austen’s life was how Catherine lacked femininity. Catherine was beautiful, happy, and healthy, rather than how most female characters are portrayed, victimized and pathetic. Jane Austen was considered unfeminine because she was educated and published her own books in a time period when women were only meant to be wed and conceive children. Jane Austen and Catherine have a plethora of similar attributes which Austen portrayed in this novel.
Jane Austen entranced us with both her own experiences in these novels as well as her feministic views. It was evident that Jane Austen was an astounding author and even more heroic for being a woman in the nineteenth century publishing her own works. Jane Austen had no shame in belting out her views on life, government, and love. She was an author who should be commended for all her great achievements and for allowing herself to shine through her novels as well as her characters.
“A heroine returning, at the close of her career, to her native village, all in the
triumph of recovered reputation and all the dignity of a countess…is an event on
which the pen of the contriver may well delight to dwell; it gives credit to every
conclusion, and the author must share in the glory she so liberally bestows.”
[Michon and Norris, 104].
Although Jane Austen’s career is finished, and while she was alive she didn’t receive more than 140 pounds for her novels, she was proud of her works all the same, and she now has recognition for being one of the most influential people in the feministic world.

Bibliography

Michon, Cathryn and Norris, Pamela. Jane Austen’s Little Advice Book. Harper Collins
Publishers. 1996

Fullerton, Susan. President, Jane Austen Society of Australia
http://www.jasa.net.au/jabiog.htm October 25 2006

Sparknotes.com/Sense&sensibility

Sparknotes.com/Pride&prejudice

Sparknotes.com/Northangerabbey