A Tale of A Tub by Jonathan Swift
This blog task is assgined by Prakruti Bhatt Ma'am ( Department of English).
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
This blog task is assigned by Megha Trivedi Ma'am(Department of English, MKBU).
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
This blog is in response to the blog task given to us by the head of the department of English Prof. and Dr. Dilip Barad sir based on the topic from Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy. In this blog I am going to deal with the structure of the novel as well as the thematic study of the novel "Jude the Obscure'. Here is the link of Professor's blog: Click here.
Here is the Mind Map of this blog: Click here
This video provides a brief overview of the blog’s main ideas:
Why Jane Austen still matters in the 21st Century ?
Jane Austen (1775–1817) was a pioneering English novelist whose sharp wit, strong female characters, and keen observations of class and courtship have captivated readers for over 200 years. Her novels—like Pride and Prejudice and Emma—blend romance with social critique, offering a window into the complexities of 19th-century life.
WHY JANE AUSTEN REMAINS SIGNIFICANT TODAY?
Jane Austen remains significant today not only for her literary brilliance, but because her themes—love, identity, independence, and societal pressure—are still deeply relatable. Her voice, both clever and compassionate, continues to speak to generations across time.
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England, the seventh of eight children in a lively, book-loving family. Her father was a clergyman who encouraged her education and creativity—unusual support for a young girl at the time. Austen began writing stories as a teenager, developing her signature wit and observational style early on.
Though she never married, her experiences and keen observations of social dynamics shaped her novels’ strong heroines and romantic tensions. Most of her life was spent in the English countryside, particularly in Chawton, where she revised and wrote the works that would define her legacy. Jane Austen died at just 41, in 1817, but her novels have endured for over two centuries—quiet yet powerful revolutions in the world of literature.
Themes in Her Work
At the heart of Jane Austen’s novels lie timeless themes that continue to resonate with modern readers. She masterfully explores love and marriage, not just as romantic ideals but as social contracts shaped by class, wealth, and personal character. Her stories delve into social mobility and class structure, subtly critiquing the rigid hierarchies of Regency England.
Austen also gives voice to themes of female agency and independence, portraying women who seek more than societal expectations allow. Through her wit and irony, she examines morality, personal growth, and the tension between individual desire and social duty.
These themes, though rooted in her time, remain strikingly relevant—revealing how much has changed, and how much hasn’t.
1. Love and Marriage
A central theme in all of Austen’s novels, marriage is not just about romance—it’s about social stability, economic security, and personal happiness. Austen explores different kinds of marriages: those based on love, convenience, vanity, or financial gain.
Example:
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet refuses to marry Mr. Collins for security and only accepts Mr. Darcy after genuine love and mutual respect develop.
2. Class and Social Status
Austen examines the rigid class system of her time and how social status affects people’s opportunities, behavior, and relationships.
Example:
In Emma, Emma Woodhouse initially looks down on Harriet Smith’s romantic choices due to class differences.
3. Women’s Roles and Independence
Austen highlights the limited options available to women and often portrays heroines who challenge or quietly resist societal expectations.
Example:
In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth speaks her mind and refuses to marry without love, even at the risk of financial insecurity.
In Emma, Austen presents a woman who is financially independent and delays marriage, showing that happiness doesn’t have to come through social conformity.
4. Self-Discovery and Personal Growth
Many of Austen’s characters must confront their own flaws and grow emotionally and morally before finding happiness.
Example:
In Emma, the heroine learns humility and begins to see the people around her more clearly.
5. Irony and Social Satire
Austen uses humor and irony to critique vanity, hypocrisy, and shallow social behavior, especially among the wealthy and powerful.
Example:
Northanger Abbey satirizes Gothic novels and the romantic imagination of young readers like Catherine Morland.
6. Appearances vs. Reality
Austen often shows how people are misjudged based on first impressions, social image, or charm—and how truth is revealed through character and conduct.
Example:
In Pride and Prejudice, Wickham appears charming and noble, but turns out to be selfish and deceptive, while Darcy, initially seen as proud, proves to be kind and principled.
In Emma, Frank Churchill is admired for his charm, but his true intentions are hidden.
Jane Austen's writing style is elegant, witty, and sharply observant. Though she wrote during the early 19th century, her language remains accessible and her insights into human behavior are timeless. She skillfully combines realism, irony, social critique, and psychological depth in her storytelling.
1. Free Indirect Speech (Narrative Technique)
Austen is famous for using free indirect discourse, a style that blends the narrator’s voice with the character’s inner thoughts. This creates intimacy with characters while maintaining a third-person perspective.
Example:
"Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure."
Here, the narrative reflects Elizabeth's emotions without switching to first-person.
2. Irony and Wit
Irony is the hallmark of Austen’s style. She uses it to critique social norms, expose hypocrisy, and gently mock her characters.
Example:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
Pride and Prejudice (Opening line)
This ironic sentence immediately sets the tone for her social satire.
3. Realistic Dialogue
Her characters speak in a natural, conversational tone that reflects their class, intelligence, and personality. Dialogue is central to character development and plot.
Example:
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s conversations are full of tension, intelligence, and emotional undercurrents.
4. Social Commentary
Austen subtly critiques issues such as class privilege, gender inequality, and marriage markets. She never preaches directly, but her characters and situations reveal the flaws of her society.
Example:
In Emma, Austen examines the dangers of matchmaking and judging people based on social status.
5. Economy of Language
Austen writes with clarity and precision. She avoids unnecessary description and focuses on character, behavior, and dialogue.
Example:
Rather than elaborate settings or dramatic events, she focuses on small, everyday details that reveal larger truths.
6.Character-Centered Narratives
Her novels are less about events and more about how characters grow, learn, or fail. The drama is internal, focused on decisions, values, and emotional journeys.
Example:
In Persuasion, Anne Elliot’s quiet strength and emotional depth drive the narrative.
7. Moral Subtlety
Unlike didactic authors, Austen presents moral dilemmas without overt preaching. Readers are invited to observe, reflect, and judge.
Example:
In Mansfield Park, the contrast between Fanny Price and the Crawfords encourages readers to consider integrity vs. charm.
“You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” — Mr. Darcy
Set in the English countryside, Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet, the witty and independent second daughter of a modest family with five daughters. When the wealthy and aloof Mr. Darcy arrives in town, Elizabeth forms a harsh opinion of him based on his proud behavior and rumors. However, as events unfold, she begins to see the true depth of his character, while Darcy learns to overcome his social arrogance. Through a series of misunderstandings, proposals, and transformations, both characters grow and ultimately fall in love—learning that pride and prejudice must be overcome for true understanding.
Themes:
2. Sense and Sensibility (1811)
“Know your own happiness. Want for nothing but patience—or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.” — Elinor Dashwood
When the Dashwood family loses their fortune, sisters Elinor and Marianne are forced to depend on the kindness of relatives. Elinor represents sense (logic and restraint), while Marianne is all sensibility (emotion and impulse). Their contrasting approaches to love and life are tested through heartbreak and disappointment Elinor by the secret engagement of her beloved Edward, and Marianne by the betrayal of the charming Willoughby. In the end, both sisters find happiness, but only after learning from each other and accepting life’s realities.
Themes:
3. Emma (1815)
“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” — Mr. Knightley
Emma Woodhouse is wealthy, beautiful, and clever—but dangerously overconfident in her matchmaking skills. She plays with people’s affections, especially trying to pair her friend Harriet Smith with the wrong man. Blinded by pride and assumptions, Emma fails to notice her own feelings for Mr. Knightley, her closest confidant and moral compass. As her misguided plans unravel, she matures, realizes her mistakes, and discovers that love cannot be orchestrated—it must be genuine.
Themes:
4. Persuasion (1818)
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.” — Captain Wentworth
Anne Elliot, quiet and thoughtful, once rejected the proposal of Captain Frederick Wentworth due to pressure from her family, who thought him socially inferior. Years later, he returns—now wealthy and successful—while Anne’s family has fallen into decline. Still in love, Anne remains composed while Wentworth seems indifferent. But through subtle gestures and emotional restraint, Austen builds one of literature’s most mature and touching love stories—proving that love can endure even through silence, time, and regret.
Themes:
5. Northanger Abbey (published 1818)
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.” — Catherine Morland
Young and imaginative Catherine Morland, obsessed with Gothic novels, is invited to stay at Northanger Abbey. Expecting dark secrets, hidden passages, and dramatic events, she finds instead a real world filled with flirtation, social games, and subtle manipulation. Her fantasy-driven view of the world leads to mistakes, but ultimately, Catherine grows into a more discerning young woman—learning to balance imagination with reality.
Themes:
6. Mansfield Park (1814)
“Selfishness must always be forgiven, you know, because there is no hope of a cure.” — Mary Crawford
Fanny Price, a shy and poor relative, is raised by her wealthy uncle and aunt at Mansfield Park. Overlooked and underestimated, she observes the moral weaknesses of those around her: vanity, manipulation, and selfishness among the upper class. As others fall to temptation—particularly during a scandalous amateur play and a failed elopement—Fanny’s steady principles and emotional resilience quietly emerge as her true strength. Her quiet virtue is finally recognized by Edmund Bertram, the man she has loved from afar.
Themes:
JANE AUSTEN'S REACTION TO ROMANTICISM
Romanticism was a literary movement that began to emerge during the end of the 18th century. With its emphasis on the subjective aspects of life, Romanticism can be construed as a response to the austere formality that the ideals of the Enlightenment projected onto the world. In one sense, Romanticism is concerned with restoring humankind's place in the world. In another, it can be understood as prescribing a boundary for the limits of Reason. Romantic ideals considered human emotion as an authoritative source for genuine knowledge. Whereas the Enlightenment valued the virtues of reason above all, Romanticism rejected the dehumanizing characterization of man as machine and sought to establish an organic notion of humanity. Among the most influential figures who defined the Romantic movement were the poets William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, and William Wordsworth, whose work served to mark a distinct shift in the overall ethos of the 18th century.
Writing during a time when the general paradigm was shifting from Enlightenment ideals to those of Romanticism, Jane Austen’s fiction is often discussed as exhibiting aspects of both movements.
In her book A Revolution Almost beyond Expression: Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Dr. Jocelyn Harris suggests that Jane Austen’s last novel, Persuasion, exhibits aspects of Romantic ideals and thus belongs to the Romantic movement. The literary critic Marilyn Butler, however, argues in her book Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, that Persuasion highlights the more traditional Augustan values of the earlier time.
OPPOSITION TO SENSATIONAL AND GOTHIC FICTION
Jane Austen's work was directly opposed to the gothic fiction popularized by writers like Ann Redcliffe. Where Gothic novels relied on mystery, horror, and improbable plots, Ausaten mocked these excesses, particularly in Northanger Abbey, and promoted a fiction that was credible, socially grounded and morally insightful.
THE CHARM OF HER NOVEL
There are few points which are important to understand Jane Austen's novel:
Her novels invite readers to observe the ordinary with fresh ideas or interest, aand they reward close attention to Dialogue and social detail.
JANE AUSTEN VS. SIR WALTER SCOTT
(PRIDE AND PREJUDICE VS. IVANHOE)
Here is the detailed answer on comparative question on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, with a focus on subject, characters, treatment, narrative interest and authorical technique:
THEMATIC COMPARISION
CHARACTERIZATION STYLE AND TONE
DO AUSTEN'S CHARACTERS EXPLAIN THEMSELVES ? Yes—Jane Austen’s characters often do explain themselves, but not in the direct, confessional way found in some other literary traditions. Instead, they reveal themselves through dialogue, internal reflection, social interactions, and narrative irony. Austen relies on subtlety, nuance, and psychological realism rather than overt self-explanation. 1. Through DialogueAusten’s characters often reveal their values, personalities, and growth through carefully crafted conversations.
2. Through Free Indirect DiscourseAusten pioneered this narrative technique, where the third-person narrator filters thoughts through a character's perspective. This allows the reader to hear a character’s internal reasoning and emotional development without the character speaking directly to the reader.
3. Through Action and InteractionCharacters are revealed by what they do, not just what they say.
4. Self-Realization and GrowthSome characters (especially heroines) do reflect and self-explain as they grow:
Other characters, however, never explain themselves—either because they lack self-awareness (like Mr. Collins) or are used as foils for the more reflective protagonists. WHAT DOES JANE AUSTEN SAY ABOUT MRS.RADCLIFFE, IN NORTHANGER ABBEY?DOES SHE MAKE ANY OTHER OBSERVATIONS ON EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NOVELISTS? What Austen says about Mrs. Radcliffe in Northanger Abbey:
Austen’s Other Observations on 18th-Century Novelists:
She praises authors like Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Ann Radcliffe as talented writers who deserve respect.
THANK YOU ! |
