Jane Austen’s six novels, five shorter works, and three incomplete or unpublished books, grant an opportunity to see the early 1800’s through the eyes of a witty authoress. Jane’s novels represent her time well, have influenced media and the understanding of the 1800’s, and were written since she enjoyed writing and wanted to spread the love of reading.
The late 1700’s and early 1800’s consisted of rigid expectations and social order. As Margaret C. Sullivan explains, “If one earned a fortune in trade, or better yet, if one’s ancestors had, one’s manners and lifestyle could gain the acceptance into good society, and personal connections counted for even more” (Sullivan, The Jane Austen Handbook). Women still did not have the same opportunities as men, but they were granted some freedoms. Women were expected to be accomplished, as Jane Austen describes in Pride and Prejudice, 1813, “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages.” If a woman did not marry, she would live with her parents and try to make some money to
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As a spinster, Jane had no husband or children to care for and so doted upon her novels instead. “‘I want to tell you I have got my own darling child from London.’ Jane Austen, speaking of Pride and Prejudice, to Cassandra Austen in a letter dated January 29, 1813” (Sullivan, Jane Austen Cover to Cover). Jane may have been self-conscious about her status as an unmarried woman. So, to pass the time and dull the loneliness, she wrote. Hodge writes of Jane’s situation, “She played supremely well the part that was expected of her. She was ‘dear Aunt Jane’, beloved of children, who never said a sharp thing. Or hardly ever. There were sharp things in her letters, and there must have been in her conversation, but Cassandra burned many of the letters, and the family preferred to forget the conversation”