Relevance of Morality and Marriage in Jane Austen's Novels: A Study

Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, at the Parsonage House of Steventon in Hampshire to George Austen, a rector of the parish of the same place. She had five brothers and one sister, Cassandra, who was dearest to her. They were so fond of each other that they always lived in the same bedroom till they were separated by death. This sisterly love may be seen manifested in Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. Jane always found herself observing life and was very keen on it. And it seems that with such keenness of observation and sharp pen, she must have been a cause of unrest to the people of Steventon. But they could not have the unrest, as nothing that she had written could come to publication for a long time. Her approach was satirical; yet she was not in the least cynical or malicious. If the range of Jane Austen’s social experience was limited, so, clearly, was her literary culture. She was undoubtedly well-read in English Classics, especially in the line of fiction. Her corpus of novels embodies a prismatic vision of life in its limited social milieu. In both content and craft, she singularly continues with the ethos of the Augustan world. Reason, education, a drawing-room setting which reminds us of Richardson, and more of Dr Johnson, are some of the basic tenets of Miss Austen's world.