Many organisations of the United Kingdom are making elaborate arrangements to celebrate the 250th birth anniversary of the classic novelist Jane Austen who was born on December 16, 1775. As a novelist she has portrayed love and manners of the early 19th century in England. Even after two and a half centuries her novels remain popular throughout the world. Austen researcher Kathryn Sutherland says, “Her novels are really concerned with wider moral issues.”
Jane Austen is the author of many classic novels such as ‘Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion’ and ‘Northanger Abbey.’ Part of her popularity rests on her depiction of romanticised England with love affairs and tea parties at sprawling mansions. For her a successful marriage was the goal in life. However, she herself remained unmarried and spent a frugal life. Her female characters are very strong and vocal about their opinions. They do not accept marriage as something they have to do. They want to marry someone they actually love. Part of the resurgence in her appeal can be traced back to the British Broadcasting Corporation’s adaptations of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility.’
Jane Austen’s father was a country clergyman. She accompanied her sister Cassandra to two boarding schools and returned home from the second school when she was nine. Thereafter she remained at home depending for her education being a younger member of an educated family. She studied along with Cassandra. When she was 14, there was a burst of private theatricals in England. The barn was fitted up as a theatre and little comedies were staged at the barn.
Writing career
After some time Jane Austen started her writing career. Luckily, she was born in a novel-reading family. She completed her first novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in 1797. Two months later, she began to write ‘Sense and Sensibility’. Pride and prejudice are only elements in Darcy and Elizabeth. Although sense distinguishes Elinor Dashwood and sensibility her sister Marianne, the contrast is between two ways of feeling rather than two ways of behaving. In ‘Pride and Prejudice’, however, the ruling passion is used for many of the lesser-nown figures of the novel.
‘Sense and Sensibility’ is a story of two sisters destined to lose two different young men whom they loved. Her third novel ‘Northanger Abbey’ was a corrective to ‘Sense and Sensibility.’ In the novel she allows herself an extra narrative purpose to make a game of the torrid mystery school fiction. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was written as the novel of Marianne’s growing up. She wanted readers to see how over the years Marianne would slowly become more cautious, more practical – more like her elder sister.
Quite early in her novel Jane Austen gives us a description of the two sisters, contrasting their different temperaments. Elinor the elder sister had the strength of understanding and coolness of judgment, which qualified her thought when she was only 19 to be the counsellor of her mother. Elinor was affectionate and Marianne was eager in everything, her sorrows and her joys could have no moderation.
She was generous, amiable and interesting. She was everything but prudent. In the novel these two characters live up to the description. They show the character traits the author has given them in their dealings with one another.
Jane Austen has often been praised for her ability to draw three-dimensional or rounded characters that become real people. Although she contrasts the two sisters, neither is dominated by a single trait to the point of caricature.
After writing four novels – ‘Sense and Sensibility (1811), ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (1813), ‘Mansfield Park’ (1814) and ‘Emma’ (1816) Jane Austen created a cult of admirers. It was mainly because she never lost the attention of the common reader. With the four novels and ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion,’ published posthumously, Jane Austen enjoys a special place among English novelists.
‘Pride and Prejudice’ appealed to readers because it dealt with a theme that was peculiarly a concern of youth at the time. The thought that their parents were making fools of themselves was dominant at the time. On the other hand, there is nothing in common between ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility.’ In both of them Jane Austen used the device of time making the leading figures of the novels display a certain principle. For instance, pride and prejudice are found in Darcy and Elizabeth. They are also found in lesser-known characters such as Collins and Catherine.
While writing novels Jane Austen tried her hand at writing poems. Here is one of her poetic creations:
When stretched on one’s bed
When stretched on one’s bed
With fierce-throbbing head
Which precludes alike thought or repose,
How little one cares
For the grandest affairs
That may busy the world as it goes!
How little one feels
For the waltzes and reels
Of our Dance-loving friends at a Ball!
How slight one’s concern
To conjecture or learn
What their flounces or hearts may befall.
How little one minds
If a company dines
On the best that the Season affords!
How short is one’s muse
O’er the Sauces and Stews,
Or the Guests be they Beggars or Lords.
How little the Bells,
Ring they Peels, toll they Knell,
Can attract our attention or Ears!
The Bride may be married,
The corse may be carried
And touch nor our hopes nor our fears.
Our own body pains
Ev’ry faculty chains,
We can feel on no subject besides
Tis in health and in ease
We the power must seize
For our friends and our souls to provide.
For eight years Jane Austen lived a town life achieving nothing. She sold ‘Northanger Abbey’ for ten pounds. After some time, she wrote “Mansfield Park’ which was a serious novel. Of all Austen’s novels, ‘Emma’ conveys the exhilaration of a happy writer. The dialogues in the novel are excellent. After writing ‘Persuasion’ she was dissatisfied with its winding up. She cancelled it and wrote a new winding up. It shows that Jane Austen was a modest critic of her own work.
However, ‘Persuasion’ was slightly out of line with the novels she had written earlier. At the same time she was in poor health. Some critics called ‘Persuasion’ the swan song of the novelist. On July 18, 1817 Jane Austen died in Cassandra’s arms. Her body lies in Winchester Cathedral.
