Until 1980s, the mainstream of Jane Austen criticism had been characterized by its emphasis on Austen's "limited subject matter" and her conservative world view. While ignoring the world-historical events such as the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, the critics argued, Austen described ...
Until 1980s, the mainstream of Jane Austen criticism had been characterized by its emphasis on Austen's "limited subject matter" and her conservative world view. While ignoring the world-historical events such as the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, the critics argued, Austen described only the quiet family life in a small country village and supported the status quo. The rise of feminist and new historicist criticism during the 1980s and 1990s, however, has brought some changes in the vista of Austen criticism. These critics have uncovered the wide range of issues enclosed in the Austen novels such as imperialism, class and gender and especially her excruciating criticism of women's social position in her period. Thus many critics believed her to be a feminist writer. For example, Margaret Kirkham places Austen among her contemporary Enlightenment feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, since she emphasized that women were rational creatures like men. Other critics also indicate that Austen explicitly shows her concern about women's social and economic deprivation This thesis examines Austen's recognition of the social problems that contemporary women confronted and explores the ways in which she describes the heroines' mental growth and self-recognition in Mansfield Park and Persuasion. Mansfield Park is known as the most moralistic and thought-provoking work among Austen novels. Specifically the heroine, Fanny Price, undergoes various changes and becomes a mature person. At the beginning of the novel, Fanny was not different from the typically passive and submissive women characters of those days. She seemed weak both physically and emotionally. However, as the novel progresses, she becomes a strong-willed woman who can defy even the formidable patriarch Sir Thomas Bertram who raised her with his own children and she becomes indispensable to the Bertram family displacing his daughters. In Persuasion, Austen deals with the class issue more directly, depicting the differences between the gentry, middle class and the navy. She compares their values, abilities and nature through the heroine's point of view. The perceptive heroine, Anne Elliot, observes the three groups and develops her own criteria to judge people and events. In doing so, she obtains self-knowledge and mental growth and thereby changes from "nobody" in her family into a cherished personage among people around her. Both Anne and Fanny, experiencing various situations, learn to grow and eventually gain the necessary self-recognition.
Until 1980s, the mainstream of Jane Austen criticism had been characterized by its emphasis on Austen's "limited subject matter" and her conservative world view. While ignoring the world-historical events such as the French Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo, the critics argued, Austen described only the quiet family life in a small country village and supported the status quo. The rise of feminist and new historicist criticism during the 1980s and 1990s, however, has brought some changes in the vista of Austen criticism. These critics have uncovered the wide range of issues enclosed in the Austen novels such as imperialism, class and gender and especially her excruciating criticism of women's social position in her period. Thus many critics believed her to be a feminist writer. For example, Margaret Kirkham places Austen among her contemporary Enlightenment feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, since she emphasized that women were rational creatures like men. Other critics also indicate that Austen explicitly shows her concern about women's social and economic deprivation This thesis examines Austen's recognition of the social problems that contemporary women confronted and explores the ways in which she describes the heroines' mental growth and self-recognition in Mansfield Park and Persuasion. Mansfield Park is known as the most moralistic and thought-provoking work among Austen novels. Specifically the heroine, Fanny Price, undergoes various changes and becomes a mature person. At the beginning of the novel, Fanny was not different from the typically passive and submissive women characters of those days. She seemed weak both physically and emotionally. However, as the novel progresses, she becomes a strong-willed woman who can defy even the formidable patriarch Sir Thomas Bertram who raised her with his own children and she becomes indispensable to the Bertram family displacing his daughters. In Persuasion, Austen deals with the class issue more directly, depicting the differences between the gentry, middle class and the navy. She compares their values, abilities and nature through the heroine's point of view. The perceptive heroine, Anne Elliot, observes the three groups and develops her own criteria to judge people and events. In doing so, she obtains self-knowledge and mental growth and thereby changes from "nobody" in her family into a cherished personage among people around her. Both Anne and Fanny, experiencing various situations, learn to grow and eventually gain the necessary self-recognition.
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