i think a big appeal of jane austen is that they aren't only to tell a story, it is her author's voice, bc they're also social commentary.
like in one of ur comments u said "I wish she had spent more time showing the readers through dialogue and character building [...] I wish she described more how Elizabeth physically felt [...] how people and places looked and such." but like that might be better and more descriptive for telling a story, but i feel like austen isn't just telling a story, but she's kind of analyzing the behavior of the characters.
like pride and prejudice is a great story and a great romance. but one of the main goals of pride and prejudice isn't just like telling that story. it's discussing what makes a good marriage, the different kinds of relationships, social class, everything. ellie dashwood has extremely good analyses of her work, this is an amazing vid i watched recently that really made me think abt p&p.
i think a really good example of this style is northanger abbey. like in this book she totally gets off of the plot and just talks about stuff, like how novels and female authors deserve respect (bc at the time fiction novels were mostly read by women and seen as stupid). and the characters are kind of vehicles of this, by having the main lead as this female quixote type character obsessed w gothic horror novels, who uses them to navigate her life, and the male lead as the voice of reason, also a big fan of novels but in a rational way.
like in the same way as austen very clearly uses the cast to discuss novels in northanger, she does the same with the characters in p&p. you get all these different types of marriages w/ the bennets, darcy and elizabeth, collins and charlotte, jane and bingley, wickham and lydia, and she like analyzes them and everything. i can't explain it but the ellie dashwood vid i linked rlly explains it super well!
mzjolynecujoh t1_iyasp1r wrote
Reply to I’ve just finished Pride and Prejudice by illuminatijaguar
i think a big appeal of jane austen is that they aren't only to tell a story, it is her author's voice, bc they're also social commentary.
like in one of ur comments u said "I wish she had spent more time showing the readers through dialogue and character building [...] I wish she described more how Elizabeth physically felt [...] how people and places looked and such." but like that might be better and more descriptive for telling a story, but i feel like austen isn't just telling a story, but she's kind of analyzing the behavior of the characters.
like pride and prejudice is a great story and a great romance. but one of the main goals of pride and prejudice isn't just like telling that story. it's discussing what makes a good marriage, the different kinds of relationships, social class, everything. ellie dashwood has extremely good analyses of her work, this is an amazing vid i watched recently that really made me think abt p&p.
i think a really good example of this style is northanger abbey. like in this book she totally gets off of the plot and just talks about stuff, like how novels and female authors deserve respect (bc at the time fiction novels were mostly read by women and seen as stupid). and the characters are kind of vehicles of this, by having the main lead as this female quixote type character obsessed w gothic horror novels, who uses them to navigate her life, and the male lead as the voice of reason, also a big fan of novels but in a rational way.
like in the same way as austen very clearly uses the cast to discuss novels in northanger, she does the same with the characters in p&p. you get all these different types of marriages w/ the bennets, darcy and elizabeth, collins and charlotte, jane and bingley, wickham and lydia, and she like analyzes them and everything. i can't explain it but the ellie dashwood vid i linked rlly explains it super well!