Jane Austen’s Life and Times
By: Mrs. Paolucci
April 8, 2008
Agenda
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The Climate in the 17-18th Century
Women in the 17-18th Century
The Birth of the Novel
Who was reading novels?
The First Novel Writers
Jane Austen’s Life
Jane Austen’s novels
17th and 18th Century
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Industrial Revolution/Rise of the Middle Class
British Empire
Town vs. Country
Birth of Feminism
Popularity of Romanticism/Individualism
Conflict with Rationalism
The Birth of the Novel
• Term novel not fully established until the end of
the 18th century
• Realism was early novel form as opposed to neoclassicism and poetry. Presents the real as opposed
to the ideal
• Some first novelists are Danial Defoe, Richardson,
Fielding
• 1740 first circulatory libraries established in
London. NOT FREE. Subscribed. Novels were
what they mainly stocked.
Who Was Reading?
• NOT MANY PEOPLE!!!!
– 80,000 in 1790s (small percentage of pop.)
• The majority of laborers were illiterate
• Public education was not a reality. School were
associated with churches. Teachers with priests.
BY 1788 only about 1\4 of parishes had schools.
Children of lower-classes often left school at six
or seven and if they continued it was only in the
few months that there was no work in the fields or
the factories.
Who was Reading?
• Throughout the eighteenth century, utilitarian and
mercantile objections to educating the poor because of the
industrial revolution. In textile manufacturting areas the
literacy rate actually began to fall in the eighteenth century.
• HOWEVER, increase in literacy began in small towns
where there was marked rise in independent shopkeepers,
tradesmen and clerical employees (marked by industry).
RISE OF THE MIDDLE_CLASS, it is the middle-class
who furthered the book buying (novel) population. Novels
were in the medium price range of things to buyt. Not
respectable but cheaper. Also available cheaper, ballads,
newspaper, chivalric romances, pamphlets (42)
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Who Was Reading? WOMEN!
• NOVEL became more associated with the female
than with the male. Had more free time on their
hands and led a rather sedentary life. Many of the
old household tasks like spinning\weaving,
making bread and butter, beer, candles and soap
were no longer necessary because they were
mnufactuered. Most poorer women did not read as
much as women from the upper-classes. However,
could only read during the daylight hours.
Window tax.
Women in Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Century Britain
• Rise of individualism also provoked the rise of
feminism in eighteenth century. Economic
individualism decreased the ties between parents
and children. Marriage provides a wife with the
protection she had once sought in her extended
family. Patriarchal family unti stould in the way of
individualism and therefore the conjugal family
(family by choice) started to rise out of the middle
classes
WOMEN
• Legal position of women governed by patriarchal
Roman concepts of law.
• A woman’s property became her husband’s
absolutely upon marriage. Children were by law
the husband’s.
• only a husband could sue for divorce.
• Husband had a right to punish his wife either by
beating her or imprisoning her. Women therefore
needed to make the right choice in marriage.
WOMEN
• There were actually more men than women in
England at the time.
• Woman needed to provide a dowry to attract a
good husband. Much more commercial matter
than anything else.
• Women could really not achieve economic
stability outside of marriage.
• Surpluss of women in the labor market brought
their wages down.quarter of the average wage for
men.
WOMEN
• Wives were sold.
• Men did not want poor women and did not want
the financial expense so they went to prostitutes
for their needs.
• Illegitimate children were a social problem. Many
men also married late on economic grounds.
Spinsters
• Domestic servants (women) bound to stay with
employers until they were married or turned
twenty-one.
• Many employers forbade workers to marry.
• The word “spinster’ dates from 1719 to mean an
unmarried woman beyond the normal age of
marriage.
• Spinsters were not an economic asset to a
household.
Bachelors
• Bachelors did not excite so much consideration as
spinsters. But their rise was considered to be a
marker of moral degradation.
• It was suggested that bachelors be taxed more
heavily than married men.
• Surpluss in women was revealed in the 1801
census. One solution was polygamy. There was a
wide-spread interest in it at this time which
suggest how seriously people viewed the marriage
crisis.
• Marriage usually leads to a rise in
the social status of the woman as
opposed to the man,
Victorian Morality
• Puritans had a strong influence on the marriage
institution. T
• The idea of sexual advances or insinuations before
the knot is tied was scandalous. Act passed in
1650 made adultery punisheable by death.
• Desire was viewed as evil as amrker of the fall of
man.. Virtue was often seen in sexual terms.
• A man’s chief merit was resisting sexual
temptations.
Morality and Property
• Views of sexuality coincide with economic views
of private property.
• A man must be sure his wife is chaste to be sure
his estate is being passed on to his own children
• . Even the word love is dangerous and its meaning
needs to be clarified. Make a sensible marriage
choice with rational friendship as its ultimate aim.
Marriage/ A Double Standard
• It was ok for a man to marry beneath his station
because men were considered to be subject to
sexual passion (double standard),
• For a woman to do so would be admitting to
sexual feeling.
• The startling collapse of a woman’s immunity to
sexual feeling was one of the most controversial
things about the twentieth century novel.
Conduct Novels- novels
cautioning young women about
the dangers of seduction
• Immoral for a girl to feel love for a suitor until he
had actually asked for her hand in marriage.
• Conflict between public and private attitudes is
often what the novel is concerned with.
• Some works popular to be praised form the pulpit
but be pornographic in nature (hypocrisy). Pamela.
What were novels like?
• Sentimentalism in the eighteenth century novel
was a belief in the benevolent goodness of man.
Subjective individualist.
• Conflict between town versus country. The
immorality of the town and the cultural depracvity
of country.
• Reading public particularly women wanted
sentimentality and romance. By the time we get to
Austen we may be dealing with the PARADY of
the novel.
Heroines of the Conduct novel
• Model novel heroine must be very young, very
inexperienced, and so delicate in physical and
mental constitution that she faints at any sexual
advance; essentially passive, she is devoid of any
feelings towards her admierer until the marriage
knot is tied. Such are many of the heroines to the
end of the Victorian period. Since there was not
need for wives to do Hefty tasks, a woman’s chief
virtue could be to be so delicate and chaste that
she assures the future generation of her family.
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Mary Wollstonecraft was a
British writer and one of
the first feminists and
philosophers in the
eighteenth century.
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April 27, 1759 - September
10, 1797
Married William Godwin
March 29, 1797
Died giving birth to
daughter, Mary
Wollstonecraft ShellyAuthor of Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Major Works:
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Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
(1787)
A Vindication of the Rights of Man (1790)
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and
Denmark (1796)
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Feminist Style of Writing
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For many years her work was not
acknowledged because of her unorthodox
ways until the twentieth century when the
feminist movement was emerging.
Wollstonecraft – Detail for
Previous Slide
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Wollstonecraft scholar Virginia Sapiro stated, “few read
Wollstonecraft's works during the nineteenth century as her
attackers implied or stated that no self-respecting woman would
read her work."
With the modernist feminist movement, writers such as Virginia
Woolf and Emma Goldman embraced Wollstonecraft’s works.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Wollstonecraft’s works surfaced again
and reflected the feminist movements. Writer, Virginia Sapiro
demonstrated the continuity between Wollstonecraft's thought
and other important eighteenth-century ideas regarding topics
such as sensibility, economics, and political theory.
Mary Wollstonecraft
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Romantic Period
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The Romantic Period allowed Mary Wollstonecraft to
write in a feminist perspective because of the
political, social and economic changes that were
rapidly occurring.
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her work A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman during the French Revolution
and in conjunction with Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Men began some of the first revolutionary pieces to
be written.
Wollstonecraft – Cont’ Detail
from Previous Slide
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Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her work A Vindication of
the Rights of Woman during the French Revolution
and in conjunction with Thomas Paine’s Rights of
Men began some of the first revolutionary pieces to
be written.
Wollstonecraft’s writing influenced William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge because of
its themes and aesthetics
Mary Wollstonecraft
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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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One of the first works of feminist philosophy
Argues that women are not naturally inferior to men. They just
lack education therefore seem to be less intelligent.
Addresses her text to the middle-class, which she describes as
the "most natural state.”
Points out that men and women should be given equal
opportunities. They should both be treated as rational beings
with a social foundation of logic and reason.
Wollstonecraft – Cont’ Detail
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It encourages modesty and industry in its readers and
attacks the uselessness of the aristocracy.
Wollstonecraft is not necessarily a friend to the poor;
for example, in her national plan for education, she
suggests that, after the age of nine, the poor, except
for those who are brilliant, should be separated from
the rich and taught in another school.
Jane Austen’s Life
Who is Jane Austen?
Jane Austen
• Jane Austen (1775 - 1817)
Category: English Literature
Born: December 16, 1775
Steventon, Hampshire, England
Died: July 18, 1817
Winchester, Hampshire,
England
Jane Austin’s Novel
• Minute presentation of daily life, detached
attitude and evaluating it from a comic point of
view.
• Dispenses with participating narrator.
• Uses the convention of the letter, or by writing a
memoir.
• There is usually one character whose mental life
is afforded more time than the other characters.
Austen raises questions of social and moral
problems raised by economic individualism and
the middle-class quest for improved status.
Austen’s novels continued…
• Bases her novels on marriage and the
feminine role in the matter. Jane Austen
solidifies the female authors place as the
main author of the novel and questions male
hierarchy in her novels. A feminine point fo
view outweighs the restrictions of the social
horizon that have been associated with it.
• View clip from Pride and Predjudice
Jane Austen
• 1775-1817
• Began writing as a
child
• Family was very close
• Jane fell in love with
Tom Lefroy
• Proposed to by Harris
Bigg-Wither
Austen – Detail for Previous
Slide
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Born in 1775
Began to write as a child
Family was very close
Relationship to sister Cassandra resembles Jane and Elizabeth’s in Pride and
Prejudice
At 21, Austen fell in love with Tom Lefroy
Lefroy’s family soon sent him away because a marriage with Jane would have
been impractical due to both of them being poor.
– Subject comes up in Pride and Prejudice as the idea of sense (love) contrasts to
reality (inheritance)
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In 1802-Proposed to by Harris Bigg-Wither
While the marriage was practical financially, Austen called off the proposal
because she did not love him.
– Harris Bigg-Wither has the same defects in character as William Collins
Jane Austen –
Major Works
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Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1815)
Persuasion (1817) (posthumous)
Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous)
Jane Austen –
Most Influential Work
• Pride and Prejudice
– One of the first romantic comedies
– Set a standard for character depth
– Influence is still seen today
Jane Austen – Contribution to the
Romantic Movement
• Sensibility
– Focused on women, wild nature, and the
supernatural
– “First Generation” of Early Romantic writers
– Contrary Opinions
Austen – detailedearlyromanpre EC795.ppt
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Characteristics of the Early Romantic Period
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Revolt against The Age of Enlightenment
Romantics turned to:
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Emotion
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Adventure
Imagination over Realism
“Sensibility”
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Jane Austen brought to light the importance of love versus social convention
Romantics shared the use of “sensibility” that focused on women, the supernatural and wild nature.
Influence of Romanticism on Jane Austen
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Idea of “sensibility” that focused on women, wild nature, and the supernatural.
Contrary Opinions
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Jane Austen is often difficult to define in terms of an exact literary period
Romantics thought that social realism was less important than the imagination. Jane Austen was aware
of social convention, and showed the irony and humor of the system.
Romantics thought that social realism was less important than the imagination.
Early Romanticism
Detailed Presentation
Major authors and literary works
Robin Cole, Rebecca Nebeker, Nicole Child, Bruce Guernsey, and Megan
Anderson
Overview of Romanticism
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Began in the late 18th century
The answer to Enlightenment thinking
Stressed a strong connection to nature
Criticized social conventions
Recognized common art forms
Charles Baudelaire: "Romanticism is precisely
situated neither in choice of subject nor exact
truth, but in a way of feeling."
Previous Slides:
• J.M.W. Turner
– The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth
to be broken (1839)
• John Constable
– Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds
(1825)
Elements of Romanticism in
Literature
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Ancient myths, especially Greco-Roman
Great ardor of nature
Attention paid to women
Themes of intuition over reason
Isolation of narrator
More direct language, although not understated
Supernatural
Details and references for
Romanticism
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_poetry
– Very broad definition of Romanticism in all facets of art, the latter
pertaining to just poetry
• http://www.jahsonic.com/Romanticism.html
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– Overview of Romanticism
http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/3intro.html
– Quick reference and summary of Romantic themes
William Wordsworth
• 1770-1850
• Catalyzed the British
Romantic Movement with
the publication of Lyrical
Ballads
• Work influenced by the
Lake District – poems
during this time contained
strong Romantic images
of nature and selfreflection
Detail of Previous Slide
• Wordsworth was one of three Lake District
poets – the other two being Coleridge and
Southey. The three created their own style,
now recognized as the beginning of
Romanticism in English Literature.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Poets
Wordsworth
• “Lyrical Ballads”
– Worked with Coleridge
– “Emotion recalled in tranquility”
– Tintern Abbey
• Lyrical Ballads: Pg 245, Tintern Abbey: Pg 258
(All textual references are in The Norton-English Lit Vol D)
Detail for Previous Slide
• “Lyrical Ballads” published in 1798
– Contained mostly Wordsworth’s poems,
although Coleridge’s most influence work,
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was included in
the first edition.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads
“Tintern Abbey” Detail
• The narrator of the poem finds himself looking
over the pastoral scene that has resided in his
memory through times of hardship and fear. He
looks to nature, reminisces about boyhood, and
contemplates the mature characteristics has gained
from sacrificing his once innocent connection to
the natural world.
•
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Tintern/index.htm
– Interesting site – be sure to check out the annotated version of the poem for
insight as Wordsworth drafted through his masterpiece
Wordsworth
• “London, 1802”
• Sonnet
• Contradiction of society and Enlightenment
values
• Champions the past poet Milton
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London, 1802: Pg.319
Wordsworth
• “The world is too much with us”
• Sonnet
• Quickly epitomizes the Romantic’s
dissatisfaction with societal institutions,
respect for nature, and elements of ancient
mythology
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The world is too much with us: Pg. 319
Detail for “London” and “World”
• Both poems criticize the materialism and
cynicism of modern times, as the industrial
age begins to bloom and take hold. A
romantic solution proposed: look for truth in
nature, recall the great poets of the past.
Samuel Taylor Colerdige
• 1772-1834
• Boarding school
• Short stint in the army
Coleridge - Detail for Previous
Slide
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Born in Devonshire, England, youngest of ten children
-When he was 10, his father died and STC was sent to Christ’s Hospital, a charity
boarding school, which still exists today.
- STC was quite a prodigy; he devoured books and eventually earned first place in his
class.
-His brother Frank often bullied him as a child and his mother was apparently a bit
distant, which caused STC to run away at age seven. He was found early the next
morning by a neighbor, but the events of his night outdoors frequently showed up in
imagery in his poems and his nightmares, as well as the notebooks he kept for most of
his adult life.
-His brother Luke died in 1790 and his only sister Ann in 1791, inspiring STC to write
"Monody," one of his first poems.
- In 1791, attended Cambridge, but was not challenged enough intellectually and
because of an illness became addicted to Opium and alcohol. Joined the army out of
desperation as he had a lot of debt. He was said to be one of the most inept cavalrymen
in the history of the British Army. His brother, George, arranged his discharge by reason
of insanity and STC went back to Cambridge.
Jane Austen
• 1775-1817
• Began writing as a
child
• Family was very close
• Jane fell in love with
Tom Lefroy
• Proposed to by Harris
Bigg-Wither
Austen – Detail for Previous
Slide
•
•
•
•
•
•
Born in 1775
Began to write as a child
Family was very close
Relationship to sister Cassandra resembles Jane and Elizabeth’s in Pride and
Prejudice
At 21, Austen fell in love with Tom Lefroy
Lefroy’s family soon sent him away because a marriage with Jane would have
been impractical due to both of them being poor.
– Subject comes up in Pride and Prejudice as the idea of sense (love) contrasts to
reality (inheritance)
•
•
In 1802-Proposed to by Harris Bigg-Wither
While the marriage was practical financially, Austen called off the proposal
because she did not love him.
– Harris Bigg-Wither has the same defects in character as William Collins
Jane Austen –
Major Works
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma (1815)
Persuasion (1817) (posthumous)
Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous)
Jane Austen –
Most Influential Work
• Pride and Prejudice
– One of the first romantic comedies
– Set a standard for character depth
– Influence is still seen today
Jane Austen – Adaptations of Pride
and Prejudice
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2005: Pride & Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley
2004: Bride and Prejudice, the Bollywood version
2003: Pride and Prejudice: A Latter-Day Comedy
2001: Bridget Jones's Diary
1995: BBC Mini-series
1940: Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen – Contribution to the
Romantic Movement
• Sensibility
– Focused on women, wild nature, and the
supernatural
– “First Generation” of Early Romantic writers
– Contrary Opinions