Jane Austen lived in a time of violent change. Her birth, in 1775,
coincided with the beginning of the American War of Independence and the perfection of James Watt's steam engine. In her lifetime,
England changed from a predominantly rural country to an industrial world power, and Europe was rocked by revolution and war.
Jane Austen's view of the world and of human nature was rooted in
the 18th century. In Britain at least, the century turned its back on the excesses and enthusiasms of the previous century
that had led to civil war. Order, and the management of life -both social and individual- according to the dictates of reason
rather than emotion was considered necessary to hodl in check Man's violent, corrupt and fundamentally volatile nature.
With control, balance and decorum - the benefits of civilization
- life could be pleasant and enjoyable. Such beliefs had produed a reasonably stable society, benefitting particularly the
class into which Jane Austen was born - upper-middle class landed gentry. Comfortable and secure, her ideals and concerns
are those of the century into which she was born, and her views are those she inherited from her father, tempered by favourite
authors, notably Dr. Samule Jonhson (the
man of letters of the 18th C). He represents balance, culture, reason, order, tradition, and hierarchy, social values and
love for the city.
She was, at the same time, influenced by William Cowper, who was completely
the opposite of Johnson. He represents feelings and freedom, spontaneity and experiences, individual values and struggles.
He was a lover of the countryside. The most important of the literary convictions that she inherited from him was the concept
of life and literature.
For Johnson, who was very optimistic, the fact that we cannot predict
our lives does not mean that we cannot control them, and that we cannot put some kind of order into them up to a point. Truth
is always found provided you are in possession of moral sincerity and a reliable judgement. If you have the right kind of
morals and the right kind of judgement you shall be happy. Their intention was to teach people, to instruct them and through
their teachings make them want to improve themselves.
This is the reason why 'fiction' dealt
with portraits of real life. The closer the portrait was to reality the better and the quickest it would reach people. This
could seem to us quite a naïve idea because reality is not one; there are as many realities as people there are. The instructive
object of this kind of works implied that language should be transparent and that words should mean what they meant and nothing
else. Language is not a main element; it is a transparent means of communication.
The influence
that William Cowper exerted over Jane Austen can be seen on two different convictions. According to Cowper, knowledge should
be gained from life, from the experience you acquire living. Experience is more important than academic education. This idea
will be present in Jane Austen's work. The second aspect is that he believed that nature was the key to happiness. Nature
inspired the individual with the right kind of feelings; it improves oneself through good sensations. Nature its God's projection.
This is an Evangelical idea and it is very much related to a very important, because of its influence, movement called Benevolism,
which was at its peak on the second half of the 18th Century. One of the 'heads' of it was J. Shaftesbury.
Benevolism is a reaction towards Hobbes' most dramatic and pessimistic ideas of mankind. For them, human beings are gifted
with a moral and aesthetic sense inferred on him by nature. For the Benevolists nature implies a complete harmony of varied
and opposite values. The importance of this movement is great, because apart from changing the idea of what human beings were,
they advocated for insane people, women's rights, the working classes, etc. All this, affected the Romantics to a great extent.
