Realism

REALISM

It is the accurate description of an environment, usually the middle class, to analyse it clinically and usually criticises it. A realistic author lets the matter of the book explains itself. He avoids intruding with comments and judgements on his characters and their behaviour, but the English author didn't follow this French fashion. Certainly the picture of the usage and customs of the turn of century epoch of her life is minute and quite complete, thanks to her 6 books which deal with various aspects of the life of the time but always the same cross-section of society = the upper middle class.

HER LIFE

Uneventful, she was a gay frivolous young girl, then a judicious and helpful sister and aunt. She rarely went to London and observed the provincial life around her. There are no reflections on life, no angry message in her books. In that time the king was George III and the leading party had been the Whigs for years and years. G:B: was conquering a colonial empire, losing the US of America and defeating Napoleon. No hints of these events can be found in her work.

HUMOUR

There is no sermonising nor moralising nor sharp criticism in Jane Austen's works. When she disagrees with her heroes and heroines, she explains it with a smile. When she disagrees with the behaviour of her "villains" (the villains are the hypocrites, silly people, selfish people) she let us react through her descriptions and explanations

Of the reasons that push her characters to act the way they act. It is our task to approve or condemn the said character. Jane's wit is based on irony (the way of saying one thing meaning the other to stress how absurd the notion is and how silly are the people who believe it to be true.  

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

The best known because of some very funny characters. Not the most precise in her description of all the society of the village. The focus is on the problem of MARRIAGE. It is not only the problem of heroin, but the problem in the book. The message of the author is that marriages must be decided by the 2 personally involved partners and based on esteem, love and unity of interests. Many marriages are analysed or taken as examples :Mr and Mrs Bennet's which was based on fraud, Charlotte and Collins' based on a unity of interests but no love, Lydia and Wyckham's based on constriction, Jane and Bingley's based on love and goodness of character, Elisabeth and Darcy's, the best one. The analysis of 2 human defects is conducted in depth, too. There is a positive pride (Elisabeth's) and so many degrees of negative pride. Negative because these characters are proud not of their own accomplishments but of their name or fortune. The prejudice analysed here has a double meaning: Elisabeth's trust in Wyndhams lies only because she wanted reasons to despise Darcy - and the others' social prejudice.

CLASSICISM AND ROMANTICISM

Jane Austen was 23 in 1798. She was educated in the in the classical atmosphere: many books and a deep respect for SOCIETY and social intercourse. The ideal of her family, her friends and her own was the gentle man (equilibrium, dignity, good manners, no exaggeration in anything, self-control, goodness of heart.).So Jane Austen's intents are classical = a moral message to help people to live better with the others. The analysis focuses on the relationship between personal values and social values and her heroines must choose between the sincerity of their emotions and the social conventions of their time. Romanticism was born in 1798 and influenced her, of course: in the description of the strength of the feelings described and in the constant contact with Nature. But her style is classical (well-balanced), her themes are classical (contrasted love, hesitation between love and family or social conveniences), the construction of the novels is classical )with-out surprises: exposition, climax, conclusion). There are no exalted passages and no emotion from the part of the author who comments ironically on her heroes' defects, never bitterly nor sternly. She focuses on the individualistic reactions of her characters and this is romantic, not classical.