Jane Austen’s Life and Times

1. Jane Austen’s Life and Times By: Mrs. Paolucci April 8, 2008

2. Agenda • The Climate in the 17-18th Century • Women in the 17-18th Century • The Birth of the Novel • Who was reading novels? • The First Novel Writers • Jane Austen’s Life • Jane Austen’s novels

3. 17th and 18th Century • Industrial Revolution/Rise of the Middle Class • British Empire • Town vs. Country • Birth of Feminism • Popularity of Romanticism/Individualism • Conflict with Rationalism

4. The Birth of the Novel • Term novel not fully established until the end of the 18th century • Realism was early novel form as opposed to neo-classicism and poetry. Presents the real as opposed to the ideal • Some first novelists are Danial Defoe, Richardson, Fielding • 1740 first circulatory libraries established in London. NOT FREE. Subscribed. Novels were what they mainly stocked.

5. Who Was Reading? • NOT MANY PEOPLE!!!! • 80,000 in 1790s (small percentage of pop.) • The majority of laborers were illiterate • Public education was not a reality. School were associated with churches. Teachers with priests. BY 1788 only about 1\4 of parishes had schools. Children of lower-classes often left school at six or seven and if they continued it was only in the few months that there was no work in the fields or the factories.

6. Who was Reading? • Throughout the eighteenth century, utilitarian and mercantile objections to educating the poor because of the industrial revolution. In textile manufacturting areas the literacy rate actually began to fall in the eighteenth century. • HOWEVER, increase in literacy began in small towns where there was marked rise in independent shopkeepers, tradesmen and clerical employees (marked by industry). RISE OF THE MIDDLE_CLASS, it is the middle-class who furthered the book buying (novel) population. Novels were in the medium price range of things to buyt. Not respectable but cheaper. Also available cheaper, ballads, newspaper, chivalric romances, pamphlets (42) • .

7. Who Was Reading? WOMEN! • NOVEL became more associated with the female than with the male. Had more free time on their hands and led a rather sedentary life. Many of the old household tasks like spinning\weaving, making bread and butter, beer, candles and soap were no longer necessary because they were mnufactuered. Most poorer women did not read as much as women from the upper-classes. However, could only read during the daylight hours. Window tax.

8. Women in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Britain • Rise of individualism also provoked the rise of feminism in eighteenth century. Economic individualism decreased the ties between parents and children. Marriage provides a wife with the protection she had once sought in her extended family. Patriarchal family unti stould in the way of individualism and therefore the conjugal family (family by choice) started to rise out of the middle classes

9. WOMEN • Legal position of women governed by patriarchal Roman concepts of law. • A woman’s property became her husband’s absolutely upon marriage. Children were by law the husband’s. • only a husband could sue for divorce. • Husband had a right to punish his wife either by beating her or imprisoning her. Women therefore needed to make the right choice in marriage.

10. WOMEN • There were actually more men than women in England at the time. • Woman needed to provide a dowry to attract a good husband. Much more commercial matter than anything else. • Women could really not achieve economic stability outside of marriage. • Surpluss of women in the labor market brought their wages down.quarter of the average wage for men.

11. WOMEN • Wives were sold. • Men did not want poor women and did not want the financial expense so they went to prostitutes for their needs. • Illegitimate children were a social problem. Many men also married late on economic grounds.

12. Spinsters • Domestic servants (women) bound to stay with employers until they were married or turned twenty-one. • Many employers forbade workers to marry. • The word “spinster’ dates from 1719 to mean an unmarried woman beyond the normal age of marriage. • Spinsters were not an economic asset to a household.

13. Bachelors • Bachelors did not excite so much consideration as spinsters. But their rise was considered to be a marker of moral degradation. • It was suggested that bachelors be taxed more heavily than married men. • Surpluss in women was revealed in the 1801 census. One solution was polygamy. There was a wide-spread interest in it at this time which suggest how seriously people viewed the marriage crisis.

14. Marriage usually leads to a rise in the social status of the woman as opposed to the man,

15. Victorian Morality • Puritans had a strong influence on the marriage institution. T • The idea of sexual advances or insinuations before the knot is tied was scandalous. Act passed in 1650 made adultery punisheable by death. • Desire was viewed as evil as amrker of the fall of man.. Virtue was often seen in sexual terms. • A man’s chief merit was resisting sexual temptations.

16. Morality and Property • Views of sexuality coincide with economic views of private property. • A man must be sure his wife is chaste to be sure his estate is being passed on to his own children • . Even the word love is dangerous and its meaning needs to be clarified. Make a sensible marriage choice with rational friendship as its ultimate aim.

17. Marriage/ A Double Standard • It was ok for a man to marry beneath his station because men were considered to be subject to sexual passion (double standard), • For a woman to do so would be admitting to sexual feeling. • The startling collapse of a woman’s immunity to sexual feeling was one of the most controversial things about the twentieth century novel.

18. Conduct Novels- novels cautioning young women about the dangers of seduction • Immoral for a girl to feel love for a suitor until he had actually asked for her hand in marriage. • Conflict between public and private attitudes is often what the novel is concerned with. • Some works popular to be praised form the pulpit but be pornographic in nature (hypocrisy). Pamela.

19. What were novels like? • Sentimentalism in the eighteenth century novel was a belief in the benevolent goodness of man. Subjective individualist. • Conflict between town versus country. The immorality of the town and the cultural depracvity of country. • Reading public particularly women wanted sentimentality and romance. By the time we get to Austen we may be dealing with the PARADY of the novel.

20. Heroines of the Conduct novel • Model novel heroine must be very young, very inexperienced, and so delicate in physical and mental constitution that she faints at any sexual advance; essentially passive, she is devoid of any feelings towards her admierer until the marriage knot is tied. Such are many of the heroines to the end of the Victorian period. Since there was not need for wives to do Hefty tasks, a woman’s chief virtue could be to be so delicate and chaste that she assures the future generation of her family.

21. Mary Wollstonecraft • Mary Wollstonecraft was a British writer and one of the first feminists and philosophers in the eighteenth century. • April 27, 1759 - September 10, 1797 • Married William Godwin March 29, 1797 • Died giving birth to daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly- Author of Frankenstein

22. Mary Wollstonecraft • Major Works: • Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) • A Vindication of the Rights of Man (1790) • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) • Letters Written in Sweden, Norway and Denmark (1796)

23. Mary Wollstonecraft • Feminist Style of Writing • For many years her work was not acknowledged because of her unorthodox ways until the twentieth century when the feminist movement was emerging.

24. Wollstonecraft – Detail for Previous Slide • Wollstonecraft scholar Virginia Sapiro stated, “few read Wollstonecraft's works during the nineteenth century as her attackers implied or stated that no self-respecting woman would read her work." • With the modernist feminist movement, writers such as Virginia Woolf and Emma Goldman embraced Wollstonecraft’s works. • In the 1960s and 1970s, Wollstonecraft’s works surfaced again and reflected the feminist movements. Writer, Virginia Sapiro demonstrated the continuity between Wollstonecraft's thought and other important eighteenth-century ideas regarding topics such as sensibility, economics, and political theory.

25. Mary Wollstonecraft • Romantic Period • The Romantic Period allowed Mary Wollstonecraft to write in a feminist perspective because of the political, social and economic changes that were rapidly occurring. • Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman during the French Revolution and in conjunction with Thomas Paine’s Rights of Men began some of the first revolutionary pieces to be written.

26. Wollstonecraft – Cont’ Detail from Previous Slide • Mary Wollstonecraft wrote her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman during the French Revolution and in conjunction with Thomas Paine’s Rights of Men began some of the first revolutionary pieces to be written. • Wollstonecraft’s writing influenced William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge because of its themes and aesthetics

27. Mary Wollstonecraft • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman • One of the first works of feminist philosophy • Argues that women are not naturally inferior to men. They just lack education therefore seem to be less intelligent. • Addresses her text to the middle-class, which she describes as the "most natural state.” • Points out that men and women should be given equal opportunities. They should both be treated as rational beings with a social foundation of logic and reason.

28. Wollstonecraft – Cont’ Detail • It encourages modesty and industry in its readers and attacks the uselessness of the aristocracy. • Wollstonecraft is not necessarily a friend to the poor; for example, in her national plan for education, she suggests that, after the age of nine, the poor, except for those who are brilliant, should be separated from the rich and taught in another school.

29. Jane Austen’s Life Who is Jane Austen?

30. Jane Austen • Jane Austen   (1775 - 1817) Category:  English LiteratureBorn:  December 16, 1775Steventon, Hampshire, EnglandDied:  July 18, 1817Winchester, Hampshire, England

31. Jane Austin’s Novel • Minute presentation of daily life, detached attitude and evaluating it from a comic point of view. • Dispenses with participating narrator. • Uses the convention of the letter, or by writing a memoir. • There is usually one character whose mental life is afforded more time than the other characters. Austen raises questions of social and moral problems raised by economic individualism and the middle-class quest for improved status.

32. Austen’s novels continued… • Bases her novels on marriage and the feminine role in the matter. Jane Austen solidifies the female authors place as the main author of the novel and questions male hierarchy in her novels. A feminine point fo view outweighs the restrictions of the social horizon that have been associated with it. • View clip from Pride and Predjudice

33. Jane Austen • 1775-1817 • Began writing as a child • Family was very close • Jane fell in love with Tom Lefroy • Proposed to by Harris Bigg-Wither

34. Austen – Detail for Previous Slide • Born in 1775 • Began to write as a child • Family was very close • Relationship to sister Cassandra resembles Jane and Elizabeth’s in Pride and Prejudice • At 21, Austen fell in love with Tom Lefroy • Lefroy’s family soon sent him away because a marriage with Jane would have been impractical due to both of them being poor. • Subject comes up in Pride and Prejudice as the idea of sense (love) contrasts to reality (inheritance) • In 1802-Proposed to by Harris Bigg-Wither • While the marriage was practical financially, Austen called off the proposal because she did not love him. • Harris Bigg-Wither has the same defects in character as William Collins

35. Jane Austen – Major Works • Sense and Sensibility (1811) • Pride and Prejudice (1813) • Mansfield Park (1814) • Emma (1815) • Persuasion (1817) (posthumous) • Northanger Abbey (1817) (posthumous)

36. Jane Austen –Most Influential Work • Pride and Prejudice • One of the first romantic comedies • Set a standard for character depth • Influence is still seen today

37. Jane Austen – Contribution to the Romantic Movement • Sensibility • Focused on women, wild nature, and the supernatural • “First Generation” of Early Romantic writers • Contrary Opinions

38. Austen – detailedearlyromanpre - EC795.ppt • Characteristics of the Early Romantic Period • Revolt against The Age of Enlightenment • Romantics turned to: • Emotion • Jane Austen brought to light the importance of love versus social convention • Adventure • Imagination over Realism • “Sensibility” • Romantics shared the use of “sensibility” that focused on women, the supernatural and wild nature. • Influence of Romanticism on Jane Austen • Idea of “sensibility” that focused on women, wild nature, and the supernatural. • Contrary Opinions • Jane Austen is often difficult to define in terms of an exact literary period • Romantics thought that social realism was less important than the imagination. Jane Austen was aware of social convention, and showed the irony and humor of the system. • Romantics thought that social realism was less important than the imagination.

39. Early RomanticismDetailed Presentation Major authors and literary works Robin Cole, Rebecca Nebeker, Nicole Child, Bruce Guernsey, and Megan Anderson

40. Overview of Romanticism • Began in the late 18th century • The answer to Enlightenment thinking • Stressed a strong connection to nature • Criticized social conventions • Recognized common art forms • Charles Baudelaire: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth, but in a way of feeling."

43. Previous Slides: • J.M.W. Turner • The Fighting Téméraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken (1839) • John Constable • Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds (1825)

44. Elements of Romanticism in Literature • Ancient myths, especially Greco-Roman • Great ardor of nature • Attention paid to women • Themes of intuition over reason • Isolation of narrator • More direct language, although not understated • Supernatural

45. Details and references for Romanticism • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romantic_poetry • Very broad definition of Romanticism in all facets of art, the latter pertaining to just poetry • http://www.jahsonic.com/Romanticism.html • Overview of Romanticism • http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/3intro.html • Quick reference and summary of Romantic themes

46. William Wordsworth • 1770-1850 • Catalyzed the British Romantic Movement with the publication of Lyrical Ballads • Work influenced by the Lake District – poems during this time contained strong Romantic images of nature and self-reflection

47. Detail of Previous Slide • Wordsworth was one of three Lake District poets – the other two being Coleridge and Southey. The three created their own style, now recognized as the beginning of Romanticism in English Literature. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Poets

48. Wordsworth • “Lyrical Ballads” • Worked with Coleridge • “Emotion recalled in tranquility” • Tintern Abbey • Lyrical Ballads: Pg 245, Tintern Abbey: Pg 258 (All textual references are in The Norton-English Lit Vol D)

49. Detail for Previous Slide • “Lyrical Ballads” published in 1798 • Contained mostly Wordsworth’s poems, although Coleridge’s most influence work, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was included in the first edition. • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrical_Ballads

50. “Tintern Abbey” Detail • The narrator of the poem finds himself looking over the pastoral scene that has resided in his memory through times of hardship and fear. He looks to nature, reminisces about boyhood, and contemplates the mature characteristics has gained from sacrificing his once innocent connection to the natural world. • http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Tintern/index.htm • Interesting site – be sure to check out the annotated version of the poem for insight as Wordsworth drafted through his masterpiece