'Rooms concise, or rooms distended': Space in Jane Austen's novels

The world of Jane Austen's novels is a physically narrow one. Most of the action takes place indoors, and the movement of Austen's heroines is always from one enclosed setting to another. Space and its proper use are therefore major concerns in all of her novels.;The few studies of Austen's presentation of space have focused on setting--towns, estates, rooms, gardens, etc.--at either the metaphorical or concrete level. This dissertation goes beyond the study of setting to develop a more thorough and balanced understanding of the role that spatial issues play in Austen's work. To do this we must consider not only settings--the physical area in which events take place--but the spaces which may be created without any physical boundaries in different settings. Physical movement, the arrangement of furniture, what people hear or see in a given situation are all factors which contribute as much to our perception of space as walls or fences.;Austen's presentation of space is connected to her concern with the issue of privacy and the role of women in her world. Social historians tell us that modern Western notions about individualism and privacy date from the late seventeenth through early nineteenth century. Developments in architecture and furnishings during the period immediately preceding Austen's birth and lasting through her life reflect changes in how people regarded not only their relationship with the physical environment but their relationship with one another.;Austen wrote at a time when modern ideas of the feminine influence in the home were new. It was a period of transition, during which the concept of domestic space itself was being defined.;In Austen's novels, physical space reflects social conditions, and concerns about space reflect internal, emotional reality. Austen's heroines seldom control the physical spaces around them. Instead, they move beyond the limits of physically defined spaces--the setting of the novels--to the creation of an alternate type of space which is based on manners and social interaction.