Theme of Love and Marriage

Women starting writing novels in 18^th century but in this era only two novelists got fame; first on female side Jane Austen and secondly, on male side Henry Fielding. Critics agree at this point that both writers are the painters of manners, habits, and the trends of country and town-life in prose fiction. Julia Anderson says, “Both the novelists paint the real life and life style beautifully in the novels and give the whole truth and nothing else.”

In spite of limited range Jane Austen is famous in novel writing. But fielding is famous due to wide range the world over. The history of English literature shows that those who have opposite sex knowledge get fame.  Jane Austen has more knowledge about men’s nature that he exposed in her novels. Likewise George Eliot has more knowledge about men’s nature.

It is true that Jane Austen’s range is limited but there are certain reasons of it; 1. Jane Austen’s village consisted of four families that belonged to middle ages. 2, she neither touched the lower class nor upper class in the nevels.3, she only discusses the middle class with delightful touches. 4, she always writes about the characters that she knows her fully.

The theme of Pride and Prejudice is love, courtship and marriage. Because Jane Austen did not get marriage due to which her range remained limited. As we see that cute girls are waiting for their rich husbands at home. In the novel females try to catch rich males for marriage on the ground of beauty ignoring their rough manners. And they succeed in their mission. There are no vulgar characters in the novel but the characters that spend their time in dinning and wining and waiting for rich husbands at home. There is only one thing startling in the novel that elopement of Lydia and Wickham.

She depicts her characters not physically but mentally, what they think, feel and act. She reads her characters’ conscious as a psychiatrist. She fully understands her characters’ thoughts feeling and emotions about life. But she uses ironic tone in her novels. She paints every aspect of real life with ironic tone. She is expert in exposing her characters’ hypocrisy and dissimilation in the best way as speech, conduct, manners and self deception.

But she imposes some limitations on her characters showing men in women’s company and women in men’s company enjoying life fully. There is no obscenity, no vulgarity and no sex in the novel.

Jane’s range is limited because she can defend it with arguments forcefully. Harry Johansson says, “If she crosses her limited she may not defend herself and she could not say what she wanted to say.”

It is a fact that she worked on a narrow canvas successfully what she could lose on the large canvas. She presented perfect characters in her novels with their positive and negative traits. Martin Buber says, “She is expert in reading the hidden conscious her characters according to situation. But she is most expert in delineating their thoughts in original shape for the readers.”

Meaning wise the readers can understand on three levels: first, the purely level, because she discusses the upper class but middle upper in Southern England at the end of the 18^th century. Second, she uses known characters in the novels. Third, there no comic scenes and ironic level if we read carefully her characters are symbolic not allegorical in the real sense. There is nothing new in the novel. Actually her novels are the illustration of current trends.

To sum up, it is true that her range of characters is limited but her approach to the characters is realistic in the real sense. Having read the novel Pride and Prejudice it seems that she loves peace and calm because we find no death in her novels. She also does not discuss the darkest side of human characters but the bright of human characters. Besides, she does not discuss hunger, poverty, misery and soul conflict. She does not discuss religion and religious ethics.

She only discusses her experiences and observations in detail for the readers to provide them situation happiness. But she is most successful in discussing the theme of love and marriage. Her range is limited due to having no knowledge of time and space that control human life from the very beginning.