In the field of Jane Austen study, some critics regard her novels as a preaching of Christianity while some others consider her works as secular novels. In regards of the author¡¦s religious background, it is essential to re-examine her novels in order to formulate the influence of religion in both her life and her works and to settle certain debates on her belief. This present thesis will center on three of Austen¡¦s novels: Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma, with exploring her surviving correspondence in mention of her opinion on Christians, to probe into her religious principles and to provide a neutral viewpoint to scrutinize the relation between literature and religion in the novels. The introductory chapter gives an overall look on Jane Austen¡¦s religious and historical background. The following three chapters aim to discuss several elements of Christianity in her novels respectively. Chapter One exemplifies the practice of Christian charity in Austen¡¦s novels as well as in her daily life. It also elaborates on certain ¡§good principles¡¨ that were well-known by the Regency congregation and that were practiced by the authoress. Chapter Two discusses how Austen reflects the biblical teaching in her novels without using direct quotes and how she presents her concern of the potential crisis with ambiguous values. The final chapter deals with the problems facing by the Regency clergy and how Austen projects her ideal clergy through a hero¡¦s mouth. Most importantly, this thesis conjectures the reasons of Austen¡¦s evasiveness on religion in hope to gain a new insight into her fictional world.

Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--College Station, Tex.--Texas A&M university. / Notes bibliogr.

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Jane Austen's novels abound with readers "reading" not only texts but also speech, gestures, looks, scenery, events, each other, themselves. Readers in the novels illuminate her assumptions about readers of the novels; unlike eighteenth-century novelists who judged fiction by readers' responses and who tried to manipulate those responses, she accepted that not all readers read alike. / Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice explore different styles of reading and suggest some ways are more successful than others. A good reader observes accurately, reflects carefully, and judges candidly, disciplining subjective feelings with "objective" truths of religion and morality; above all, good readers trust their own educated judgments rather than rely upon external monitors. / Readers of the novels share the reading experiences of heroines. In Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion, readers are invited to judge without monitor or narrator to direct them. Readers, like heroines, discover and reveal themselves in the act of reading.

Jane Austen revises the sentimental epistolary tradition by introducing a structural epistolarity that replaces the anatomical vocabulary of female corporeality with the domiciliar terminology of female domesticity. In Austen's novels, the epistolary metaphor of the passport links letter reading, the heroine's education process, and views of domestic space. Epistolary issues aligned with domestic spaces indicate the metaphorical relationship between the structural dialectic of closed and open and the epistolary paradox of writing to dissemble character and reading to reveal character. Letter writing and reading represent the spatial order within prescribed views and tours of houses and grounds. The heroine's critical letter reading allows her to distinguish between character types presented through different domestic contents, and the letter's interpretive authority finalizes her social education by serving as a passport figuratively transferring her between natal and martial households.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-98). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Texte remanié de: Doct. thesis. / Bibliogr. p. 286-309. Index.

The connection between social change and marriage is of critical concern for nineteenth century English novelists, and the progression of both class shifts and alterations in marriage are discernable through these novelists' respective works. Due to the Industrial Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, England's social hierarchy began to shift allowing for the rise of a middle class; with the professional class's ascension came the decline of the landed gentry. These social changes blurred class boundaries and created an increasing socially mobile society. Additionally, they coincided with changes to marriage framework, as matrimony was moving towards being based on love rather than the traditional socioeconomic foundation. As both class lines and the love-revolution took place around the same time historically, there was a key change in marriage suitability, making cross-class and love-based marriages more of a reality. Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy are two of the most notable authors from the nineteenth century who chronicle this tension between marriage and class in their respective novels. This thesis focuses specifically on Austen's Persuasion and Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, arguing that they both visualize a successful marriage that is predicated on both love and socioeconomic status. Their similar image of the sustainable marriage gives value to both the socioeconomic-based and love-based marriages, depicting a realistic conceptualization of marriage.