Jane Austen "On Women"
Jane Austen “On Women” In her role as a 19th century female author, Jane Austen has a privilege that many other women of her time do not have. She skillfully engages her audience and draws them toward her views of life through the characters she employs in her novels. Austen masterfully utilizes satire in her writings. As she portrays characters and circumstances, irony is her chief literary technique. The plots and themes of her novels are intensified as readers view the situations from the view of the protagonists, with all of the twists and turns. “Such a method…combines in a limited form the omniscience of third person narration with the immediacy of first person narrative…” (Moses,156). Jane Austen’s particular concerns about the status of women in society and their prospects for a life of true fulfillment shine through her writings. Upon further examination of the issues of marital status, class mobility, and opportunities for education and profession, Jane Austen’s burden for women is apparent. Jane was greatly influenced by her father, Reverend George Austen, who was a rector and a farmer. For additional financial security, Rev. Austen tutored university students in their home (Boyle, p6). Jane was well-read and educated as far as women would be at the time. Due to her own life experience, Jane was acutely aware of the inequalities and plights effecting women. Austen reveals the deepest experiences and hearts of genteel women through her characters. As the heroines of her novels consider the situations before them, Austen helps them to deal with these realities with her cunning wit. Jane Austen’s use of irony can be termed as comedic—situational (coincidence), verbal (sarcasm, understatement or play on words) and dramatic (the audience or reader has knowledge of important information to which one or more than one characters are not privy). Things definitely are not what they seem to be, and assumptions about life for women of this period are challenged
Cited: Austen, Jane. “Emma.” New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. Print. Austen, Jane Austen, Jane. “Pride and Prejudice.” New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2001. Print. March 28, 2014. < https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/> Williams, Michael, Gwen Kane, Stella Prozesky