When reading one of Jane Austen’s novels it is easy to paint a picture of the famous author as witty and vibrant much like the characters within her novels. However, many find that Austen’s letters reveal a personality that is “petty, unrevealing and ambiguous” (Kaplan 212). Austen may not have written a great deal about herself, but her letters disclose pertinent information which explores the duality and paradox of the gentry culture and women’s culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Through her letter writing, Austen is able to form an identity by expressing her views and place within a society where the only job for women was to marry. Austen is able to discuss within her letters and novels societal and feminist views about marriage. Her experiences, as articulated in her letters, of love lost made a lasting impression on the young author and overall affected her opinions about marriage and made her question her identity within the gentry culture. Although many of Austen’s letters were destroyed by her sister Cassandra, what remains is a fascinating key into the life and world of a female author who simultaneously conformed to and defied the culture in which she lived.
Part of Jane Austen’s culture involved a woman’s culture which was separate from the dominant patriarchal gentry society. Since women were excluded from the public sphere, their world involved that of the home and domestic concerns. Due to the limited space in which women occupied, strong bonds were created among female relations and friends. Women formed such strong attachments because they were limited in interacting with the public gentry society in which they lived. Essentially, women had to “band together to establish a counter universe but always set it up within the frame of the masculine universe” (Kaplan 212). This idea is evident in the case of Jane Austen and her letters. Growing up in a household with six boys, Jane understood the difference between the gentry life her brothers were supposed to live, and the domestic sphere in which she was to occupy. Therefore, it was only natural for Jane to form a strong relationship with her sister, Cassandra, because they could relate to each other as women in a society that deemed them as subordinate. Austen’s firm bond to her sister is evident in her letters, of which she wrote more than half of to Cassandra. Many of Austen’s letters which start out lovingly with “My dear Cassandra” and continuing with the enthusiasm of “Oh! — thank you very much for your long Letter; it did me a great deal of good” (2 December 1815). Jane and Cassandra anticipated each other’s letters eagerly and wrote to each other as often as possible. Therefore, Jane Austen’s letters can be looked at as an intimate correspondence with her sister, which exemplifies the close relationships that women formed during this time period.
The contents of Austen’s letters written to her sister Cassandra have, however, been scrutinized as having a ‘general deficiency of subject’ (Todd 36). However, “Letter-writing was an essential part of social life, both to maintain family connections and to act as mini newspapers” (Le Faye 108). Austen would usually write to her sister about social life and domestic affairs. Her letters are filled with names of neighbors and relations and news about their lives. Essentially, Austen’s letters are a chronicle of the daily routine of life in late eighteenth, early nineteenth century England. Although her letters may be deemed as monotonous and uneventful, they are thriving with “multiple, indeed even opposing cultural values…” (Kaplan 212). As mentioned before, one of the cultures in which Jane Austen occupied and wrote about was the gentry society.
In today’s terms the gentry society would be considered as the middle to upper class society. Class and rank were very important during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the line between rich and poor was clearly drawn. The way the class system was set up relied firmly on ancestry and money. And much like many societies, the gentry culture was a firmly patriarchal establishment. Therefore, women were not allowed as equal an education as men, and certainly held no power in the public or political spheres. The only job that was allotted for gentry women was that of marrying, which again kept them out of the public sphere because they were not making any money. Not only were women unable to support themselves financially, they also did not have the right to own land. Homes and property were entailed, meaning they passed down from father to son, not father to daughter or wife. Since women could not inherit property, their only choice of supporting themselves was either to marry or become a governess. In one letter to her niece Fanny Knight, Austen expresses the limited options allotted for single women by expressing how, “Single Women have a dreadful propensity for being poor—which is one very strong argument in favor of Matrimony” (13 March 1817). Although this statement is written in a joking and sarcastic manner, there is truth in what Austen in saying and that in order for women to provide for themselves they knew that they must marry or be poor. As a result, young girls were trained and bred to attract and find a husband which was perpetuated by the idea of the accomplished woman. Jane Austen was aware of what an accomplished woman was and the expectations that society placed on her by expressing in her novel Pride and Prejudice that, “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word…” (Austen 39). Thus, women only learned such accomplishments to please men, which kept them subordinate to men and society as a whole.
After understanding the world in which Jane Austen lived, it is interesting to see the progression of changing views within Austen’s letters, particularly about marriage, as she discovers and expresses her discontent with the gentry society. Part of her discontent seems to have arisen from a relationship that Austen had when she was about twenty with a young Irish man named Tom Lefroy. Austen’s attachment to Tom Lefroy, as indicated in her letters, affected Austen’s views about love and marriage, which is a main theme in every one of Austen’s novels.
This is significant because Austen was able to express a woman’s point of view in her letters and in her novels about marriage, and the little control that women had in marriage.
Since Austen’s relationship with Tom Lefroy had a profound effect on Austen’s life, views, and writing, it is important to inquire into their attachment further and chronicle her changing sentiments about marriage within her letters. It is also essential to note that as Austen’s views change, they question societal conventions. Thus, the first documented of Austen’s letters are dated from seventeen ninety six, when Austen would have been about twenty years old. During the time of her first letters, Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra who was staying with her fiancé and his family. The tone of Austen’s first letters is therefore optimistic and uplifting. Jane was excited and happy for her sister as well as herself, for she had just met Tom Lefroy. In her letters she describes Tom Lefroy as “a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man”, and tells her sister to “Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together” (9 January 1796). Although the previous line may seem like Austen is teasing her sister, it still reveals a tone of confidence and excitement. Austen was confident that she had attracted the handsome Tom Lefroy and was excited for her future with Tom. And certainly “Mere convention would not limit the right conferred on her by love to act however she chose…” (Walker). However, her next letter to her sister reveals a more melancholy tone as Austen writes, “At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, & when you receive this it will be over—My tears flow as I write” (15 January 1796). It is uncertain whether Jane Austen ever saw Tom Lefroy again, but the reason for their separation was due to money. It is said that “Mrs. Lefroy sent her Irish nephew packing ‘at the end of a very few weeks, that no more mischief might be done’ between two young people who had, together, nothing to live on” (Halperin 61). At this point the young Jane Austen realized the detrimental effects of money on love and happiness, which again, is another popular theme within Austen’s novels.
For example, Austen writes about her remembrance of Tom Lefroy by reminiscing, “Seven years and four months ago we went to the Riding house to see Miss Lefroy’s performance!—What a different set are we now moving in! But seven years I suppose are enough to change every pore of one’s skin, & every feeling of one’s mind” (8 April 1805). This passage in Austen’s letter is very similar to a passage found in Austen’s final novel Persuasion, “More than seven years were gone…and time had softened down much, perhaps nearly all of peculiar attachment to him” (Austen 27). Both passages suggest that Austen was acutely affected by her attachment to Tom Lefroy, so much so that she expressed her feelings both through her letters and her novels. In Persuasion, the heroine and hero are separated due to lack of income, which is very much similar to the broken attachment between Austen and Lefroy. Therefore, it is hard to ignore the strong connection, which exemplifies Austen’s critical point of view on her society. Austen raises the question in defiance of the gentry society by asking is love or money more important? Since the gentry culture valued income and prosperity, it would not have been “practical” for men and women to marry for love. Therefore, within Austen’s letters and novels she defies the standards of one of the most important social conventions for women.
Some of the most revealing letters that express Jane Austen’s sentiments about love and marriage are those written to her niece, Fanny Knight. At the time, Fanny Knight, the daughter of Jane’s brother, Edward Knight, was looking for a husband. After her mother passed away, Fanny formed a close relationship to her aunt, asking for advice about potential suitors. The correspondence that unfolded between niece and aunt exemplifies one of the most important times in a young woman’s life and makes known Austen’s definitive opinion about marriage.
Among the first letters documented that Jane Austen wrote to Fanny, she discusses the unexpected change of heart that Fanny has expressed about one of her recent suitors. Austen goes on to describe to her niece that, “I shall turn round & entreat you not to commit yourself farther, & not to think of accepting him unless you really do like him. Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection” (18 November 1814). In another letter to her niece, Austen urges again, “nothing can be compared to the misery of being bound without Love” (30 November 1814). Austen is clearly adamant to her niece that no woman should marry without love. This is significant because love is a modern invention. During Austen’s time the whole concept of love was not widely accepted and it was seen as an advantage to marry for love. While in reality men and women married more for practicality. Austen also defies practicality within her novel Pride and Prejudice. After Elizabeth Bennet accepts Mr. Darcy’s proposal, Elizabeth’s sister, Jane, questions her sister as to whether she really loves Darcy. Jane exclaims, “Oh, Lizzy! Do any thing rather than marry without affection” (Austen 353). Although Darcy is extremely wealthy, and Elizabeth would help her family by marrying him, Jane is aware that marriage is about happiness. Just like Jane Bennet is concerned for her sister Elizabeth’s happiness, so is Austen concerned for her niece.
Austen’s sentiments are also important to note in reference of the context of her life. In November 1802, Jane and Cassandra were visiting the Bigg Withers at Manydown in Steventon. During their stay Harris Bigg Wither, who was just twenty one, had proposed to the then twenty seven year old Jane Austen. Austen accepted his proposal but the next day refused, and immediately left Manydown. Such an event is significant to note because Austen refused Harris Bigg Wither because she did not love him. Although the marriage would have helped bring her family wealth and support, Austen knew that she would not have been happy. Therefore, this event further confirms and supports Austen’s views about love and marriage that were expressed in her letters to her niece and in her novels.
It is at this time in Jane Austen’s life where she questions her identity and place within her society. Up until this point, Austen’s views about marriage have been examined as being defiant to the cultural norm. However, now it is pertinent to analyze how Austen viewed marriage as being a limitation placed on women. As discussed before, Austen wrote and gave advice to her niece, Fanny Knight, about marriage. However, within these letters are signs that Austen was aware of and disapproved of the confinement of both mind and body that women experienced once married. To Fanny she writes, “Oh! What a loss it will be, when you are married. You are too agreeable in your single state… I shall hate you when your delicious play of Mind is all settled down into conjugal and maternal affection” (20 February 1817). Austen expresses, although jokingly, that once married, her niece will no longer have anything to write to her aunt about except her marriage. Austen again reveals her discontent when describing her niece Anna’s letters as having “been very sensible & satisfactory, with no parade of happiness, which I liked them the better for. — I have often known young married Women write in a way I did not like, in that respect” (18 November 1814). Here it is evident again that Austen notices and disapproves of the effects that marriage has on a woman’s mind. This coincides again with the gentry society’s beliefs that women were supposed to be kept inferior to men, especially when it came to a woman’s mind.
Not only did Austen feel that a woman’s mind was affected once married, but she also realized the physical limitations women experienced once married. Austen warns her niece Fanny Knight not to marry too early because, “…by not beginning the business of Mothering quite so early in life, you will be young in Constitution, spirits, figure & countenance, while Mrs. Wm Hammond is growing old by confinements and nursing” (13 March 1817). Austen even states within this last passage how married women are essentially confined to the home only to rear and take care of their children. Also, in one of Austen’s last documented letters, she comments again on the state of her niece, Anna. “Anna has not a chance of escape… Poor Animal, she will be worn out before she is thirty. – I am very sorry for her” (25 March 1817). It is interesting how Austen refers to her married niece as an “Animal”, which may be suggesting that Austen felt women, because they were too busy within the domestic sphere, had no time to maintain and exercise their mind. Considering that Austen never married, one may infer from her letters that she accepted, and possibly prided herself on her unmarried state.
Therefore, Austen claimed her identity as an unmarried woman as shown in her letters. Even though she knew that marrying would allow her to support herself, her sister and her mother, Austen would not conform unless she were to marry for love. What Austen focused on besides finding a husband was the writing of her novels. In essence, the marriage that Austen experienced during her lifetime was that of her writing, and her “children” were her completed novels. Throughout Austen’s letters this idea is evinced as Jane writes to Cassandra, “… I am never too busy to think of S&S. I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her sucking child…” (25 April 1811). Within this line Jane Austen is referring to her novel, Sense and Sensibility, which was her first novel ever to be published. Austen’s focus, therefore, is her writing, and if she had been married, she would not have had the time to focus on her writing. In reference to the limitations Austen felt were placed on married women, she recognized that she would have been too busy raising children instead of writing. In another letter to her sister Cassandra she refers to her novel Pride and Prejudice as her “…own darling Child…” (29 January 1813). In the last line Austen is referring to receiving a published copy of Pride and Prejudice. This is a significant event in Jane Austen’s life because, in publishing her novels, she is able to make her own money. In a society where women were not supposed to make their own money, Austen goes against the “practicalities” and conventions of her society. Overall, although women’s options were limited within the gentry culture, Austen broke through those limitations as expressed in her letters and through the writing of her novels.
The way in which Austen was clearly able to define her identity and question her society was through her letter writing. In Patricia Myer Spacks’ essay entitled, “Female Rhetorics”, she explores women’s eighteenth century letter writing as a means of defining women “within the context of their society” (237). Spacks goes on to explain how within women’s letters, there is a focus on community and preoccupations which allow women to examine their societal roles and define who they are (236). These ideas are evident in the case of Jane Austen’s letters because she defines herself within the context of her society by writing about and observing the society around her. Spacks explains how community is “a more indirect way of thinking about women and of thing about herself” (236). Through Austen’s writing, she discovers and is able to express the limitations that are placed on her and all women of her society. Austen was able to communicate such discontent because she knew that she was writing privately to her sister, and that her letters would remain within the private sphere, thus allowing Austen to fully analyze her role and place within society. As previously mention, women also used preoccupations to identify themselves within their society. Austen diverted her attentions to the writing of her novels, and she writes in her letters the pride she took in her novels. It is also important to note that within her novels, Austen explores social roles of women as well. Therefore, Austen indirectly explores the role of herself within her novels.
On the subject of Austen’s novels, it is important to examine how her novels are in some form an expression of herself. During Austen’s time, many of the novels that were being written were epistolary novels. Even as Austen was conceiving her novels, they too were written in the form of letters. However, Austen later parts from this style and it is said that, “… her novels mark the end of epistolary fiction and ring in the age of the new novel, distinguished by a more controlled, centered, and authorial perspective, coupled with the recreation on the page of a natural-seeming, realistic depiction of human communication” (Lenckos). Since Austen was keenly able to express and write her perspective within her letters, this then translated into the writing of her novels. “Her sense of letters as dialogue feeds into her mastery of dialogue in the novels” (McMaster). Austen departs from the epistolary form, which is considered as a more stifled and ingenious form of writing, opting for that of “an omniscient, third-person narrator who presided over the plot and depicted a variety of perspectives and positions, while being able to weave in and out of the private thoughts and public conversations of her characters” (Lenckos). As a result, her novels become a part of her identity, as Spacks puts it, “…narratives [are] the traditional resources of women; to notice, to interpret, to tell” (235). The publishing of Austen’s novels allows her to step out of her woman’s culture, and allows her to publicly “interpret” her perspective, but in a manner that is inoffensive. Meaning, Austen could not be as explicit in her novels as she is in her letters or else her novels would not sell. In this way, only does Austen conform to society’s expectations. Even still, the world that she creates within her novels revolves around the heroine; a world in which the heroes and society around her meet the heroine’s needs. Thus, Austen may be satisfying “…wishes by brief vicarious excitement, reminding [herself] of possibilities for the unconventional” (Spacks 235). Austen certainly creates the unconventional by creating love stories that have happy endings. Maybe since Austen was not able to fully live out her idea of a happy ending she created that world within her novels. Thus, Austen’s novels, like her letters, exhibit a part of her identity, expression and perspective.
In one letter to her sister Cassandra, Jane Austen writes, “I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same person by word of mouth…” (3 January 1801). What Austen expresses holds true for both her letters and her novels. Austen participates and “talks” to her sister about her place within the woman’s culture and the gentry culture. In consequence, Austen is able to fully analyze her position and identity within each society. This is evident in the events of her life, as indicated by her letters as well. Jane Austen’s relationship with Tom Lefroy affected Austen’s entire life and her views about marriage. Thus, marriage is a major theme within all of Austen’s novels, which are also an expression of Austen’s self. Austen was keenly aware of the limitations that society and marriage place on women, and was able to analyze her position and identity within a society context. She is then able to express her defiance of her culture, while simultaneously adhering to societal codes within her novels. In sum, Austen’s letters are a key into her world and her life; and, on their own they can be considered as insightful works of art.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Ed. George Stade. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Vivien Jones. London: Penguin, 2003.
Elisabeth Lenckos, “Inventing Elegant Letter, or Why Don’t Austen’s Lovers Write More
Often?,” Persuasions On-Line Winter 2005, 29 February 2008
<http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol26no1/lenckos.htm>.
Halperin, John. The Life of Jane Austen. Baltimore. The Johns Hopkins UP, 1996.
Juliet McMaster, “Your Sincere Friend, The Author,” Persuasions On-Line Winter 2006, 29
February 2008 <http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol27no1/mcmaster.htm>.
Kaplan, Deborah, “Representing Two Cultures: Jane Austen’s Letters”, The Private Self: Theory
and Practice of Women’s Autobiographical Writings, ed. Shari Benstock. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987. 211-226.
Le Faye, Deirdre, ed. Jane Austen’s Letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Le Faye, Deidre. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. London: Frances Lincoln, 2002.
Le Faye, Deirdre, “Letters”, Jane Austen in Context, ed. Janet Todd (Cambridge UP, 2005) 36.
Linda Robinson Walker, “Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy: Stories,” Persuasions On-Line Winter
2006, 29 February 2008 <http://www.jasna.org/persuasions/on-
line/vol27no1/walker.htm>.
Spacks, Patricia Meyer, “Female Rhetorics”, Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader, Ed.
Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1998. 232-238.
a cab back to the train station, I decided to walk through the town of Alton. Along my walk through the town I spotted cute little shops including a second hand bookstore with Jane books displayed in the window. Since, I had already spent a lot of money at the Jane Austen House gift shop, I decided to skip going into the bookstore. However, a few minutes later I spotted a place where I just might spend the rest of my money. A small building with a sign labeled “Tattoo.”
feminist literature. Given as a serious of lectures, Woolf discusses the history of women and writing, and the patriarchy that women need to overcome in order to freely express themselves.
woman about the year 1800 writing without hate, without bitterness, without fear, without protest, without preaching.” Jane Austen wrote about what she knew and was comfortable with and in doing so, truly conveyed her talent.
I was surprised to find after reading an Introduction to Night and Day, that this particular novel has never been really well received. It’s one of Virginia Woolf’s longer works, but still just as entertaining, poetic, and exploratory as The Waves or To the Lighthouse. Published in 1918, Night and Day was Woolf’s second published novel after The Voyage Out. Woolf had written many essays and shorter works previously, but never a full novel. So, why does Night and Day have such a bad reputation? Some critics have called it boring, and even Woolf had some disparaging remarks for her own work. But, as for me, I truly did enjoy this novel.
n’t dance around Courtney’s twenty first century life in the beginning, but gets right to the good stuff, which is what the reader wants. Every Austen lover would love to go back in time and live in a world full of empire waist gowns, rolling country side hills, breeches, waistcoats and Darcy look-alikes. But the author does show us the grimier side of nineteenth century life (blood letting, chamber pots and just a lack of sanitation in general) that we don’t hear about in Austen’s novels or see in Austen movie adaptations.
