Table Of ContentCharacter
and Conflict
in Jane Austen's
Novels
sf~
Character
and Conflict
in Jane Austen's
Novels
A PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
Bernard J. Paris
Michigan State University
Wayne State University Press Detroit, 1978
Copyright @ 1978 by Wayne State University Press,
Detroit, Michigan 48202. All rights are reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Paris, Bernard J
Charactera nd conflict in Jane Austen's novels.
Includes biliographical references and index. 1. Austen, Jane, 1775-1817-
Characters. 2. Charactersa nd characteristicsi n literature. 3. Psychology in liter-
ature. I. Title.
PR4038.C47P3 823'.7 78-13281
ISBN 0-8143-1616-6
For Susan
Contents
Preface 9
J
Form, Theme, and Mimesis 13
2
Mansfield Park 22
3
Emma 64
4
Pride and Prejudice 96
5
Persuasion 140
6
Jane Austen: The Authorial
Personality 168
Notes 202
Index 205
The novelist, we are beginning to
see, has a very mixed lot of ingredients to handle. There
is the story, with its time-sequence of 'and then . . . and
then ... ' there are ninepins about whom he might tell
the story, and tell a rattlingg ood one, but no, he prefers
to tell his story about human beings; he takes over the
life by values as well as the life in time. The characters
arrive when evoked, but full of the spirit of mutiny. For
they have these numerous parallels with people like
ourselves, they try to live their own lives and are con-
sequently often engaged in treason against the main scheme
of the book. They 'run away,' they 'get out of hand': they
are creations inside a creation, and often inharmonious
towards it; if they are given complete freedom they
kick the book to pieces, and if they are kept too sternly
in check, they revenge themselves by dying, and destroy
it by intestinal decay.
E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel
Preface
The central thesis of this study
is that Jane Austen's mature novels are not the models of
organic unity which most critics hold them to be, but that they
are beset by tensions between form, theme, and mimesis. As the
first chapter will show, these tensions have several sources, the
most important of which is the fact that Austen's protagonists
are at once aesthetic, illustrative, and mimetic characters. They
are "creations inside a creation" and, as such, are "often en-
gaged in treason against the main scheme of the book." Since
they have "numerous parallels with people like ourselves," they
must be understood not only in formal and thematic, but also in
motivational terms, in the same way that we understand real
human beings.
After my opening discussion of the sources of tension in
Jane Austen's fiction, I shall offer formal, thematic, and psy-
chological analyses of her four greatest novels. I shall use the
theories of Northrop Frye to analyze the comic structures of
Jane Austen's novels and those of Karen Homey and other
Third Force psychologists to analyze her characters and her
authorial personality. Frye makes only a few references to Jane
Austen, but his discussion of the mythos of Spring fits her
novels extremely well. The use of psychological theory will
enable me to do justice to Jane Austen's mimetic achievement.
9
Preface
It will result in a completely new understanding of her heroines,
in a greater appreciation of her genius in characterization, and
in a fresh interpretation of her authorial personality. I shall
conduct my thematic analyses with the conventional tools of
such criticism, though my findings, I think, will often be
original.
The reader will notice that I do not discuss the novels in the
order of their composition. Although Elizabeth Bennet is Aus-
ten's first great mimetic character, she is one of the most diffi-
cult to understand from a psychological perspective. I have
chosen to begin with Fanny Price, whose problems are more
obvious. I discuss Emma next because it and Mansfield Park so
beautifully complement each other. After the analyses of Fanny
and Emma have been completed, it will be easier to understand
the more elusive characterizations of Elizabeth and Anne.
In the final chapter, 1 shall reconstruct the personality
which can be inferred from all of Jane Austen's writings. I shall
consider her works chronologically and attempt to explain the
psychodynamic process which leads her from novel to novel.
There are three competing versions of Jane Austen which have
emerged from the criticism. Some critics emphasize the aggres-
sive, satirical component of her art; some stress her gentleness
and conservatism; and some focus upon the detached, ironic
quality of her vision. I believe that each group of critics is
overemphasizing something which is there. When I analyze
Jane Austen's authorial personality, I shall try to show how
these diverse components of her nature are related to each other
in a structure of inner conflicts.
Those who know Jane Austen criticism will be familiar
with the proponents of each of the positions described above. I
have chosen, for the most part, to summarize critical contro-
versies rather than to document my agreements and disagree-
ments with individual critics. This book has most in common
with the psychological studies of Marvin Mudrick (Jane Aus-
ten: Irony as Defense and Discovery) and D. W. Harding
("Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of the Work of Jane Austen,"
Scrutiny, VIII [1940], 346-62), but its approach and its findings
differ considerably from theirs. I am indebted to these and
other critics primarily for the stimulus of their ideas, rather
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