Jane Austen

Her dialogues and the time in which she lived

This essay is about the dialogues in Jane Austen’s novels and what they say about the time she lived in. The interest for Austen comes from the “Austen movies” I’ve seen the latest year.

AIM AND FRAMING OF QUESTIONS My aim has been to compare the contents in the dialogues with the fact in the biographies. The questions are:

What do the dialogues say about the convention, the behaviour, manners and the form of address? What does it say about young men and women and about the marriage? Are the dialogues supported by the content in the biographies? Did Jane Austen really write realistic?

METHOD AND MATERIAL The method was to read the novels and then the biographies. I divided the empiric material in different categories and based it on the fact in the biographies. I have read Sense and sensibility, Pride and prejudice, Mansfield Park and Persuasion. The biographies I have used are for example Valerie Grosvenor Myer’s Obstinate Heart Jane Austen A Biography, Carol Shield’s Jane Austen.

RESULTS I found that the text and the dialogues and contents in Austen’s novels are realistic. She has not made up own rules for convention and behaviour but lets her characters act in a normal way.