Inheritance in Jane Austen's Novels
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Republic of the Sudan Ministry of Education and Scientific Research Nile Valley University College of Graduate Studies INHERITANCE IN JANE AUSTEN’S NOVELS A Thesis Submitted to the Nile Valley University in the Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master’s Degree in English Literature by: Fadwa Mustafa Ali Hamid Supervisor: Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed Al- Faki March 2009 Examination Board: 1. Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed Al – Faki 2. Dr. Abdelnasir Yousif A/Alkareem 3. Dr. Iyman Abbas Al Nour II Dedication To my family and friends for their sincere support. III Acknowledgements The researcher would like to thank her supervisor, Dr. Ibrahim Al – Faki, for putting up with being asked to read and correct chapter on chapter of this thesis and showing useful advice. Special thanks are due to Griselda El Tayib who has put the idea of writing about the topic of this thesis after having interesting talks about literature and for her tremendous support, great thanks to my husband and children who have been patiently bearing many of my absences from home. Also great thanks are due to the Jane Austen Museum volunteers staff at Chawton U.K. who have given the researcher valuable information with great enthusiasm. The researcher sincerely thanks her young friends the S.V.P Volunteers who came from the U.K to teach English Language in Sudan, Christopher William and Tim Davies. Many thanks are due to the University of London Senate House Library, and to so many others, lawyers and literary friends for their useful pointers and information. IV Abstract The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries established the novel at its recognizable form with its colourful genres. Jane Austen is considered the first virtuoso of the novel though "she kept to her own style" a style which as she described "dealt in pictures of domestic life in country villages"; and each picture was painted "on the little but (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work so fine. A brush, as produces little effect after much labour". Indeed Jane Austen's monuments of six novels are drawn with a fine brush and not a single aspect of the genteel society is ignored. This research deals with the social and economic aspects of her themes. It discusses with how the concept of inheritance is dealt with in Jane Austen's novels and how the then current injustice of inheritance laws consolidated the habits of arranged marriages among the upper classes that Jane Austen criticized within incisive irony. The first chapter consists of an introduction to the topic. It discusses the social background and inheritance laws of the time and a general background of the personal life of Jane Austen. The second chapter discusses Jane Austen and her contemporaries, the formation of Jane Austen as a novelist and critical writings on Jane Austen. V The third chapter which is the core of this research deals with the effect of the law of entailment on the three novels "Sense and Sensibility", "Pride and Prejudice" and "persuasion" . The fourth chapter develops the argument of the law of primogeniture, and its effect as manifested in "Mansfield Park". The final chapter states the conclusion that fiction could be an effective way of influencing people's thinking about their society and so helping to bring about reforms. VI مستخلص البحث إن الرواية بما انتيت إليو من شكميا المت ميز المعروف وأساليبيا وأنواعيا المختمفة إنما اكتمل بناءىا إبان القرنين الثامن عشر والتاسع عشر. وت عتبر جين أوستن أول شخصية روائية تربعت عمى عرش الرواية فاستوت فييا خبرتيا واتسع عمميا ورسخت قدميا , عمى الرغم من التزاميا بأسموبيا الخاص الذي وصفتو ىي بقوليا: " موضوعو صو ر الحياة اليومية في القرى الريفية" وقد كانت ترسم كﻻً من ىذه الصور كما وصفت ىي: "عمى قطع ة صغيرة من العاج ﻻ يتجاوز عرضيا البوصتين أعمل فييا فرشاة ً ناعمةً ت عطي أث اًر ليس بالكبير , بعد عم ل ج د كبير". والحق أن جين أوستن قد صاغت رواياتيا الس ت بفرشاة ً دقيقة ً ناعمة ً لم ت غفل ناحيةً من نواحي المجتمع الميذب المحافظ أو ت خطي جانباً من جوانبو. وجاء بحثنا ىذا ليتناول الجوانب اﻻقتصادية واﻻجتماعية التي انطوت عمييا اﻷفكار اﻷساسية في رواياتيا كما تناول مبمغ أثراالميرث عمى الحبكات في ىذه الروايات وكذلك ما سرى في الناس من ظ ﻻمات قوانين المي ارث و ح يفيا والتي وطدت عادات من قبيل الزيجات المصطنعة أو )زيجات المصمحة( التي سادت مجتمع الطبقات ال ارقية التي صوبت إلييا جين أوسـتن نقداً ﻻذعا يقوم عمى السخرية ال مم ض ة. وقد جاء الفصل اﻷول من ىذا البحث مشتمﻻً عمى المقدمة ومفيضاً النقاش حول الخمفية اﻻجتماعية وقوانين المي ارث في عصر جين أوسـتن ومعطياً خمفية عامة عن سيرة حياة جين أوسـتن. VII تناول الفصل الثاني ال كت اب الذين عاصروا جين أوسـتن والعناصر التي صيرتيا روائية ً مكتممة اﻷدوات وكذلك ما كتب فييا من نقد. أما الفصل الثالث فقد حمل بين دفتيو ل ب ىذه الرسالة وجوىر موضوعيا إذ تناول أثر قانون التوريث عمى روايات جين الثﻻث: )العقل والعاطفة( "Sense and Sensibility" , و)الكبرياء والتحيز( "Pride and Prejudice" و )اﻹقناع( "Persuasion". عﻻوةً عمى ما ذكرنا فقد عالج الفصل ال اربع مسألة أثر قانون حق المولود البكر في المي ارث في رواية )حديقة مانسفيمد( "Mansfield Park". جاء الفصل اﻷخير ليقرر النتائج التي انتيى إلييا البحث ومنيا إمكانية تأثير أدب الق صص والتأليف الروائي في الطرق التي يفكر بيا الناس في مجتمعيم ومن ثم فيو مما يساعد في إيجاد وجوه اﻹصﻻح وطرقو. VIII Table of Contents Topics Page Dedication III Acknowledgements IV Abstract V- VI Arabic VII- VIII Chapter one: Introduction 1.1 Background 2 1.2 Jane Austen’s Life 4 1.3 Social Life and Inheritance Laws 9 Chapter two: 1. Jane Austen and haer contemporaries 15 2. The Formation of Jane Austen as a novelist 23 3. Critical writings on Jane Austen. 28 Chapter three: The Effect of the Law of Entailment 1. Sense and sensibility 36 2. "Pride and Prejudice" 48 3. "Persuasion" 56 Chapter four: The Effect of the Law of Primogeniture .. 1. "Mansfield park" 67 Chapter five: Conclusion 79 IX X Chapter One Introduction Background: This study is about the importance of inheritance laws in the themes of Jane Austen‟s novels. This study is one of the very few researches into eighteenth and nineteenth century British Society in this matter in Sudan A scrutiny of these laws will help to reveal the effect of Jane Austen‟s implied criticism of these unjust laws, ultimately the reforms of these laws has lead to the equality in legal status enjoyed by woman in modern British Society today. In her novels there is also an underlying tension to the pragmatic forces leading to the arranged marriages of convenience of that era. Jane Austen novels continue to appeal to worldwide readers, even today, and her works are among the best loved works of English fiction and there are vibrant “Jane Austen Societies” in Britain and United States. Inheritance laws in nineteenth century Britain were very strict and unjust in relation to gender. Many of the females of the landed gentry, who did not have a brother as a male heir in the family, were threatened by such laws. 2 The aim of this thesis then is to study the themes of some of Jane Austen‟s novels in relation to these laws and how they affected the arranged marriages of the time. Jane Austen herself was never married and being on the fringes of genteel society, she mirrored the maneuvers which were skillfully used with irony in her novels. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the laws of inheritance arbitrated between males and females and between the eldest son and younger brothers rigidly in order to keep the land intact. These laws played great influence on the social structure, such as family rights, marriages, consolidation of ownership of land and so on. The most important laws discussed here are those of entailment and primogeniture. The law of entailment which was a kind of arrangements whereby the property could descend only to a male heir is crucial in the plot of “Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility”, and “Persuasion”. The law of primogeniture is crucial in “Mansfield Park” which gives the right of the first born son to inherit the entire state to the exclusion of younger siblings. 3 Jane Austen wrote six novels and a number of minor works. This thesis will focus on “Sense and Sensibility” supported by observations from “Pride and Prejudice” and Persuasion”, affected by the entailment laws. “Mansfield Park” affected by the law of Primogeniture will be discussed Jane Austen was a keen ironic observer of the financial realities underpinning the polite society of the genteel characters in her novels. She fully believed that ideally love should be the overruling factor for women's and men„s choice of life partnership. 1.3. Jane Austen’s life 1.2 Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in the village of Steventon, Hampshire one of eight children. Her father was the rector of the village. Her mother was the daughter of a Church of England clergyman with aristocratic connections. Jane‟s childhood was spent in the rectory. She was sent away to school for a brief period, but most of her education was received from her father, who was a scholar educated at Oxford. At an early age she began to write short pieces to amuse other members of the family, and by 1790 had completed “Love and Friendship”. By 1797 she was working on her novel, 4 “Pride and Prejudice”. “Sense and Sensibility” was also begun at about this period while Jane was visiting the popular spa town of Bath. She made many other visits to friends and relations, particularly to the home of her brother Edward at Godmersham Park in Kent.