Jane Austen's Writing Style

By: Aysha Schurman

Jane Austen writing tends to be witty and romantic. Though her name never appeared on her published books during her life, Austin's works rose to fame after her death in 1817. In fact, her popular books, such as Pride and Prejudice, have never gone out of print. She is now considered one of England's most famous novelists.

Writing Style Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Neoclassicism encourages reason and restraint in writing. It is logical and follows a structured form. Romanticism encourages passion and imagination in writing. It is emotional and follows a flowing form. Mixing these two styles may seem impossible, but layering neoclassicism and romanticism together was one of Austen's strong talents.

Austen used her sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing. She could come up with a powerful and dramatic scene on one page and lead it into a biting and satirical scene on the next page. Her high intelligence and impressive education allowed her to slip deep and meaningful insights into her words, regardless if the topic was romance or politics.

Scenery Austen never focused on scenery or stage setting in her novels. She laid out the basics and allowed the resulting dialogue to explain the details in a natural manner. This technique was rather rare for Austen's time. Most of her contemporary authors could include chapters of text just to describe a stone bridge. The lack of indulgent details displays the basic neoclassic style Austen preferred to follow when it came to descriptive passages.

Characters Austen may have used neoclassicism as her primary writing style, but she added a romantic touch when it came to her characters. Austen's dialogue can range from sharp and witty to poetic and emotional. Her characters' words and actions build up slowly to create a vivid picture of each person. She focuses heavily on the art of conversation and allows it to display the growth and development of the main characters.

Major themes

Many critics take the novel's title as a starting point when analysing the major themes of Pride and Prejudice; however, Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title since commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title. It should be pointed out that the qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice."^[5]

A major theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people's character and morality.^[6] Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her world, and a further theme common to Jane Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In Pride and Prejudice, the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet (particularly the latter) as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment; Darcy, on the other hand, has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable, but is also proud and overbearing.^[6] Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society.^[7]