Jane Austen's Limited Range | 'Pride and Prejudice'

 

Jane Austen is one of the most remarkable novelists. Her ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a widely read and mostly appreciated novel. Although she has been praised, liked and appreciated by different critics yet some charges have also been levelled against her. She has been frequently criticized for her limited range. It is because she deals with the minor problems of life in a minor style and does not discuss the grand themes or grand characters in a grand and lofty manner.

It has been observed that Austen often likes to dwell on domestic affairs and minor themes like love and marriage. She does not deal with great scientific, philosophic or psychological matters and mental or intellectual affairs as are often discussed in the grand masterpieces of literature by the outstanding literary figures. For example, Shakespeare's Hamlet or even George Eliot's Maggie are superior (because they have an unlimited range and universal appeal) to Austen’s characters. Hamlet shows a mental confusion and thinks whether he should live or die. Maggie has to make a choice between duty and desire. In fact, such great psychological and philosophical themes should be the ingredients of a grand masterpiece of literature. But Jane Austen deals only with themes of limited range like love and marriage. However,

 

“We should not ignore her mental approach and general knowledge while criticizing her limited range of art.”

 

She was really unaware and ignorant of the social structure, French revolution, revolutionary changes, political movements, scientific developments and Napoleonic wars. She confesses herself honestly and frankly that her range is really limited; the reason is her lack of general knowledge. She writes only about those things with which she is acquainted very well. Whenever she was advised by any of her near and dear ones to write about wars, science, philosophy or psychology, she frankly refused to do so by saying;

 

“No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way”.

 

Once she wrote a letter to her niece and said;

 

“Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on.”

 

Similarly, a close look at her family background enables us to know why her range is so limited. She was the daughter of a rector in Steventon. He was a man of intellectual qualities; her mother Cassandra possessed a keen sense of beauty and humour. It was a family of eight members. She had a sister; they were not only sisters but also intimate and close friends. In fact, it was a society where women and girls had nothing to do except household and domestic activities. The girls were not allowed to do job out of the four walls.

 

“The women could do only domestic works just like sewing, hemming, trimming, stitching, singing and supervision of the kitchen work.”

 

Jane Austen lived in such circumstances and she herself remarked that she was the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress;

 

“She was only 21 years old when she wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’. It is one of six major novels which earns her a deserved reputation as master ironist and supreme pioneer of comedy.”

 

In her novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’, we see that there are only three or four families who are concerned about the marriage of their marriageable daughters.

Her novels are about ordinary life of the ordinary people. She writes about the middle class only; aristocratic people, servants or third-class people are not her characters.

 

“Although she has a limited range yet her art of description is perfectly all right and she should be credited for her genuine art of description.”

 

There is the same concept of limited range in her plots too. It is obvious from her novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ that the theme of love and marriage prevails everywhere in the novel. The main plot of Darcy, Elizabeth love affair deals with the theme of love and marriage. The sub-plots of Jane and Bingley, Charlott Lucas and Collins, Wickham and Lydia— all of them revolve around the theme of love and marriage only. It means that Jane Austen concentrates on a limited theme. All the themes give us an idea that love should be the central ingredient of a successful marriage.

 

“Love is the only unifying force which compels two bodies, two souls, two minds, two thoughts and two persons live together.”

 

The marriage based on money, material requirements, physical attraction, external charm and infatuation is destined to go to dogs. A marriage must be based on mental and intellectual harmony and passionate love.

 

To conclude, Jane Austen's greatness lies in the fact that her art even in her limited range is a masterpiece. She uses a beautiful and appropriate style while describing the story. Her novels must be regarded as masterpieces of perfection because she described only those things about which she knows something.