Sunday, November 15, 2015

How can I prove from the text that Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is totally Victorian with "very little Romanticism"?

To assert that Austen's Pride and
Prejudice
is "totally Victorian" with "very little" Romanticism is difficult
to do for several reasons, primarily that the novel was written by 1797, though not
published till 1813, while Victoria's coronation initiated the Victorian Age in 1837.
Victorianism in literature was a phenomenon of the late 1800s, not earlier. Another
reason is that Austen's novel does bear characteristics of the Romantic period, though
in a more subdued expression from other Romantic
writers.


One characteristic of Romanticism is that passions
(emotions) are recognized as governing human behavior along with reason, formerly
considered the highest hierarchical power. Victorianism adds moral responsibility as a
governing passion, thus writers challenge and expose social ills while striving to
motivate corrections to urban injustices. Austen's novel focuses on the feelings and
exertions of the will--the passions--of her characters, as, for example, with Lydia.
That Lydia is governed by her emotions is fairly obvious from the way she follows the
Regiment and forces Wickham to take her with him in their escape to London. That she
exerts her will above employing rational reasoning powers is also obvious from her
assertion to Darcy that she doesn't much care whether she is married or
not:



[Darcy]
found Lydia absolutely resolved on remaining where she was. She cared for none of her
friends; she wanted no help of his; she would not hear of leaving Wickham. She was sure
they should be married some time or other, and it did not much signify
when.



Another characteristic
of Romanticism is that literature focused upon a select few characters in well defined
scenarios, whether poetic, like Wordsworth's The Ruined Cottage, or
prose, like Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In contrast, Victorian
novels were peopled with many, many characters in complex situations with multiple
complications that were heavily plotted in long novels that showed urban life
realistically. Austen's novel is elegant in its choice of a select few characters who
reveal the psychology behind behavior in typical social situations. For instance,
Austen's novel doesn't delve into what might be seen as economic injustice toward the
workers on Lady de Borough's estate; instead Austen shows the psychological dynamic at
work in how Lady de Borough relates to those
workers.


Having said this, there are a few points that
might be extrapolated to show the similarities to Victorianism. Though the idea of the
sublime--that which invokes emotional sentiment but which is not in keeping with
Classical ideals of beauty--is an important concept in Romanticism, it is largely
missing from this novel. The trip to the north country, originally planned for the
Lakes, is the only introduction of the power of nature, which was of such importance to
Romantics. However, Austen uses no symbolism that draws upon emblems taken from nature,
another important tenet of Romanticism.


There is no
self-sacrificial love--one of the earliest principles of Romanticism derived from
Goethe's original Romantic work The Sorrows of Young
Werther
. Austen does use this in Sense and Sensibilityy
though absent here. Finally, Austen's ironic narrator heralds the Victorian Age because
the tone of irony and wit was critical to works by authors like Dickens who sought to
make the social plight of the downtrodden a national issue of
reform.

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