As obras de Jane Austen são extremamente populares tanto entre leitores comuns e estudiosos de literatura desde a época em que foram publicados, no início do século XIX até os dias de hoje. Tamanha popularidade foi responsável por inúmeras obras de arte, especialmente na literatura e no cinema, que foram ou implicitamente ou explicitamente influenciados pela obra de Austen. Um de seus romances mais adaptados é Orgulho e Preconceito, talvez seu romance mais lido, estudado e adaptado. Um dos motivos para tal apreciação é provavelmente resultado dos valores morais que Jane Austen expõe em seus romances. Estes valores, mesmo duzentos anos mais tarde, permanecem importantes e de grande valor, especialmente na era pós-moderna, quando o excesso de liberdade e alternativas parecem deixar a humanidade mais desprovida de um suporte seguro na vida. Esta é a razão que permite um fã de Austen encontrar na religião um possível diálogo, onde, em um mundo cheio de incertezas, certos códigos morais são as certezas a que alguém pode se segurar. Em 2003, Andrew Black dirigiu o filme Pride and Prejudice: a latter-day comedy1, uma transposição moderna do romance de Austen, no qual os personagens vão à igreja e estudam em uma universidade religiosa. Meu trabalho busca estabelecer uma relação entre o livro de Jane Austen, o filme de Andrew Black e as questões sobre moralidade e religião, e como o romance e o filme estabelecem uma conexão não apenas em seus elementos de ficção como personagens e enredo, mas principalmente no que diz respeito a uma das possíveis mensagens finais em ambas obras. / The works of Jane Austen are extremely popular both among average readers and literature scholars from the time they were published, in the early 19th century until today. Such popularity has been responsible for innumerous works of art, especially in literature and cinema, that were either implicitly or explicitly influenced by Austen’s work. One of her most adapted novels is the 1812 novel Pride and Prejudice, which is perhaps her most read, studied and adapted novel. One of the reasons for such appraisal has probably to do with the moral values Jane Austen exposes in her novels. Those values, even two hundred years later, remain important and of great worth, especially in the postmodern era, when the excess of freedom and alternatives seems to make humanity more deprived of a secure ground in life. This is the reason that allows an Austen fan to find in religion a possible dialogue, where, in a world full of uncertainties, some moral codes are the certainties one can hold onto. In 2003, Andrew Black directed a movie entitled Pride and Prejudice: a latter-day comedy, a transposition of Austen’s novel to a modern setting, where the characters are themselves churchgoers and students at a religious university. My work is aimed at establishing a connection between Jane Austen’s novel, Andrew Black’s movie and the issue of morality and religion, and how the novel and movie establish a connection not only in terms of fictional elements such as characters and plot, but mainly in regards to one of the possible final messages in both works.

In this essay I compare the notion of the accomplished woman in Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and Helen Fielding’s novels about Bridget Jones. My claim is that the notion of the accomplished woman that Austen described 200 years ago is still very relevant and not much different today as reflected in Helen Fielding’s narrative in Bridget Jones, but also that both authors satirically describe the pressure that is put on women to reach the ideal of the accomplished woman. I initially discuss feminist literary theory, and then I analyze the following characteristics and ideas which make up the accomplished woman: Physical appearance, Education & Knowledge, Marriage & Having Children, Career and Skills, Status & Class and Manners & Behaviour. This essay shows that the notion of the accomplished woman is still very much present and in some cases, like physical appearance, the pressure on women to reach this ideal has actually gotten worse. Both Jane Austen and Helen Fielding use irony and satirically describe the pressure on young women as a way of actually criticizing their contemporary societies.

Jane Austen’s novels remain an essential component of the literary canon, but her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, is frequently neglected. However, in Sense and Sensibility is the genesis of Austen’s technique through which her major characters cultivate and reveal a strong inner life, demonstrated through the character of Elinor Dashwood. This technique is a characteristic she incorporates in each of her succeeding novels. Her approach to literature centers on the interiority of her characters and their ability to change, but it her first novel Austen takes a unique approach. Following the structure of an eighteenth-century sermon, Austen creates a sermon for lay people that centers on the cultivation of a strong interior life.

Ce mémoire étudie l’objectif des multiples demandes en mariage dans Pride and Prejudice par Jane Austen et Jane Eyre par Charlotte Brontë. Je montrerai que l’inclusion par Austen et Brontë de ces multiples demandes – par Darcy et par Rochester, respectivement – joue un rôle central dans la structure narrative de leurs romans. J’analyserai comment ces auteures présentent à leurs héroïnes des multiples demandes en mariage afin de démontrer le moment approprié pour accepter une telle demande. Ce mémoire contextualisera les choix d’Elizabeth Bennet et de Jane Eyre en engageant en conversation avec plusieurs savants littéraires travaillant sur Austen et Brontë. Le premier chapitre sera consacré à Pride et Prejudice et analysera l’évolution des rapports entre Darcy et Elizabeth. Le deuxième chapitre examinera Jane Eyre et le parcours individuel de Jane en ce qui concerne sa relation avec Rochester. J’examinera également comment chaque auteure démontre que les rôles et stéréotypes des sexes peuvent constituer une menace pour une relation saine ainsi que pour le développement de soi. Au travers de multiples demandes en mariage, Austen et Brontë démontrent l’importance de l’indépendance et l’égalité dans un mariage. Elles démantèlent également les notions traditionnelles de masculinité. / This thesis studies the purpose of multiple marriage proposals in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. I will show that Austen’s and Brontë’s inclusion of two proposals – by Darcy and by Rochester, respectively – are central to the narrative structures of their work. I will examine how Austen and Brontë present their heroines with multiple proposals in order to demonstrate the proper moment at which a proposal should be accepted. This thesis will contextualize the choices of Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Eyre by engaging in conversation with several literary scholars who work on Austen and Brontë. The first chapter will be dedicated to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the analysis of Darcy and Elizabeth’s changing relationship. The second chapter will examine Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Jane’s individual journey as it relates to her relationship with Rochester. I will also examine how each author demonstrates how gender roles and stereotypes can serve as a threat to a healthy relationship as well as to one’s own self-development. Through multiple proposals, Austen and Brontë demonstrate the importance of independence and equality in entering a marriage. They also dismantle traditional notions of masculinity.

The perception that the epistolary form was rejected by novelists during the Romantic Era has largely been accepted by scholars. However, in looking at the period's two most prominent authors, Walter Scott and Jane Austen, we see that the epistolary form remained vibrant long after its supposed demise. Throughout their careers, both Austen and Scott employed embedded letters as a tool to create authenticity. Both Austen and Scott use what I call "literary letters" to create a sense of realism in their novels that contributed to the rise of the novel. Scholars often claim that Austen eschewed the epistolary form with Lady Susan and solidified her rejection by revising both Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice from epistolary novels to third person narration. But a careful examination shows that Austen followed Richardson's tradition with Lady Susan, that Sense and Sensibility was not originally written in epistolary form, and that Austen retained sixteen critical letters in Pride and Prejudice. In fact, Darcy's five-page letter to Elizabeth signals Austen's continued reliance on the form as it completely changes the dynamics of the novel and transforms Elizabeth from a static protagonist to a dynamic heroine. Further indication that Austen found value in the form is seen in her later and often considered more mature novels, Emma and Persuasion, where she found innovate ways to turn the epistolary form into an embedded narratological device. The value of letters in Scott's novels is often overlooked. For instance in Heart of Midlothian, Jeanie Down's claim that letters cannot feel is often cited as an argument that oral testimony is more valuable than written, yet it is a letter that ultimately gets her an audience with the queen. In fact, in both Heart of Midlothian and Redgauntlet, Scott explains the legal implications of the written testimony, its preference over oral testimony, and its power in persuading both in and out of court. And in Guy Mannering, Scott relies on embedded letters to develop important plot points including the identity of the lost heir, create believable characters, and explore the conflict between Scottish traditions and law. And although Redgauntlet is often considered the moment Scott eschewed the epistolary form, the way he employs letters to create the illusion that his characters are authentic historical figures helps him explore notions of national identity.

This essay will discuss gender in Pride and Prejudice, the timeless work by Jane Austen. It also discusses how a teacher might approach the subject of gender roles in a classroom environment based on a reading project featuring Pride and Prejudice. The different theories will include theories regarding gender as a social concept, gender roles and pedagogical implications. This essay argues that the gender roles in Pride and Prejudice can be used in an EFL classroom to increase students' awareness of gender and gender roles.

This dissertation considers the role of affective management in realist aesthetics and British imperial culture. Drawing on formalist analyses of English novels, nineteenth-century theories of emotion, and postcolonial accounts that identify the colonizer’s affective desensitization as the ground from which ongoing violence can be perpetrated, this study explores how domestic English novels developed new techniques for deflating the heightened feelings surrounding empire and distant intimacy. Through satires of sensibility, the replacement of epistolary style with impersonal omniscience, and newly dispassionate presentations of villains and protagonists alike, realist novelists explored affective restraint as at once a generic characteristic and an increasingly central element of British imperial and racial identities. This dissertation therefore argues, through readings of works by Jane Austen, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, and Joseph Conrad, for the deep influence of imperial culture on the realist novel’s distinguishing formal features. At the same time, it prompts critics to revisit longstanding accounts of the relationship between the novel and sympathy. Since the Victorian era, critics have readily understood the realist novel as concerned with the expansion of readers’ sympathies: this study reframes this important account by examining how the insistence on sympathy in novels often rerouted more turbulent reactions to empire’s dislocations—such as longing, desire for vengeance, and guilt—into cooler, more tractable feelings.

Austen, Dickens, and Eliot each responded to discussions of their time concerning class, gender, and social change. One of the ways they addressed these issues, and sought to find solutions to the problems facing their culture, was through benevolence. Knightley, in Emma, uses benevolence as a means of mediating self-interest and sympathy. By acting out of sympathy, through benevolence, he achieves the self-interested benefits of reinforcing the class system and achieving his romantic conquests. Likewise, Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby learns how to use benevolence as a means of social mobility from his mentors, the Cheerybles. Throughout Nicholas Nickleby the hero learns how to engage in benevolence out of sympathy, and by doing so he establishes himself as a gentleman and reaps social, economic, and romantic advantages. Eliot's Bob Jakin in The Mill on the Floss engages in benevolence out of true sympathy unhindered by self-interest. His freedom from social constraint and self-interest allows him to truly help Maggie Tulliver when no one else can. These authors' depictions of benevolence all illuminate ways that nineteenth-century literary authors sought to navigate the “Adam Smith Problem" of sympathy vs. self-interest. Benevolence, in these novels, is not disinterested (regardless of their motivation) but is influenced by the character's and author's perception of class, gender, and social change in the nineteenth century.

To step into a character and a world of the past, the actor must not discard the present, but seek to find connections and links between the worlds. I was cast in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater production of Sense and Sensibility, a Jon Jory adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, in the role of Lucy Steele. This was an equity production, and it ran February 6th – March 17th, 2013, in the Orlando Shakespeare Theater’s Margeson Theater. Lucy is a female character from England in a period often referred to as the Regency era. As a woman from today’s United States of America, first I explored how Lucy’s words and actions fit into the society of her time, and second I explored how I, a contemporary actor, could organically step into her shoes. One of the greatest tools I had to help me address these questions was the playwright himself, Jon Jory. He was at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater for the 2012 Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays, during which he gave a keynote address and taught a master class in acting, in which I participated. Furthermore, I had the unique opportunity to personally interview him regarding Sense and Sensibility and his connection to the world of Austen and her characters. Along with applying this insight, I applied tools from his acting master class to my work on his Sense and Sensibility text. This special access to the playwright greatly influenced the work and served as a key into Lucy’s world. In addition to working with the playwright, I further researched Austen and her work, because Lucy and her world originate there. I explored various resources about England’s Regency era society and the role of women in this society. By comparing the world and people of the play to the current cultural and political landscape with which I am most familiar, I found iii fundamental links between people living in different times and places, breaking down walls between Lucy’s world and my own. Finally, this performance thesis project utilized the practical acting, voice, and movement skills, which I cultivated in my studio work as an MFA acting candidate at the University of Central Florida. It was a wonderful opportunity as an aspiring young actor to participate in an equity production and work with professional actors. I exercised my stage dialects training by using a standard British dialect, and I applied what I learned in my theatre styles acting class and in various movement classes to develop the behavior and physicality of my character. In order to preserve the new information gained from this study, I chronicled my explorations and discoveries throughout the rehearsal and production process. Through my work with the playwright Jon Jory, my research on Jane Austen and the Regency era, and my application of what I learned in the studio, I strove to create a model process for an actor to utilize when stepping into a role and a world of the past.

No description available.