The works written by Jane Austen, including her novel “Persuasion”, are attributed by critics to the 19th century realism. Then, what are those aspects, that allow to do it, and what is Jane Austen’s role in the overall scene of literature of her time?
Jane Austen was admired during her lifetime, as well as her works are widely read till now. There can be admitted, she was rather revolutionary for her time, even if it was unconsciously, and it may be asked, if she knew what she was doing. Jane Austen lived, after all, before it was common for the novelist to regard himself as an artist, besides them, no matter, how well educated she might be, Austen had no knowledge of the theories of fiction.1 Besides them, she has not written any literary manifests about her style or way of writing, although, here must be admitted, few realism authors did it, if to compare with the representatives of other literary movements. At the same time, an author must know what he or she does with his works, so it may be assumed, Jane Austen also did. Evidently, realism is rather natural in the way of telling and, probably, does not demand for any special explanations and instructions for the audience to understand it.
There have been very many “realisms”. For example, V. Ivbulis mentions the following ones in his book: Renaissance realism, empirical realism, criticizing realism, socialistic realism, fantastic realism, national, optimistic, pessimistic, naturalistic, poetical, psychological, romantic, magic etc. realisms.2 As it seems, everything depends on the way the author looks at the world. Evidently, I will not begin discussions about the possibility of realism in general here; it is not the target of this paper. What is necessary to find out or what is the target of the present paper, it is: to define, what way of looking at the world a reader can find in Jane Austen’s prose and, namely, in her novel “Persuasion”.
This particular novel is chosen from all Jane Austen’s novels, because it represents the maturity of Austen’s work, and more than her other novels, evidences Austen’s comic yet biting satire of the titled upper classes. The work is interesting also because this type of novel is not about the education or growth of one particular individual, but is instead a story of how a few central characters interact within society, navigating the rules and structures which govern their lives. Austen’s own social position, as the daughter of a parish clergyman, placed her firmly in the respected middle-class, but as an author she was free to step outside her sphere and write about the personal flaws and mistakes of the proud gentry.…
