Jane
Austen
1775 - 1817
Life
Born at the parsonage of Steventon, a small town in
Hampshire, where her father was a rector.
 When he retired, in 1801, the family moved to Bath, a
famous holiday resort on the sea.

After the death of her
father she went to a
town called Chawton
together with her
family.
 Although her family
was upper class they
were not very rich.
 She was the last of
seven children and her
older sister Cassandra
was her lifelong friend


Jane Austen lived a
quiet and
uneventful life.
Except for the four
years spent in Bath
and Southhampton
and rare visits to
London she lived
entirely in the
countryside.
Here is a
map of
Britain
showing the
places where
Jane Austen
spent her life

She and her
family went to
parties, danced
and loved reading

At the age of 20 she fell
in love with an Irish
man,Tom Lefroy. He was
young and not rich
enough to get married so
his family obliged him to
leave England and return
to Ireland.
Although she got a
great deal of
marriage proposals,
Jane Austen never
married.
 She died suddenly
on 18th July 1817
in Winchester
where she went to
receive medical
care
 She was buried in
Winchester
Cathedral

Austen’s house in Winchester
Jane Austen
the novelist
Jane Austen began to write to amuse her
family.
 Four of Jane Austen’s novels were
published in her lifetime. Two other
novels: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion
were published posthumously.

Austen Novels






Pride and Prejudice 1796 (Pub. 1813)
Sense and Sensibility 1797 (Pub. 1811)
Northanger Abbey 1798 (Pub. 1818)
Mansfield Park (Pub. 1814)
Emma (Pub. 1815)
Persuasion (Pub. 1818)
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

All her works were
published
anonymously, (her
identity was revealed
later by her brother
Henry) and were
welcomed by the
reading public.
One of Jane Austen’s
fans was the Regent
Prince who asked her
to dedicate the novel
Emma to him
The Novel of Manners

In both style and content
Jane Austen’s novels belong
to the 18th century tradition.
She was not interested in
passion or great events, but
was concerned with everyday
life in the English
countryside. She focused on
the values of the provincial
middle class and country
gentry she knew very well:
property, decorum, money
and marriage. Her real
concern was with people, and
the analysis of character and
conduct.
Main themes:
Marriage,
complications
of love and
friendship
Set in the country
few insights
into towns
Characters belong
to upper/middle
class
Influence of class
distinctions on
character and
behaviour
The Novel of Manners
Use of irony
Visits, balls, teas
as occasions
for meeting
Passions,emotions
not expressed
directly
Dialogue: the main
narrative mode
Third person
narrator
Style


She constantly
revised her novels
achieving a polished,
detailed and clear
style.
From Fielding she
derived the
omniscient narrator
and the technique of
bringing characters
into existence through
dialogue. She made
each character speak
in a way suitable to
his/her social class.
From Richardson she derived the use of
letters to sum up events or to reveal the
personality of the letter writer.
The point of view is usually the
protagonist’s
Verbal and situational irony instead of
open interpretation and comment on the
action
Happy ending: all her novels
end in the marriage of hero and
heroine
Themes
 Love
 Marriage
 Money
 Self-knowledge
 Human
relationship



Marriage was based on money and social
standing in Jane Austen’s times. Without some
money a young couple was not able to survive.
Jane Austen's sister Cassandra, for example,
was engaged for several years without being
able to marry, due to lack of money.
“Single women have a dreadful propensity for
being poor, which is one very strong argument
in favour of matrimony”. And yet, none of her
heroines or herself married for money.
Since a woman wasn't supposed to work, her only two
possibilities for the future were:
to inherit money from her parents or to marry someone wealthy.
If there wasn't any money to inherit or if she didn't manage
to get married, she was completely dependent on her relatives‘
generosity. In the worst scenario she was forced to look for a
position as a governess.
After the wedding, a woman's
money became her husband's
property, although she could sign a
contract to establish what would
happen to this money in the case
of her husband’s death or how this
money should be divided between
her children.

In 1753 England promulgated a law called the
Marriage Act according to which the age of the
bride or the groom was to be at least 21. If not,
consent had to be given by the parents. It also
required, that banns should be published some
weeks before the ceremony was celebrated.
Men and women who didn't have their
parents' authorization and were younger than
twenty-one, could get married in Scotland, where
no law prohibited weddings. Even a ceremony
was not necessary: if two people declared to be
married in front of a witness, they could consider
themselves legally married
Love
Jane Austen didn’t disapprove of the
concept of romantic love but only of its
extremes. She gave importance to
moderation and control. She thought that
strong impulses
and emotions should
be controlled and
brought to order by
private reflection
Pride and Prejudice
P & P is a humorous portrayal of the social atmosphere
of late 18th and early 19th century. The novel is much
more than a comedic love story .
Through Austen’s subtle and ironic style, it addresses
economic, political, feminist and psychological themes,
inspiring a great deal of diverse commentary on the
meaning of the work.
The novel is concerned with
the patriarchal society in
which men held the economic
and social power.
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The Characters
LOVE
Major Themes
P&P contains one of the most cherished love stories in English
literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s pride
makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression ,
while Darcy prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds
him, for a time.
REPUTATION
P&P depicts society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost
importance. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to
ostracism. It is when Lizzie walks to Netherfield and arrives with
muddy skirts, shocking the others. Another example is the ridiculous
behavior of Mrs. Bennet contrasting the refined Darcys and Bingleys.
CLASS
The lines of class are strictly drawn and Austen points
out faults in the system, raising questions about the
values of English society and the power structure of the
country.
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