Jane Austen Research Paper

Jane Austen’s works did not conform to the way that life was lived. She took what was normal in that time and changed it to what you should not do during that time. She was not a very successful author during her time due to the way that she wrote. Her works like Pride and

Prejudice and Emma, are a few examples of how life was during that time and how Jane Austen changes the way that women were supposed to act during this time, such as being very submissive and always in want of a husband. Her life before writing was charming and shows that she had a good upbringing.

Miss. Austen was born on December 16, 1775, to her parents George Austen and

Cassandra Austen. She was the second daughter to them, while the rest of her siblings were

brothers.

We see some of her first works in 1787 in a notebook she kept for future references. These are the Juvenilia and consists of three notebooks. Miss. Austen has had only one lover that we know of, Tom Lefroy. This did not last long unfortunately since Tom’s family did not approve and sent him away, causing Jane to never see him again. In 1799, we see her most famous work

Pride and Prejudice, known then as First Impressions. After Pride and Prejudice, we see many

Kilpatrick 2 other works like Elinor and Marianne, completing its revisions that started in 1796 completed in

1798. We also see Susan, known as Northanger Abbey, being completed. She lived during the time that we would come to know as the Age of Reason. She died on July 18, 1817 in

Winchester, United Kingdom. She did not really become famous until after her death, and Pride and Prejudice became a sensation many years after it was written.

Pride and Prejudice is about the Bennett family, Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, and the importance of first impressions. It starts out with Mr. Bingley coming to their hometown and everybody wanting to meet him. When the Bennet women go to a ball held at Netherfield,

It was also a time of the landed gentry. That is when your family ties like land, money and the like are passed down through the male line in the family, which is why Mr. Collins in

Pride and Prejudice comes to try and get the land of the Bennet’s. Pride and Prejudice is littered with historical context if you were to read up on the history during that time, just like in her other novel Emma.

Emma is about a young woman who is very unlike the ladies of this time in the way that she acts most of the time. She is a woman very against marrying at the beginning of the novel and is intent of getting Harriet Smith, a woman she befriended, a husband by partaking in matchmaking. This of course is met with contradiction by Mr. Knightley, a longtime friend, who knows that her partaking in this will just lead to trouble. She first manages to get Harriet to fancy a Mr. Elton. He is the perfect gentleman and seems to fancy her as well, until we learn that he really fancied Emma the entire time, which left Harriet broken hearted. Harriet then receives a marriage proposal from Mr. Martian, which Emma heavily whishes her to decline, which