Those Elegant Decorums: The Concept of Propriety in Jane Austen's NovelsIn Those Elegant Decorums Professor Nardin differs from the many critics who feel that Jane Austen's irony and her morality contradict each other. She analyzes the way in which Jane Austen blends ironic criticism with moral affirmation through her complex and little-understood management of the narrative point of view. She demonstrates that the reader takes a journey of perception similar to that of the central characters in the novels, and that the correct interpretation of events is often unclear until well after the fact, despite the seeming aid of an apparently unbiased, omniscient narrator. Professor Nardin applies this general viewpoint on Jane Austen's art in her examination of the way Jane Austen uses ideas about propriety in her six novels. For Jane Austen, a person's social behavior--the code of propriety by which he lives--is the external manifestation of his internal moral character. What is the relationship between the conventionally accepted rules of propriety by which the gentry of Jane Austen's era regulated their lives and a morally valid standard of social behavior? This is an important question throughout Jane Austen's work. Those Elegant Decorums is a detailed study of the answers Jane Austen suggests in each novel. |
Contents
HOW TO READ JANE AUSTEN | 1 |
THE CONCEPT OF PROPRIETY | 12 |
PROPRIETY AS DUTY TO SOCIETY AND SELF SENSE AND SENSIBILITY | 24 |
PROPRIETY AS A TEST OF CHARACTER PRIDE AND PREJUDICE | 47 |
PROPRIETY AND THE EDUCATION OF CATHERINE MORLAND NORTHANGER ABBEY | 62 |
STATUS WORK AND PROPRIETY IN MANSFIELD PARK | 82 |
EGOTISM AND PROPRIETY IN EMMA | 109 |
PROPRIETY AND THE EXCEPTIONAL INDIVIDUAL PERSUASION | 129 |
NOTES | 155 |
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Those Elegant Decorums: The Concept of Propriety in Jane Austen's Novels Jane Nardin No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
acceptable acquaintances Anne Anne's believes Bennet Bertram Capt Catherine Catherine's civility code of propriety commitment completely conventional propriety conventional rules course critics Darcy Darcy's Dashwood dictates duty elegance Elinor Elizabeth Elliot Elton Emma Emma's engagement evil example fact Fanny's feelings forms gothic gothic fiction Harriet Henry Crawford heroine idea ideal important impropriety individual Isabella Jane Austen Jane Austen's novels John Thorpe judge judgment Knightley Lady Russell live major rules manners Mansfield Park Marianne Marianne's marry Marvin Mudrick Mary Crawford merely minor laws minor rules Miss Bates Musgrove narrator never Northanger Abbey obey Persuasion polite precisely Pride and Prejudice priety question readers realizes relationship remarks role rude rules of conventional rules of decorum rules of propriety Sense and Sensibility sentimental novel Sir Thomas sister social behavior society sort standard of propriety Thorpe Tilney tion Tom Bertram true propriety view of propriety Wentworth Wickham's Willoughby wishes young