Chapter - 6

Question- Discuss Jane Austen as a realist.

Or
Write a note on the realism of Jane Austen. Or
Discuss Jane Austen as a novelist of domestic comedies of a high order.

Answer-

Jane Austen's art is realistic. As far as possible she Clings to reality, though it serves also as a basis for the flight of her imagination. Referring to this cross has observed. She was a realist. She gave a new look to the novel in art and a style, which it once had, had particularly in Fielding, but which it had since lost. Jane Austen's style is the language of everyday life, even with a thing of its slang to which she has added an element of beauty Jane Austen brings together her village folk and their visitors, at the dinner party and the ball, as naturally as they would meet in real life. There is never any question needing explanation why a certain young lady or a certain young gentleman happens to be present.

The matter of observation in passing through Jane Austen's imagination, was never violently disturbed the particular bias it received was from a delicate and delightful irony. There was precisely that selection and recombination and heightening of incident and character that distinguish the comedy of manners from real life. Referring to the combination of fact and fiction in the novels of Jane Austen Chapman has observed Jane Austen was singularly scrupulous in her regard for accuracy in those parts of her fiction which were grounded on fact such as dates and places. She would not trust herself in a country. She did not know at least by report, and advised her nice against adventures in Ireland. She is more than accurate. She clings to reality in a way which might argue poverty of invention, if that explanation were not absurd her creative imagination worked most freely within a frame work fixed for her by small points of contact with reality. She polished and polished, till the finished surface of her fiction has a brilliance which delights her admires, but the flow of imagination lies beneath it.

It has been said that Miss Austen came nearer to showing life as it is, the life she knew and choose to depict than any other novelist of English race. She is a princess among the truth tellers. Nobody has reproduced life with a more faithful accuracy. "She avoided to play upon her imagination and give a picture of the society that would not be real and convincing. She was singularly scrupulous in her regarded on facts, such as dates and places. She is more than accurate she clings to reality in a way which might argue poverty of invention, if that explanation were not absurd her creative. imagination

worked most freely within a frame work fixed for her by small points of contact with reality. She wrote only of what she knew, and it has been noticed that she never attempted to reproduce a conversation of men when by themselves which in the nature of things she could never have heard. Her dialogues are far superior and realistic than those of Fielding. She being a dramatic writer developed her characters through dialogues while the characters of fieldings are either theatrical or melodramatic and not everyday conversation like that in Austen. For the first time in Austen men and women speak in natural way as they would really speak in everyday life. She is therefore, correctly called the master of realism. One more point to be noticed about her realism is that she stands for the selective realism which has strong social flavour. Her realism is a realism which has its limitations and range. The society which she chooses to depict is devoid of unpleasant characters and actions. There is absence of passion. There is no Fraudian sex or burlesque atmosphere in her realism. It is a refined realism.

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