Of Different Images Of The Fathers In Jane Austen's Novels

Jane Austen, one of the most important novelists of the 19th century, occupies an important position in the development of English fiction. She is noted for her intense concentration on the thoughts and feelings of a limited number of characters coping with ordinary life and social pressures. Her works of social comedy have a singular combination of rare gifts of wit and satire of wonderful delicacy. This thesis focuses on the different images of the fathers in Jane Austen's novels. By presenting those minor characters, Jane Austen probes the centers of human experience and exposes the follies, hypocrisies, and false truths in the world. In five chapters the thesis discusses the different images of fathers in her five major works. Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, secluded in his library, is eccentric and irresponsible; Sir Thomas Bertram in Mansfield Park, though respectable and benevolent, is distant and worldly; Mr. Woodhouse in Emma, weak in mind and constitution, is a nuisance and a burden on his daughter most of the time; General Tilney in Northanger Abbey is simply a villain and dictator; Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion, the combination of fop and fool, is the worst of Austen's fictional fathers. In a word, they are none of them what a father should be. Jane Austen shows us that she does not only excel in her description of her brilliant heroines, but is also distinguished in her presentation of a whole group of imperfect fathers. Imperfect as they all are, they are imperfect in different ways. Her genius renders even the minor characters memorable and true to life.