The Romantics and

Jane Austen

The Romantic Period

• 1798 - 1832• Lyrical Ballads by William

Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• Many revolutions in industry and agriculture

– Idealized nature and human beings– Emphasized the individual, the personal,

and the emotional– Sharp contrast to the science, logic, and

reason of the Restoration– Was a movement of protest for more

personal freedom and reform against conservative England

What Spurred the Romantic Period?

• Jean Jacques Rousseau - father of Romanticism, idea of the “noble savage”

• 1832 - Reform Bill of 1832– Marks the end of the Romantic

period– More fairly distributed seats in

Parliament and gave the vote to middle class men

• Romantic period does NOT refer to love and romance

• DOES refer to youth, innocence, questioning authority and tradition, adapting to change

• Poets used common language and wrote about commonplace subjects, the beauty of nature, and the human imagination

What the Romantic Period is NOT…

– Love of nature in all aspects– Concern and sympathy for the common man– Interest in the world of imagination,

especially the supernatural– Rebellion against any form of tyrannical

control– Interest in past legends, especially medieval

and primitive– Involvement with the lonely and melancholic,

especially with man’s eventual death

The Six themes of Romantic Literature

– Very emotional– Deals with personal feelings of the

writer– Tends to be musical– Deals with nature– Imaginative– Helps us see things we otherwise

would not notice

The Romantic Attitude Towards Poetry

• 1st generation poets-Wordsworth-Coleridge

• 2nd generation - radical political beliefs, self-imposed exile– Lord Byron– Percy Shelley– John Keats

The Poets…

• Gothic novels - mystery and horror– Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (1818)

• Novels of Manners– Jane Austen’s Emma, Pride and

Prejudice– Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

The Novels and Novelists…

• Language - broadened the concept of “acceptable” English, narrowed the gap between aristocrats and commoners

• American and British English grew further apart (spelling)– Publick– Colour– Splendour– Traffick– Flavour– Centre

The Language

• Born December 16, 1775

• Died July 18, 1817• She was the 7th of 8

children• The youngest of two

daughters• Born to a clergyman

and his wife- George & Cassandra Austen

• Her closest friend was her sister, Cassandra.

“Jane” by Cassandra Austen

Jane Austen: A visual journey through her novels, her life, and

her countryside

Her Childhood

St. Nicholas Church, Steventon

The rectory where the family lived

• Primarily educated at home

• Benefited from her father’s extensive library • Led a quiet life at home

• Was exposed to the outside world

• Frank & Charles, her brothers

-in the Royal Navy

-traveled the world

-served in the Napoleonic Wars

• Attended Abbey Gatehouse School 1801

• Brother Henry becomes clergyman & moves to London

- attended theatre, art exhibitions, & social events

• Brother James becomes a banker

• Brother Edward adopted by wealthy cousins and inherits an estate in Kent

- Jane learns about the landed gentry at Godmersham

- Knowledge that is reflected in her fiction

The Abbey Gatehouse 1801, Reading

Possible settings for Jane’s novels…

Godmersham Park

The Ashe House Adelstrop

The Ibthorp House

The Move to Bath…• Jane’s father retires

• Jane and Cassandra move with their parents to Bath

• Mr. Austen dies and Edward relocates the women to Chawton

• All during this time, Jane is quietly writing, but publishes nothing

• The move to Chawton changes that

Jane’s Time at Chawton Cottage• It is in this house that

Jane submits her work for publication

• At age 35, her most productive period begins

• 1811 Sense & Sensibility is published

• 1813 Pride & Prejudice is published

• 1814 Mansfield Park is published

• 1815 Emma is published

The Beginning of the End…

• In 1815, Jane begins Persuasion and finishes it the following year

• Her health begins to fail as a result of probable Addison’s Disease

• In March of 1817, Jane and Cassandra move to Winchester to be nearer to Jane’s doctor

• Jane dies in the early morning hours of July 18, 1817

• Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published the following December

Jane’s Burial Place

Winchester Cathedral

Quill and Ink

The Regency Style of Dress

1780’s Silk Dress

Spencer Jacket & Bonnet

Jane’s Pellise