Concetti Chiave
- Jane Austen, born in 1775, lived a short, eventful life closely connected to her family, and never married.
- Her works, such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, were initially published anonymously, with her identity later revealed by her brother.
- Austen drew inspiration from 18th-century novelists, focusing on character psychology and everyday life, with her style marked by irony and an omniscient narrator.
- Her novels explore the values of country gentry, including themes of property, decorum, and marriage, set in the older, rural England.
- Austen's novels emphasize character and conduct, culminating in happy endings where marriages are based on love rather than social standing or wealth.
-Jane Austen-
Jane Austen was born in 1775 at Steventon, Hampshire.
She had a short and eventful life, living near her very close family; she never married and her inseparable companion was her sister Cassandra.
She was educated at home by her father, and her earliest writings date from 1787, when she was only 12 years old.
She wrote: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey.
When her father died, she moved to Chawton, where she produced her most mature works.
All her novel had been published anonymously, however her identity was revealed by her brother Henry.
She died in 1817.
-The Debt to the 18th century Novel-
Jane Austen, the ‘master of novel’, took inspiration for her works from the 18th century novelists; she learned from them the insight into the psychology of characters and the subtleties of the ordinary events of life.
Her style was characterized by an omniscient narrator, by the technique of bringing the character into existence through dialogue, by the use of irony.
Her characters come from the country gentry.
-The National Marriage Market-
Settings and plots of her novel were based on the traditional values of country gentry families, such as property, decorum, money and marriage.
Those novels take place in England, but not in the industrialised north.
She writes about the oldest England, based on the possession of land, parks and country houses.
In her stories, people from different counties (regions) get married.
The marriage market takes place in London and Bath; in these places we can find gossip, flirts, seductions, adulteries.
The marriage market has also a range of villains: unscrupulous relatives, seducers, gamblers, social climbers.
-Austen’s Treatment of Love-
Austen was concentred about the analysis of character and conduct, in fact we no found the great passions in her novels.
In all her novels there’s an happy ending: they all end with the marriage of hero and heroine.
Her novels shows all the steps through which the protagonists successfully reach the final marriage.
Marriages from that time were made for money and social standing, but that not happens in Austen’s novels.
Domande da interrogazione
- Quali sono le opere più mature di Jane Austen e dove le ha scritte?
- Quali sono le caratteristiche distintive dello stile narrativo di Jane Austen?
- Come viene trattato il tema del matrimonio nei romanzi di Jane Austen?
Jane Austen ha scritto le sue opere più mature a Chawton, dopo la morte di suo padre. Tra queste opere ci sono "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice" e "Northanger Abbey".
Lo stile di Jane Austen è caratterizzato da un narratore onnisciente, dall'uso del dialogo per dare vita ai personaggi e dall'ironia. Ha preso ispirazione dai romanzieri del XVIII secolo per approfondire la psicologia dei personaggi e le sottigliezze degli eventi ordinari.
Nei romanzi di Jane Austen, il matrimonio è un tema centrale e tutti finiscono con un lieto fine, ovvero il matrimonio tra l'eroe e l'eroina. Sebbene i matrimoni dell'epoca fossero spesso basati su denaro e status sociale, nei suoi romanzi l'amore e il carattere dei personaggi sono al centro dell'attenzione.
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