Jane Austen Overview

At a time when marriage was society's end-all for women, Jane Austen refused quite a few proposals. In spite of financial need, this country pastor's daughter not only stayed single but wrote about it in her artfully constructed comedies of manners.... [more]

At a time when marriage was society's end-all for women, Jane Austen refused quite a few proposals. In spite of financial need, this country pastor's daughter not only stayed single but wrote about it in her artfully constructed comedies of manners. Her novels show an uncanny aptitude for subtle but exacting social critique and a quiet, stubborn gutsiness. Her heroines exhibit a resolute loyalty to self in the face of all forms of social pressure; their comebacks and victories issue a daunting challenge to even the most bull-headed of contemporary feminists. Down to its title, "Sense and Sensibility" is perhaps the best encapsulation of Austen's time and concerns. She was born amidst the eighteenth century's obsession with 'sense' - logic, composure, equanimity -- and lived through the Romantic taste for 'sensibility' - emotion, passion, revolution. In "Sense and Sensibility," two sisters represent these warring human tendencies: Elinor is the levelheaded older sister while Mariane is the youngster in emotional tumult. The hitch, of course, is finding a balance between the two. Austen's novels often focus on heroines who must learn lessons on how to temper emotions with moral values. Most often, these trials come in the form of the all-too necessary courtship rituals of the time. Should Austen's young women marry for love or for money, for friendship or passion? In "Pride and Prejudice," Elizabeth Bennet initially rejects a wealthy suitor because she thinks him morally corrupt. But Austen also asks whether marrying for love is wise if it entails poverty. Within the space of the matrimonial arena, Austen poses thought-provoking questions about psychology and society. Uniquely, her unmarried women refuse to see their situation as desperate enough to justify the sacrifice of their values. In fact, Austen's critique of the "marriage game" is only part of a broader critique of the position of women. After the death of her father, Jane Austen said to her sister Cassandra, "prepare...for the sight of a sister sunk in poverty." This "problem of economics" haunts Austen's work like the Gothic specters of her contemporaries. "Sense and Sensibility" opens with one family's economic history, but it may just as well play like a history of patriarchy itself. When one man dies, his will divides his house and land among the men of the family, leaving a meager share of pounds to the women. The narration reveals the injustice of a system in which "those who most needed a provision" (the daughters) were denied it. Was Austen, whose books won favor with the gentry of her day, a revolutionary? In her own way, yes. The attention to economic issues in her novels, if lacking Dickensian or Steinbeckian drama, is part of Austen's enduring appeal. Austen was able to capture the exigencies and banalities of economic survival while keeping her writing compelling and witty, her characters deep and smart. Because her headstrong heroines usually do end up married, some say Austen was guilty of copping out for the sake of a happy ending. But perhaps Austen was promoting her own matrimonial ideal: an equal partnership based on affection and challenging companionship, rather than an exchange of property. Jane Austen began writing novels at 20. Despite early successes, her family kept her profession a secret (the books were published anonymously). It was still shameful for a young woman to engage in money-making of any kind or to publicize her own ideas about the private business of marriage. Clearly, a compulsive talent and a recalcitrant assuredness kept Austen writing. It is unfortunate that what is said to be her most "modern" novel, "Sanditon," was left unfinished at her death. [show less]