Reader Response to Austen

7/28/2019 Reader Response to Austen

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READER RESPONSE TO AUSTEN'S NOVELS

Jane Austen is generally acknowledged to be one of the great English novelists, so it is no

surprise that her novels have remained continuously in print from her day to the present.

Contemporary( ( reviewers found much to praise in them. ReviewingEmma for the

Quarterly Review (1816), Sir Walter Scott characterized its strengths and weaknesses:

The author's knowledge of the world, and the peculiar tact( ) with which she presentscharacters that the reader cannot fail to recognize, reminds us something of the merits(

) of the Flemish school of painting. The subjects are not often elegant, and certainly

never grand; but they are finished to nature, and with a precision( ) which delights the

reader....

Her merits consist much in the force of a narrative conducted with much neatness and point,

and a quiet yet comic dialogue, in which the characters of the speakers evolve themselves

with dramatic effect. The faults arise from the minute detail which the author's plan

comprephends. Characters of folly or simplicity, such as those of old Woodhouse and Miss

Bates, are ridiculous when first presented, but if too often brought forward or too long dwelt

upon, their prosing is apt to become as tiresome in fiction as in real society.

George Henry Lewes, writing in 1852, accorded her the status and identified issues that critics

would be repeating and arguing about for the next century and a half:

First and foremost let Austen be named, the greatest artist that has ever written, using the term

to signify the most perfect mastery over the means to her end. There are heights and depths in

human nature Miss Austen has never scaled nor fathomed, there are worlds of passionate

existence into which she has never set foot; but although this is obvious to every reader, it isequally obvious that she has risked no failures by attempting to delineate that which she has

not seen. Her circle may be restricted, but it is complete. Her world is a perfect orb, and vital.

Life, as it presents itself to an English gentlewoman peacefully yet actively engaged in her

quiet village, is mirrored in her works with a purity and fidelity that must endow them with

interest for all time.

Appreciation of her greatness snowballed with the publication of James Edward Austen-

Leigh'sMemoirand Richard Simpson's perceptive critical essay, both in 1870. Macaulay, for

instance, called her a prose Shakespeare because of "the marvellous and subtle distinctive

traits" of her characterizations.

Austen's novels have aroused intense emotional attachments among readers. E.M. Forster

admitted to reading and re-reading her with "the mouth open and the mind closed." Some

readers carry admiration to the point of sentimental adoration; for them, her characters are

beloved friends and Austen is dear Aunt Jane, a proper, sedate, kindly Victorian old maid.

Such readers are often calledJaneites, after a short story called The Janeites which Rudyard

Kipling wrote in 1924.

Not every reader has responded positively to Austen, however. Perplexed, Joseph Conrad

wrote H.G. Wells asking, "What is all this about Jane Austen? What is there in her? What is it

all about?" Probably the most famous rejection of Austen was penned by Charlotte Bronte:

Anything like warmth or enthusiasm, anything energetic, poignant, heartfelt, is utterly out of
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place in commending these works: all such demonstrations the authoress would have met with

a well-bred sneer, would have calmly scorned as outr or extravagant. She does her business

of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well. There is a

Chinese fidelity, a miniature delicacy, in the painting. She ruffles her reader by nothing

vehement, disturbs him with nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her:

she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood ... What sees keenly,speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study: but what throbs fast and full, though hidden,

what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death--

this Miss Austen ignores....Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very

incomplete and rather insensible (notsenseless woman), if this is heresy--I cannot help it.

Bronte's preference for passion over reason in fiction is not uncommon. Horace Walpole

suggested a principle that explains the differing responses of Austen and Bronte to life and

writing novels: "This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."

Building on this comment, Ian Watt suggested that Jane Austen's novels, which are comedies,

"have little appeal to those who believe thought inferior to feeling." Not all readers agree with

Bronte, however, that Austen's novels lack emotion. For Virginia Woolf, Austen was "amistress of much deeper emotion than appears on the surface. She stimulates us to supply

what is not there."

In addition to the question of passion, one of the most frequent criticisms of Austen is the

narrowness of her subject matter. Her characters' interests and Austen's interests may seem

trivial, unimportant, particularly since she wrote at a time when England was engaged in a life

and death struggle with the French and Napoleon. Though she focuses on the everyday lives

and concerns of a few families in a small country circle, her novels still have a profound

effect on many readers. Lord David Cecil offered one way to resolve this paradox; Austen's

is a profound vision. There are other views of life and more extensive; concerned as it is

exclusively with personal relationships, it leaves out several important aspects of experience.

But on her own ground Jane Austen gets to the heart of the matter; her graceful unpretentious

philosophy, founded as it is on an unwavering recognition of fact, directed by an unerring

perception of moral quality, is as impressive as those of the most majestic novelists.

Another common criticism of Austen is her complacent acceptance of the class structure of

her society, its values, and its mores. One response to this charge is to find implicit social

criticism in her novels. D.W. Harding theorized that because Austen was torn between her

perception of the cruelties and corruptions of her society and her strong emotional

attachments to family and friends, she expressed her criticisms of society in ways that werenot necessarily conscious; he calls this covert criticism "regulated hatred." Arnold Kettle in

effect dismissed the charge of Austen's complacency by finding its source in a historical

change in society and in literary practice:

...after Jane Austen, the great novels of the nineteenth century are all, in their different ways,

novels of revolt. The task of the novelists was the same as it had always been--to achieve

realism, to express (with whatever innovations of form and structure they needs must

discover) the truth about life as it faced them. But to do this, to cut through the whole

complex structure of inhumanity and false feeling that ate into the consciousness of the

capitalist world, it was necessary to become a rebel... The great novelists were rebels, and the

measure of their greatness is found in the last analysis to correspond with the degree andconsistency of their rebellion. It was not of course always a conscious, intellectualized


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rebellion; very seldom was it based on anything like a sociological analysis. It was, rather, a

rebellion of the spirit, of the total consciousness, and it was only indirectly reflected in the

lives the writers led. Emily Bronte, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad, outwardly appearing to

conform to the accepted standards of their day, sensed no less profoundly than the radicals

Dickens and George Eliot and Samuel Butler the degradation of human existence in Victorian

society.

THEMES IN AUSTEN'S NOVELS

In her completed novels, Austen generally explores the same issues or questions, though she

explores them from different perspectives, under different situations, and with varied

consequences. However, this does not mean that the endings are necessarily different; being

comic novels, they all end with at least one marriage.

The individual and society

What is the proper relationship of the individual to society and to others? What are theconsequences for the individual, for others, and for society when the individual

ignores or even deliberately transgresses society's rules? What are the consequences

when the individual conforms?

How should conflict between the individual's desires and the individual'sresponsibility to society be resolved? How are the individual and society affected by

the resolution, which may range from self-fulfillment to self-sacrifice?

Are the society and the values which Austen presents a portrayal of actual society, orare they an idealization, goals to be striven for?

Does Austen uncritically accept the values and attitudes of her society? If so, does heracceptance of society give her the freedom to show the limitations and perhaps even

the corruption and cruelties of her society?

Is she concerned with the social responsibility of the privileged? If so, does sheidealize their responsibilities and show the consequences of not fulfilling them?

How is individual worth perceived and determined in a class-conscious society? Whatis proper consciousness of class difference and what is snobbery in Austen's view?

(Modern readers may also ask the question, is there such a thing as proper

consciousness of class difference, or is such consciousness merely one expression of

snobbery?) What are the proper class responsibilities of the individual?

How may concern for others be properly expressed?Freedom and constraint

Is constraint or limitation a condition of living in society? (Some critics find this issueat the heart of Austen's achievement: Martin Price suggests, "The larger irony that

informs all of Jane Austen's comic art is a sense of human limitations." And Walter

Allen believes, "Dickens recognizes no limits at all; the art of Jane Austen is made

possible precisely by the recognition of limits.") Are the rigid rules of conduct in the society Austen depicts necessary to protect the


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weak and the powerless and to control aggression and violence?

A formal cole of behavior or manners prescribes conduct and distances feelings. Butdo the individuals in a society with such a code feel less, or are they merely less able

to express emotion freely and openly? What are the advantages and the drawbacks of

living in such a society as Austen presents them? The advantages and drawbacks may

seem quite different from the perspective of a twenty-first century reader. What use does the individual make of freedom, with what consequences?

Imagination/fancy versus reason/judgment

What are the consequences of yielding to imagination, which may take the form ofprejudice, rather than listening to the dictates of reason?

Do Austen's protagonists generally learn their errors through experience and, as aresult, reform? (May such a change also be described as movement from innocence to

rational experience?)

Are any of her characters held up as flawless models, or is even the most rationalcharacter flawed?

Love, courtship, and marriage

What is proper love? Is it intelligent love, and does Austen understand love "in thefullest sense," as Lionel Trilling suggests? If so, do her protagonists naturally have the

ability to love intelligently, or do they develop it?

What qualities and behavior lead to a happy marriage?EMMA

Though critics generally regardEmma as Austen's most carefully crafted or skillfully written

novel, most readers preferPride and Prejudice orSense and Sensibility. Austen herself

acknowledged thatEmma might present a problem for readers, "I am going to take a heroine

whom no one but myself will much like." And much about Emma is indeed unlikable; she is

snobbish, vain, manipulative, power-hungry, self-deluded, often indifferent to the feelings of

others, and on at least one occasion scathingly cruel.

But do these traits necessarily make her unlikable? Do her admirable traits redeem her, such

as her love for her father, her wit, her good judgment, her sense of social responsibility, and

her gradual admission of error? Does the comedy of watching Emma the Egoist get her

comeuppance through a series of errors and admit she deserved her comeuppance make herlikable? Although Emma knows what the right thing to do is, she still behaves badly; does

this all too common human trait make her sympathetic because readers can identify with her?

The attitude of the narrator is another consideration in evaluating Emma. Though most of the

novel presents Emma's point of view, an omniscient narrator tells the story. Do the narrator's

choice of language, her tone, the details she adds, and her comments upon both Emma and the

action affect the way we feel about Emma? The narrator clearly presents Emma's faults and

her misguided behavior and unsparingly identifies them as such, but does the narrator also

suggest a sympathy or even an affection for Emma that helps to moderate the reader's

negative response to her? Or is even the narrator's attitude unable to overcome the negative


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effect of her faults and irresponsible behavior?

The last question I would like to raise about the reader's response to Emma is this: even if

Emma is unlikable or unsympathetic, is the novel automatically unlikable or flawed?

AUSTEN WEB SITES

Jane Austen Information Page

A miscellany, this site contains hypertext annotated early novels; e-text of passages from

novels, whole novels, light verse, and letters; biography; jokes about Austen; critical

articles;images of Austen; link to the Jane Austen Society; and bibliographies. Search engine

of Austen_L archives and texts of all six novels. Note: I find this site is often not accessible.

Jane Austen Page (Mitsuhara Matsuoka)

Extensive list of links to Austen home pages and to discussion groups, Austen chronology,

works and e-texts, "academic resources," and discussion and images of Hampshire (Austen

country).

On Liking Emma

A lecture from an honors course, Comedy and Society.

The Republic of Pemberley

Discussion group, film adaptions of the novels, links to other Austen sites, quotes from

authors about Austen, Austen's letters, criticsm, biography, and calendars behind the novels.

Check out the Jane Austen Information Page, which includes a sensual scene,the answers to

the riddles and charades inEmma, and geneology charts for the characters.

DISCUSSION OF EMMA

Day 1

Austen,Emma, pp. 7-102

Austen Overview

Point of View and The Narrator

Day 2Emma, pp. 103-209

Emma, Harriet, and Mr. Elton

Day 3

Emma, pp. 209-317

Society

Highbury

Day 4

Emma, pp. 317-412

Mr. Knightley

Egotism
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Women's Lot

The Ending

Other Issues

Quotations

Web paper due (1-2 pages)
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Summary and Analysis Volume 1: Chapter II

Summary

Mr. Weston, a Highbury native of respectable family, was formerly a captain in the militia, a

life that led him to meet and marry Miss Churchill of a great Yorkshire family. When she died

three years later, their one child Frank went to live with the Churchills and took their family

name. Mr. Weston then engaged successfully in trade for the next eighteen or twenty years,

finally buying and settling at Randalls, a property near Highbury which he had long wanted.

Never an unhappy man, he is thus situated when he marries Miss Taylor.

Though one of the boasts of Highbury, Frank Churchill has never been there. Now, however,

gossip and speculation about his coming are strengthened by a "handsome letter" from him to

Mrs. Weston. Whenever the latter visits the Woodhouses, Mr. Woodhouse invariably sighs,

"Ah! poor Miss Taylor. She would be very glad to stay." This, of course, is not the case; it ismerely symptomatic of a man who can "never believe other people to be different from

himself." Similarly, he had earlier been so distressed about the wedding cake that he had

consulted the indulgent apothecary Mr. Perry, who agreed that wedding cake certainly might

disagree with many. Nonetheless there is a "strange rumor" that all of the Perry children ate of

the cake.

Analysis

Much of this short chapter is plain exposition, preparatory material which "places" Mr.

Weston and points to Frank, who will later figure prominently in the story. In addition, the

chapter assures us of the happy appropriateness of the Weston marriage and indicates the

satiric potential of the low-key interests of the provincial community: its people's intimate

concern with each others' affairs and its easy tolerance of Mr. Woodhouse's gentle selfishness.

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Reader Response to Austen