The Rewards of Impertinence: Happy and Unhappy Endings in Jane Austen's Novels
By: Elizabeth Bolger '17
Advising Faculty: Jeff Strabone
In this thesis, I use a wide range of period sources鈥攖he law governing marriage in the United Kingdom, sermons, and treatises on women鈥檚 education鈥攖o argue that Jane Austen uses irony and satire to defend 鈥渋mpertinent鈥� women by exposing the villainy of a patriarchal order that attempts to restrain female desire. Her literary strategies of indirection, including irony and satire, have an ethical purpose that is neglected by the many critics who read her works as endorsing conservative values. Her novels function within a traditional narrative framework in order to expose and ultimately undermine the oppressive morals inherent within the patriarchal structure. I revisit two of Austen鈥檚 best-known novels鈥攚hich I read alongside key intertexts explicitly named in the novels鈥攊n order to illustrate how Austen鈥檚 works refute the gender-deterministic claims that perpetuate the conservative tradition that held women as the property of men.
I argue that James Fordyce鈥檚 Sermons to Young Women is a more important object of satire in Austen鈥檚 novels than has been previously recognized. Through my comparative reading of Fordyce鈥檚 sermons and Austen鈥檚 Pride and Prejudice, I argue that Elizabeth Bennet鈥檚 marriage to Mr. Darcy is ironic because she enjoys the advantageous marriage that Fordyce recommends, but by a method that Fordyce strictly cautions against. While many critics claim that Elizabeth鈥檚 mortification disciplines her for her 鈥渋mpertinent鈥� behavior, I argue that mortification in Austen marks the passage from innocence to experience in the Romantic model of the development of the subject.
I then use Pride and Prejudice and Elizabeth Inchbald鈥檚 play Lovers鈥� Vows to demonstrate how Mansfield Park satirizes the very landed class to which the heroine belongs. While Pride and Prejudice offers an 鈥渋mpertinent鈥� heroine who challenges traditional gender-deterministic claims, Mansfield Park provides a passive protagonist who typifies the conservative notion of an ideal female. After comparing the two novels鈥� endings, I argue that Fanny Price has an unfortunate fate in Mansfield Park precisely because she follows Fordyce鈥檚 advice. Critics have traditionally read the use of Lovers鈥� Vows in Mansfield Park as evidence that Austen鈥檚 political convictions lay somewhere between moderate and conservative on questions of gender and sexuality. This thesis, by applying a comparative and intertextual method of close reading, yields a different conclusion about the play鈥檚 meaning in this deeply ironic novel and, thus, about Austen鈥檚 true politics: her sympathies for 鈥渇allen鈥� and 鈥渋mpertinent鈥� women and her rejection of the patriarchal society that would punish and expel them.
Related Fields: English