An Analysis of Jane Austen.docx

1、An Analysis of Jane AustenAn Analysis of Jane Austens pride and prejudice from the Perspective of Feminism Chapter 1 Introduction Jane Austens reputation at the end of 19th century and the early 20th century is admired by many literary elites, yet her novels are sharp, pitiless, pessimistic analyses

2、 of human relations. Although her works have wildly admired in 19th century, but few of admirers seems fully to have realized the depth of her art, nor the perfection her brought to the literal form, which have to prove the chief vehicle of imaginative expression of Victorian age, and her special ta

3、lent in novel culminated the art of fiction. Her six novels show some typically 18th century assumptions about society and about attitudes to human relations. The Victorians abandoned and despised many of these assumptions, which involved a static view of social orders while they are deeply preoccup

4、ied by change, and an ironic, illusionless conception of human nature which they are attempt to interpret as a kind of moral shallowness or cynicism. This is perhaps the reason why the most of valuable Jane Austens criticisms produced in the later half century. What has caused critics of later centu

5、ry to recognize the greatness of the novels she accomplished is the alertness of her conscious, or even her observations. Pride and Prejudice as a example to reflect the values of woman from middle or upper classes towards marriage, the novelist has an important part in forming this conscious becaus

6、e she had given us the images of social figures in which we can imaginatively participate, the significance of her greatness in novel is depend on how well we can understand ourselves and what we can observe. (Gillie, 2006:4-5)The immediate success of Pride and Prejudice among the fashionable novel

7、reading publics is due to its literal genre, is not a conventional romantic story, but a satirical good humor of comedy manners, indeed, Pride and Prejudice are a slightly different sort of novel, Bingley would have been the hero and beautiful, long suffering Jane as the heroine is in the first plac

8、e, and second her grasp of the social context within their stories are worked out, particularly, is suggested in the coolly ironic reversal of the opening sentence, a single woman must be in want of a husband with a good fortune, and the desire for a man in possession of a good fortune is the overri

9、ding concern of the female characters in this world, I likely to confirm that the main business of Pride and Prejudice is the proposal of young women in marriage, as whole, four kinds of marriage are represent in front of readers. In fact, Austen is inclined to give the critical importance of marria

10、ge, to highlight her understanding of the economic determinants of social action by a means of marital imperative reaches. Although the novel ended with the realization of such ideal marriage between Elizabeth and Darcy, the exploration of feminism by extension is still internal for us to have a bet

11、ter understanding for the assumption which Austen mentioned during Victorian age.Chapter 2 Literary review It is truth, but not universally acknowledged that academic study is all that keep most of the classics of English literature in print, one of the greatest tributes to pride and prejudice is th

12、at some scholar can still have the satisfaction of seeing the internal values or ethics as one of the female novels in 19th century of British literatures. Due to its immediate success, almost two centuries later it remain the most popular of all Jane Austens novel, has already become the be loved o

13、f most critics, and criticisms on Austens work is now a corpus so large that it contains the wildest diversity of theoretical approaches and methodological affiliations. In following paragraphs, will presents the extent studies on pride and prejudice in two main categories that is international and

14、domestic ones.2.1 International Reviews Since the publication of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, the work has aroused wide attention of readers and people who have thought about it in the west, with reverence books and papers appearing in larger numbers. Like Kenneth L. Moler, considers main chara

15、cters as central targets to further exploration. Moler traces the evolution of Darcys character. In Molers view, the novel hinges on the central tension between Elizabeth Bennets individualism and Darcys faith in an established social order. (Moler, 1967), some critics praise characterization in Pri

16、de and Prejudice as well as the novels scenes of domestic life, another example about character study is Francis, she relates the historical background surrounding both Jane Austen and the novel Pride and Prejudice, She includes a critique of Austens treatment of both male and female characters. (Fr

17、ancis, 2005) On the other hand, some critics usually choose the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy to represent their interpretations of what is ideal marriage. Stovel asserts that Austens novel allows for the interpretation that Elizabeth and Mr. Darcys relationship is an example of ideal lov

18、e, as well as the view that it is an immediate and magnetic attraction. (Stovel, 2005) Also, some researches focusing on text itself help us have a good understanding of English history, for example, Brown discusses how Austen offers a powerful commentary on the changes in society, gender attitudes,

19、 and class structure in early nineteenth century England. (Brown, 2007) 2.3 Domestic reviews Compare to the studies in the west, the domestic studies on Pride and Prejudice; have been divided into several categories over twenty years. The first phase centrals around the ethics of marriage appeared i

20、n Pride and Prejudice. As we known, the novel has given the critical importance of marriage, as in all Jane Austen novels, most of scholars and critics tend to believe that the main business of Pride and Prejudice is the disposal of young woman marriages. Therefore, over a period of time, their effo

21、rt sets forth both informed personal response and academic knowledge in the service of some specialized studies of the philosophical concepts under the background of so-called “moral ethics” at Victorian era. Such thematic criticisms of Pride and Prejudice, articles and essays that have explored Aus

22、tens work in relation to the typical four marriages represented in novel. Yi Wenqing, Yang Guiqing, An Lina, Yan Junling are the examples in discussing the question. Yi Wenqing makes a comparison between Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, two classics as the topic to explore a matter of attitudes fo

23、cusing on marriages in later 18th century and early 19th century, thus to deem the conclusion that the marriages among the young women in Pride and Prejudice is resulted from the financial states, while Janes marriage is established on the basic stone of spiritual equality.(Yi Wenqing, 2010) However

24、, An Lina tends to select the heroine in Gone with the Wind as a object to compare with Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, so as to refract their personal responses toward love and marriages under the influence of their designed features in characters.(An Lina, 2009) generally speaking, the diversity

25、 of marriages are directly determined by their personalities and social values, base on such statement, Yan Junling tends to analysis it with the particular perspectives of marriage.(Yan Junling, 2008) With the regard to the female characters, Elizabeth Bonnet, the heroine and other young single wom

26、en in Pride and Prejudice, are always the focuses of critiques, and Feminism considered as a new trend of literary theory shape our views to analysis the female novels. Jane Austin, regarded as a initiator and pioneer of Feminism in 19th century, a universal view is that Austins Pride and Prejudice

27、describes protagonists in female writers works who face the unthinkable results of gender hatred in female writers and emerge from their trials with a new sense of self-ownership, like all Austins novels, Pride and Prejudice is the first trial to describing the female history as a haunting experienc

28、e, its relation to females independence and equality has been widely explored by Liu Chang and Zhu Wanying, the former deems that Pride and Prejudice is a classic which used female point of view to reflect female experience and sentimental emotions.(Liu Chang, 2009) Later notes the essence of marria

29、ge in 19th century is the females self-awareness in relation between the marriage and fortune, love , as the source of creation, is really a perspective quiet important in Austins attitude toward ideal marriage.(Zhu Wanying, 2008).2.4 SummaryBases on the studies of both international and domestic, m

30、ost of criticisms represent their understanding and insights towards characters, researches of text, thematic analysis and historical background by extension, as well as some approaches of criticism, such as feminism. In the course of attentive reading of Jane Austins Pride and Prejudice, concerned

31、with the theory or branches of Feminism, I insist that the exploration of the Feminism thoughts hidden in this novel is of more significance than anyone else when taking an acquaintance with Feminism theory. Then based on above reviews, I tend to attempt to focus my study of Feminism in analysis of

32、Pride and Prejudice, and Austins arts of female novel writing.Chapter 3 Methodology The story narrated and the characters mentioned in Pride and Prejudice, is alluding not merely to male prejudice against women, but also to the prejudice against matrimony itself, if we regarded the characters in Pri

33、de and Prejudice as the “images” of the young signal women, we will get a somber impression of the lot of women in Jane Austins lifetime, to some extent, Feminism have been ignited as a means to help us have a better evaluation toward Jane Austins novel.3.1 Feminism and feminist literary criticismFeminism is generally defined as