Topic started by Vishvesh Obla (@ www.gltg.com) on Wed Nov 1 13:42:49 .
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• From: Vishvesh Obla (@ www.gltg.com) on: Wed Nov 1 13:46:36 EST 2000
  
  Jane Austen is considered to be the first great English novelist by many English critics. A study of the great English novels show an interesting pattern of certain artisitic similarities, which is exhibited first in Jane Austen (F.R.Leavis has done a remarkable work on the literary tradition found behind the greatest English novelists starting with Jane Austen and continuing with George Eliot, Charles Dikens, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and ending with D.H.Lawrence).
  
  “Emma” is, no doubt, her greatest work. That she titled this work with the heroine’s name shows how the importance she herself gave to the character of Emma. Emma is perhaps the most loved and sometimes hated too of all her characters.
  
  When one looks into her works, one finds a constant process of ‘learning’ in all her characters. They all ‘evolve’ in the understanding of the essentials of a vital life. She concentrates mostly with the development of her heroines who err and err and through their errors arrive at a maturer state of mind in the end. There is a very fine sense of a growth of maturity of her characters in all her works. If Darcy from ‘Pride and Prejudice’ learns something, something so important to his self-awareness which he had never cared for till he is acquainted with Elizabeth, we also do see that Elizabeth moulded by the best things that Darcy has by himself. Emma thinks that she could do things as she wishes by her conceit about herself, but realizes what a folly she has been in in the dangerous art of match making when it finally turns against herself. While we admire the intelligence of Mr.Knightley in his advices to Emma, we get equally delighted to see a lively mind as Emma’s actively indulged in its fancies, refusing to relate sense to them. Her heroines, Fanny Price from ‘Mansfield Park’, Eliza, needless to say which novel she appears in, the Dashwood sisters Elinor and Marianne from ‘Sense and Sensibility’, and even a older heroine such as Anne Elliot from ‘Persuasion’ never cease to hold our attention and admiration for their charm and their natural development of character. They impart wisdom as they themselves learn from life.
  
  This growth of understanding in life-like situations which are only seen in the NOVELS is what characterizes the great English Novelists. They offer the possibility of a maturity in one’s relation with life; one becomes a better person when one reads such works.
  
  The characterization of Jane Austen deserves a greater attention too. There are a few other aspects of her novels like the subtle but yet powerful irony behind her novels. It could be nicer if someone could follow up the thread on them (if there are any interested in such things in our times infested with the mechanical thinking habits influenced by the IT revolution !). That could perhaps lead to a richer discussion…
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: bookworm (@ 164.164.86.66) on: Sun Nov 5 11:46:51 EST 2000
  
  Vishvesh,
  
  I have a lot to write on this..but just have got to leave now. Continuing on Austen's powerful irony, here's one of the most outstanding pieces I've ever read in life...from that master of language, Mr Collins.
  
  "The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented, because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, that this licentiousness of behaviour in your daughter has proceeded from a faulty degree of indulgence; though, at the same time, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs. Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity at so early an age. . . . They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others; for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family? And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect, with augmented satisfaction, on a certain event of last November; for had it been otherwise, I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace. "
  
  (If you have ever wondered as to how many insults can be packed in a few sentences, doubtless you would be surprised by the above para, IMO a revelation on Jane's authoring skills)
  
  I can imagine how much you would relish reading it... ;-)
  
  
• From: Vishvesh Obla (@ www.gltg.com) on: Mon Nov 6 11:57:40 EST 2000
  
  Hi Pal (it would be nicer if I could address a name !),
  You chose a nice passage. Mr.Collins, who strikes the reader by his incessant talking, who appears even kind of naive, is here at his real dirty self. Jane Austen was very sharp in observing the workings of the human mind through such characterizations. He is a coward to the core and can wreck vengeance only at someone who is already been prostrated. Mr.Bennett, ir-responsible as he seems to be, and to a certain extent as he really is, is able to find this unsteady disposition of mind in Mr.Collins when he makes the proposal itself, and that is so striking of his character.
  Nice to be remembering the subtler details of the novel...
  
  
• From: bookworm (@ 164.164.86.66) on: Wed Nov 8 10:02:41 EST 2000
  
  Hi Vishvesh,
  
  My name is anu. Glad that you appreciate that passage. The success of Jane lies in deeply studying the simple characters around us, and depict them accurately. How many Collinses indeed abound in the world?
  
  The proposal of Collins is another example of the great comic sense of Jane. Contrasting it with the proposal of Darcy(1st) gives great insight into the characteristics of both.
  
  
• From: Vishvesh Obla (@ albany-ip-1-235.dynamic.ziplink.net) on: Fri Nov 10 14:34:59 EST 2000
  
  Hi Ms.Anu,
  Nice to address someone with a name instead of calling Hi Bookworm !
  Darcy, while he proposes, is still head strong, but doesn't show the insteady disposition of Collins. He has the virtues of his class which Eliza unconsciously recognizes right from the beginning, despite her set prejudice. Jane Austen always focuses on certain standards of life which she found that went along with the good breeding of the English upper class. She endows the same traits to the characterization of Darcy. Only he needs to be refined of certain traits of arrogance, which could be imparted only by the charm and a kind of womanly intelligence. He has the inborn qualities of a learned upper class english landlord which is capable of recognizing and respecting intelligence (that he finds in Eliza despite all his outward arrogance). Collins is only prudish in spite of all his humility which is so false, and which is so common to middle class humanity in general. Not to mean that the upper class is always virtuous, but Jane Austen found certain traits of taste in them which makes life richer. You can observe it better in Mr.Knightley in "Emma" and Edmund in "Mansfield Park". They exhibit strikingly the wisdom that goes along with such taste and breeding.
  By the bye, you could find another interesting parallel to Collins in the character of Mr.Elton in "Emma".
  
  
• From: Lewis Cowan (@ 06-136.dip.poptel.org.uk) on: Tue Sep 11 16:05:27
  
  Thanks for the help on the similarities of Austen's work. Lewis
  
  
• From: no (@ natted-from-10-address.sdhc.k12.fl.us) on: Thu Nov 20 14:03:11
  
  no
  
  

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