It is important that you have an understanding of Austen's style of writing and that you are able to identify language techniques she has used. What have you noticed about Austen's style? What techniquses have you come across? Provide examples in your response.
This blog would be a great way to create a list of techniques as well as examples of these techniques being used in the novel. A list of techniques and examples would be a handy resource for upcoming SACs and the exam.
23 comments:
I particularly like Austen's use of repetition of syntax in the following example:
"She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners." page 24
I also like the exclamations:
"Poor Miss Taylor!"
"Insufferable woman!"
When Lucy Harris visited our class, she mentioned that she took one of Austen's sentences and then inserted her own words in order to get a feel for Austen's structure.
In Emma, evidently the novel has been written in third-person narrative. However, Jane Austen gives us readers a particular perspective of it, to which in Emma, is Emma Woodhouse's. This, in my opinion, misleads the readers upon first reading of the text. Such is exemplified when readers are introduced to Mr. Elton as a suitor for Harriet Smith by Emma and the possibility that he was interested in Emma was non-existent until he proposes in the carriage.
Also, on a small note, perhaps not so much a technique she implements into her writing but just naturally; how her spelling differs, is also very engaging- chuse, dropt, stopt.
I enjoyed the humour in Emma, particularly Austen's use of irony. for example; "’I thank you; but I assure you, you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more’, and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for every falling into...”(p. 104).
This encounter between Emma and her brother in law John Knightley after he comments on how good-natured Mr. Elton is towards her. This is an example of irony as it is Emma who only has partial knowledge of the circumstances and it is she who will make numerous blunders throughout the novel culminating in her epiphany that she is not always perfect and as perceptive as she believes.
Austen uses a sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing. She is able to conjure up powerful and dramatic scene on one page and lead it into a biting and satirical scene on the next page.
Her distinctive writing styles, (other than that of dramatical tone and satire) and techniques rely on a combination of parody, irony, free indirect speech and a degree of realism. She uses parody for comic effect and to critique the portrayal of women in 18th-century. Austen's irony is used similarly, but extends her critique, highlighting social hypocrisy. She often creates an ironic tone through free indirect speech, in which the thoughts and words of the characters mix with the voice of the narrator.
This can be seen as Austen narrates through Emma as if it were part of her every day life.
Jane Austen is known for her ambiguous sentences, which can be a character’s thoughts but also be the narrator’s voice. I have noticed whenever Emma or other characters are talking, Austen uses a lot of dashes to help generate and express that the characters are thinking further into what they are saying. Especially this technique is used when characters such as, Mr. Knightley, Mrs. Elton and Miss Bates are speaking.
I found that Austen has a narrative technique that allows her to control and direct the reader's attention entirely unobtrusively. We never suspect that our attention is being manipulated.
I especially like her string of three adjectives, which is consistent throughout the book. I feel like it gave the sentence flow and made it more enjoyable to read.
To me, Austen's style of writing possesses an 'atmosphere' that stands out from that of other writers, a unique quality that can partially be attributed to the changes of age and location, evident in the usage of words and phrases that have long fallen out of fashion.
Austen's frequent usage of irony (which remain unnoticed most of the time until a second reading), provokes thought and humor. Her small quirks, for example the grouping of 3 words within a description, also reinforces the individuality of her writing style.
Emma's internal monologues are undoubtedly a literary technique in Jane Austen's "Emma". It is through Emma's detailed personal reflections of her actions, behaviour, and feelings that the readers are able to witness Emma's personal development in the novel. Also, I think that these internal monologues are present for the audience to not judge Emma from face value, to forgive Emma's blunders from the past, and to embrace her flaws.
To summarize briefly, Jane Austen's style in Emma is fairly unique, as it gives a lighthearted, whimsical feel to her narration through the eyes of the protagonist. While the story is set in third person, she effectively portrays the emotions and the mindset of the characters through repetition, alliteration and other literary techniques. The thoughts of the characters are taken directly from their heads and blends in flawlessly with the narration, giving an effective insight into the story.
Austen's tone is mocking, light, satirical, and intelligent; she implies great respect for the genuine and measured while mocking the fantastical, untactful, and unlikely.
She employs sentences with heavy use of subordination in a style that favours complex adjective-noun pairs and long sentences that express and compare intermediate truths before reaching their conclusions (e.g. "the dog was good" vs." the dog, despite its incessant slobbering, was a favourable companion") Notably, many cases of subordination and relative clauses may be found within Austen's sentences, while stress and trochaic rhythm are kept under tight control, establishing the favourable 'phonoaesthetics' of her sentence structure. Ultimately, ambiguous sentences that make subtle comments about the status, opinions, relations and emotions of the characters without being explicit or direct form the substance of the novel.
Phrases like "what ought to be, and what must be" exhibit a form of parallelism that is inherent in Austen's style as she seeks to draw effective comparisons and make convincing assessments of situations, either through Emma's eyes or her own. There is definitely reason to assign the term 'free indirect intercourse' to the novel's narration, as many others have pointed out - the ambiguity of narration impacts the reader's perception of events as the line is blurred between objective observation and biased perception, just as it is for Emma until the story's conclusion.
Furthermore, Austen organises a carefully constructed narrative that helps the reader anticipate and learn from the plot as it unfolds. This is known as 'formal patterning' and can arguably be used to describe her overall technique in writing Emma.
Jane Austen's most curious narrative technique is the relative ambiguousness of viewpoint throughout the novel.
She manages to construct a view of the world through Emma's eyes whilst staying in the third-person, which is as curious an ability as any.
Austen’s style of writing reveals an accurate and realistic portrayal of people through her social commentary. She uses sophisticated language, and in all her novels, she uses irony, parodies, and she allows her characters to have freedom of speech. One of the techniques I have noticed used throughout Emma is foreshadowing. In the very first chapter, Austen writes that Emma ‘had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her’. This foreshadows the complications Emma will face throughout the novel.
Austen's style is characterised by her lighthearted approach to her storylines. Her novels are on the whole probably some of the first modern day 'romantic comedies', or the text version of a chick flick. A specific example is her comedic characterisation (esp. of characters like Mr Woodhouse and Miss Bates). In terms of actual writing style, 'Emma' is written similarly to many novels of the time, but there specific elements to Austen's writing that are relatively unique to her, for example her use of threes 'handsome, clever and rich'.
Brianna-
Jane Austen uses parody for comic effect and as a critique on the way that women were protrayed in 18th century novels. She also uses irony when critiquing social structures, like class.
She typically uses a string of three adjectives when describing something, this adds to her already complex sentence structure as well as the length.
I particularly enjoy reading the irony and repititon in Jane Austen's work. The irony effectively creates humour in the face of Emma's more grave mistakes. And the repitition creates a loop of Emma's blunders and amplifies the feelings of other people.
Jane Austen is constantly using these techniques and seem like her second nature and with that uses it to emphasise on the natures of her characters.
Nick's comment:
One of the main features of Jane Austen’s writing is her lengthy sentences. They are featured heavily in her writing. However, for all the lengthy sentences a lot can be understood from what the characters don’t say. This furthers the reader’s understanding of the characters whilst giving a vivid insight into the mind of the characters. The use of hyphens creates the notion that the character is thinking and is elaborating on their own thoughts.
Marcus' comment:
One thing that I found interesting about Jane Austen's writing style was the use of very long speeches from characters that completely embody the first person, instead of saying them from a narrative point of view. For example,
"No," said Marcus, "I don't like this style at all"
would become
"No!- I don't..- I don't like this style at all!"
“Blunder”, “blind” and “perfect”: three of the words that make multiple appearances in 'Emma'.
Like Ms. Mitchell, I believe that Austen's use of repetition is noteworthy. Although a commonplace technique, neither its frequency of use nor its simplicity make it less effective than other techniques. Indeed, brainwashers have use repetition for hundreds of years because it is so darn effective.
Characterisation in 'Emma' should also not be overlooked. Henry James stated that no story is possible without its fools and the fools in 'Emma', Mr. Woodhouse and Miss. Bates, play a range of functions in the novel: they shape our understanding of the main characters; they add humour and they make the reader feel superior, like Emma, and thus ashamed like Emma when she is unkind to Miss Bates. Moreover, these two characters are memorable because they are excessive.
Also, I have always considered Mr. Elton to be 'fool'-ish. One important difference between this character and the talkative Miss. Bates and the delicate Mr. Woodhouse, is that he is less sympathetic than these two “poor” characters.
Jono's comment:
Jane Austen uses dialogue to great effect throughout the novel, so much is revealed by what they say and don't say. An example of this is Miss Bates and her verbal diarrhea --what she says reveals more than you think at first glance. Jane Austen uses irony as a way to draw contrasts between her characters as well as highlighting the various social quirks and mannerisms displayed by them. Austen utilizes repetition as an effective means of conveying the various themes and patterns prevalent throughout the novel.
Jane Austen uses sophisticated language, although it was a common thing of her time. She depicts characters' personalities effectively using dialogue. For example, Miss Bates' speech that goes for pages.
I think Austen's writing style is something I as a reader (although quite amateur) have not encountered. Such intense sophistication and description was something I was not quite used to. Austen's scarce plot movement but endless description and over-analyzation are a mainstay throughout the entire novel.
Austen's sentence structure is quirky in a sophisticated manner, it is almost , OVER-sophisticated and it is this which creates the distinctive ebb and flow of the novel.
-Paul
This was from Sam Oliver who was practising in class:
Emma – Sentence Structure
It was an odd task—to write two sentences of Jane Austen’s calibre—with naught but great syntactic complexity required and a variety of adjectives to boot; one that struck him as being far too primitive an objective to be difficult in accomplishing. Basic, primal and adhering to a simplistic nature one expected to find only in the lower classes.
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