ACL 2007 |
Lecture 2 |
Lecture Outline
1. The context of Pride and Prejudice's production: Jane Austen began work on the novel in 1796 and worked on it to its publication in 1813 Austen's personal social circle was respectable middle-class but not particularly affluent. Her life was lived within a relatively small circle of people and in a very small geographic location. Her writing was done within the domestic sphere and, at times, almost secretively. Her ability to write and publish in what was an extremely masculine public world can be attributed to the rising popularity of the novel as a form. The context of Pride and Prejudice's production: Gothic British novels were beginning to fall clearly into what we would now call ‘romance' and ‘realism' camps, although there were some sub-divisions and overlaps. A highly popular form was the Gothic romance, characterised by supernatural ‘romantic' settings and the expression of passion, not exclusively romantic love. However, it is important to note that this kind of novel also often featured an inquisitive and quite intrepid (or possibly foolhardy) young woman as the heroine. Austen satirised the Gothic fashion in her novel Northanger Abbey in which she clearly establishes a preference for realism over romance as a genre but also points out the ways in which fiction broadly can discuss and explore moral values and feelings. Pointedly, she gives the defence of fiction to her male hero: it is part of his desirability! The context of Pride and Prejudice's production: Sentiment Another popular form of novel was the novel of sentiment. It was different from the Gothic in focusing on the exploration of feelings in an everyday rather than supernatural or exotic setting. The sentimental novel was a result of the Romantic Movement's attempt to counter the excessive turn to reason associated with the Enlightenment. In its early stages it was not associated particularly with female writers or readers. The most admired example was The Man of Feeling. These novels were seen as politically dangerous in endorsing the value of individual alternatives to the prevailing moral and political order: celebrating the individual above the society. It is important to remember that this was a period of extreme, revolutionary social unrest. In Sense and Sensibility Austen contrasts the sentimentality of one sister, Marianne, with the good ‘sense' of the other, Elinor. However, this is not quite as neat a moral fable as it might have been written by an earlier writer: the development of the novel does not always entirely endorse Elinor and there are numerous places in which the reader can ‘read against the grain'. There are numerous debates about the extent to which Austen's world view rejects individual sentiment and endorses political and social conservatism. The context of Pride and Prejudice's production: Picaresque The other major genre of novels at the time of Austen's writing was the picaresque tradition associated with writers like Henry Fielding ( Tom Jones ) . This genre borrowed heavily from traditional stories in which the young hero undergoes various trials, often with a comic element. Rather than depending on internal character development, the plot of these novels relies on the movement of the hero through different locations and situations. Despite the tendency toward a comic mode, these novels have a moral imperative and often endorse kindness and personal good will over large-scale heroic gestures. The hero of the picaresque novel is almost always male: by definition, a woman travelling freely and independently is a social misfit with questionable morals. While some of Austen's female characters move around on carefully organised visits (notably, Elizabeth is the most travelled of the Bennet girls) it is always in company. Lydia does not so much travel as run off into the specific danger of social ostracism. The context of Pride and Prejudice's production: Epistolary novels Finally, the other popular genre was the ‘letter' or ‘epistolary' novel This was declining in popularity by Austen's time, but had been one of the earliest forms in the development of the novel. Richardson perfected its use in Clarissa , in which the entire plotting and character development, as well as complex moral questions, are entirely in letter form. The letter provided the character to give a point of view outside the controlling voice of a third-person narrator and created a more direct, dramatic effect. It also was an important narrative device for readers, who, in this early period, were unaccustomed to prose fiction conventions. Note Austen's use of the letter at significant points in Pride and Prejudice' Pride and Prejudice and the Romance novel Clearly, at the centre of Austen's novel is a plot development that follows a conventional comic/romance trajectory:
Romance and fairytale An underlying influence on ‘romance' fiction in its modern sense, is the princess fairytale. In this fairytale, the princess is disguised (as a maid, beggar etc) and has to be recognised for her true self by the prince. Cinderella is a primary example. In this feminine version of the rags to riches story, the heroine must undergo hardship in order to be rescued rather than actively helping herself. As has been frequently observed, there is a gendered class element in this scenario: the heroine ‘marries up'. Fairytales are schematic so that when a novel uses the fairytale convention this is often disguised by the more complex plot, setting and characterisation. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth 's lower social status than Darcy's is pivotal to the plot. Her reward for being inherently superior to her family is to be rewarded with social advancement: the highest-ranking available husband and an estate. Mary is almost as worthy as Elizabeth but gets second prize, Bingley (and his two (morally ugly) sisters). Romance Narrative Structure: 1 There are a number of pivotal scenes in the novel in which the plot developments are advanced. These are clearly divided between public and private encounters. The public encounters often take place at set occasions: dances; formal visits etc. in which the characters are positioned as in a drama. On the whole, the private encounters between Darcy and Elizabeth ( prior to their resolution) also have a dramatic quality The formal movements of dance can be seen to be echoed in the development of the narrative as the characters move backwards and forwards, exchange partners and go through steps to reach a conclusion. There are, however, some occasional but crucial moments, where the dramatisation ceases and there is a focalisation on Elizabeth 's thoughts. This is one of the innovations of Austen's style. This focalisation of Elizabeth 's thoughts and feelings make her closer to a modern fictional character although she retains, overall, the traditional literary functions of the heroine. Public and Private Compare the reader's position in the following:
Romance and Conservatism The Romantic Movement was associated with revolutionary passion and dissent, and a range of emotions including but not limited to personal love. Some writers sought to retain this sense of barely controllable passion in the love-based fiction that increasingly became identified as ‘romance fiction'. Charlotte Bronte, a mid-nineteenth-century writer, viewed the containment of passion as a defect in Austen's work, suggesting what was to become a common complaint, that Austen lacked the experience and imagination to offer anything beyond a safe and neat depiction of domesticated love. ‘She offers a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers' Charlotte Bronte Irony Irony is one of the central devices that Austen uses to manage the romance narrative and contain its passions. The ironic voice of the narrator constantly balances the romance convention's need for the readers to sympathise with the hero and heroine and to desire their happy ending, with a realist and moralist interest. Romantic writing, of the kind Bronte values, is not compatible with irony since it relies on engagement and being ‘carried away': the reverse of ironic detachment. Bronte's characters like Jane Eyre spill their emotions and passions through their speech and actions, often regardless of the public occasion, and demand empathy . Austen's characters require some sympathy but even the inner feelings of Elizabeth at her lowest point are distanced: the careful control of the language moves between reasoning and feeling. However, it is important to recognise how fine the balance is: the narrator, although ironic, values depth of feeling as well as reason. Her sympathies (and ours as readers) are with Elizabeth : not much with neither rash Lydia nor the pragmatic Charlotte Lucas. Gendering Jane Austen and Romance Pride and Prejudice has been described as the ‘archetypal romance'. If romances are necessarily conservative, both generally and in gender terms, does this mean P and P must be conservative too? The conventional position for the ‘heroine' in traditional fairy stories and romance, is relatively passive as the (heterosexual) reward for the hero: she is to be desired rather than desire. There are some differences in romantic comedy: one convention has the heroine cross-dressing in order to seek out the hero or substitute for him. She temporarily changes gender, although the audience of course knows about the deception, and she reverts to femininity in the happy ending. The limits on the conventional heroine are firmly tied to the ‘real-life' social conventions that restrict(ed) the range of women's activities and subject positions. On the surface, the female characters in Austen's novels correspond to these limitations because they inhabit a world of rigidly controlled gender roles. Debates about the restrictions or freedoms of the characters relate not only to the society of Austen's world but also to the fictional conventions she is employing. Female spaces Traditionally, the romance ‘heroine' is contained by the plot and peripheral to the hero. Does this apply to P and P? The domestic parameters of Pride and Prejudice are a home that is over-determined feminine: a rather ineffectual father, domineering mother and five unmarried daughters. The extended social circle is largely orchestrated by Mrs. Bennet's, rather than her husband's, relationships and connections. As Elizabeth Fay (this week's reading) observes, the Bennet household is mirrored by the female court ruled over by Lady Catherine. The male characters move in and out of the female spaces rather than controlling space or action. Female Spaces When Darcy engages in significant intervention in the plot to ‘save' Lydia , it happens off-stage and readers learn of it second-hand along with the characters. There is no focalisation through male characters and little sense of their having a life elsewhere. There is, however, focalisation through Elizabeth and she is often in control of the action, or expressing views that are influential on the plot development. She is perfectly capable of resisting the pressures to conform to social snobbery of Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine and is occasionally even critical of her father. In other words, Elizabeth is in many ways the moral centre of the novel on the basis of her ‘good sense' and sensitivity to the nuances of behaviour and feelings. She acts, rather than is acted on. However, while in a romantic comedy she might have dressed up as a man and gone in search of Lydia herself, the realistic boundaries of the novel prohibit this. How Romantic is Austen? Fay suggests that an analysis of the novel from a feminist perspective concerned with looking at the representation of women's power, or lack of it, enables a reading of the novel as both critiquing and adopting some aspects of the Romantic Movement more commonly associated with male poets of the period. She also argues that the traditional and allegedly conservative happy ending can also be seen in a more radical way as the possibility of a new order based on merit and authentic feeling rather than inherited rank and money Fay's (highly debatable) reading of the novel is that it indicates Austen's version of Romanticism as:
Aspects of Austen's realism The central claim to realism of Pride and Prejudice is that it is located squarely within the historical particularities of Austen and her readers' world. There are no dragons, no feudal society, no idealised heroes and heroines. The actual details of the world are very few: there are no detailed descriptions of what the characters are wearing, or their furniture. This comes as a surprise to a reader who has first experienced Austen through television and film which, of course, provide a visual sense of the settings and characters. We know, via Darcy's appreciative gaze that Elizabeth has a good figure and very expressive eyes, but beyond that we are left to imagine her. This coincides with literary critic Catherine Belsey's definition of realism as a form that:
Austen's readers didn't need to have minutely detailed catalogues of the furnishings of Rosings, Pemberley and Longbourne because they knew from experience what was appropriate to each social grouping. Similarly, the characters only comment on such details when they are out of the ordinary (and/or necessary for Austen's plot development) as in the demonstration of Mr.... Collins' character when he takes Elizabeth on a tour of his own house and then to Rosings. We are introduced to Pemberley as a sort of extension, and confirmation of Darcy's desirability, through Elizabeth 's introduction to it. For contemporary readers, who by definition were the middle and upper class who could afford to buy or loan books and could read, Austen's novels appeared as a welcome reflection of their own life styles and social interaction. They could identify with:
It is indisputably a middle-class novel: there is virtually no mention (certainly no development) of servants or the poor but there is a considerable degree of interest in economics. Domestic economy The traditional romance/fairytale takes it for granted that the happy ending is materially secure, back in the palace or castle. Apart from the mining work of the seven dwarves there is no mention of the means of production. To some extent this is true also of P and P although it is clear that Mr. Gardiner has made his money in commerce and that Longbourne has a working farm. But the whole plot and development of P and P is concerned with the economic as well as the romantic well-being of its characters. Practical Romance At the heart of Mrs. Bennet's obsession with marrying off her daughters successfully is the practical problem of entail. Longbourne is entailed to the nearest male heir and the Bennets have daughters but no sons. The contemporary readership would have been fully aware that, on Mr. Bennet's death, his widow and single daughters would be completely at the mercy of the male heir: a situation Austen had already described in Sense and Sensibility . At one level, Mrs. Bennet is an exemplary mother in attempting to secure her daughters' future security: while her characterisation emphasises, for comic and plot purposes, her ability to sabotage their chances, her intentions are realistic and laudable within the society of the time. The realism of the novel, in this respect, relates to the lack of any range of occupation or economic independence for ‘surplus women'. Each of the main female characters in the novel contributes to a detailed and complex representation of this female reality. Female Characters in Pride and Prejudice The central sentimental/romantic development is with Elizabeth who gains the first prize: Darcy and Pemberley. Jane and Bingley are shadows of the main duo, less intellectually, and a little less financially, well-endowed. These two couples indicate the possibility of a successful love match as long as it is based on financial security and shared moral values. They have as a further example and model, the compatibility of the Gardiners. At the other end of the spectrum is the uneasy Bennet marriage: Mr. Bennet's weakness of character, from an early romantic fancy for a social and intellectual inferior, has left him ‘unable to respect (his) partner in life'. Lydia 's elopement with Wickham threatens not only the future marriage prospects of her sisters but the whole financial security of the Bennet women. The gravity of her position consequently elevates the importance of Darcy's intervention, and of his worthiness as hero. The most ‘realistic' partnership in the novel, in the sense of being anti-romantic, is that of Collins and Charlotte Lucas. Elizabeth 's revulsion at Charlotte 's pragmatic decision to accept Collins clearly indicates that Austen endorses, at the least, the importance of mutual respect in marriage. Romance and realism in Austen: Romance The underlying structure and plot trajectory of Pride and Prejudice draws on traditional romance narrative conventions and characters The main narration is in the form of reported/observed dramatic action with dialogue consistent with romantic comedy The central interest is in the achievement of a ‘happy ending' for the hero and heroine Obstacles and problems are presented but the reader does not expect incomplete or tragic endings Feelings are given importance (but rarely direct and never uncontrolled expression for the sympathetic characters) The marriage of the central and ‘support' couples is based on mutual attraction (but an attraction rationally contained and supported by good judgment) The novel ends in harmony with the conflicts resolved and Elizabeth accepted into Darcy's social sphere. Romance and Realism in Austen: Realism The most obviously realistic aspect of P and P is its firm foundation in the historical particularities of its period and its dependence on the middle-class readers' familiarity with their everyday world The romantic narrative is interwoven with a realist social observation and, particularly, a female perspective acute to the complex economic and social issues for dependent women. The characters are presented as flawed and with individual personalities rather than as types or embodiments of virtues or vices. Although much of the action and plot development is ‘staged' there are moments of focalisation that enter into the psychology and feelings of Elizabeth Bennet, making her seem ‘real'. The ironic narrative voice inserts a sense of distance between the action, characters and the narrator's perspective, producing a similar distancing for the reader, unlike the engagement expected of straight romance. While the resolution of the novel is a traditional ‘happy ending', the harmony is not totally rosy as the narrator inserts some ‘realistic' limits to Elizabeth 's assimilation into Darcy's sphere. |