Dramatic Features And Effects In Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility

As acknowledged classic novelist, Jane Austen has long been among the favorites with readers, scholars and critics. Though academic studies on Austen have gained respectable achievements, there are still spaces and possibilities for fresh discoveries and novel interpretations. There have been a number of academic articles or monographs analyzed the connections between Austen's novels and the theater, inspired by these previous studies, this thesis specifically probes into the novel Sense and Sensibility by means of close-reading and examples-citing, combine with relative theories on literature writing methods and from rhetoric, to reveal and analyze the dramatic features and effects manifested in this novel as well as in Austen's other works. In addition, this thesis also testifies that these dramatic features and effects could further help to convey and highlight the author's writing purposes.The first chapter testifies that the characters in Sense and Sensibility as well as in Austen's other works are made to be "round", in E. M. Foster's term, by depicting her characters with prominent dramatic features and effects, such as the direct "Showing" of character's conversation and exaggerated behavior or action that reveal strong emotion, the depiction on character's facial expression that exposes inner action and the debut that leave readers a dramatic first impression. The first chapter further demonstrates that the author's writing intention for depicting these characters made prominent by these distinct dramatic features and effects.The second chapter points out that there are several artistic techniques applied in Austen's plots, such as. Suspense, the Dramatic Irony that used in early Greek comedies and Reversal, bringing about dramatic effects to Austen's plots, making the stories dramatically attractive and the plots twist and turn, even the stories generally all revolve around the country-side daily lives and socialization in relatively small circles.The third chapter testifies that Austen's works could be seen edutainment, a combination of education and entertainment by revealing and demonstrating that Sense and Sensibility as well as Austen's other works are like Romantic Comedy, Comedy of Manners and in "serious genre" in many aspects. The Cinderella theme and conventional happy ending are fundamental elements in Romantic Comedy. The involvement of and satire on the fashion and manner or even scandal of particular class with witty dialogues are typical in Comedy of Manners. Furthermore, there could be found serious themes and topics that make Austen's works realistic to certain extent; and the co-existence of comic and sentimental elements in Austen'works make them in "serious genre", a term put forward by Denis Diderot. All these features make Austen's works both educating and entertaining.Living and writing at the time when the literary form of novel was just in the making and developing, Austen writes under profound influences of theater and play that she is not only greatly fond of but also write some for family entertainment. Specifically taking Sense and Sensibility for analyzing, this thesis studies and probes into the texts by close-reading, examining the most significant and representational artistic techniques and devices that make Austen's works being possessed of dramatic features and effects manifested in characterization, plot-arrangement, settings, style and genre. Besides, these dramatic features and effects also do remarkable and irreplaceable contributions to the grand values and achievements Austen's works have gained.