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The period of Jane Austen by Norsaleha Sahamin (195262)




Romantic Literature: The period of Jane Austen.


By Norsaleha Sahamin




Source: Google Image.

Jane Austen is best known as an English author who wrote six popular novels; Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion. Her other writing, Lady Susan was not published until 1871 which the writer never submitted for publication. She was born on 16th December 1775 in Stevenson, Hampshire, England. Back in Jane Austen’s era, she was not widely known for her writing and only started gaining tension after 1869. Today, her novels including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are viewed as literary classics, which also linked romance and realism altogether.

            During Jane Austen’s early life, she was well-raised by her parents, Cassandra and George Austen as they were living in respectable community members. Her father served as an Oxford-educated rector, a man who encouraged learning and creativity at home. The environment that her father set up for Jane and her siblings most likely led her to boost up her creativity in writing. Due to her father sudden death, her family went through impoverishment which caused them to move and settle down at her brother, Edward’s cottage. Jane Austen’s writing was only published under pseudonym instead of her name back in her era. Her literary works such as Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Lady Susan were all published posthumously by her brother, Henry Austen−which dragged attention and received recognition as an author of her writings.

            These novels of Jane Austen actually do share common things, for instance, the plots involving marriage of young ladies and their lives facing towards the reality. Social class structure in England was a very stand out theme which brought out by Jane Austen. The females’ characters in Jane Austen’s works were viewed as independently share ideal in male dominated society. Her literary works often portray her feelings as a feminist back then. In fact, she portrayed the characters of women in her works as independent, unique and have the courage to stand for themselves in the society. Very often, she used the women as a target of satire in her novels. For example, in Sense and Sensibility, Marianne Dashwood, a passionate and romantic sister of Elinor Dashwood, yearned for passionate yet warmth relationship and behaved in unique ways which she mostly expressed herself out.

            Austen’s subjects are parents’ behaviour to their children, the pros-and-cons of falling in love, making friends and so on. By depicting those in her novels, she was able to introduce morality in society as she mentioned humans and their relationships which we all will encounter in life sooner or later. Also, in her literary works, she used fiction as a platform to describe reality within her own time frame and class. As much as Austen understood necessity of her era, her understanding about women who lived in early 19th are quite limited even among middle class and upper middle class. Her understanding about marriage is quite questionable as often her characters of women in books aimed to pursue financial security and social respect based on marriage.

            Nevertheless, Jane Austen is one of the best novelists today world. Her literary works are often used for literary purposes, mostly to obtain better understanding about romantic period writing. The ways she portrayed the values and society during her era are very interesting to read.


References

Austen, J. (2018). Jane Austen. [online] Biography. Available at:    https://www.biography.com/people/jane-austen-9192819
The British Library. (2018). Jane Austen: social realism and the novel. [online] Available at:
https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-austens-social-realism-and-the-novel
The British Library. (2018). Female education, reading and Jane Austen. [online] Available at: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/female-education-reading-and-jane-austen

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