The literary legacy of Jane Austen: between novels and society

Jane Austen's life and literary works

Jane Austen was born in the Hampshire, in England, in 1775 and she went to a boarding school with her sister. She began to write when she was very young and she published many of his works anonymously.

She travelled very occasionally and she never married. She was the first English woman to transform writing into a profession. She died in 1817.

Austen’s novels are the best examples of the “novel of manners”: their focus is the analysis of the social conventions of the middle class and the gentry in the country who tried to improve their social condition. These novels are set in closed communities and they focus on a limited number of characters.

Moreover, Jane Austen uses the third-person narrator, free indirect speech, dialogues and irony to catch the attention of the reader and to create a vivid narration.
As a matter of fact, in the novel of manner, passion and emotions are not expressed directly but Jane conducts a psychological analysis of her characters and her novels have always a happy ending. But, the happy ending is the result of the process of personal growth of the character. She makes a limited use of narrative or scenic descriptions and her novels are a mix of tradition and innovation.

The main themes of her novels are: the role and the position of women in the world; the interwinement between love and marriage and between the individual and the society.

The plots and settings of her novel find their basis in the traditional values of property decorum, money and marriage. Austen’s novels take place in England.

Plot of Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811.

The novel starts when Mr. Dashwood dies and his estate is inherited by his son Jon, the child of his first wife.
As a matter of fact, his second wife and her three daughters cannot inherit his fortune because they are women.

The conflict of the title between sense and sensibility is introduced through the characters of the two eldest sisters, Elinor and Marianne. Elinor, the eldest, is the representation of reason; Marianne is the representation of passion. Two of the main themes of the novel are money and inheritance.

Plot of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813.

It is set in Longbourn. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet have five daughters and she have to find an husband for each of them.

Mr. Darcy is a nobleman who is attracted by Elizabeth, one of the daughters of the Bennet, but she rejects Darcy’s proposal because she thinks he is too proud of himself. After a series of events in which they get to know each other better, Elizabeth and Darcy are ready to marry.
Elizabeth has a strong independent spirit and she refuses to take on the roles that her family try to impose on her and accuses Darcy of pride.
On the other hand, Darcy is selfish and unsociable and accuses Elizabeth of having prejudices against him. To solve the conflict, characters have to overcome a series of obstacles and grow up.

The main themes of the novel are: the conflict between pride and prejudice; the condition of life of women (marriage is the only possibility for a woman to have a future because she has no financial independence); the relationship between individual and society; the use that the individual makes of freedom and its consequences; the interwinement between the individual’s desires and the individual’s responsibility in the society; wealth, decorum, love and marriage.