Laughter Social Power

In Jane Austen “Love and Friendship” she illustrates the gender disparity of power and rebellion. The Romantics feature prominently the ideals of rebellion and revolution. In William Wordsworth essay “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” he describes the poet “He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind” (pg 299) However, Jane Austen uses parody and satire as a way to show the sexism behind the Romanticism particularly the sensibility novels. That the portrayals of rebellion in “Love and Friendship” were just as important as our heroines pursuit for love and friendship. “Love and Friendship” is a perfect parody of sentimental genre and shows the sexism in England at the time and how the exaggeration of the middle-upper class characters to show how ridiculous the depictions of women are fiction at the time.

Of the countless examples of figurative language in Night I have decided to perform my in-depth analysis of the following three examples dispersed throughout the book.

The value of literature delineates an opportunity for humanity to achieve collective growth. The intellectual capability of both individuals and communities are affected by the importance assigned to literary works. Lack of such regard results in a limited capacity for sociological cohesion consequently shaping the discourse of an era. Austen inadvertently expresses the minimal regard for written material in her society through Pride and Prejudice. The exclamation “there is no enjoyment like reading!” highlights the passion felt for such an activity. However, this desire can be attributed to discourse. Austen exhibits this through the cultural expectation that a woman “must have thorough knowledge”, furthered by the dialogue of gaining cognizance

The parody showcased at Northanger Abbey is separated into two distinctive phases. In Volume 1, Austen more so mocked the characters, typical stereotypes, and behaviors often found in sentimental novels, though aspects of the

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice takes place in rural England among the landed gentry. In the society’s social atmosphere, it is imperative for characters to have a facade and for most of the characters, their first impressions are much different from who they really are. The only characters that do not have a facade, such as Mr. Collins, are socially inept. These first impressions play a large role in the novel and are often taken at face value, to the detriment of the receiver and impressionist.

The progress between Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s relationship, in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) illustrates and explores several the key themes in the novel. Their relationship highlights class expectations, pride and prejudice, and marriage, and how they play a major role in determining the course of their association. These are outlined through their first prejudiced dislike of each other when they first meet, the stronger feelings for Elizabeth that develop on Darcy’s side, her rejection in Darcy’s first proposal, then her change of opinion and lastly the mutual love they form for one another. Pride and Prejudice is set up as a satire, commenting on human idiocy, and Jane Austen

The novel Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is set in a world with very strict social rules. In her essay Austen’s Blush, Mary Ann O’Farrell analyzes the breaking of these rules, or incivility, in the novel. She refers to public incivility as exposure, where the character’s inappropriate actions are visible by many people. She uses mortification and embarrassment interchangeably as the uncomfortable feelings experienced by socially aware characters when social rules are broken, and divides these feelings into two parts, the buildup as transgressions are being made and the release when the situation is escaped or resolved. Blushing is the physical act that reflects these feelings of mortification and embarrassment, one of the few socially acceptable actions that reveal a person’s true feelings. O’Farrell disagrees with George Henry Lewis’ criticism that “Austen misses [...] ‘many of the subtle connections between physical and mental organization’” (O’Farrell 127), instead arguing that Austen uses physical changes to indicate her characters’ mental states, in particular using blushes “as natural and involuntary signals of embarrassment, vexation, anger, or love” (O’Farrell 128). O’Farrell argues in her aptly titled Austen’s Blush that that the incivility of embarrassment, which blushing indicates, in Pride and Prejudice, is necessary for the progression of the plot, the connections between the characters, and the experience of the reader.

Jane Austen is well known as a novelist for her satirical representation of female characters in late Georgian society. During this period, novel writing and reading was still a controversial topic, and as such was incorporated in her book Northanger Abbey (1817), which has at its core a young female protagonist obsessed with novels. We can clearly interpret Northanger Abbey as Austen’s satirical response to the social conventions decrying novel reading, as she uses an intrusive narrator and more subtle supplementary techniques to comment on and satirize the debate surrounding novels.

Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice, used her characters to incorporate multiple instances of verbal, situational, and dramatic irony into her novel in order to satirize English social life during the Regency Period. Austen’s novel primarily follows Elizabeth Bennet - an upper class and reasonable heroine, and her family. Throughout the book, Elizabeth and her family are used by Jane Austen to create opportunities for irony. Despite Pride and Prejudice containing as much irony as coal in Newcastle, each of Austen’s uses of irony also target a specific aspect of one of her characters or conflicts from the novel.

unpleasant social peculiarities, via a most careful use of irony in the dialogues and thoughts of

It is universally acknowledged that in every Austenian novel “irony” is present. In fact, Jane Austen’s works are referred to as “romantic comedies written in an ironic voice and realistic style”. Particularly in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, where throughout she allows her heroine to share her own unique reaction to the world. Thus the main aim of this paper is to observe Jane Austen’s use of irony in her novel Pride and Prejudice, by taking particular notice to the 19th Century context that she is writing in, irony and authority, irony and discourse, the type of irony used and the limits of irony in the novel.

    "Like all true literary classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is still capable of engaging us, both emotionally and intellectually" (Twayne back flap) through its characters and themes. This essay illustrates how Jane Austen uses the characterization of the major characters and irony to portray the theme of societal frailties and vices because of a flawed humanity. Austen writes about the appearance vs. the reality of the characters, the disinclination to believe other characters, the desire to judge others, and the tendency to take people on first impressions.

Thesis: Throughout the text of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen challenges gender and social norms in the Georgian Era through the development of Elizabeth Bennet as she interacts with characters in the novel.

Pride and Prejudice, a novel written by Jane Austen during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century is often thought of as simply a love story and although on the surface this is true, it is in fact much more than that. Austen focuses greatly on the class system and lack of social mobility allowed in England during this period (the Napoleonic Wars, 1797-1815) and the pride and prejudice that these social divides reveal, as well as the personal pride and prejudice shown by individual characters and how these interlink. The novel is in many ways a comedy of manners (that is, a comedy that ridicules a particular social group because of their attitudes and behaviour, in this case the Upper class and to some extent the Middle class).

Superiority theory was therefore confirmed by the superior members of society refraining from laughing. In “Reflections Upon Laughter,” Hutcheson argued against Hobbes’s claim that the essential feature of laughter is expressing feelings of superiority is. If Hobbes were right, claims Hutcheson, there can be no laughter where we do not compare ourselves with others or with some former state of ourselves and whenever we feel “sudden glory,” we laugh. But neither of these is true. We sometimes laugh at an odd metaphor or simile, for example, without comparing ourselves to anyone. Not only are feelings of superiority not necessary for amusement, Hutcheson argued, but they are not sufficient, either. We have feelings of superiority toward people