Jane Austen Jane Austen
• 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817
• the daughter of a clergyman and the seventh child
• unmarried, spent all of her life within a small circle of family and friends in Stevenson, Hampshire, Bath and Southampton
• educated generally at home by his father and elder brothers by reading books.
educated in a boarding school with her sister for a year
• her sister, Cassandra, is the most important person in her life
• died in Winchester, England and
buried at Winchester Cathedral
The Literary Portrait of Jane Austen The Literary Portrait of Jane Austen
• England’s first truly important female novelist and widely regarded as the greatest of all female novelists.
• writing style was elegant and satirical.
in Pride&Prejudice through characters
• plots indentifies the basic and unchanging truths of human nature.
to meet one’s ideal marriage partner is still the hope of every young man and woman
• in her works, often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper-class England
• in her concept of the novel, affected by Richardson and Fielding
third person omniscient narrator shows the influence of Fielding
• her works represents the transition in English Literature from
neo-classicism to romanticism.
• criticism
• critics accuse Austen of potraying a very limited world.
representing a happy and isolated world of middle and upper class. but never giving information about the facts about the time. for example, the wars with France.
• the lack of interest of the lives of the poor
the lower-class is rarely appear in her works and if they, generally servants, appear at all, seem perfectly pleased with their destiny and chance. but
actually they do not.
• Charlotte Bronte
“An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a commonplace face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open countryi no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck.”
Works of Austen Works of Austen
Her completed novels according to publication dates;
• Sense and Sensibility (1811)
• Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• Mansfield Park (1814)
• Emma (1815)
• Northanger Abbey (1817)
• Persuasion (1817)
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice – General – General Information
Information
• first publication is 1813
written between October 1796 and August 1797
• narrator
third-person omniscient
• climax
Mr. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth Bennet
• protagonist
Elizabeth Bennet
• antagonist
Snobbish class-consciousness
• point of view
primarily told from Elizabeth Bennet’s point of view, later some events are told from Mr. Darcy’s point of view
• tone
comic, or in Jane Austen’s own words “light and bright and sparkling”
Plot – Time and Place Plot – Time and Place
• main plot
Mr. Bingley moves into a house in Netherfield, a near estate of the Bennets, with his sisters and friend, Darcy. Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet but doesn’t reveal it. Elizabeth regards Darcy a snobbish upper-class
member. By the way, Bingley and Jane, Elizabeth’s sister, fall in love with each other. However, Darcy prevents the marriage. Thus, Elizabeth hates him. Afterwards, Darcy asks Elizabeth to get marry him, she refuses him.
Then, the incidents are presents from Darcy’s side, and both Elizabeth and Darcy realizes their deficiencies. They get marry at the end of the novel.
• time
the action covers fifteen months, from the autumn of one year to the Christmas of the next and it probably happens in 1794-5.
• place
generally in Longbourn, in rural England. also in Bath and Derbyshire.
Characters in Pride and Prejudice Characters in Pride and Prejudice
• Elizabeth Bennet
protagonist, II. daughter, the most intelligent and sensible, bright and quick-witted, prejudiced.
• Fitzwilliam Darcy
wealthy, intelligent and reserved gentleman, his pride causes him to look down his social inferiors, at the end of the novel his class consciousness is changed.
• Jane Bennet
the eldest and most beautiful daughter, more reserved and gentler than Lizzy, easy-going.
• Charles Bingley
Darcy’s wealthy best friend, blissfully uncaring about the social differences.
• Mr. Bennet
sarcastic sense of humour that he uses purposefully to irritate his wife.
• Mrs. Bennet
foolish and noisy, only goal in life is to see her daughter married.
• Mr. Collins
idiotic clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property, the worst combination of snobbish and obsequious in the novel though his social class is nothing.
• Lady Catherine de Bourgh
rich, bossy noblewoman, Mr. Collins’s patron and Darcy’s aunt, represents class snobbery, especially in her attempts to order the middle-class Elizabeth.
Themes and Motifs Themes and Motifs
• Themes – love, reputation, class
love – contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth.
reputation – depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost importance, a woman is expected to behave in certain ways.
(Elizabeth’s walk and muddy skirts and Mrs. Bingley’s behaviours) class – life of the middle and upper class, Austen satirizes this kind of
class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins, who spends most of his time toadying to his upper-class patron, Lady
Catherine de Bourgh.
• Motifs – courtship and journeys
courtship – the story of two courtship, Elizabeth-Darcy and Jane-
Bingley, and other smaller courtships. courtship therefore takes on a
profound, often unspoken, importance in the novel. marriage is the
ultimate goal.
Social Satire in Pride and Prejudice Social Satire in Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a social satire;
• Austen uses the novel to satirize her society's view of a
woman's role during the time period (late 1700s). Mrs. Bennet is the epitome of the stereotypical lower aristocratic woman of the era. she is most concerned about making the best match for her daughters, feels that she has nothing else to worry about but seeing her daughters married.
• Austen also satirizes the arrogance of the extremely wealthy
aristocrats toward the country folk. Darcy, Ms. Bingley, and
Lady Catherine all play a role in this part of the author's satire.
Women in Pride and Prejudice Women in Pride and Prejudice Comparing with Women of the Comparing with Women of the
Period Period
Women of the Period;
• had a very specific role in society and were expected to be both subservient and innocent,
• their primary role was to get married, has children and maintain a household for their husbands,
• deferred to decisions made by men, regardless of their own feelings.
Women in Pride and Prejudice;
• Elizabeth is contrast to this definition of ideal woman, she is clever and opinionated, also did not choose to marry for money, but rather, chooses love.
• Charlotte chose to marry for money rather than love and Austen potrays her as petty and weak in contrast to Elizabeth.
• Jane is potrayed to be an ideal woman, she marries for love, but does so without the pride and prejudice of her sister, Elizabeth
It can be suggested that Austen was trying to encourage women to believe their own opinions and valid.
“ “ pride” and “prejudice” pride” and “prejudice”
The main characters on whom the title is based are Elizabeth and Darcy.
• Darcy is represents “pride” because at the beginning of the novel, he is too proud to mingle with the society in and around Meryton. He avoids the
Bennet family because their social statue.
• Elizabeth is an example
of “prejudice” because
she cannot abide the
pride and snobbishness
of Darcy.
Pride and Prejudice – Social Classes Pride and Prejudice – Social Classes
through Fashions and Clothing - through Fashions and Clothing -
Women
Women
Pride and Prejudice – Social Pride and Prejudice – Social Classes through Fashion
Classes through Fashion s s and and Clothing - Men
Clothing - Men
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly (1797 - 1851)
She was born in london in 1797
She was a British novelist, short story
writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer,
and travel writer, best known for her
Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The
Modern Prometheus (1818).
HER WORKS
FRANKENSTEİN: OR, THE
MODERN PROMETHEUS (1818).
A man of science, who sought to create a man after his own image, without
reckoning upon God.
It deals with the two great mysteries of
creation: life and death.
In Mary Shelley's day, many people regarded the new science of electricity with both wonder and astonishment. In
Frankenstein, Shelley uses both the new sciences of chemistry and electricity and the older Renaissance tradition of the
alchemists' search for the elixir of life to conjure up the
Promethean possibility of reanimating the bodies of the dead.
THE SPARK OF LIFE
“I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old
and beautiful oak… and so soon as the dazzling light vanished the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump…
eagerly inquired of my father the nature and origin of thunder and lightning. He replied,
“‘Electricity.’”
With feverish excitement, Victor Frankenstein pursues nature to his hiding places. By moonlight, he gathers the body parts he needs by visits to the graveyard, to the charnel house, to the hospital dissecting room and the slaughterhouse. Although he finds his solitary preoccupation repulsive, he is not deterred from his quest to restore life.
Midnight Labors
Overcome by the horror of what he has done, Victor Frankenstein abandons the "miserable monster" he fathered in his laboratory. That evening a nightmare disturbs his sleep; Elizabeth, his fiancée, becomes in his arms the decaying corpse of his own dead mother.
The next morning when he returns to his "workshop of filthy creation," the monster has escaped.
THE MONSTER HAS ESCAPED
Mary Shelley gave her monster feelings and intelligence.
Fatherless and motherless, the
monster struggles to find his place in human society, struggles with the most fundamental questions of identity and personal history.
Alone, he learns to speak, to read, and to ponder "his accursed
origins." All the while, he suffers from the loneliness of never
seeing anyone resembling himself.
Poor, Helpless, Miserable Wretch
Abandoned by his creator, the monster takes his
revenge on Frankenstein by killing his younger brother, William. Frankenstein's silence, in the face of the
monster's murderous actions, exacts a terrible price.
His self-imposed isolation from society mirrors the social isolation the monster experiences from all who see him. Frankenstein's decision to remain silent about the monster leads to further tragedy.
Remaining Silent
Frankenstein initially agrees to create a mate for his monster. But as Frankenstein begins to assemble an Eve for his Adam, he grows terrified by the prospect that this female creature will be "ten
thousand times more malignant" than her companion, and that the two might themselves produce "a race of devils."
So, He breaks his promise to the monster.
Inflamed with hatred, the monster sets outs to destroy in Frankenstein's life.
After killing Clerval, Frankenstein's best friend, the monster murders Elizabeth, Frankenstein's bride, on their wedding night.
A Monstrous Mate
Elizabeth (Frankenstein’s bride)
