Luận văn a study on historical and social background and the newness of language use in ‘pride and prejudice’ by jane austen

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES %4314300064006 NGUYEN KIM OANH A MINOR THESIS ON: A STUDY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

%4314300064006

NGUYEN KIM OANH

A MINOR THESIS ON:

A STUDY ON HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND THE NEWNESS OF LANGUAGE USE IN ‘PRIDE AND PREJUDICH?

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

NOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STU

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN KIM OANH

A MINOR THESIS ON:

A STUDY ON HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND AND THE NEWNESS OF LANGUAGE USE IN ‘PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

BY JANE AUSTEN

(NGHIÊN CUU CO SG LICH SU, XA HOI VA TINH MOI CUA

VIEC SU DUNG NGON NGU TRONG TAC PHAM ‘KIEU

HANH VA ĐỊNH KIÊN' CUA JANE AUSTEN)

Field: Linguistics

Supervisor: Dr Pham Dang Binh

HANOI — DECEMBER 2012

3 1 Design of the staily

CHAPTER 2 ANALYTICAL BACKGROUND

2.4, Introduction to Jane Austen

2 The matter of love and love expressing

4 Suggestions for further studies

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial part stated the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the

aims, objectives, the scope af ihe study, und the overview of the rest of this

research paper Above all, it was in this part that the research question was

identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research

1 Rationale of the study

In the eighteenth century, the readers were delighted by a new form of prose, which was called ‘novel’ for the first time by Daniel Defoe — the first considerable British novelist A ‘novel’ with a certain length did bring amusement, pleasure and joy to those who were concerned when the contemporary British society was

dreadfully chaotic in the virtue of the changes im the monarch In dhe tmnovation of

this new form of prose, there appeared a remarkable number of writers and their works They were coined to emphasive not only the social changes but also the imaginary stories, which exposed their hope for a better life, so cven the family ar social class problems were best put down in words by ane of the most famous

female novelist in Bntain and all over the world — Jane Auster

Peter Washington in his commentary once implicd hal Jane Austen belonged to the fantastic side of the Linglish comedy that appealed so strongly to the readers,

not only in Britain but also from all over the world

She was also said to be the first novelist capable of “conveying both interior and exterior of haonan life” as well as “developing the means of representing the

totality of human life” (Ian Watt, 1957)

In the six novels written during the very last decades of the eighteenth century, she tmily succeeded in describing “the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which to me the most wonderful l've ever met with that a pity such

a gifted creature dies so early” as Walter Soot (1826) once stated in his

commentary All the certain circumstances were just within the leading

imvolvement of one family and their neighbours and [nends in which Austen

created “some heroines who were credible with minds, with the capacity to think for themselves with ambition and wit”; and “Pride and Prejudice’, the novel about

marniage, was said to be the best of them all

‘Pride and Prejudice’ was coined to construct the frame of the conlermporanly

social satire, within the relationship between people from the middle and upper

classes It initially commenced the era of ‘couniry family novels’ which set a

“prying inguiry into the manner, human dignity and great strain” on the characters and the society they were living in, which made her novels connected to

the contemporary world more than the traditional socicly of the cighleenth

century as Digp Minh ‘Tam (2002) once commented,

Further more, it ranked one of the greatest novels of all time following “Wuthering heights” by Emily Bronte - 1847) and was read even if it was not taught at school The researcher was impressed by the name of the novel at first and became averexcited about the novel since she finished reading it for the first time ‘fhe novel was really linked to both of the real warld and the emotional changes inside individuals, especially the female Therefore, pulting extra clfort in investigating what impressed her really fed her desire to understand the people and society at

the time

2 Aims of the study

This study was carried out with the hope of exploring the background of the temporary Britain leading to the remarkable changes in its literal history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries especially in the view on British novels

The study also aimed at answering the question: “What is Jane Austen’s

distinctive writing style?” The answer to the question would help the students of

Linguistics, the novel's readers as well as those who wished to specialize in

2

Lnglish Literature realize what made Austen one of the most successful female novelist of the century

Right from the start, the researcher expected to find out the historical and social

background of the British Literature and briefly analyze the language use in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which exposed Austen's distinctive writing style

Last but not least was the researcher's desire to understand the novel, which was twally related lo the conlzoversial matter of love and love expressing

3, Methodology of procedures

3.1 Design of the study

The study was divided into three main parts While Part One dealt with the general

information which contained the rationale, aims and objectives, methodology and

scope of the study, Part Two went into further details of the historical and social

background; and the newness of language use in Jane Ansten’s Pride and Prejudice through four chapters ‘I'he suggestions for further research would not be

ommitled in the last part

3.2 Data collection and data analysis

The study used the descriptive and contextual methods of data collecting and

analyzing

Basing on tho huge resources of library and internet materials, the researcher

analyzed and then agglutinated those ideas into her own brief clear and

understandable viewpoints

On the other hand, several differences im the changeable literal bends of the

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would be briefly stated in her Analysis on how main characters exposed their own ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ in some certain circumstances through the three volumes

4, Scope of the study

‘As could be seen from the title, the study strongly focused not only on the historical and social background but also on the language use of the novel which played the most important role

To understand thal newness of language use in the novel, the researcher had lo pay

her full attention to the main characters’ leading conversations in the three

volumes which helped expose the cherish love and the theory of ‘pnde’ and

‘prejudice’ the main themes of the novel Amongst the three conversations, the

first two would be thoroughly analyzed, for the reason that the first ‘conversation’

brought the two main characters by their mistaken first impression and the second

conversation was about the conflicts finally resolved.

PART 2; DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1, THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Definitions of key terms

‘Yo be able to analyze the newness of language use through the three acts of the novel, (here were several key lerms: discourse and discourse analysis, literary slyle and language use, which needed to be deeply understood So for the purpose of providing a clear and deep understanding, of the matter, this first chapter would focus on the definitions of those key terms while mentioning some necessary information about previous studies that related to the matter of the study

1.1 Discourse and discourse analysis

‘Yhrough centuries, ‘discourse’ was defined in various ways by a number of

In other words, it referred to “the interpretation of communicative events in context.” (Nunan 1993:7-8)

It could be said that there were no significant differences between those definitions

since the notion of ‘discourse’ was all about how the language usc was understood

in such verbal events

Sharing a lot in common with Malinowski, linguists (Hymes, 1960s; Austin, 1962, Searle, 1969, Grice, 1975; and Halliday and Hasan, 1973, 1978, 1989, 1994) had

drawn certain attention to this branch by clarifying some “contextual, grammar

and cohesional models as well as pragmatic and conversational viewpoints”:

However, at the limitation of the minor thesis, the researcher wanted to focus on

the role of contextual analysis in the three major discourses for the reason that

‘context! was created by the discourse and vice versa It was what and how people

could depend on to interpret the discourses created im each conlext as Nunan

(1993:7-8) cited that TR Firth and Dell Hymes also appreciated the idea that

people always reacted toward how they understood and predicted what the others

were going fo say next

More systematically, Halliday (1989) developed a model of contextual analysis, just following the context of situation, which included three components as followed

Components of a Feature of the context

SITUATION

Field of discourse what was happening, to the nature of the social action

that was taking place

Tenor of discourse | Who were taking part in the situation

Mode of discourse | The role assigned to language

Example 1:

‘A short conversation was given and analysed in Halliday and Hasan’s theory (1989) as an example:

Doctor: Uave you been vomiting?

Patient: Him, yeah 1 vomited about 1 vomnitted twice two days ago at school

and I vomited about um eight or Len times last night

Patient: Oh, er, just sort of altogether, you know, Dr M gave him anti-biotic capsules for him to take because he's also got

(Talliday and Iasan, 1989)

Field A child-pationt that influenced the choice of texical tems

Tenor A dovtor and a paticnt

The choice of texical items: parts of the body: throat, Lonsil,

Mode

appendix; bodily actions: vomit, spit, swallow Example 2

A: Ili! I didn't now you belonged to the national Film Theatre Have you been a

member for tong?

B: Na, I jomed only last week T's good, isn'li1?

A: Yes, iLis There's always an excellent selection of fihns here Tin just going to get a coffee Would you like one?

B: I'm really thirsty Oh, don't forget that I've given up sugar

(Hoang, Van Van PhD, 2006)

Field An informal conversation between friends in a cafeteria

Made Use of words related to theatre: film, member, cafeteria

thirsty, coffee, sugar

In the field of Literature, no matter what the story was, the conversations might be

between or amongst people in a certain circumatance, but il was Moue that

perfectly helped recognize and distinguish an author's literary style from others’ 1.2 Literary style

Literary style was defined in various ways by a smanber of scholars

According to Geoffrey Lecch and Mick Short, Literary style referred to “Tinguistic choice in general” or to “those aspects of linguistic choice which concern alternative ways of rendeving the same subject mailer” (cited by Milvhcll, A & MeGee, K, 2011; 31-32)

Much more clearly in “Linguistics and literary style” (1970), Donald C Freeman once clarified the literary style into same categories: sentence structure, pace,

vocabulary, figures of specoh, use of dialogue, tune, ofc

Similarly wilh those scholars, David Watson in ‘The Elements of Style’ (1915),

defined literary style as “the translation of thought into language” ‘This

identification of the style surely did nol fail in “width and generality” Tn other

words, there was no doubt, as the widespread belief in the existence and the power

of something so called when words, sentences and voice were carefully chosen to

be the means or the medium of the garment of the certain processes of thought TL

gave a distinction to certain writers or compositions because even though it was

not sa easy to recognize an author's style, readers were still able to see her literary

whole form by means of a number of concrete parts

Although literary style was defined in various ways, it was known in conclusion as

the element that described an author's choice of words, sentence structures,

figurative language and the habit of correct grammar, atrangement of all her work together to establish mood, images and meaning of the text In the limitation of

this minor study, the researcher would focus on three main elements, which were known in the necewsity of Made in Halliday’s theory, as David Watson (1915) and Strunk W, and White H.D, (2000) once again agreed,

1.2.1 Word choice

General speaking, nouns and verbs were the main medium, which helped readers visualize and convey the meanings of a novel, and a novel writer was said to be good only if she knew when fo choose or weed oul the words convisely and precisely It should be words which were “active verbs, concrete nouns and specific adjectives” (cited in ‘The Flements of Style’, 2000)

1.2.2 Sentence fluency

Easily seen in well-known novels that readers mostly were attracted by a variety

of sentences with dilferent lengths and rhythms which was valled “ihe flow and rhythm of phrases and sentences”; in other words, it was ‘Sentence fluency” All the ideas were carefully considered, chosen and then arranged in varions structures

to reflect the main themes of the novel They were not like in speaking when people could not rethink or revise the ideas for effect To make the sentences Quen, soundiry Tike an own style, the wriler would re-choose the words, delete redundancies, make vague or ambiguous words much clearer to convey the greatest effect as possible

1.2.3 Voice

There was an old saying: “Sivle is the dress of thoughts”: and literary style was

most clearly defined by an suthor’s voiee Although voice was dilficull, Lo be

drastically measured, it was the essential element that revealed the writer’s

personality to the extreme, and in ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Jane Austen was

successful in portraying, characters with a arcat sense of irony

10

“Lrony is a form of utterance that postulated a double audience, consisting of one parly (hat hearing shall hear and shall not understand, and another party thai, when more is meant than meets the ear, is aware both of that more and of the

outsiders’ comprehension” (Towler, 1968 — cited in “Irony” by Colebrook, 2004)

In those hidden language, actions, differences and communications, irony was

seen as an art or a means of worth and effective persuasion in speeches when il

allowed people to convey the meaning above what was said As Socrates (cited by

Colebrook, 2004) once implied, irony was used by saying one thing and meaning

another which resulled in an insistence Trony was beheved to bring about “truth

and recognition” even if that truth was hard to be recognized and not fully

meaningful

1.3, Language use

Language use was said to be “the people's production and understanding of a set

of sentences with particular meanings” (cited in “Trony” by Colebrock, 2004) Tn

other words, the choice of wards had to be suitable for each communication circumstance so as lo express different mearings, those needed lo he clarified and

deeply understood in order to keep up with the chains of following activities In

those activities the speakers said and took actions by using words whilst the others

had lo coordinate with them in ying to comprehend what they mount,

In fact, the term “language uso” reccived a certain attention from literary scholars, but more clearly and closer to Llalliday’s theory that the researcher based on when analyzing the discourses, Clark (2000) developed the theory by Gumperz and Hymes (1964, 1972) and once acknowledged that the speakers’ word and sentence meaning came first in theories of language structure That was the reason for his

further study in the use of words and sentenices in his “Arenas of Language use” According to him, the meaning would be clearly recognized through the properties

11

of the three certain arenas: 1 Participants 2, Social processes 3 Collective

achivilics

1.3.1 Participants

The participants were the speakers and the speakers’ attendants — the addressees -

and verlain so-called participants in the aclions They had certain additional roles — depending on each situation — that helped define what the speakers said and meant

Tn conversations, they were speakers and listeners

1.3.2 Social processes

The language thal was used should be depended on what the social prove:

cs

were For instance, in the relationship between Darcy and Hlizabeth, they used the

language, which fit their social attitude towards the other even when the first

impression might be wrong They spoke to the olher in an ironic manner and voice dus to the awareness of their own ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ toward the social status

The novel ended when they both came to expose love to each other despite the

social differences

1.3.3 Collective activities

Three main acts of the novel included a number of activities that brought the

characters to take part in and to accomplish the social processes People spoke and

listened to one another in collaboration and in coordination as to bridge the

communication gap and to reach the goal revealed at the end of the novel

Even though the language usc was scon from various viewpoints, there was no doubt that they had some similarities in the use and choice of words and sentence

structures, which were so typical for cach character in diferent contexts

1.2 Previous studies

12

‘Through centuries, not only the content but also the literary style in ‘Pride and prejudice’ was discussed a thousand times by a big number of scholars [rom alt over the world However, several ambiguous and contradictory viewpoints began

to be discovered in the process of analyzing the novel such as Tory or

Enlightenment feminism, individual soviety, els By synthesizing the relaled

studies, several ideas were recognized and considered same typical features, which

helped exposing Jane Austen’s distinctive writing style under the English society

in the lale cighleonth and carly ninioleenth centuries

In ‘Pride and Prejudice’ which ranked second on the list of the greatest love story

of all time, Jane Austen: was successful in portraying the contemporary English society with satires when people could not easily and freely express themselves towards others due to the class differences She was not only proved as the one who recognized a tradition of thought that “women were treated as an inferior class in a man’s world” — Bulter once argued but also the one who appreciated the essential role of a female with “dutifulness, meditativeness, self-abnegation and self-control” — Mary Brunton said Afler all, that was why they intended to tum out their ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ against each other when they had something to be proud of (cited in Women’s whole Existence by Birgitta Berglund, 1993)

13

CHAPTER 2, ANALYTICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Introduction to Jane Austen

Born on the sixteenth of December, 1775 in Steventon, [lampshire, England, Jane

Austen was the seventh of the clergyman George Austen’s children and shared the

most inlimale relationship with her sister Cassandra who had never got married Jane Austen was in possession of a great desire in reading from her father — a rector who lived an uncventful life at the birthplace bul always encouraged his daughters to read passionately as nach as they could Not only Jane but other

Austen children from time to time presented shart plays watched by the family and

neighbours for entertamment, which helped create the warm and friendly living environment and the close relationship amongst family members, which helped

generate her writing ability as well as give her the ideas for the later warks

At the age of eleven, she started writing her very first parodies of popular

literature [or the entertainment of her family Ta those short proses, ‘swooning and blushing heraines, noble heres and melodramatic plat or courtship’ were quite

clearly exposed

(Pride and Prejudice, 993)

From then on, she spent more of her awareness and clTort in the field of literature

Some full-length novels were written at her age of twenty; however, they were kept a secret from her family wha soon became her ardent supporters and played a

very important role in her fidure writing She stumbled over her first handling

novels to the press for the first time when she completed her ‘Sense and sensibility’ in 1795 and ‘Pride and prejudice’ in 1797 Even though Jane was desperale due to the rejection of those two novels, she got back on and rewrote

them, which were then published and widely known by various readers

Jane Austen once felt in love, when she was twenty-six, with a young clergyman

14

who suddenly died without any reasons; and once agreed to mary a wealthy man bul they broke off the engagement in the following day TL was so understandable that all of her novels were about courtship and marriage Not only did they mention the society, which had very narrow and rigid expectations for women but also sharply drew a significant picture of the relationship between men and wornen

of her contemporary time

Living from 1775 to 1817, at the age of forty two, she died and left her legacy of six novels which were written in a slightly different orders but completed and published as followed: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816) and Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (1818 — one year afler hor death)

Amongst her six novels as stated above that ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was highly appreciated and got the greatest care from the scholars and readers ‘This novel was

first written in 1796, then entitled ‘First Impressions’

2.2 introduction to 'Pride and Prejudice’

other sisters — Mr ancl Mrs Remmel’s daughters — were wanted to go to the

welcome ball of Mr Bingley — a new single rich bachelor coming to the

neighbourhood, together with his two sisters and friend — Fitzwilliam Darcy Mrs

Bermot — a miraculously liresome mother - was consumed by the desire to sce her

daughters married and seemed to care for nothing else in the world because she

believed: “I is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession

15

of a good fortune must be in want of wife” ‘This ball brought [Bingley and Jane the eldest Bermot girl — together (hrough an actual attraction, and Blivabeth’s ‘Lirst impression’ toward Mr Darcy - “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” who would never be welcomed again in Longboun Furthermore, he was

ong of the two — with Mr Bingley’s sister — adding imtensified aversion to the

separation of Bingley and Jane later on

Meanwlule Mr Collins got a mariage refusal when he proposed to Elizabeth Promptly he transferred his affection to Charlotte Lucas which was finally

aceepled Flivabeth once again was brought into a contact with Darey in

Pemberley, in Derbyshire where Darcy proposed to her in terms that did not conecal his pride bul got art indignant rejection back During this visit, Blizabeth reached the news that her sister Lydia eloped with Wickham, son of the steward of the Darcy property The story was untied since Darcy’s letter to Hlizabeth and they finally engaged, back to T.onghourn and the relationship between Ringley and Jane was also renewed, and then ended in a happy engagement,

222, Themes

‘The short courtship between Darcy and Hlizabeth was an example of “one of the most cherished love stories” (Spark notes, 2012) in the English literature which displayed the ‘Pride’ and ‘Prejudice’ even when Uieir love and marriage was buill and maintained through their common interests in reading, Ulizabeth, who even did not have a home-tutor, had a great desire in reading books while Darcy exposed his reading interest in preserving his father’s big brary in the house, revealed during Llizabeth’s stay in Pemberley and led to the readers’ realization of

a suitable mateh — Darcy and Elizabeth

While other four couples’ which were presented int the novel: “lo the love and attraction shared by Jane and Mr Bingley; the convenience of marriage was portrayed through Charlotte and Mr Collins; Lydia and Wickham’s marriage was

16

based on their desire, attractions and financial status; Mr and Mrs Bennet’s marriage was for their necessity; the love of Darey and Flicabeth was so pure”, (http: wurw ukessays.convessays/english’pride-prejadice.php) unlike the others’, and then was recognized through a number of their many countless small obstacles Being portrayed as a very proud man, Darcy was misjudged by the first poor expression in Llizabeth blinding herself for quite a long time ‘To the surprise that Darey, who would find hard ta express his own love feeling to others especially a woman in dhis case, decided 1o express his Jove lo Elizabeth by saying such a pure and genuine sentence: “You must allow me to tell you how much I admire and love you” (p157) Flivabeth’s love for Darey was very clear when she said to her parents “Y do like hien, I Jove him” The ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’ towards each other seemed no longer exist between them at the very end of the novel when both of the lwo main characters said for their love and belief in Qe future good marriage The love between these two individuals was truly depicted to be something independent of all invisible social forces

Jane Austen surely had a number of her reasons to re-title the novel by “Pride and Prejudice’ instead of ‘First Impression’ as she did Pride’ andl ‘Prejudice’ played

as the two other main themes which people living in the current time found difficult to understand the meaning As mentioned in the novel thal people of whatever the society was could be provented from realizing the truth due to their own pride and prejudice towards other people Walter Scott (cited by Qaisar Iqbal Janjua, 2010) onee commented: “In Pride and prejudice one cannot equate Darcy with Pride, or Elizabeth with Prejudice; Darcy's pride of place is founded on social prejudice, while Elisabeth's imitial prejudice against him is rooted in pride

of her own quick perceptions” Tt meant that people were unable to separate and to analyze only Pride but Prejudice in Darcy or lizabeth and vice versa, which would be more deeply and clearly analyzed in the following part of the study

1

CHAPTER 3: LISTORICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF BRITISH NOVELS

31 Historical background

Pritish history was said to be different from that of the European Continent

because there had been no civil war im the country for ccnturies The British Isles

had been inhabited by human beings for some 250,000 years, its history might approprialcly begin with the Celis, who crossed [rom the European continent and settled in the British Isles (Hngland, Scotland, Wales and Ireland) during the very

first millennium B.C

Those thousands of years had passed and the country had been through many significant changes During the Medicval Era, Anglo-Saxon’s conquest and then Roman’s first invasion ruined the country, which finally recovered until the Age

of Flizabeth I It was ance again known as the age of the prosperity with economic

and political stabilities

Under Elizabeth I's control, the greatest age of British Literature was significantly marked by the first long story ‘Le Brut’ — a story about King Arthur - by Wace

was considered the very firsL accomplishment mì Hteraueøe, and Elivabcthan

homilies, which were to highlight the important of peace, unity and regulations obedience This glorious time of British literature was seen in the rise of comedies and tragedies in theatre by one of the most popular author — William Shakespeare: Othello domestic tragedy as the jealousy rose to rain the family members’ relationships while Macbeth — poetic tragedy as the people were drawn in disappointment and guiltiness Additionally, the very first step to British novels was made to the publishing of ‘Pandosto’ by Robert Green in 1588, “Jack of Newbury’ by Thomas Deloney in 1597 and ‘The Unforimate Traveller” by Thomas Nashe in 1594

1B

3.2 Social background

British society, with its class system and different class beliefs also provided a rich

source of materials for character-hased novels Many of them depended on the

contrasts, real and imagined, between people of different classes, most especially

the contrast between the middle and upper class families thase who were different

Tnaimly in social status and fortane Qu the contrary, Lo the middle class, who was

able to pattially afford their own demands, the upper class was of a very 200d

fortune, a plenty of fertile lands & ten thousand pounds per year Those were seen

as (he upper class who roecived a deep mutual respect and care from the rest of the

society and novels were coined to fulfill the mission of describing the differences

and conflicts

The Age of Elizabeth I was considered the greatest age af English Literature due

to the appearance of many types of literary work including: poetry, comedy/ tragedy in theater, narrative and a very first step to novels at the late sixteenth or

early severeenth century Besides, Shakespeare was one of the most famous

tragedy; King Lear — universal tragedy; and Macbeth — poetic tragedy

Some other popular works were Pandosto (Robert Green, 1588); Jack of Newbury

(Thomas Deloncy, 1597), and The Unfortunate Traveller (Thomas Nashe, 1694)

3.3 Themes and forms of the lute 18" und early 19" century novels

Different from those in the Medioval Fra when the winner in language use was French — the language of most of the literary work, the novels of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries owned some typical differences

Although there were some stories with a considerable length, readers had to pationtly wait until the cightecnth contuzy to first see the appearance of the word

‘novel’ which was seen as a ‘negative connotation’ connecting to sentimental

19

romances ‘This era had begun since the appearance of a number of handsome and

courageous heroes who rescued emotional mserable heromes from dilTicull

situations for the purpose of serving people mainly from the middle class By giving the name ‘novel’ to this kind of prose, Daniel Defoe (1660 — 1731), a joumalist with “he flavor of colloquial speech” (1998:31), became the first novelist of the Lnglish Literature, known through his fine writings such as Robinson Crusoe, even without any stylistic tricks or irony as readers always saw

im his articles Twas not a storybook bul laid the fascimalion in the bald sIatemeniL

of facts

‘After Daniel Defoe, there were two other writers Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding who devoted their whole lives to novel writing with a core of billemess which itself was to expose a mad hatred to the contemporary society Whilst Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travellers hid much of the satire so cleverly that children still read it as a fairy tale, Henry Field, who started his novel writing career almost by accident, was highly appreciated by the critics through the

boisterous humour, good sense and vivid characterization in his ‘Tom Jones’

Till the late decades of the eighteenth century, there were same other novels of Suystery and imagination” by writers like Mrs Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Gregory Lewis 'heir works gave a rational explanation to the real world through The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho, and shortlisted “che devil, horror, torture, magic and murder” - to their popularity which were all connected to the Gothic novel as Dorothy stated in “The concise Oxford dictionary

of Fnglish Literature” ‘Gothic? took shape, as a class of novels dealing with frightening and supernatural and chiefly associated with Horace Walpole’s “The castle of Otranto’ and the works of Ann Radcliffe This type of novels specialized

in ruins, haunted casiles, frightening landscapes and what we called magic; and iL

was considered too confined to strict realism since the traditional Gothic staples

20

once portrayed “a threatening mystery and an ancestral, as weil as countless trappings such as hidden passages and oft-fainting heroines” They fell within the

category of Romantic Jiterature and acted as “a reaction against the rigidity and formality” of other forms of Romantic literature

Not wanting to follow the social prejudices, people rose to exclaim their

individualism through their own thoughts and desires Tn a Gothic novel laid a

description of a fallen world through all aspects, ie theme, setting and

characterization, which made many critics, engaged in the analysis of such various

clements David Morris believed that the Gollic novel addressed “the horrific,

hidden ideas and emotions within individuals” and provided “an outlet for them” When someone theught of and licheved in the supernatural and the sublime, there

seemed no place for them to express but Gothic novels; sometimes with prevalent

fears of murder, rape, sin and the unknown elements what they had to face in life

Thank to this “presentation of the tmpresentable” which came inta the literary

world; an individual was able to reveal their perspective of the twentieth century and the unconsciousness of the human psyche The Gothic novel appeared and was said lo be a foil to the typical Romantic novels since not only did il focus on

evoking the atmosphere of horror and dread but also the deterioration of its

ihriving world with decaying and ruined sceneries

Not so long since Gothic novels appeared, Wordsworth blew a breath of fresh air into the temporary British Literature which was called Romanticism The Romantic Movement in literature began with the storming of the Bastille in Paris and the Tst spilling of blood in the French Revolution This Romantic spirit spread out over a number of novels, ‘They characterized the beauty m art and nature, people's wishes and love; their awareness of persanal hate, revenge, hard lives: or

even a cirele of social conflicts

z1

Northanger Abbey was said, by Melanie Strieder (2003) to be “referred fo as a parody of the Gothic novel” — which was in an association of “mysterious, frightening, fantastic, supernatural, sexual and sublime things” and Catherine Morland — the seventeen-year-old character — was seen as a typical example of the

one who started Ibinking and acting in Gaihic marmers

Jane Austen (1775 — 1817) was the first considerably important female novelis!

since she stood above both of the classical and romantic movements The gap

between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries she bridged was unique due to her

spending full attention depicting a stall but typical corner of the English socicty

as in her moderate country family novels She was interested in people, not ideas

She knew her world ton well and knew her characters so habitually that she could

not bear to go into details about them

2

CHAPIER 4: NEV

PREJUDICE’

SS OF LANGUAGE USE IN ‘PRIDE AND

4.1, Austen’s distinctive writing style

The popularity of Austen’s six novels did heighten her to be one of the most

unporlant writers with Lhe great contribution to the British Literature

She was considered one of the most famous female novelists — “the first to represent society, the general culture, as playing a part in the moral life, generating the concepts of ‘sincerity and vulgarity’, which no earlier time would have understood the meaning of.”

(‘Pride and Prejudice’, 1991)

In other words that not being trapped by the Gothic plot which was very popular in

the eighteenth century, the appearance of Jane Austen's novels was characterized

as (he one who put the very first actual remarkable slep to the Vieloriaty Romantic Age She escaped from the terror implicit in the increasingly dictatorial reign of

the contemporary social values Butler in his commentary on Jane Austen and

Mansfield Park once stated that Janc Austen was the first fernale novelist who

brought “the newness and modernity to the British literature through her intrigual

writing style which satire the vices of her comlemporary society”

(Jane Austen and Mansfield Park, 1957)

She was praised [or the moral viriues as well as enlertaiming conversations - the

execeding specialties that could be casily scon in all of her novels It laid a gentle

humour of coward situations happening toward the different relationship between

the middle and lugher classes, a rare Mash of humour thal readers scldom saw in

other contemporary novels

“Austen was the only woman novelist whol discuss at any length” -lan Watt

23

(1957) once said In ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Jane Austen claimed herself of manual

dextcrily to rely ona combinalion of parody, irony, burlesque through [ree indirect

speeches of the first-third person narrative, It was to comment on the portrayal of

women in the 18 century - sentimental and gothic - as well as to foresee the portrayal of women in the 19" century — heroines standing above the social

prejudice ‘That was why Klingel Ray (2010) once claimed that Jane Austen was

“first and foremost a satirist And for a satirist, wony is the major tool of language”

4.2 Newness in languape use

As mentioned above that to discuss the language usc was to discuss the participants, social processes and collective activities as Watson’s theory, which shared a lot in comman with Field, Tenor and Mode in Halliday’s theory The only difference remained in Mode, which was always essential for readers to recognize

an author’s voice So as a result, this special part of the study would focus on the leading conversations which formed (his world-known novel fistly by briefly noting Mield (social processes and collective activities), ‘enor (participants) then thoroughly discussed Mode of the discourses through the two main characters’ use

of language

4.2.1 Language use in the three leading conversations

As playing the leading roles in the novel, Elizabeth and Darey were portrayed and drawn completely to a conflict as in the first Act, further away from her goal in the second Act and finally resolved in the last Act

Three leading conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth would be thoroughly discussed itt terms of Field, Tenor and Mode, which mostly helped expose Austen's ironic voice through her choosing words differently from other authors

So, this part of the sludy was1o stale and to analyze whal happened im cach Act

“a

with Austen’s ironic voice through a cluster of main activities in the three volumes

because in ‘Pride and Prejudice’, irony wax agreed lo the “stratagem for

survival”

So as to understand more about its assumptions that the leading characters asserted

in their claims against the overbearing society and emotion testing without

betraying themselves into a commitment, the researcher aimed al pulling much

effort in thoroughly analyzing the following acts

4.2.1.1 Act 1

The first Act included the first twerdy-dree chaplera, the crcurnsfaree im which

Darcy and Elizabeth started and remained the wrong impression on each other The welcome ball brought Darcy and Blixabeth together with the first tislaken impression when Darcy insulted Elizabeth’s overhearing to his conversation with