Jane Austen
(1775-1817)
“3 or 4 families in a Country
village is the very thing to work
on ”
“the little bit (two inches wide) of
ivory on which I work with so
fine a brush as produces little
effect after much labour”
In both moral outlook and prose style
she is closer to the 18th-cent. realists
than to her contemporaries (Gothicists,
Sentimentalists and Romanticists).
 reason over passion
 subtle satire and irony towards the
silly, snobbish, stupid, worldly and
vulgar
 style: order, reason, accuracy and
gracefulness
Life
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Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice(1813)
Mansfield Park (1814)
Emma(1815)
Northanger Abbey (1818)
Persuasion (1818)
Sir Walter Scott on Jane Austen:
That young lady has a talent for describing the
involvements and feelings and characters of
ordinary life which is to me the most
wonderful I ever met with. The big bow-wow
strain I can do myself like any now going;
but the exquisite touch, which renders
ordinary commonplace things and
characters interesting, from the truth of the
description and the sentiment, is denied to
me.
—From "The Journal of Sir Walter Scott," March, 1826.
•
Emma was written
in comic tone and
told the story of
Emma Woodhouse,
who finds her
destiny in marriage.
During the story
Emma, a snobbish
young woman,
develops into
someone capable
of feeling and love.
Major Elements of Analyzing Fiction
Major Elements of Analyzing Fiction
Plot
Characters
Style
Form and Structure
Setting
Point of view
Theme
Motifs
• A plot is a causal sequence
of events, the "why" for the
things that happen in the
story. The plot draws the
reader into the character's
lives and helps the reader
understand the choices that
the characters make.
?
• Plot
“a young couple
destined to be
married have to
overcome the
barriers of pride
on the part of the
hero and prejudice
on the part of the
heroine”
•Chapter 6: Sir William Lucas:
“Mr. Darcy, you must allow me to
present this young lady to you as a
very desirable partner.”
• Chapter 3:
Darcy on Elizabeth:
“She is tolerable,
but not handsome
enough to tempt
me.”
Analysis of
Major Characters
The Bennet Family
Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet
Chapter One
• Chapter 20:
Mrs. Bennet
Mr. Bennet’s wife, a foolish,
noisy woman whose only
goal in life is to see her
daughters married. Because
of her low breeding and
often unbecoming behavior,
Mrs. Bennet often repels the
very suitors whom she tries
to attract for her daughters.
•Chapter 13:Mrs. Bennet:
“Why Jane -- you never
dropt a word of this, you
sly thing!”
Mr. Bennet
- The patriarch of the Bennet family, a
gentleman of modest income with five
unmarried daughters. Mr. Bennet has a
sarcastic, cynical sense of humor that he
uses to purposefully irritate his wife.
Though he loves his daughters (Elizabeth
in particular), he often fails as a parent,
preferring to withdraw from the neverending marriage concerns of the women
around him rather than offer help.
The first sentence of
Pride and Prejudice
• IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
single man in possession of a good fortune
must be in want of a wife.
• It stands as one of the most famous first lines
in literature. In this statement, Jane has cleverly
done three things:
1. Plot
• She has declared that the main subject of
the novel will be courtship and marriage
and offers a miniature sketch of the entire
plot which concerns itself with the pursuit
of “single men in possession of a good
fortune” by various female characters.
2. Tone
She has established the humorous and
satirical tone of the novel by taking a simple
subject to elaborate and to speak
intelligently of.
3. Pride and Prejudice and 18th
century
It also defines Jane’s book as a piece of literature
that connects itself to the 18th century period.
Pride and Prejudice is 18th century because of the
emphasis on man in his social environment rather
than in his individual conditions. The use of satire
and wit, a common form of 18th century literature,
also contributes to label the book as 18th century.
Jane Bennet
• The eldest and most
beautiful Bennet sister.
Jane is more reserved and
gentler than Elizabeth. The
easy pleasantness with
which she and Bingley
interact contrasts starkly
with the mutual distaste
that marks the encounters
between Elizabeth and
Darcy.
Elizabeth Bennet
The novel’s protagonist. The
second daughter of Mr. Bennet,
Elizabeth is the most intelligent and
sensible of the five Bennet sisters.
She is well read and quick-witted,
with a tongue that occasionally
proves too sharp for her own good.
Her realization of Darcy’s essential
goodness eventually triumphs over
her initial prejudice against him.
Elizabeth Bennet.
Mary Bennet
The middle Bennet sister, bookish and
pedantic迂腐.
Catherine Bennet
The fourth Bennet sister.
She is, like Lydia,
girlishly enthralled
with the soldiers.
被迷惑
Lydia Bennet
- The youngest Bennet
sister, who is devoted to a
life of dancing, fashions,
gossips and flirting,
immature and selfinvolved. Unlike
Elizabeth, Lydia flings
herself headlong into
romance and ends up
running off with Wickham.
Charles Bingley
Darcy’s considerably wealthy best
friend. Bingley’s purchase of
Netherfield, an estate near the
Bennets, serves as the impetus for
the novel. He is a genial, wellintentioned gentleman, whose
easygoing nature contrasts with
Darcy’s initially discourteous 不恭的，
不礼貌的demeanor举止，行为. He is
blissfully uncaring about class
differences.
Fitzwilliam Darcy
A wealthy gentleman, the
master of Pemberley, and
the nephew of Lady
Catherine de Bourgh.
Though Darcy is intelligent
and honest, his excess of
pride causes him to look
down on his social inferiors.
Over the course of the novel,
he tempers his classconsciousness and learns to
admire and love Elizabeth for
her strong character.
George Wickham
A handsome, fortunehunting militia officer.
Wickham’s good looks and
charm attract Elizabeth
initially, but Darcy’s
revelation about Wickham’s
disreputable past clues her
in to his true nature and
simultaneously draws her
closer to Darcy.
Mr. Collins
A pompous, generally idiotic
clergyman who stands to
inherit Mr. Bennet’s property.
Mr. Collins’s own social status
is nothing to brag about, but he
takes great pains to let
everyone and anyone know
that Lady Catherine de Bourgh
serves as his patroness. He is
the worst combination of
snobbish and obsequious 逢迎的，
谄媚的.
Lady
Catherine de Bourgh
A rich, bossy noblewoman;
Mr. Collins’s patroness
and Darcy’s aunt. Lady
Catherine epitomizes代表
class snobbery, especially
in her attempts to order
the middle-class
Elizabeth away from her
well-bred nephew.
Charlotte Lucas
Elizabeth’s dear friend.
Pragmatic and six years
older than Elizabeth,
Charlotte does not view love
as the most vital component
of a marriage. She is more
interested in having a
comfortable home. Thus,
when Mr. Collins proposes,
she accepts.
Miss Bingley
• Charles Bingley’s
snobbish sister. Miss
Bingley bears
inordinate disdain
for Elizabeth’s
middle-class
background. Her
vain attempts to
garner Darcy’s
attention cause
Darcy to admire
Elizabeth’s selfpossessed character
even more.
?
• Style is usually defined by
the writer’s choice of words,
figures of speech, devices,
and the shaping of the
sentences and paragraphs.
?
read
Chapter One
• Pride and Prejudice is told in a lucid,
graceful, economical narrative style without
a single superfluous word, and it frequently
breaks into dialogues so lively and so
revealing of characters.
Lucid: 1.清澈的，
透明的。2.清楚
的；明白的。
STRUCTURE
• An interweaving of plot and subplots
•
• The main plot follows the far from smooth
course of the romance between Elizabeth
and Darcy and the conflict of his pride and
her prejudice. Their feelings, born of first
impressions, are not the only obstacles
between them. Three subplots complicate
their relationship.
•
•
The first is Bingley's attraction to Jane
Bennet and Darcy's intervention to save his
friend from what he sees as an undesirable
marriage. The second is Wickham's
involvement with the Darcy family, and his
ability to charm Elizabeth and deepen her
prejudice against Darcy. The third is
Charlotte Lucas' marriage to Mr. Collins,
which throws Elizabeth and Darcy together
and sharpens their differences.
• Austen maintains an air of suspense to the
very end. In the end, all three subplots
contribute to the resolution of the principal
plot, and the hero and heroine come
together in happiness at last.
Setting?
• The location of a story's
actions, along with the time in
which it occurs, is the setting.
Setting
• There are few descriptions of the
setting in Pride and Prejudice. The
main actions of the novel are the
interactions between opinions,
ideas, and attitudes, which weaves
and advances the plot of the novel.
• setting (time) · Some point during
the Napoleonic Wars (1797-1815)
• setting (place) · Longbourn, in
rural England
Point of View?
• In fiction, who tells the
story and how it is told are
critical issues for an
author to decide. The tone
and feel of the story, and
even its meaning, can
change radically
depending on who is
telling the story.
The point of view in Pride and
Prejudice is limited omniscient;
the story is primarily told from
Elizabeth Bennet’s point of
view, but not in the first person.
(Austen writes in the thirdperson limited point of view, in
which the "narrator tells the
story in the third person but
confines narration to what is
experienced, thought, and felt
by a single character through a
•She [Elizabeth] perceived her
single consciousness." )
sister and Bingley standing
together.
Theme?
Themes are the fundamental and
often universal ideas explored in a
literary work.
1. Something on
human nature: the
first impression
2. Love and marriage
The first impression
Our first impressions, according to the author,
are usu. wrong, as is shown by those of
Elizabeth. In the process of judging others,
Elizabeth finds out sth. about herself: her
blindness, partiality, prejudice and absurdity.
On the other hand, Darcy too learns about
other people and himself. In the end, false
pride is humbled and prejudice dissolved.
Love and marriage
• 3 kinds of attitudes towards marriage:
• Marriage merely for material wealth and social
position;
• Marriage just for beauty, attraction and passion
regardless of economic condition or personal
merits;
• The ideal marriage for true love with a
consideration of the partner’s personal merit as
well as his economical and social status.
Some Motifs in P & P
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or
literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the text’s major themes.
• 1. Women’s Education
•
2. Status of Women
• 3. Inheritance
Women’s Education
In Jane Austen’s day, it was
preferred that women receive
a practical training on
“accomplishments” of
“music-drawing-dancing” for
their domestic role. In those
days before sewing machines,
a relatively large amount of
girls’ and women’s time was
spent on sewing needlework,
While engaging in light
conversation, or listening to
a novel being read. The
purpose of such
accomplishments was often
only to attract a husband, so
that these skills then tended
to neglected after marriage.
Status of Women
In Jane Austen’s time, there was no real way for young
women of the “genteel” classes to strike out on their
own or be independent. Few occupations were open to
them -- and those few (such as being a governess, i.e. a
live-in teacher for the daughters or young children of a
family) were not highly respected, and did not
generally pay well or have very good working
conditions. Therefore most "genteel" women could not
get money except by marrying for it or inheriting it.
Special Features of Jane Austen’s novels
Austen's main literary concern is about human beings in
their personal relationships, human beings with their
families and neighbors. Particularly preoccupied with
the relationship between men and women in love.
She writes within a very narrow sphere, restricted to the
provincial or village life of her age and conerning three
or four landed gentry families with the trivial incidents
of everyday life.
Her novels are surprisingly realistic, with keen
observation and penetrating analysis.
She uses dialogues to reveal the personalities of her
characters. Her plots appear natural and unforced. Her
characters are vividly portrayed and everyone comes
alive.
Her language, which is of typical neoclassicism, is
simple, easy, naturally lucid and very economical.