Critical Essay On Jane Austen
Essay Preview: Critical Essay On Jane Austen
Report this essay
As an extremely well versed (OK, modest) critic of English Literature and a fairly decent judge of people and character, I have chosen to write my critique, or paper, on a particularly good (a brewing controversy in some circles) author of the times. This particular author was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England on December 16, 1775 to a loving, well-educated, mother and father (1, page 1). Her loving parents did welcome this seventh (of eight) children and last of two daughters into the world with loving arms. One of the first more obvious facts in her writing is that, although her father had a modest income (around Ј600 yearly) (4, page 2) she was a spoiled, little brat who was well, perhaps too well, taken care of. That is, at least, what shows in her writings. I bring up this point to demonstrate that her parents truly loved her and the other children and tried their best to do what every parent wants to do with their children. Give them a better life than they had. This can be argued because she was one of eight children in the family that turned out some fairly successful kids. That and, Ј600 a year was not a lot of money for the time. Her other siblings did extremely well in most of their endeavors. This fact could have very easily have caused some dissension or even jealously between her and her siblings. A fact that is at same time well proven by her writings. There is some indication of this in her surviving letters to her closest confidante, her only sister (4, page 4). All of the aforementioned material, in fact, her very life, is probably the main reason that I, and thousands of normal, law-abiding men from all over the world, dread any lesson plan that includes my chosen author. At the same time, if she hadnt had this life, they we dread so much, then we might have been deprived of such great works as Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey. With
all this information before you, it should be fairly easy to guess the name of this author. The author I have chosen to critique is none other than, Jane Austen.
It is widely argued that the influences of her writings come from her family, and indeed, her social life. In many of her novels it is clear that she makes her characters from her own life or rather, the way she would like to see her life. This applies to her family life as well. This is only evident because we have the benefit of being able to go “back in time” and read some of the letters that she wrote her sister around 1796. Wherein she talks to no end about courting and dancing and inevitably, lost loves.
Her father was indeed a loving and caring man, but was unable to endow her with a great dowry or the likes for marriage. He did attempt to try and find her suitable companionship and give her a better life. This shows up in her writings almost blatantly, as we can clearly see in Sense and Sensibility. In this story we see a girl out with her sisters, down on their luck, trying to find the right man to spend their lives with. The story goes on to show them, in a fairly good light, while they venture through this arduous trek. The story does not exactly parallel Ms. Austens life in all instances, but does, in my opinion, come in real close to it. While reading the letters that she wrote to her sister it is clear that Ms. Austen did do a lot of courting with the gentlemen of the time and attended quite a few social functions in which one of the main reasons of having them was to meet these kinds of gentlemen.
Not wanting to sound too critical of Ms. Austen, I have seen pictures of Ms. Austen and of the other women of the time. Forgive my bluntness, Ms. Austen was just plain ugly. Perhaps, this is a contributing factor to her not being able to find herself the suitor she so desperately wanted. But, that is probably a nasty thing to say about Ms. Austen. It is more likely that her being homely and ugly (sorry, lack of a better words) was one of the reasons she made her characters so lively and beautiful. This was, in many ways, her way of getting back at the world,
or living vicariously through her writings. It is evident in her last novel, Persuasion, that what she really wanted in life was the perfect man. We can see this in the following excerpt :
“Every thing united in him; good understanding, correct opinions, knowledge of the world and a warm heart. He had strong feeling of family-attachment and family-honour, without pride or weakness; he lived with the liberality of a man of fortune, without display; he judged for himself in every thing essential, without defying public opinion in any point of worldly decorum. He was steady, observant, moderate, candid; never run away with by spirits or by selfishness which fancied itself strong feeling; and yet, with a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely, and a value for all the felicities of domestic life.” – (3, page 1)
Her search for the perfect man could have been thwarted by the fact that Ms. Austen was, by todays standards, wishy-washy. She was unable to make a commitment on several things in her life. Namely, it would be the titles of her novels. For instance, Northanger Abbey was originally sold as Susan and Pride and Prejudice was originally called First Impressions (4, pages 5-6).
As I did mention earlier, Ms. Austen was one of eight children and did have to live up to some pretty high standards that were inadvertently set by