Masaryk University Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature
Jane Austen at the Edge of Romanticism and Victorian Era in Pride and Prejudice Bachelor Thesis
Brno 2016
Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk Jitka Müllerová
Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci na téma „Jane Austen at the Edge of Romanticism and Victorian Era“ vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. Souhlasím, aby práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům.
V Brně dne…………………………..
Podpis……………………………….
Prima facea, I would like to express my deepest and sincere gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Jaroslav Izavčuk for the continuous support, immense knowledge and motivation. I would also like to thank my charming friend Martina for her patience, useful notes and corrections. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for cheering me up and standing by me through the good times and bad. I also place on record, my sense of gratitude to one and all who, directly or indirectly, have lent their helping hand in this venture.
Annotation
In my thesis I focus on a well-known novelist Jane Austen and her classification in periods. The aim of this thesis is to prove, to what extent should she be considered as a writer of Romanticism or, despite of the time anticoincidence, Victorian Era. By virtue of following particular elements in her novel Pride and Prejudice, serving me as a support for my research, and classifying the period, I also establish the aspects of her uniqueness. This thesis is a view both on the society and literature of the two periods watching the social changes and mapping the influence of period and life of the author on her literary production. How much is the fact of Pride and Prejudice being the source of fantasy and the way how to escape the daily routine or only the amusing description of what the society really looked like is to be demonstrated too. Key words Jane Austen, Victorian Era, Romanticism, uniqueness, Pride and Prejudice, focus, social position, society, classification, relationships, love, marriage, affection, affairs, romantic, gender, prejudice, pride, aspects of gender, prejudice of gender, happy marriage, unhappy marriage, love environment, irony, satire, humour, influence, gender issues, historical background, fantasy, daydreaming, description, legacy to Victorian literature, legacy, ideals, errors, standards, novel Anotace V mé práci se zaměřuji na známou novelistku Jane Austenovou a její příslušnost v periodách. Cílem této práce je zjistit, do jaké míry by měla být považována za spisovatelku romantismu nebo, i přes časový nesoulad, spisovatelku viktoriánské éry. Díky sledování prvků v jejím díle a zařazení do období určím také aspekty její jedinečnosti. Pro podporu budu využívat novelu Pýcha a předsudek a zkoumat různé aspekty v práci a určovat jakému žánru odpovídají. Tato teze je pohledem na společnosti těchto dvou žánrů sledující společenské změny a mapující vliv doby a života autorky na její dílo. Klíčová slova Jane Austen, viktoriánské období, viktoriánská éra, romantismus, jedinečnost, Pýcha a předsudek, novela, pozice ve společnosti, společnost, vztahy, láska, manželství, aféry, romantické, genderová problematika, ironie, satira, humor, vliv, pýcha, předsudky vůči pohlaví, aspekty a role ve společnosti, fantazie, denní snění, dědictví, ideály
Table of contents
Introduction ...... 6 1. The two periods ...... 9 1.1 Romanticism ...... 9 1.2 Victorian Era ...... 14 i. Chronological Significance ...... 14 ii. Standards and Attitudes of Victorians ...... 15 iii. Ideals and Gender Issues ...... 18 iv. The Capital ...... 19 v. Victorian Literature ...... 22 2. Austen the Dreamer ...... 25 3. Austen the Novelist ...... 28 4. Pride and Prejudice ...... 33 4.1 Focus and Social Position ...... 34 4.2 Affection and Affairs ...... 38 4.3 Prejudice and Aspects of Gender ...... 45 4.4 Satirical and Humorous Aspects ...... 54 Conclusion ...... 60 Works Cited ...... 62 Abstract ...... 67 Resumé ...... 68
Introduction
In my thesis I focus on a well-known novelist Jane Austen and her classification in periods. The aim of this work is to prove, to what extent should she be considered as a writer of Romanticism or, despite of the time discrepancy, Victorian Era. By virtue of following particular elements in her novel Pride and Prejudice, serving me as a support for my research, and classifying the period, I also establish the aspects of her uniqueness. This thesis is a view both on the society and literature of the two periods watching the social changes and mapping the influence of period and life of the author on her literary production. How much is the fact of Pride and Prejudice being the source of fantasy and the way how to escape the daily routine or only the amusing description of what the society really looked like is to be demonstrated too.
My thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is theoretical that is describing
Romanticism and Victorian Era. I closely look into historical context, people’s lives as well as social situation. I also investigate connections between these three aspects leading to literature, its’ main function as well as typical features. By discovering and defining the two periods tentatively, I create a support for my later investigation of the particular features in the scrutinised novel and following classification.
Continuing with the life of Jane Austen in the second part, I briefly describe her life story and nature. This chapter will help me further in my thesis as I try to find connections and similarities between her real life situation and situations she provides in her novel Pride and Prejudice.
In the third part, Jane Austen’s written discourse is my object of research. A complex view on her literary production as well as development in writing is discussed. Further, I investigate the critical approaches towards her writing including the one she wrote
6 herself. At the end of this chapter I use several academic sources that speculate, alternatively classify Austen into a certain period or a literary movement.
The fourth part of my thesis is investigating the novel Pride and Prejudice and its’ elements by which I try to prove and reveal the classification or legacy to the period.
The first features I discuss in the first subchapter are focus and social position of the novel. Firstly, I reveal the roots and reasons of the focus. Nevertheless, the reasons of the ‘background topics’ are to be considered too. As the main focus is connected to social position, I investigate whether and to what extent it is important to characters and plot in the story. Finally, I classify the social model in Pride and Prejudice to a certain period.
In the second subchapter called ‘Affection and Affairs’ I examine love and marriage and its presence in the novel. At the beginning of this section I talk about how
Romanticism and Victorian Era are connected to the topic, then I try to look critically into romantic relationships of the characters and reveal the uniqueness of the love environment Jane Austen had done. The happy and unhappy marriage is discussed with the examples of couples in the novel.
As the objects of my investigation in the third subchapter ‘Prejudice and Aspects of
Gender’ are especially stereotypes connected to the woman role and its authenticity to the world of Jane Austen. I compare the male and female’s perception and also their role in society according to their gender revealing functions of particular characters in
Pride and Prejudice. I also discuss the distinct influence upon the future generation and classify features of gender issues presented in the story.
The last subchapter in chapter Pride and Prejudice analyses the appearance and possible roots of irony and uniqueness of such feature in the novel. By using satire and
7 humour Austen creates an incredibly interesting atmosphere leading to errors that are also investigated in this subchapter.
In my thesis I suggest and discuss the possible unique features of Jane Austen, a reflection of her legacy in the Victorian literature and leave her at the edge of the two periods as an unforgettable author inspiring both male and female authors through the centuries until today, including me.
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1. The two periods
There are two periods I distinguish in my thesis, Romanticism and Victorian Era. The aim of this chapter is to define each of the periods with the most important and known features. From the time definition I establish the period to be connected either with literature or a particular historical era. Apart from revealing the historical and social background, the issues of both of the periods are to be analysed. Literary production with the most significant features in the literature is to be picked together with the most famous authors and publications. The aim of this chapter is not to ‘connect’ these two periods, but to find both the similarities and dissimilarities influencing the future
Victorian Era. By defining and investigating particular findings about the period in this chapter I set the basic support for my later analysis of elements and their classification in the fourth part of the thesis concerned with the novel Pride and Prejudice.
1.1 Romanticism
In this chapter I collect and investigate the findings about the Romantic period in order to support and discuss the later topics of Pride and Prejudice in connection to the period classification, features and other social aspects. The thematic scope I discuss is aimed on the upcoming subchapters of my thesis. Firstly, the period is to be classified in the time frame, followed by its historical background. Secondly, the features of
Romanticism in literature are to be connected with the social background and different issues of the period. Finally, the theoretical basis for my later examination of Pride and
Prejudice is established with the support of Victorian representation of Romantic writing.
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Romanticism is implicitly a literary or artistic movement that is not to be referred to a certain historical period and was as a matter of fact a term created and used by the next generations. We have to distinguish between several types of Romanticism that spread all around the world at different times. According to one type, Jane Austen belongs to the British Romanticism that according to Burgess has not a proper date of beginning, but claims the fact that many people connect this movement with the French
Revolution, yet it started in the Age of Reason (165). Nevertheless, Behrendt suggests it to last in years 1780 to 1835 (3). The time classification is ambiguous as Sanders, on the other hand, claims it to last from 1780 to 1830 (338). However, Ruston believes “the exact dating of this period is a matter of some dispute” (2). Consequently, it is obvious from the possible classifications already mentioned that the Romantic period in Britain cannot be easily defined, because up to now, there is no proper definition of it.
Generally, the period is influenced by the historical background indicated mostly by the political situation in Britain, which was changing and becoming worse as the revolution in France started in 1789. Encouraging the sense of nation at the time of
French Revolution became the pivotal motto of literary and cultural Romanticism as
“the Union Jack flag was first used in 1801 to symbolize this new nation, and stereotyped character representing the English and the French” (Ruston 5). The revolution awakened the fear in the House of Commons, which mostly consisted of middle class and gentry, being afraid of working class and its potential attempt to imitate the same in Britain and unfortunately something similar to this dread happened, when the most of radicals started calling for reforms; the British government accepted on avoiding problems by imprisoning the leadership of radicals, which led to opening the question of political freedom, criticising the excessively power of the British monarchy and aristocracy over ordinary people and as the result, though the working
10 class’ demands were not heard, the first working-class political organisation was established, called the Corresponding Society (McDowall, 125 - 128). Besides the critical political situation and imminent danger were the living conditions getting worse for the poor population and often led to the food riots as in England was “the dramatic rise in population […] more than doubled between 1771 and 1831” (Ruston 16). Not only due to the war years the national debt grew, even at the start of the period by virtue of both the war expenses and the rising population number (Ruston 15). Antecedent to the Great Exhibition in Victorian period, the inventions in areas such as chemistry, electricity, geology or natural history, as Ruston suggests, were innovations and advances deciding and directing the Industrial Revolution forward indicating the greatness of the British Empire (33).
Being influenced by the literature of France and Germany, the Romantic ideas moved to Britain. As the opposite to the Enlightenment ideas connecting the new industrial world of technology, Romanticism is mostly connected to poetry. The key document indicating this movement’s beginning is Wordsworth’s book Lyrical Ballads, indicating the principles of poetry and where he already required a return to older literary standards (Burgess 166).
According to Burgess, one of its features is individualism, through which new standard and own rules are developed, hiding the rebellious under the sign “lawful”
(165). On the other hand, hatred to despotism is emphasised, although most of the
Romantics were radicals according to the historical context as a reaction to Napoleonic wars and their thirst for revolution was bigger than ever (Barnard 109 – 110). It was religion that helped the society to retain moral values at the time of revolutions and wars where ‘God’ was standing for the “’moral truth’ [and] not [for some] ‘mystery or obscurity’” (Sanders 342). For “the majority of the population in England during this
11 period belonged to the Anglican Church of England, but in the other countries of Britain there was quite a different picture”, “the Catholic question” arose (Ruston 26 – 27).
Focusing mostly on emotions and instinct, Romantic writers returned back in time to the
Elizabethans, nevertheless we find mystic, exotic and magical features referring to the new supernatural world created by Romantics (Burgess, 165 – 168). The medieval topics and the outcast character are cornerstones for Romanticism (Barnard 109). The two powers worshipped here are nature, emphasized by connecting with the soul, and love, either happy or unhappy in its very extremes (Burgess, 166 – 171). The love- affair is “unfulfilled […], but it is ultimately a tragedy without real substance“, represented mostly by loveless marriage (Sanders 344). Endless is according to Burgess a search for beauty, being true Romantic (176). As a personalization of Romanticism and its features is considered Lord Byron (Barnard 108). With John Keats and Percy
Bysshe Shelley they represent Romantic era in poetry. This movement brings attention to new “forms like travel writing, scientific discourse, sermonic literature, writing for children, and ‘popular’ forms like Gothic fiction, sensational or sentimental romance fiction” (Behrendt 3).
The new movement had registered a positive approach toward taboo topics: “Sexual passion was not eliminated from women’s lives after 1750, but rather the new emphasis on romance and domesticity encouraged it.” (Heydt-Stevenson 312). Nevertheless, the position of women is described by Wollstone as “a general enslavement of women by universally tyrannical men”, indicating the subsidiary and frantic position of women in the period (Wollstone qtd. in Sanders 345). On the other hand, although being prominent in all genres, they mostly wrote and read novels as Ruston assumes (4). A classification into “gender lines” is suggested in order to differ between two types of
Romanticism in Britain; the first one being masculine, that is “concerned with nature
12 rather than society, introspective, and looking beyond the material world to something transcendent” and the second one being feminine, celebrating “the domestic affections, family and social bonds” (Ruston 3).
One of its greatest feature, imagination, serves as a source of morality and sympathy for the individual and as Ruston suggests it “has a social function: it enables us to feel for one another and as one other” through empathy leading to the ability of understanding and possible reforming of the contemporary problems in society (107).
On the other hand, the “form of realism” comes when “the heroine or hero must cast off the illusions and settle for much less” (Beer qtd. in Lau 100).
Victorian representations of Romantic writing kept changing, as the whole literature movement with its features and writers was shaping, but women were “neglected and ignored, creating a skewed sense of the texts produced and most appreciated during the period”, whereas men, especially poets, became valued over women (Ruston 108).
In conclusion, I place British Romanticism timing within 18th and 19th century. In historical background is this movement connected to bad political situation caused by running revolution. For people, these times were very desperate and they found comfort in their religion that stood for a moral truth and also the need for their nationalism grew with the situation at that time. In literature, the movement was influenced by the French and German. Among basic features can be included individualism, sensibility, supernatural, the outcast character, nature and the most significant love; by emphasized romance and domesticity we find love in extremes, often leading to a love tragedy interpreted by a loveless marriage. There is a suggestion of Romanticism to be divided into two gender lines; in masculine overbearing transcendental and in feminine, social situations. This tentative definition will help me further in my thesis for support and investigation of the particular elements in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
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1.2 Victorian Era
The chapter aims on classifying and defining Victorian Era from both the social and literary point of view. By discussing the historical background and social sphere, including contemporary issues, social positions and also the capital London, I move to literature and find the basic features that will support my claims and help me by investigating the potential legacy of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice to Victorian
Era later in this thesis.
i. Chronological Significance
Victorian Era is timely limited by the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 or otherwise by “the legacy of radical Romanticism and the Industrial Revolution” (Moran
1). Alexander suggests it to last also in the reign of William IV (259). Victorian Era as well as literature is divided into early, middle and late as it is considered to be a period
“of growing pains, of confidence in the 1850s and a loss of consensus after 1880”
(Alexander 259). At the beginning of Victorian Era “Britain possessed different types of colonies, including Australia, Canada, British India, Ireland and West Indian colonies”
(Plunkett and Vadillo 233). The Empire was at its height evoking imperialism, optimism as well as “faith in Britain’s world-leading institutions and ideals, as well as its industrial and economic strength” (Plunkett and Vadillo 47).
Despite of the seeming perfection and uncontrollable progress in Britain in this period, there were, as Burgess suggests, “such social and political problems”, because “the
Victorians … [were] obsessed with questions peculiarly their own”, mostly connected to religion and the growth of population (180). These were times of doubt leading often to
“feverish religious debates” (Plunkett and Vadillo 98). Its biggest reason is Charles
Darwin’s publication The Origin of Species that appeared in 1859, in which he describes a theory that provoked both the society and the Church (Burgess 180). Rogers believes
14 it to cause “Victorian crisis of faith”, expressed by pulvinated political questions in philosophy (340). This publication caused the ‘Victorian dilemma’ in religion and was the reason of possible secularization of population. Religious reforms came yet in 1829 with Roman Catholic Relief Act, being a continuation of discussions in Romanticism and removing “restrictions upon Catholics holding parliamentary office” (Plunkett and
Vadillo 2). Such a move ensured the position of the Catholic Church and strengthened the possibility of accepting other religions in future. In politics, the Reform Act in 1832 led to “’democratising’ parliamentary representation” by trying to make the “genuine representation for the people, less of the corruption and cynicism that animated politics”, followed also by the Reform Act in 1867 and 1884 (Burgess 180).
The inventions had a crucial role in people’s lives and everyday life; by inventing the telegraph, the telephone or voice recording, these all producing “invisible and absent” started to change the thinking and see “the experience of space and time” (Moran 62).
The immense growth of the population and deriving urbanization is unbelievable, in
1800 lived 80 per cent of the population in the countryside, whereas in 1900 lived 80 per cent of the population in the towns and cities (Plunkett and Vadillo 46).
ii. Standards and Attitudes of Victorians
An important part of life in Victorian Era was property. The idea of wealth has changed, there happened “a perceived shift of influence from traditional structures of wealth based on the massive fixities of landed property to new ones based on the liquidities of manufacturing, commerce, speculation, and credit” (Herbert 188).
Friedrich Engels claims, that “the middle classes in England have become the slaves of the money they worship” (Engels qtd. in Herbert 188). The value of money in society was exaggerated, became ‘fictitious’ and led to almost considering the money as a
‘sanctity’. Weber says, that everything materialistic becomes “transcendental” with a
15 result of dominating one’s mind and that money-making becomes “the ultimate purpose of his [one’s] life” (Weber qtd. in Herbert 190). Considering the fact that “material wealth is spiritual poverty”, leads to the true definition of wealth, thus being a “power over men” (Ruskin qtd. in Herbert 193). The whole Victorian money-worshiping was the antithesis to Christianity, which believes in property as a source of good and money as a source of evil leading to destruction and polluting the good. Materialism gradually started to control people’s minds being in conflict with the religious faith and leading to the deformation of social sensation. It is expressed in Disraeli’s Sybil, where he claims through the young stranger’s character Britain to be not one but two nations – “THE
RICH AND THE POOR.”(Disraeli 76). The difference started to be even more marginal as middle class’s view on the working class was becoming more and more intolerant considering them as “anonymous, unknown but powerful and, possibly, sinister…a source of social contamination, with slum diseases” (Moran 42). Peck and Coyle suggest the fact that “Victorian society developed an ideology of what was considered normal and respectable, with people deviating from this shared standard being judged as aberrant or dangerous” (177). These people ‘deviating’ had their place in society too by
The New Poor Law from 1834 legalizing pauper to workhouses “in order to control an increasingly complex society” by a “social regulation” (Peck and Coyle 169).
Society in Victorian Era was “a society that simultaneously celebrated and disappointed itself” (Moran 1). By having both extremes of greatness and poverty at the same time, people lead different lives according to their social position and possession.
Because of the social situation, social thinkers were extended, among them Carlyle, the most influential social thinker (Rogers 306). According to Rogers, he described
Victorian society as “the Mechanical Age”, showing us the growing differences between the rich and the poor in cities, he criticised the outside flourishing of increased
16 national wealth and the result of making everything mechanical and industrial was reflected into lives of people, applying these qualities into relationships and opinions
(306). People were faced to this fact of social differences and prompted to change it, by these thoughts to awaken the national spirit he tried to lead people to balance the desperateness and minimalize the effects of dissimilarity and poverty (Rogers 306). It was “a new motion of self” that became “a central element in the thinking of the
Victorians and an important constitutive feature of the social formation” (Peck and
Coyle 177).
What Victorians valued most were according to Moran “stability, tradition, authority and grandeur in public life” (1). Even though Victorian ideals being very high, it is well-known, that poverty predominated in big cities and was a cause of child labour, prostitution and very poor living conditions. Nevertheless, it was “the strict morality, the holiness of family-life, owed a good deal to the example of Queen Victoria herself” that defines this period (Burgess 181). Plunkett and Vadillo claim a defining feature of the period to be “the sanctity of marriage and the home, and the role of women as moral guardians, maintaining the sanctity of the hearth amid the anxious turmoil of modern public life” (17). Because of the social morality, the biggest ineffable topic in the period was sex, being “the area most famously tabooed in Victorian discourse” (Herbert 186).
According to Mosher’s survey that was published later in the twentieth century, Dr.
Clelia Duel Mosher “surveyed 45 married women on varied aspects of their intimate life, including sexual attitudes and behavior” (Seidman 68) with the result of a “little evidence…of Victorian prudery” (Mosher qtd. in Seidman 68). Seidman claims this survey to be “a generational shift or the development of a post-Victorian culture that reconfigured the relation between sex, love and marriage” (72). On the other hand,
Plunket and Vandillo claim the sexuality of female gender to be passive in all sexual
17 activities and having “seldom desired sexual pleasure”; women suspected of being
‘active’, meaning prostitutes, had to undergo “compulsory inspections” legalized by the
Contagious Diseases Acts of 1864, 1866 and 1869 that often led to detentions in lock hospitals (73).
iii. Ideals and Gender Issues
A woman in Victoria Era had to play two roles: the first one of a loving wife and the second of a mother, taking care of households; no discussions on her own interests were led as “a woman’s interests were indistinguishable from the interests of a class equally invested in redefining property” (Cohen 347). To fulfil the expectations of the class and agree with the idea of perfect woman, aspects such as profession or self-development were thrown away at the moment of concluding marriage. Whereas men were the breadwinners and legalistic owners of the money, women had a role of housewives, not being able to dispose of their husband’s possession. Burgess claims it to be “an age of conventional morality, of large families with the father as a godlike head, and the mother a submissive creature” (181). At the beginning of Victorian Era “women were defined legally, by the doctrine of coverture, as objects rather than subjects with rights: a husband owned his wife’s property and was responsible for her actions” (Plunkett and
Vadillo 71). In the background of foundation of feminist organizations stood mainly
“sexual double standards which punished women, but forgave men, for erotic experience” out of marriage and also the fact that “a married woman had no legal claims over her arnings or inheritance acquired after marriage” until 1870 (Moran 36). In addition, women also had to “wait for suffrage until well after the death of Queen
Victoria” (Plunkett and Vadillo 47). There were many impulses in Victorian Era leading to feminism, the biggest one presumably the impossibility for women to live a life society desired for, meaning to have a husband and to live through a successful
18 marriage ever after; in the middle of 19th century “42 per cent of women between the ages of 20 and 40 were unmarried”; this ripped the ideal of a perfect marriage and social demands apart with women not having the opportunity for realization of such an expectation or demand (Plunkett and Vadillo 71). Women started to think more independently as they had no one to care about and for, therefore secondary schools for girls started to be established and also women began to enter the “traditionally male professions such as medicine” (Plunkett and Vadillo 71). Gradually with the population number, the level of literacy grew through the era too (Plunkett and Vadillo 205).
iv. The Capital
London happened to be a centre of the negative impact and clearly mirrored the contemporary social change. The increased population number caused a problem of overcrowding, leading to dreadful living conditions, permanent traffic jams and widespread diseases bringing the cholera epidemics (Wilson 104). Having the social and health improvement in the foreground, there were no notes about a presence of cholera and meanwhile hiding this fact from the public, tens of thousands died within 1840s and
1860s ( Wilson 104). Leaving out the reality, that the poor had terrible living conditions, most of them were living on the streets or slums. A great need for accommodation and other problems of the poor population started to be solved very late. The traffic problems were solved by underground railways, through which we can see a great Victorians’ spirit of desire to improve and to connect the engineering skills with the mental ones (Wilson 104).
In the capital London in Victorian Era railways played an important role in people’s lives. As the railway site was permanently extended, the poor were affected with the progress; these were mostly Irish migrants working and living in very bad conditions, poorly paid with families forced to living separately in dormitories, while the navvies
19 had to live in lodgings and in 1846 a riot burst out with the result of an absolute fail of the Metropolitan Police (Wilson 100 - 101). According to Moran, “through railways,
Victorian Britain was transformed into the modern state we recognize today” (64).
The age of inventions and progress was visible in both architecture and appearance in the capital city. During the reign of Queen Victoria new stock-brick suburbs and Gothic
Houses of Parliament were the results of permanent building. The population number increased from hardly a million in 1801 to 4.5 million in 1881 (Wilson 100). And because of the continually raising number of population, the traffic started to be unbearable in the centre of the city. This caused an “engineering miracle”, the underground railway, first underground trains were gaslighted, but after few disasters they were replaced by the tube railway (Wilson 105 – 106). The building-up of public service buildings came in the second half of the 19th century. The luxury hotels with electric lights and lifts were very domestic and in demand by both of the families or travellers. In 1860, the Westminster Palace Hotel in Victoria Street was opened, offering three hundred bedrooms and fourteen bathrooms, but probably the most famous and legendary is Savoy Hotel (Wilson 108). Restaurants, such as spectacular Café Royal in Regent Street or more casual Kettner’s exist up to now (Wilson 109). For permanent accommodation were built block of mansion flats, in famous streets such as Victorian
Street or Chelsea Embankment (Wilson 110).
From 1st May 1851 to 15th October 1851, London organized The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in Crystal Palace that visited more than six million visitors (Plunkett and Vadillo 34 – 35). For Britain, this was an act of showing the flourishing country and industry emphasizing the greatness and power of the imperialistic Empire. Later on, it was technology that “shaped the environment” (Moran
62).
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We can consider Londoners living in Victorian times prejudiced as the anti-Semitism against Jews was visible in opinions, that Jews are “as an entire people of misers, usurers, extortioners, receivers of stolen goods, cheats, sheriff’s officers, clippers and sweaters of the coin of the realm, gaming-house keepers; in fine, the charges, or rather the accusations, of carrying on every disreputable trade, and none else…“ ; this stereotyping is visible in works by Dickens, Lamb or Thackeray (Wilson 103). In
Dickens’s works we can the developing situation in London from being “a city of stark contrast, but [it] can be still escaped“ to become “encroaching and unrelieved, a microcosm of a weary, stale, and unprofitable world in which the only hope for the future lies in individual regeneration” (Rogers 315).
The technical progress affected the way of people’s social living also in the biggest city at time, in London. With building hotels, restaurants and department stores the new different possibilities of social interaction came. All these buildings became centres of social life in a luxury and domestic atmosphere, to stay domestic and to make
“the cult of home” was one of the most important values of Victorian (Wilson 108 -
109). Home didn’t mean only a house, but already a flat too as the block of mansion flats were dominating in famous streets at the end of the 19th century, all of them having room for servants as almost one fifth of the poor worked in domestic service for having the opportunity to live in a clean and tidy environment (Wilson 110). The biggest changes were for women, to these times used to make visits to other friends’ houses, in changing the climate of the social event and having the possibility to meet new people or going with husband into public, while not having to go to a ball or to arrange a meeting. For men, the socializing act happened in men clubs, very much favourite at these times, helping them to climb higher at the social ladder (Wilson 110). The ulterior
21 product of urbanization contributed to the change of using leisure time too as there was a quite a difference between living in a city, town or countryside.
Thru and thru, the Victorian London was a rapidly fast developing city with great social opportunities – until you were rich. Other side of this technological paradise were barefoot children, starving to death. “In the capital of the richest empire the world had ever seen was poverty that would compare with the most deprived parts of Africa or
South America in the 21st century.” (Wilson 113).
v. Victorian Literature
Literature in Victorian period is a reaction to the contemporary political, social and religious situation. That Queen Victoria had an “indirect influence over literature” is obvious as she served as an example of the strict morality (Burgess 181). In poetry, not being so distinctive, the central poet was Alfred Tennyson that later became Lord
Tennyson being “most Victorian in his attitude to the sex”, when his characters possess the Victorian morality: “they may sin, but the code of Victorian respectability always wins” meaning that “Christian marriage is unshakable” and of course “it is rarely, indeed, that we see the flesh of a woman” (Burgess 190). Typical authors of Victorian fiction writing were e.g. William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, Brontë sisters – Charlotte, Emily and Anne, G.B. Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Arthur
Conan Doyle and the most prominent Charles Dickens, that is considered to be a canonical writer and “the artist of ‘many voices’” (Rogers 314). Prose in Victorian Era, again had the characteristic of “the higher moral purpose [that is] allied to a Romantic technique: language is rich and highly ornamental” (Burgess 181). Alexander claims
“the popularity of romanticism…had an inflationary effect on the literary medium”
(264). These were “books, annuals and periodicals brought a regulated Romanticism into Victorian homes … all subsequent literature … is post-romantic” (Alexander 259).
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On the other hand, Moran indicates “the dominant mode” in Victorian novel writing to be that one ‘imitating’ life as “[they] use many narrative techniques to convey an unromanticised picture of ‘real’ experience: a focus on the everyday and on social diversity; detailed sense description; chronological cause-and-effect plotting; familiar settings“ (146). Victorian desire for domesticity was visible both in literature and life. It
“included the idea of home as a refuge from a hostile and competitive social world…the separation of home from place of work” (Kelly qtd. in Cohen 346). Speaking of the narrator view, Wheeler claims that Victorians novelists work “in a tradition which runs from Fielding through Scott and Jane Austen” and “often consciously or unconsciously play God to their characters” (159).
Victorian Era is a period of British history named after empress Queen Victoria. The imperialistic Britain in this period was full of contrasts. On one hand, faith and a lot of positivism dominated in the Victorian mind as it was time full of new inventions, reforms in religion and politics, innovative technology and industry. Urbanization took place and the life of most of the population was in cities accompanied by new chances and possibilities. London mirrored the sudden development and urbanization and happened to be a centre of literature, glittering exhibition of inventions and development in the industry and technologies. On the other hand, all of these promising factors had also the side effects represented by social problems, especially in big cities poverty, political, religious problems and intolerance. People and their minds in
Victorian Era were limited and affected by the value of money, causing enormous social differences. The traditional family model was a key point Victorians stuck to and finally found themselves in the world of lies and hypocrisy; women were considered to be tools for bringing up children and keeping up the family’s spirit. Doomed to fulfil the model
23 and restricted by their situation in society, women’s anxiety to remain a spinster was enormous. Literature represented the traditions and social model, expressing the attitude to contemporary situation. Through this definition I will investigate particular elements in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and reveal whether there is any possibility of Jane
Austen influencing Victorian writers by sharing common features.
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2. Austen the Dreamer
Born in 1775, her life can be described as happy and full as sad and empty. Her father,
a Hampshire clergyman, had one more daughter and also six sons, two of which were in
the navy (Thornley and Roberts 115). Other two brothers became clergymen (Dillon
218). Unfortunately, her father had “no fortune to bequeath his daughters”, therefore she
and her family had a particularly hard time after her father’s death (Halperin 725).
What is well-known, is that Jane Austen was unmarried, but she had a great number of
admirers and relationships, despite most of them ended in disappointments. She never
“expected to remain a spinster [that would have] chosen such a fate willingly” (Halperin
qtd. in Dillon 216). Her love life was complicated as she was not as prudish as one
would expect to. The very first man she was interested in was Tom Lefroy, described by
a twenty-year-old Austen as “a very gentlemanlike, goodlooking, pleasant young man”,
who later admitted Jane she was “a boyish love”; they both were in love with each
other, yet Tom did not take advantage of her romantic affection (Halperin 722). It was
very difficult for Austen to move on and find someone as ‘acceptable’ as Lefroy. It is
believed that her early novels are connected to this romance running in 1790s. Followed
by “one-sided romance” with Blackall, Austen, now twenty-two-year-old, found him
“pompous and didactic” and it was visible for everyone she would not return such
interest (Halperin 724 – 725). She was getting older and her chances to find a husband
and material secure started to alert. A rich Mr. Holder came to the scene, “having made
a good fortune in the East Indies” and in favour of Austen “he was in want of a wife”;
not only Jane, now twenty-four, but all her family expected her to be proposed
promptly, as he was attracted to her and being “youngish, intelligent, charming and
handsome man”, yet the proposal did not come with the of the summer and soon after
25 his death was announced (Halperin 725 – 726). After this bitter disappointment, the
Austens decided to move to Bath, where they hoped to find husbands for their daughters. In 1802 Jane was proposed by a twenty-one-year-old Harris Bigg-Wither, that fulfilled all the important assumptions. Firstly, she accepted, but the next morning rejected, according to Dillon, it was as she saw the danger of time-consuming care of children that were likely to be a result of such marriage (214). Finally, in 1808, the last chance to get married came with Edward Bridges proposal followed by Austen’s declining “the honor” (Halperin 733). Hodge suggests that “she was condemning herself to a lifetime as a second-class citizen, an object of contemptuous humour, an old maid”
(83). She felt embarrassed and miserable by having to accept man she did not feel attracted to and the fact, that “the men she met in real life suffered by comparison”, contributed to her decision not to finally get a husband, too (Halperin qtd. in Dillon
215). She had several chances to get married and make herself financially secure. Her very last romantic feeling in 1815 happened to be the one with physician Mr. Haden, being younger than Jane, that turned out to be the last hit, when he unfortunately found a younger wife and Jane’s heart was definitely closed. Whether Austen really “chose fiction-writing over a husband” or really waited for the real love stays hidden for us, but one thing is for certain – she depicted herself into novels so much that the impact of this is visible through all her works with the love motif being in the foreground (Dillon
215).
For characteristics, Austen was “tall & slight, but not drooping; well balanced, as was proved by her quick firm step… a mottled skin, not fair, but perfectly clear & healthy in hue; the fine naturally curling hair, neither light nor dark; the bright hazel eyes to match,
& the rather small but well shaped nose“ (Le Faye 418 – 419).
26
She had an access to the world of gentry as she visited the parties and trips (Rogers
292); most of these were a base for her scenes in novels. As a member of gentry, she was one of “the impoverished lesser gentry”, meaning that although her mother had descendant of “the titled nobility”, “in financial terms, she was never well off.” (Downie
81).
At the age of forty, she started suffering from adrenal tuberculosis (Halperin 734).
Jane Austen finally died at the age of 42 in 1817 (Burgess 174).
Her life was full of both happy and sad moments, full of joy and despair. Although dying as a spinster, she led an interesting life full of love adventures and opportunities.
Love disappointments and possible chances of successful marriages introduced formerly influenced the process of her life heavily. Being a strong personality, she reflected herself into her novels and other written productions.
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3. Austen the Novelist
In this chapter I discuss Jane Austen’s written discourse from her early writing to the
‘triumphant’ well-known novels. By her critics and critical reviews in Victorian Era, I
reveal the possible relation and influence upon the future Victorian novelists. Finally,
the classification into periods with a support by several academic sources is to be
revealed too.
Jane Austen started with writing at the age of twelve, discovering her own
possibilities, skills and literary talent (Rogers 292). Her intentions for becoming a
professional novelist started early in her childhood. Composing short works as
experiments for her family, she stepped into the world of writing very soon (Levy
1015). Austen was writing for her family and friends the whole life, these were either
poems or letters, which were comical and satirical (Levy 1021). In the years of active
writing, the French revolution went on. In her books she created a pseudonym saying
“By a Lady” (Hogan 39). Her very first novel, Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811,
was a rewritten version of a novel written 16 years ago; unfortunately, this piece of
writing was unsuccessful at publishers and apart from Price and Prejudice, published in
1813, she published another four novels within four years, namely Mansfield Park
(1814), Emma (1816), Northanger Abbey (1818) and Persuasion (1818) (Thornley and
Roberts 115). Another two books were published posthumously (Hogan 39). She was
not known so much during her lifetime, as interest in her works increased after her
death. “The total profits were approximately £700”, sum “extremely small” according to
Hogan (39). According to Thornley and Roberts, her novels mirror the calmness of life
without being touched “by the ugliness of the outside world” and managing “her
characters with a master’s touch” (116). Thanks to the interest of vast public, her works
28 were published in America first in 1832, but there is an evidence of sending the English editions there much earlier (Hogan 53).
Austen always had a great number of critics and reviewers, being a subject of intense discussions. Between the earliest reviews belong these by British Critic in 1813, The
Critical Review claiming Pride and Prejudice to be “superior to any novel we have lately met in the delineation of domestic scenes” or by Quarterly Review commenting that there are “no dark passages; no secret chambers;… no drops of blood upon a rusty dagger – things that should now be left to ladies’ maids and sentimental washerwomen”
(Hogan 41). Anthony Trollope, one of the biggest Victorian novelists, at the age of nineteen “had already made up his mind that Pride and Prejudice was the best novel in the English language”(Hogan 53). In addition, Skilton claims Trollope to be “unusual in his generation” because of “his admiration of Jane Austen” and also states that he
“considered Pride and Prejudice the greatest novel in the language until Thackeray’s
Esmond appeared in 1852” (211). It is no wonder that Wheeler believes “[Trollope] owed her much“(124). To the contrary and according to what Skilton claims to be
‘usual’ in the Victorian Era novelists Charlotte Brontë claimed that in Austen’s works is seen “an unnatural frigidity” and that “the Passions were perfectly unknown” to her, showing disrespect toward Austen’s novels (Lynch 710). Fullerton shares the negative opinion with Brontë as she claims Pride and Prejudice to be “throughout much of the
Victorian era…a neglected novel” (22).
Although she had many critics, the biggest one was herself as her interest in novels and passion for fiction writing was huge and she tried to learn from her own ‘mistakes’.
This supports the fact, that three of her six novels were rewritten– namely Pride and
Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion revised; such
29 self-criticism and the ability to admit her ‘failures‘ is extraordinary even today (Hopkins
403). This is what she criticised in Pride and Prejudice:
The work is rather too light, and bright and sparkling; it wants shade; it
wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if
it could be had; if not, of solemn, specious nonsense about something
unconnected with the story; an essay on writing, a critique on Walter
Scott, or the history off Buonaparte, or something that would form a
contrast and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness
and epigrammatism of the general style. (Austen qtd. in Hopkins 407)
Confession like this indicated her mind being independent and causing the splendid effect in her works by connecting her earlier and later thoughts by rewriting or revising them.
When comes to classifying Austen into certain period, it is always difficult. There are many authors discussing the impossibility of doing so, but there are also those, who try to place her within a period, that ‘best defines her’. In her lifetime, the two major branches were to be distinguished: “the novel of purpose and the Gothic romance”; in what branch Austen belongs is not easy to say, yet she had an inspiration in Romantic novels and Gothic stories having them in her family library (Hopkins 402). Behrendt, for example, considers Austen a Romantic writer “to a lesser extent”. On the other hand,
Lynch says Austen is related “to both realism and romanticism” (690) or furthermore, that her realism is “that of a naturalist” (693). As a complete Romantic writer she is considered by Burgess and Rogers, strictly classifying her into a period mostly known for poetry writing. Sampson, Thornley and Roberts together with Peck and Coyle
30 suggest her to be a 19th century writer as “[her] novels appear at a time when the rougher manners of the eighteenth are starting to be a distant memory and when a new social formation has been clearly established” (Peck and Coyle 147). The difficulty of placing her within a particular period is according to Favret “mythical” and is linked to
“a desire to comprehend the phenomena of girlhood, womanhood and spinsterhood.”
(373). According to Lynch, Austen “has caused trouble for literary history” by “her problematic femaleness…compounded by spinsterhood and childlessness”. (Lynch qtd. in Favret 373). In her works are features considered as “break from Augustan literary conventions” according to critics (Cohen 347). Woolf compares Austen to Sleeping
Beauty as “the allegory of periodization and literary history as a fairy tale that would awaken Austen from a slumberous past and revive her for the present” (Favret 374). She was also “temperamentally unresponsive to romance”, as Hopkins proposes (402). Lau describes Austen’s relationship to Romanticism as “a vexed one” (81), although she
“like the male Romantics believed in the imagination as a moral agent essential to our ability to sympathize with and love others” (91); she tries to compare Austen to Keats with the result, that “their writings exhibit a number of significant similarities” and claim that “Jane Austen is without qualification a Romantic writer” (109 – 110). By
Mellor, is Austen’s place in “feminine Romanticism”, but claimed her not to have “the spirit of the age” (Mellor qtd. in Lau 81). Ruston suggests Austen to be the writer of
“the novels of manner”, highlighting present adaptations of her works and strictly places her to Romanticism. Nevertheless, by Alexander, her novels are “post-romantic” (259).
Although she influenced the future generation of Trollope, Gaskell and Elliot through
“sanity and balance”, “[her] influence upon early Victorian fiction was minimal”
(Wheeler 9, 16, 81). Austen is considered to be the biggest novelist of the age often compared to Shakespeare. The comparison to Shakespeare inheres in “faculty of
31 penetrating into the most secret recesses of the heart, and of shewing us a character in its inward and outward workings”; she is even considered to surpass Shakespeare by
“instead of telling us what her characters are and what they feel, she presents the people and they reveal themselves.“ (Lewes qtd. in Lau 87). Woolf linked her with
Shakespeare, too, as she considers both of them as authors “about whom we know so little and who got his or her work expressed completely” (Woolf qtd. In Levy 1016).
Jane Austen’s passion for writing started very early, when she entertained her family and friends by funny poems and letters. She was therefore influenced and inspired by her personal experiences and memories that she mirrored and included later in her writing. Under the pseudonym ‘a Lady’ she is known mostly as a novelist, nevertheless, she also wrote poetry. Despite not being famous and appreciated in her lifetime, she slowly became an important writer having a lot of critics including herself. She was never classified definitely into a certain period and became a longstanding problem for literary scholars in the literary academic world, nevertheless stays as a canonical writer compared to Shakespeare appreciated for being surpassing and unique having a great impact and influence on the reader and present pop culture, where her works are widely interpreted in the form of films or serials.
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4. Pride and Prejudice
In this chapter I discuss and investigate the core phenomena in Pride and Prejudice
according to the subchapters. This introduction serves as a theoretical basis about the
publications and publishing costs helping me to understand the environment of
publishing the novel.
Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813 first under name First Impressions
(Thornley and Roberts 115). Austen was disappointed by Egerton’s offer as she “would
rather have had 150 £, but we could not both be pleased, & I am not at all surprised that
he should not chuse to hazard so much“ so she “sold the manuscript to Egerton for
£110“ (Austen qtd. in Fergus 10). Fergus argues that “the offer was rather niggardly” as
Egerton profited more than 450 £ on the first two editions (10); selling the copyright,
Austen did not profit money as she would with “the change of intellectual property” in
1841 (Clair 34). The first edition had 1,000 copies and the second 750, both sold “three
shillings more than Sense and Sensibility” causing Pride and Prejudice to be
overcharged as it was longer than Sense and Sensibility and produced on cheaper paper
(Fergus 11). Fergus also estimates Austen to earn 475£ in case she published it for
herself (11). Publishing anonymously under a pseudonym “a Lady” in Sense and
Sensibility, in Pride and Prejudice it was “the author of Sense and Sensibility” (Clair
40). Fergus claims Pride and Prejudice to become “’the most fashionable novel’” in
May 1813. However, “its popularity eventually meant the end of Austen’s anonymity”,
but simultaneously “certainly increased the demand for Sense and Sensibility” (Fergus
10-11). The vogue of the novel continued to the middle of 1830s, when two to three
thousand of collected editions and piracies were sold (Claire 41).
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Downie claims Pride and Prejudice to be a domestic novel often called ‘bright’ or
‘sparkling’ agreed to be set in the 1790s (71). According to Ruston, it is “the novel of manners” (73) and a ”light-hearted social comedy” (74). Planned to every detail, it has ingenious structure. The process of revealing characters is firstly to introduce the minor characters and picturing the environment that are preparing space for later space for the privileged protagonist and others major characters. This is called “narrative asymmetry”, pushing the minor aside while the main characters are in the foreground of the novel (Levy 1026).
For most of the places in the novel Austen picked up places that really exist, e.g.
London, Bath, Longbourne or Meryton. There is a wide gap in Pride and Prejudice between real sites and imaginary ones that Austen does not specify. A mystical atmosphere is created and the location is at the edge of reality and fiction.
4.1 Focus and Social Position
In this chapter I will discuss and reveal the focus in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and
Prejudice and investigate the roots of the focus. The connections between her life and focus in the novel are important in the tour of defining her uniqueness. Jane Austen’s focus is rather than on environment or historical background aimed on social aspects such as relationships and social positions in society. Firstly, the probable reasons why are the historical events in the background of the story, are to be revealed. Then I come to the basic focus, for this novel being a social one. The elementary term a gentry is to be examined too as it is wide and needs a number of explanations. Social positions of families and characters as well as Jane Austen’s will help us to detect the social system and focused society in Pride and Prejudice. Whether the social position makes a strong and necessary point in the life of the characters or whether there are factors more important than money and position of the social ladder are the key findings in this
34 chapter; as a support I will use the most important family in the story – the Bennet family. A classification of social positions in terms of periods is to be discussed to and connected to Austen’s legacy in the Victorian literature. If the fact of Pride and
Prejudice being a source of fantasy or dreaming is true or if it only describes the contemporary society will be demonstrated too.
As mentioned in my thesis before, Jane Austen lived in times of French revolution and the violence and presence of fights were influencing lives of everyone. She determined to ignore and not to include the facts of such environment; the reasons for this sort of ignorance may be various – from the personal experience, when her two brothers joined the navy and she did not want to share this with her readers or, more likely to her character, she was not just interested in such a topic. Naval officers were by rights admired and “rarely criticized” (Drum 108). Nevertheless, military in Pride and
Prejudice is present in the form of army officers, differentiating from naval officers heavily and represented the same way as in the real world, revealing the whole hypocrisy about army. “The military impressed the public more as a spectacle than as a fighting force,” (Austen qtd. in Drum 108). Jane Austen criticises as well as the contemporary society a state of mind, where soldiers were more admired for their uniforms than acts they had done. At least three characters in the story match this absurdity absolutely – all are women and silly; the two Bennet sisters Lydia and Kitty, having nothing else to do than following officers and taking walks in Meryton, place full of soldiers and the third is Lydia and Kitty’s mother, eager to marry her daughters and capable of everything to achieve the goal of having all her daughters married.
Austen ridicules the position of army and the officers by almost defining them as
‘philanderers’. The greatest example of such army stultification can be found in the relationship of Lydia and Wickham that represents Austen’s point of view and where
35 their “sexual dalliance” becomes a serious issue (Fulford qtd. in Downie 108).
However, we should not take Austen’s picture of army as a complex realistic description as she reveals only the pieces she wants to. The intentions she aimed are mirrored here too as she investigates the army institution from the social point of view without any concrete fact and therefore creates an enormous disillusion.
Coming to the basic focus, we have to distinguish the term gentry in the sense of social position, so often repeated in connection with Pride and Prejudice. This is to be discussed in families, rather than individual characters as position of the individual equals to position of his or her family. If Lee-Milne’s claim is right, that “the landed gentry of Great Britain are the only untitled aristocracy in the world”, then the gentry and aristocracy are equal (Lee-Milne qtd. in Downie 69). What differentiates one from the other are the state of their bank accounts and the size of their estates. Austen provides the financial circumstances and estates of her characters through the story, followed by revealing their social position. We have to realize, that “what Austen describes in Pride and Prejudice, as well as in her other novels, is the complex interaction of the various groups which made up the ruling class of Georgian England.”
(Downie 72). Georgian Era preceded Victorian Era and was the time Austen lived in. It is obvious and understandable, that she shows us the social position of the characters at the turn of the nineteenth century. “The nobility and gentry made up the British aristocracy at the turn of the nineteenth, just as they continued to do until well into the twentieth century.” (Downie 82). Austen’s picture of society therefore ‘touches’ the bridge between the two centuries and lasts in the beginnings of Victorian Era. Social situation is not possible to be inherited; this being the opposite case, it develops and floats through periods.
36
The Bennet family serves as a great example of so-called ‘gentry’. Austen reveals the fact that ”Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year“ (18). This, being not a small amount of money, claims Downie that Mr. Bennet
“is therefore quite clearly that of a prosperous member of the landed gentry and most certainly not that of an impoverished country gentleman struggling to make ends meet”
(71). Such a claim can be supported also by a fact, claims Downie that the Bennet family had a number of servants to be employed at their household (70). A proof is served, when Mr. Collins during one of his visits compliments on the dinner: “The dinner too in its turn was highly admired; and he begged to know to which of his fair cousins the excellency of its cooking was owing. But he was set right there by Mrs.
Bennet, who assured him with some asperity that they were very well able to keep a good cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen.” (Austen 41). What
Mrs. Bennet does in this situation is emphasizing their social position by reminding that they have servants and are ‘higher’ on the social ladder as her daughters are not taught to cook. Nevertheless, there are other families that shine ‘brighter’ than the Bennet family and exceed it in many factors. Of course, nothing compares to Pemberley.
The Bennet family, both by property and general situation is the member of gentry.
But when the social scale is not equal to the moral scale, always something bad happens. The behaviour determines their position to be lower than they actually are. Mr.
Bennet’s, Lydia’s and Kitty’s acting makes the situation even worse and despite Mr.
Bennet is called ‘a gentleman’ and Elizabeth ‘a gentleman’s daughter’, the family reputation is badly hurt by such acting of the three characters. The two Bennet sisters
Elizabeth and Jane are examples of how ladies of this position should look like.
However, term ‘low connections’ is used a lot. As one of Mr. Bingley’s sister says “I have an excessive regard for Miss Jane Bennet, she is really a very sweet girl, and I
37 wish with all my heart she were well settled. But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.”, the “low connections” disable Jane to be taken more seriously (Austen 23). All families present in the story consentient their positions in society. Finally, Habakkuk suggests, that the Bennet family is “not exactly one of the lesser gentry” (Habakkuk qtd. in Downie 71). What determines the Bennet family to be a ‘lower’ class in the story makes basically – excepting the fact of the inappropriate behaviour - the fact that only the landed gentry occur in the story and the other social layers, such as servants, stay in the background as the story develops.
The focus in Pride and Prejudice roots in Austen’s interests and simultaneously responds to her life. The historical background is illustrated only by the presence of army officers with real war topics and situation staying in the background. Drum claims that according to the fact of her two brothers being in the navy “it is hardly surprising that Austen paints a far more favourable portrait of naval than army officers” (108).
Social position in Pride and Prejudice is by most of the families the same - the landed gentry; the key factor is money. Nevertheless, there are other factors considerably influencing the perception of social position in either positive or negative way; it is behavior closely bounded to the moral scale and good manners. The social system presented in the novel is a model of Austen’s contemporary society, where “[Austen] takes considerable pains to accord the awkward position of the Bennet daughters the prominence it clearly would have merited in English society at the turn of the nineteenth century” (Copeland and Delany in Downie 71).
4.2 Affection and Affairs
In this section I discuss the topics of love and marriage in Pride and Prejudice in connection with Romanticism and Victorian Era and then go through the aspects of both
38 of the periods that are visible in the story in connection with the topic and provide an example from Pride and Prejudice. The possibility of such relationships from the novel in a real life at the contemporary time and the degree of authenticity with Jane Austen’s life experiences are to be revealed too. What are the key aspects of Austen’s uniqueness in love problematics and whether she sticks to the model set at her times or fantasises in the story are the questions here to be answered.
The topic of love is one of the main topics in Pride and Prejudice and the reason why
Jane Austen is sometimes called a Romantic writer. The power of love and connected troubles are qualities Romantics mostly cope with and all the couples experience either happy or unhappy love (Burgess, 166 – 171). On the other hand, as you can see in the following paragraph, Austen pointed out the importance of money and therefore constellated people becoming “the slaves of the money they worship” in the middle of
19th century in Victorian England (Herbert 188).
Yet the introductory sentence in Austen’s 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.” shows us clearly the situation of rich young men and ladies at the contemporary time (Austen 2). This represents an “epigrammatic maxim in the style of eighteenth- century” in an ironical context, but the position of narrator seems even so neutral (Lau
98). A visible proof of the importance of possession is given and leads us through the story yet ironically. Most of the relationships in the novel are influenced by either social position or money, mostly connected together. The financial situation and social positions are cruel features for the possibility of any marriage to happen. These features were important in the Romantic period, but they became even more visible in Victorian period, where the middle class was bound both by business and marriages so as to be secure in both of these areas at the same time and the differences between ‘the rich’ and
39
‘the poor’ intensified. The contrast in relationships determined by the social position and the financial situation is seen through the story and it is enormously influencing the development of the story and possible ‘connections’. One of the potential marriages in the story between Elizabeth and Mr. Collins mirror the necessity to get married in order to be financially secured as Mr. Collins is about to inherit all of Mr. Bennet’s possessions as Mr. Bennet has no direct male descendant and women had no right to inherit a fortune. In the story, this fact is emphasized by Mr. Bennet: “my cousin, Mr.
Collins, who, when I am dead, may turn you all out of this house as soon as he pleases”; shortly after is Mr. Collins blamed from “a most iniquitous affair” and that “nothing can clear Mr. Collins from the guilt of inheriting Longbourn” (Austen 39). In the very similar situation found Austen herself, when she rejected marriage in order not to financially secure herself. A significance of chance in the context of marriage and connected social position is obvious, nevertheless, an “ideal choice” is of “a rare occurrence in her novels” (Weinsheimer 404). By such an act of a rejection of the
‘unideal chance’ Austen surpassed the love standard in her life, contemporary period and also her novel Pride and Prejudice. Weinsheimer claims the non-dividing of choice and chance to be “an important aspect of her realism” as chance is the opposite of choice being “rational and deliberate” (404). In Austen’s life as well as in Pride and
Prejudice we find the heroine to stand in front of more chances, but not always does she pick the one responding to the social standards, but to her own nature supporting the independence and character of the author sympathizing and mirroring herself into the story.
Nevertheless, each couple lives through either happy or unhappy love, both in its very extremes, so typical for the Romantic period (Burgess, 166-171). Yet the first one couple we meet in the story, Mr and Mrs Bennet, are actually the ‘unhappy’ ones. The
40 relationship exists only outside, not having something in common. Their characters are clearly described at the beginning of the novel:
“Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop.
She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.”
(Austen 4).
This couple is a perfect example of a result of arranged marriages, very frequent at those times. Gibbs describes these marriages as “fruitless”, “foreign” or “loveless”. Mr.
Bennet, being the most ironical character in the story, treats his wife in a very funny way without her realizing it: “You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley may like you the best of the party.“ (Austen 3). Although their seemingly unhappy marriage, they managed to brought up daughters together despite their differences and learned to live next to each other with toleration. This type of marriage was very likely to happen and could be called ‘mechanical’ as there was no love match.
In Pride and Prejudice a hierarchy marriage is present; being what Weinsheimer claims that “each couple seems to be yoked because both partners achieve the same moral rank, and thus are fit mates” (page 406). Unfortunately, this is not only the case of morality, but also a rank of an intellectual matureness. Through the story, couples get together not only thanks to liking each other, but above all to similar acting.
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The exception is Charlotte and Mr. Collins’ marriage that demonstrates a complete truckling to social claims. According to Marcus, they present “a complete abandonment of personal claims in favour of social claims, but their individual adjustments are distinctly different” (275-6). For Mr. Collins, it is Lady Catherine, thanks to which he decides to find a wife so as to set a social example and fulfil her wishes. For Charlotte, it is the only alternative and despite the fact of the lack of love affection she takes the chance to get married. She ‘sacrificed’ her possibly good future in order to have a husband, that has nothing to lose and is not much interested in who his wife is. It is her choice that determines the relationship and yields to the social concept of courtship.
Austen created a pathetic marriage full of irony and opposites. By ‘connecting’ these two characters, so different by nature and opinions from each other, there originated an ironical marriage in order to fulfil the society’s demands and pretending to be ‘a happy’ one. The wispy and foolish Mr. Collins even tries to convince himself of him and
Charlotte to be a perfect match: “My dear Charlotte and I have but one mind and one way of thinking. There is in everything a most remarkable resemblance of character and ideas between us. We seem to have been designed for each other.” (Austen 126).
Through Charlotte’s character, we are witnesses of what Marcus determines to be “the process of capitulation of social claims”, when she is ‘manipulated’ by the claims and her characteristic such as intelligence and integrity emphasized by Austen are simultaneously pushed aside (276) . On the other hand, “Collins has lost nothing by the marriage because he had nothing to lose”, so it is quite possible that when not Charlotte, it would be another ‘desperate’ young lady to accept marrying him.
A good example of the ‘same moral rank’ relationship is Wickham and Lydia, both being controlled by their sexual passion and intellectual immaturity. Their marriage is even more gregariously ‘demanded’ for their spontaneous runaway causing Bennet’s
42 family the highest degree of disgrace. It is again a ‘collective fault’, not being an individual that determines this relationship to become a marriage. Lydia is playing only an object in the game of revengeful and untruthful Wickham that leads to her personal
‘catastrophe’; luckily, thanks to her nature, she considers it to be a happy ending as it means for her seeking “freedom and excitement” (Marcus 276). Austen demonstrates us the consequences leading from the connection of two characters, one as an authentic representation of social claims and second craving for revenge unaware of the plausible accomplishments.
Bingley and Jane, for their similar qualities and general “immobility”, the inability to express their feelings and wishes, represent the passivity that Austen pointed out to be unpleasant and by what she dramatized the whole story (Marcus 275). Both lacking the self-confidence, Mr. Bingley happens to be unable to defence his feelings and interests in Jane under the pressure of his very best friends Mr. Darcy that keeps convincing him about the inadvisability of such marriage. On the other hand, Jane’s quickness to believe that Mr. Bingley suddenly lost interest in her expresses her “inability to assert personal claims” (Marcus 277); Austen opens the question of Jane’s good-hearted behaviour and lets us decide whether it’s because of Jane’s naivity or that she is dumb and let herself
‘break’ so easily. In every aspect, this relationship is what Jane Austen desired for as they were literally ‘made for each other’ – both by being good-looking and having similar behaviour. Nevertheless, both of them also are not individualists making the story complicated and hard to reach the ‘happy ending’.
What is Pride and Prejudice most praised for is the control of plotting and “the skill with which the relationships between Collins and Charlotte, Wickham and Lydia, and
Bingley and Jane function, sometimes ironically, to bring together Darcy and
Elizabeth.” (Marcus 275). However, every relationship has its own beginning, and the
43 one between Elizabeth and Darcy is not the typical one, when the very first sentence
Darcy says about Elizabeth is: “"She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.“ (Austen 8). This brings in the reader in opinion that they are not possibly ever about to be together and makes it surprising, when they later fall in love with each other.
They stand at the centre of events and the development of the story is simultaneously the development of their relationship. What high-positioned Fitzwilliam Darcy fascinates, is Elizabeth’s rebellious acting, witty and conscious responses. For Lizzy, he is acceptable in every way, for his character being so complex and interesting. The initial disinterest overgrows in love that has no concrete beginning. Darcy says that “"I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." (Austen 221), on the other hand, Elizabeth claims that "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began. " (Austen 217). By struggling, they reconcile with their earlier unjustified claims, taming their temperaments in order to unify their peculiar personalities. To reach their happy ending, they have to “undergo some changes of heart and of opinion”
(Sherry 609). It is Elizabeth that “recognizes that individualism must find its social limits” and Darcy ‘only’ has to ‘reconcile himself’ with his lover’s social situation
(Duckworth qtd. in Sherry 609).
There are also areas connected to love and emotions Austen does not mention in the novel. What Pride and Prejudice lacks first is the fantasy in the love matter. In many situations in the story we meet a person that is in love and struggles, but not a single thought about the person is apparent. This causes an effect of a realistic view, being an opposite of the Romantic one. It is sexual passion and attractiveness we do not see in the story. Nevertheless, Casal suggests laughter to be a substitution of the sexual tensions as it “many of Austen’s contemporaries saw … as vulgar”. On the other hand,
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Allen believes that “[character’s] mutual attraction is metonymically displaced … [by] proposals to dance, glances, and walks“ (426).
A question comes to every mind when studying Austen’s life, why does she provide a husband to her heroines, when she herself remained unmarried? She apparently sympathizes with Elizabeth she is the heroine and “the most authentically powerful figure in the novel” supporting the individualism both in her nature and love matter, it was the “individualism that had ties to the French and the Industrial Revolutions”
(Newton qtd. in Marshall 42).
The issue of love and marriage is therefore very important in investigating Austen’s observation of relationships in her own environment. It is very likely that she was to some extent inspired by her relatives or social events. Every relationship in the story has a contrast; either they are ‘successful’ or ‘unsuccessful’ being Romantic features. What
Austen creates is the game of couples and courtship, which reflects the importance of having relationship or someone sharing life with; the never-ending ‘husband-chasing’ is an expression of the necessity to get married in order to become a ‘complete’ human- being. The only obstacles are the features of individualism and lack of self-confidence, even if individualism is a key feature of Romanticism; it has to be broken in order to fulfill the society’s demands, so important for the upcoming Victorians. In addition, lack of any visible sexual attraction and simultaneous lack of imagination contributes to the fact of the ‘prudishness’ and high degree of morality in Pride and Prejudice that is core for Victorian Era.
4.3 Prejudice and Aspects of Gender
Gender role in Pride and Prejudice is one of the most important features and is an important part of my thesis as I try to reveal Austen’s uniqueness by investigating some of the characters in the novel and assigning their role according to their gender. At the
45 end of this section I decide whether the social concept of gender role corresponds more
Victorian Era or Romanticism. By virtue of the Austen’s biography chapter I investigate the influence of her life and possible similarities between the characters and the author and resultant opinions of Austen.
The identity of each character is closely bound to property. Austen was led by a concept of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, where women had legal status
“covered by her husband’s thereby precluding her from owning property” (Cohen 361).
This fact influences the whole story and characters, bound to their family financial situation. On the other hand, new forms of ownership were formed in order to protect a wife and children in case of husband’s financial troubles (Staves 132). Dangerous gambling cost many families their homes as they went bankrupt. Women and their property were “limited to matter of propriety and conduct, a woman’s interests were indistinguishable from the interests of a class equally invested in redefining property”
(Kelly qtd. in Cohen 347). The necessity to fit in society’s claims and not to differentiate was huge as women had to match the social standards.
„Jane Austen’s heroines are all young girls at the outset of adult life.“ (Rogers
292).”All of Austen’s heroines possess the capacity for entering into the feelings of other, which often distinguishes them from other, less empathic characters.” (Lau 89). A good example is Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, growing up through the story from a girl into a woman. As the narrator often identifies with the heroine, it is clear that
Elizabeth’s character is partially autobiographical. That Austen sympathizes and unites herself with the character of Elizabeth is apparent, when she writes about her to her sister: “Miss Benn really seems to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print. And how shall I be able to tolerate those who do not like her, at least I do not know.” (Austen qtd. in Hopkins 423). Projecting
46 one’s own personality “into thoughts and feelings of others, and remain open to a variety of points of view” is “a key element in the creative process and an important characteristic of the creative individual” called “Negative Capability” (Lau 84). Only this individual, in Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet, is capable of such acting by admitting her own fault and being ashamed for judging the others within the limits of her mind, that was determined to prejudice without her even realizing it. The reader starts admiring her for overcoming both the limits of her mind and prejudice at the same time. The act of opening one’s mind is unique for Jane Austen and for making the character complex. When she chooses love instead of material security by rejecting Mr.
Collins, she “pushes against early nineteenth-century standards regarding women’s limited choices by rejecting the pompous clergyman.” (Dillon 214). Austen herself once rejected a marriage proposal for the same reasons as Elizabeth did. The ability to reject a man she could not respect comes from Austen’s social belief. This fact reflects the author’s opinion and attitude to the contemporary problematics and clearly shows us visible parallels between Jane Austen and Elizabeth by “confronting society’s overbearing claims” through which she tries to influence the reader (Honan qtd. in
Dillon 215). When we consider situations Elizabeth often occurs in, these are balls, visits or other engagements with the gentry, the author is visibly aware of all the situations and its’ process. “Elizabeth is more likely to be verbally aggressive with Mr.
Darcy, Mr. Bingley, or Lady Catherine than with intimate female friends.” (Kaplan qtd. in Dillon 219). The irreverent way Elizabeth communicated with people of a ‘higher social status’ is determined by her prejudice of rich people, most of which she considers priggish and excessively proud. That explains Austen’s personal attitude and the impertinence displays the independence and disagreement with the social cliché of the duty to be nice and servile to people being ‘higher’ on the social ladder. Her
47 independent thinking is unique as she decided to break the ‘rules’ “rather than being part of a collective response to a social situation.” (Kaplan qtd. in Dillon 220). Elizabeth plays an important role pushing the social standards to the back and emphasizing the importance of common sense rather than dogma and position in society. Witty as she is,
Austen created a new type of heroine that happens to be an ideal for women of the past, present and possibly future as well.
To understand the complexity of Austen’s female characters, not only individual characters, but characters in connection with the others is important, too. The strongest relationship is to be found in Elizabeth and Jane as they have a really deep connection and therefore “is something of Jane Austen in both Jane and Elizabeth” (Halperin qtd. in
Dillon 215). By connecting these two female characters Austen describes and characterizes herself. She highlighted female friendships as for her were really important too and through which she responded “to women’s social and economic vulnerability” (Kaplan qtd. in Dillon 217). Why female friendship was more important for Austen is easy to guess as she and her sister Cassandra had six brothers and therefore shared the female status only together. “Their affection for each other was extreme; it passed the common love of sisters, and it had been so from childhood.“ (Le
Faye 420). Another aspect indicating the connection between the author and characters is the fact, that “Austen herself and her sister Cassandra remained single” (Kaplan qtd. in Dillon 216). Through Elizabeth and Jane’s characters Austen creates a life she hoped to become her and her sisters, thus getting married to men they were attracted to.
An example of a capricious, envious and eager woman is Mrs. Bennet. She represents the female as the only thing to ever reach is to get married and to be financially secure.
Getting easily distracted, keeping speculating and expressing her feelings and opinions in an inappropriate way, she becomes an annoying character full of prejudice.
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Corresponding to social standards, she has no common sense and ridicules the whole system.
On the other hand, her eldest daughter Jane, admired for her beauty and distinguished by artlessness, serves us as an example of a pure soul. She is the only character in the story not trying to judge in advance and keeping her emotions inside. Taking all compliments by surprise, Jane seems unaware of her beauty. Although everyone around is prejudiced, she never says a negative word. Whether it comes from the passivity or innocence is hard to determine, most likely is the combination of both. Jane, aged 23, is ridiculed for being a spinster at such an age by Lydia. She is an archetype of beauty in the story connected with her shy nature, which makes her a hard time. Her role represents an unending hope, not only in the search for a husband, but a well-balanced soul able to wait.
A foolish, spontaneous and very young lady Lydia and the youngest daughter of Mr.
Bennet, turns up through the story very confident and unaware of results of her behaviour. "I am not afraid; for though I am the youngest, I'm the tallest." (Austen 6).
The same as Mrs. Bennet, she ridicules herself all the time by the desire for men and excitement.
How Austen makes from a common character an extraordinary one is miraculous. Her ironical notes on the happening on the scene make the reader feel the atmosphere and guess the right temper of the speaker. Mary represents a type of girl not being ready for life, hiding her character underneath books, playing piano, likely never getting married and therefore becoming a remaining part of the puzzle of the characters in the story. She can be considered partly an autobiographical character, as Austen remained unmarried and was an accomplished musician.
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Charlotte Lucas, at the beginning of the story the eldest unmarried woman, suffers by her age, making her at the age of 27 too old to be proposed and also to get married to.
She has many fine qualities for being intelligent, sensible and loyal; for these being the best friend of Elizabeth. The importance of marriage in order to be financially secure is demonstrated by her character vastly, causing her to become financially secured, but still an unhappy woman. In a wider and feministic sense, she can be considered a prisoner in the system Jane Austen created and that agreed with the contemporary political system. She is a counter character to Elizabeth Bennet, where the standards and values of society were demonstrated by fulfilling them and which shows us the result of what could have happened if Elizabeth had married Mr. Collins.
Not so important character in the story, but undoubtedly an interesting one, is Caroline
Bingley. Austen created woman, being in a high social position and treating Darcy in a flirting way. This extract from Pride and Prejudice shows us the power of sexual allusion “I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mind it for you. I mend pens remarkably well.”; surprisingly Darcy answers “Thank you – but I always mend my own.”(Austen 30). An example of apparent reference to autoeroticism opposes Heydt-
Stevenson’s claim suggesting that Austen’s novels are “sexually sanitized” (314). The fact of woman high on social ladder, but still unmarried and with flirting behaviour, corresponds to the fact of hypocrisy of such social standards.
“Austen is centrally concerned with the impossibility of women escaping the conventions and categories that, in every sense, belittle them.” (Gilbert and Gubar qtd. in Dillon 217). Women in Pride and Prejudice can be divided into two groups according to this declaration. On one hand those ones accepting the conventions and behaving according to society’s expectations; on the other those that are trying to escape and overcome the given impossibility of such acting demonstrated in the character of
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Elizabeth, that is representing Austen herself. Both sides have its own stumbling blocks according to the circumstances and chances given to them, either accepted or not, they lay upon their common sense and personal persuasion about propriety of taking such a chance; these sides are blending together with the development of the plot as well as the development of the characters.
Men, same as women in the story, are diverse. Compared to women’s ones, male friendships are not so developed because “they have no adequately developed same-sex relationships or correspondences through which their power can be realized” causing minimization of men’s power in society (Kaplan qtd. in Dillon 217). The social problems that influence the life of women are not so visible in the life of a man.
For Mr. Bennet is a character full of irony, his role being that of a breadwinner and father of five daughters, taking care of his small country estate, is to be discussed in one of the following chapters called ‘Irony’.
Mr. Darcy, admired for his possessions, but hated by the major part of the Pride and
Prejudice society for his pride, is the most complex man character in the story. Austen created a character that is somehow hiding his true nature behind the face of a very proud, rough and contemptuous face. Initially, he is admired for both his position and fortune, but shortly afterwards, when he is seen publically, hated for the same thing. By
Elizabeth’s character, we get to know him through the story and reveal his true character, being brave, grateful and honest. The importance of money is obvious by the fact that it can justify his outer ‘misbehaviour’, when Mrs. Lucas claims that “One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.“ (Austen 12). As a lover, Darcy is faithful, shy and steady in his feelings, but skilled in hiding his affections towards Elizabeth. He is a very moral character, being in
51 many moral contradictions and decisions through the story, all of which he manages to get under control. This character of proud and none the less shy Darcy defines and represents Austen’s vision of a perfect man for being extraordinary; unfortunately, „she found them only in her novels” (Halperin qtd. in Dillon 215). She created a type of a man she desired for in her real life with all the qualities she expected him to have. Mr.
Darcy is a gentleman that despite his outer behaviour deserves both his fortune and
Elizabeth’s love; he plays a role of a faithful lover and also a sensible man with power.
A relationship, although not as deep as the one between Elizabeth and Jane, is the one between Bingley and Darcy. Even though they are not related, they respect and treat each other as brothers. Their different natures secure their balanced relationship.
Nevertheless, Mr. Darcy is, indeed, a stronger personality. He possesses the ability of manipulating with his best friend Mr. Bingley by changing his opinions as Bingley is hesitating all the time. Mr. Darcy uses this skill to protect his best friend from being hurt and therefore plays the superior role in this relationship.
Mr. Bingley can be considered as a male version of Jane that differs only by a higher position on the social ladder and better financial situation; what Austen makes us think about, is that these two characters are same personalities, but that the role of their gender and also position directs their fate and lives completely. His qualities are undoubtedly comparable to these of Jane, as they both are beautiful, kind and generally nice and gentle to everyone. One characteristic that they share is their hesitance, in the case of Bingley even more visible as men are in charge of disposing the property. By this quality is he subtly manipulated and often not able to express his own opinions and wishes properly. His character shows us the exception that even men that should be
‘ruling’ over women in Pride and Prejudice, are limited not only by their social position and wealth, but also by the level of their ability of making their own decisions.
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Another character, being an object of Austen’s keen criticism and irony, is Mr.
Collins; whose character and personality is discussed in more detail in the following chapter. Incapable of normal personal feelings and affections, he is undoubtedly a mechanical character. There is no single act where he acts freely and spontaneously; his acting controls brittleness and unbelievable courtliness. Being absorbed by his social masks, he becomes blind and Austen’s example of irony and sarcasm.
Jane Austen, although being a woman, does not describe women in the story exaggeratedly heroically, but she tries to balance the good and the bad with both genders. Austen created a character mixture that makes her a unique author not comparable to any other. Every character, male or female has its own function through the story showing us various aspects of human nature. It shows us that the role of gender is not sometimes important, as we all are prejudiced and proud in some way.
Male and female’s perception differ from each other, men are feeling powerful and women resentful. The most important thing about a woman in the story is the age, beauty and social position. On the other hand, men must be in possession and have a good social status. Austen tried to influence the future generation to change the circumstances of social situation through the story of social inequality. Unfortunately, these features intensified, being features of Victorian idealism, where the social status, possession, appearance and outside moral standards meant more than true emotions.
Even though that the story was at the very end of the era of gentry living in the country, the ideals mirrored in the story are the future of Victorian Era. Jane Austen emphasized the importance of a common sense through the character of Elizabeth, creating a new type of heroine satisfied with her true nature and mirrored her wishes and dreams of a perfect man into Mr. Darcy.
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4.4 Satirical and Humorous Aspects
Irony, being the most significant feature in the story, is the one Jane Austen is famous and unique for. Where this feature can be found, what it means and what is the biggest source of irony in Pride and Prejudice is to be examined in the following paragraphs.
Discussing Austen’s ironical and satirical view and possibility of it to be the result of her life development or a period she lived in leads us to the question what does irony mean in Pride and Prejudice and why does Austen use it.
Before I start investigating particular features, it is important to realize that what is most ironical about irony in Pride and Prejudice is the fact that “Jane Austen never uses the word ‘irony’ and yet the term has proven to be one of the most useful words for describing the quality of her vision” (Sherry 611). Presumably Austen did not want to point out the ironical content in her novel to the reader as she tended them to recognize it by themselves.
The name of the novel is not random as it was first entitled First Impressions, but the renaming to Pride and Prejudice caused the effect of focusing on both pride and prejudice and emphasizing the significance of these features in the novel becoming the main source of irony through the story. Character that is mostly connected to pride is
Mr. Darcy according to his acting at the beginning of the novel. Austen shows us the stereotypical irony of being rich, where the money and position mean more than politeness; when Miss Lucas utters:
His pride does not offend me so much as pride often does, because
there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young
man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think
highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.
(Austen 12)
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The social position and financial situation of Mr. Darcy determines and widens the
‘borders’ in his behaviour as he has a ‘right’ to feel superior. Later in the story we discover and re-evaluate the qualities of Mr. Darcy that are revealed to be positive; nevertheless, before happens so, his character becomes a subject of a bittersweet irony.
The only thing that can overcome pride is in his case love expressed by proposing
Elizabeth; however “Darcy’s rejection by Elizabeth at the moment when he seems to have felt an impulse stronger than pride is an irony which we as readers have been fully prepared to appreciate” (Sherry 616). An example of overcoming the most significant aspect of Darcy’s nature from our point of view followed by such degradation emphasizes yet ironically the fact that money is not as important as we may think in the love matter represented by Elizabeth’s common sense and denial of Darcy’s ‘right’ to be proud. Nevertheless, most people agree on Darcy being the most proud character in the story yet at the end of the novel he shows up not that much more pride than the other characters. Linked to this idea is another irony functionally applied on the readers and the main character Elizabeth; both were meant by Austen to be prejudiced from the very beginning as he was considered proud and unpleasant, finally, he is not as bad as the others. Through Elizabeth, “Austen forces the reader to experience the same errors that
Elizabeth makes and to realize the difficulty of arriving at truth in a constantly shifting world” (Moses 155).
It is a level of common sense that determines prejudiced behaviour. With a common sense plays Austen game, in which not only these having it win or loose; people with a lack of common sense do not usually bother with their situation and are rescued by these having the common sense . As a result, there is almost no impact in their lives by acting foolishly; the effect of such accomplishments makes the reader think or laugh about the absurdity and irony that is visible through the story. The example of Lydia’s
55 character with a lack of common sense demonstrates us the zero effect of it, when she runs away with Wickham, unmarried, so young and with no plans in advance. Only thanks to Mr. Darcy having a great level of common sense is she rescued in her otherwise desperate situation that would probably lead to eventual dishonour of society.
There are two levels of irony in a disgrace of Mr. Darcy that Austen shows us; the first one is helping a young lady he does not respect despite his very high standards not in order to win Elizabeth’s heart – as he did not tend to ever tell her about the great support he provided to his ‘enemy’ Wickham and Elizabeth’s sister Lydia – but in order to protect the honour of a young lady that rejected him; the second one, even more marginal, it is our prejudice that places him in such a disgrace.
Characters are means carrying a huge burden of Austen’s irony. The most significant is Mr. Bennet, yet for his qualities and characteristics, always having a sharp tongue and a witty answer ready. Through the story, we are not sure whether to try to understand him or not as his behaviour and opinions change. A manner he speaks with we find interesting and funny, but in the background of all his outside casualness we reveal an ironical and hurt soul, not ready to be opened and decided what role to play. Mr.
Bennet’s objects of irony are switching through the story; they are mostly his daughters with the exception of Jane and Elizabeth, whom he considers sensible. One of his objects becomes Mary, not seen in the story much, the object of the irony yet at the beginning of the story, when Mr. Bennet treats her: “For you are a young lady of deep reflection, I know, and read great books and make extracts.“ (Austen 5). The coming note even more emphasises the situation: “Mary wished to say something sensible, but knew not how.“ (Austen 5). Mary is a young clever lady and a representation of
Austen’s irony incapable to perform any social interaction and being recipient; she is a
56 product of such society that determines ladies to be wives and does not care about the others.
Through the story relationships are developing; some of them favourably and the other ones not that much. They are suffering from social standards preventing them from the
‘and they lived happily ever after’ by building different obstacles, that the characters have to deal with; these are either owing to one’s social position or temperament characteristics. As a result, the expectations demanded by society become sources of misery; being one of the biggest ironies in the story. By fulfilling the standards, the socially expected equals the unhappiness. Austen, again, emphasises the possible results of being in control of the social demands in a very unusual and exemplary way. As a result, ‘plastic’ marriages are originating. One of them is Mr. Collins and Charlotte, emphasizing “Austen’s successful depictions of fools as well as ‘people of sense’” (Lau
87). Their natures being antitheses to each other highlight Mr. Collin’s foolishness and humorously ridicule the clergy as he is a representative. His absurdity and disability to think complexly leads us to a complete misinterpretation of the clergy career. However, it is Mr. Collins’ vanity that satirizes his character most. Because of the acquaintance with a wealthy Lady Catherine, Mr. Darcy’s aunt he acquires the impression of being superior, especially to the Bennet family. He considers his proposal to Elizabeth as something patronage and business-like. In Mr. Collins’ character we see “the humor of
[Austen’s] mind upon the abnormal in fiction – bombast and pedantry, affectation, vanity, absurdity, falseness of feeling, and offense against sound reason” (Hopkins 425).
Nevertheless, a direct reference or opinion about the clergy is not given; therefore we can consider the importance of such career for Austen being lesser. This makes us think about Austen and her father’s relationship as he was a clergyman. Through the story, characters are socializing and getting together all the time, but there is a “little sense in
57 contemporary parlance of ‘what they do’” (Drum 92). Apart from clergy, members of military and their simultaneous ridiculing by Austen is present too. Questions for what do Mr. Darcy or Mr. Bingley do for a living are not answered.
Another ironical context we can recognize in the story is the relation towards the
Gardiners that Downie marks to be “a signal indication of the layers of conscious irony at work in Austen’s fiction that the final sentence of Pride and Prejudice concerns the
Gardiners, because they complicate the novel’s social hierarchy in an important way”
(72). Prevented by their good taste they are no longer people of ‘low connections’ being at the end of the story “always on the most intimate terms” with Darcy and Elizabeth that “really loved them” (Austen 226). It is Mrs. Bennet ridiculing and representing the
‘low connections’ in the Bennet family. Austen highlights the genuine representation of social standards in her characters indicating the results of fulfilling them; Mrs. Bennet
“happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which [she] got rid of her two most deserving daughters” (224). It is quite obvious that no mother with maternal feelings would ‘get rid of’ her daughter.
The whole concept of irony presented through the novel is an opposite of the
Romantic ideas; Romantics inclined to feelings, being a contrary to the rationality represented in irony. Austen moralises the readers with the intention of enlightening the future generations, possibly including also the Victorians, and shows us the fact that money do not always mean you can buy everything. However, money became unfortunately more and more important factor in the society from the times of Victorian
Era up to now. The author’s brilliant description of characters representing irony and their nature is genuinely unique. She includes the clergy and ridicules the representative all the time; whether she is influenced by her life or just inspired by the fact of her father being a clergyman is arguable as there is no proof. Through the story, we
58 recognize several ironical errors, the two most prominent of a ‘double-irony’. The first one is the fact of people with a lack of common sense have less troubles and simultaneously people with a considerable common sense have more of them and very often have to solve troubles the one’s with a lack of it. Austen makes us feel the irony on ourselves in the second error as we were, with a little help from her, indeed, prejudiced from the very beginning and fulfils the ‘mission’ of Pride and Prejudice.
Such play with self-irony and at the same time ‘shrift’ by means of the identification with the main character Elizabeth gives us the morals that everyone has errors and is another factor of Austen’s uniqueness.
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Conclusion
Jane Austen restricted her story narrowly to the topic of society omitting the important historical events surrounding her and ignoring the fact of violence in Europe. By doing so, she draws an idealised picture of this time split society. Providing the evasion from the cruel environment during reading Pride and Prejudice, she corresponds to the time definition of Romanticism. As has been noted through the thesis, there are also topics of love and individualism representing the Romantic ideas. On the other hand, besides leaning into a Romantic phantasy world full of misery, Austen draws, more or less, a realistic view of the world of choices with no extremes in life. Nevertheless, taking a feminine Romanticism into the account, she could be also considered as a genuine representative of this movement.
Despite the time discrepancy, Jane Austen is surely an author influencing and retaining legacy to the future Victorian period. As can be seen in the fourth chapter that is analysing Pride and Prejudice, she ‘anticipated’ many aspects of the upcoming
Victorian Era including moral standards, gender issues, class differences and the importance of money. Given these points, in order to fulfil the standards of society there is a significant repression of individualism and a simultaneous change of the concept of society influencing the behaviour and relationships seen in the story. However, what remains hidden is poverty and misery of the Victorian Era which was about to come.
As illustrated in the first chapter ‘The two periods’ we have to distinguish
Romanticism and Victorian period from the two points of view – the first one is historical and the other literary. Whereas Romanticism is connected to literature and its features, Victorian Era is bound to its standards and morals; they differentiate from each other in various aspects that are mixed together in Pride and Prejudice by combining
60 the future Victorian stereotypes and therefore Austen creates a ‘bright and sparkling’ life in literature.
What is for sure, Jane Austen was a unique writer that deserves her place in the literary foreground. Her uniqueness lies in her ability to dread and make the reader laugh at the same time. Having the nature of wit, she contributes the novel with her own personality and makes the story amusing. On the other hand, she reacts to the contemporary social problems and additionally she influences and encourages the reader through irony and various situations in the novel.
Altogether Pride and Prejudice is a genuine source of both daydreaming and fantasy as Austen fulfils her love dreams and ideals against standards but simultaneously represents the whole standard conception. According to my research in the thesis I would place Jane Austen neither in Romanticism nor Victorian Era and leave her at the edge of Romanticism and Victorian Era as an unforgettable and inspiring author being one of the most prominent woman novelists that deserves her unique and ‘mysterious’ place in literature.
61
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ELH 39.3 (1972): 404–419. Web. Wheeler, Michael. English Fiction of the Victorian Period, 1830-1890. London: Longman, 1994. Print. Wilson, A. N. London: A History. New York: Modern Library, 2004. Print. 66 Abstract In my thesis I focused on a well-known novelist Jane Austen and her classification in periods. The aim of this thesis was to prove, to what extent she should be considered as a writer of Romanticism or, despite of the time discrepancy, Victorian Era. For the most part Jane Austen follows Romantic features; nevertheless, she draws a realistic and idealistic picture of society in the middle of revolutions and violent environment. In case taking a definition of a ‘feminine Romanticism’ by Mellor and Ruston into the account, she could be considered as a genuine representative of such movement connected with domestic and social topics. On the other hand, Jane Austen is surely an author influencing and retaining legacy to the future Victorian period. As illustrated in the fourth chapter analysing the novel Pride and Prejudice, she ‘anticipated’ many aspects of Victorian Era including moral standards, gender issues, class differences and the importance of money. By virtue of following particular elements in her novel Pride and Prejudice, serving me as a support for my research, and classifying the period, I also established the aspects of her uniqueness. Overall, her uniqueness lies in the ability to dread and make the reader laugh at the same time. Contributing to the story with her own personality and experiences, she creates a world of a witty humour encouraging the reader to think about issues, she signalized by means of irony or satire through the story. This thesis is a view both on the society and literature of the two periods watching the social changes and mapping the influence of period and life of the author on her literary production that was particularly obvious in the love matter. 67 Resumé V mé práci jsem se zaměřila na známou novelistku Jane Austenovou a její příslušnost v periodách. Cílem této práce bylo zjistit, do jaké míry by měla být považována za spisovatelku romantismu nebo, i přes časový nesoulad, spisovatelku viktoriánské éry. Většinou vykazuje Austenová znaky romantismu, nicméně ilustruje realistický až idealistický náhled na společnost, která se nacházela v období plném revolucí a násilí. Pokud vezmeme v úvahu definici tzv. „ženského romantismu“, kterou podpořil například Mellor či Ruston, mohla by být považována za autentickou autorku tohoto hnutí, které se vyznačuje hlavně rodinnými a sociálními tématy. Na druhé straně je Jane Austenová bezpochyby autorka, která ovlivnila a předala dědictví až do doby viktoriánské. Ve čtvrté kapitole mojí práce, která analyzuje novelu Pýcha a předsudek, se dá říci, že Austenová „předpověděla“ mnoho aspektů přicházející éry, mezi nimi pravidla morálky, genderovou problematiku, třídní rozdíly a také důležitost peněz. Díky následování těchto aspektů a znaků dob v novele Pýcha a předsudek, která mi sloužila jako podpora mého výzkumu, jsem také určila aspekty jedinečnosti této autorky. Její jedinečnost tkví především ve schopnosti čtenáře vyděsit a rozesmát zároveň. Díky tomu, že do příběhu přispěla i svou osobností a zkušenostmi, vytvořila svět plný duchaplného až „kousavého“ humoru, který nutí čtenáře se zamyslit nad problémy, na které je v průběhu příběhu pomocí ironie či satiry upozorňuje. Tato bakalářská práce je pohledem na společnost a literaturu dvou období a zkoumá změny jak ve sféře sociální, tak i vliv období a života autorky na její literární tvorbu, který byl markantní zejména v oblasti milostné problematiky. 68