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:
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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