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Jane Austen

And The Women Of Her Time

What was the place of women in the early 19th century?

contents

Title page1

Contents2

Foreword3

Chapter 1 Introduction4

Chapter 2 What's going on in the early 19th century?5

§1 In general5

§2 How does Jane Austen react to those changes

and ideas in her books?6

Chapter 3 Who is Jane Austen?7

§1 Her childhood and early work7

§2 Early Adulthood8

§3 Maturity and death9

Chapter 4 Jane Austen and the women of her time12

§1 The education of women12

§2 Marriage and the alternatives13

Chapter 5 Jane Austen's books16

§1 My choice16

§2 Pride and Prejudice16

§3 Mansfield Park20

§4 Persuasion24

§5 Comparison between the story-lines27

Chapter 6 How does Jane Austen describe women?29

§1 The main character of Persuasion: Anne Elliot29

§2 The female characters of Persuasion30

Chapter 7 Conclusion35

Resources36

Logbook37

Foreword

I really enjoyed making this work because I like Jane Austen's books very much, and it was fun to learn so much about her and the place of women in her time. Unfortunately, I was a bit of a slow starter, so I had to do a whole lot of work at once, but I didn't even mind that. It really took me a lot of time to read en re-read her books, that is why I haven't discussed all her work, but a small selection. Especially the description of all the female characters of the book Persuasion was interesting, I actually intended to make descriptions of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park also, but that would really have been too much work. I am very pleased with this final result, and I hope that you (the reader) are pleased with it as well.

Much reading pleasure!

Manon Schuurkes

Chapter 1

Introduction

My main question for this Profile Work is:

What was the place of women in the early nineteenth century, and what is Jane Austen's view on the women of her time?

To be able to answer this question, I made the following sub-questions:

What is going on in the early nineteenth century?

Who is Jane Austen?

What was the place of women in the early nineteenth century?

How does Jane Austen describe women and what place to they have in her books?

In the following Chapters, I will try to answer these questions. I hope this will give a complete image of Jane Austen, her books and the way women were seen in the early nineteenth century. I will shortly summarize it in the Conclusion. I hope that everything will be clear and understandable for whoever reads this work, even when they have never heard of Jane Austen.

Chapter 2

What's Going On In The Early 19th Century?

§1 In general

In the early nineteenth century, arts and sciences flourished, and growing trade brought wealth into the country. The people believed at that time, that the Western civilization was at a higher level than ever before. People were optimistic and had a lot of self-confidence. It was a time of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the Industrial Revolution.

In the early 19th century, there is a crossing between two periods; the age of reason ends and the romantic period begins. So this is a time where the age of common sense and wisdom is becoming overruled by living for your emotions and escaping out of the city, into the nature. To understand the period Jane Austen lived in, I will give a short description of both the age of reason and the romantic period.

The age of reason

The age of reason is also called the Neoclassical period, or the Augustan age. Neoclassical, for there was a great revival of the old ancient period. The classics presented the highest ideals in life, art and literature, and to follow them was the best thing you could do. It's also called the Augustan age, this refers to the Roman emperor Augustus, during whose reign the Roman Empire enjoyed a period of great prosperity. Englishmen of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century found themselves in a similar position, things had never been better, and the discussion whether their civilization was not actually superior to the ancient world itself was a widely discussed topic.

Every man, it was thought, had some degree of reason in him, and if only it was used and developed the right way, the powers of the human mind were nearly infinite. The best definition of reason in that time was 'a calm, balanced judgment, not hindered by personal emotions'.

There was a flow of scientific discoveries which led to the belief that all phenomena of nature, and even religion,could be explained in a rational way. And if that was possible, it followed that in the end all the major problems of mankind could be solved. A brief glance