简奥斯汀小说中的反讽艺术

Irony in Jane Austen s Novels by December 2009 I Abstract Irony is an important feature of Jane Austen s Novels and is also the cornerstone of creation It is used in the expressing of theme characterization and plot development vividly and incisively And it has its own distinct characteristics This thesis aims to discuss the classification of irony the use of irony in Jane Austen s novels and function of irony from three aspects namely the expressing of theme characterization and plot development Irony in Jane Austen s novels is more than a stylistic device Jane Austen criticizes the money oriented attitude to life and marriage by use of irony Key words Jane Austen Irony Verbal Irony Situational Irony Structural Irony Model Irony II 论简论简 奥斯汀小说中的反讽艺术奥斯汀小说中的反讽艺术 摘要摘要 反讽是简 奥斯汀小说的重要特色 也是她创作的基石 在表现主题 塑 造人物和情节发展中反讽都运用得淋漓尽致 并有其鲜明的个性特色 本文阐 述了反讽的类别 及其在简 奥斯汀小说的表现 以及它们在表现主题 塑造 人物 组织情节和语言上的作用 关键词关键词 简 奥斯汀 反讽 言语反讽 情景反讽 结构反讽 模式反讽 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 DEFINITIONS OF IRONY 1 2 1 THE CONCEPT OF IRONY 1 2 2 THE CLASSIFICATION OF IRONY 1 2 2 1 Verbal Irony 1 2 2 2 Situational Irony 2 2 2 3 Structural Irony 3 2 2 4 Model Irony 4 3 THE FUNCTION OF IRONY 4 3 1 TO PERFORMANCE THE THEME 5 3 2 TO SHAPE CHARACTERS 6 3 2 2 The irony of flat figures 6 3 2 2 The irony of round figures 7 3 3 TO ORGANISE THE PLOT AND LANGUAGE 8 4 CONCLUSION 9 BIBLIOGRAPHY 10 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 0 1 Introduction The end of 18 and beginning of 19 centry is the era of growth and development of women writers Jane Austen is so long lasting that she occupies an important position in English literary history She inherited the Irony tradition of European literature Her novels describe everyday life with her unique style She makes irony as a device used in novels more concisely and maturer She creats six novels Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice Persuasion Northanger Abbey Mansfield park and Emma Her masterpiece pride and prejudice has been listed in the most famous novels of world s top ten All of these had become models of pure English Researching Austen s novel can improve our English and deepen our understanding of the Westernworld In this world of accelerated globalization we are very beneficial for researching Jane Austen The irony is the most commonly used method of Jane Austen By studying Jane Austen s novel we can understand the social patterns and people s values of marriage Jane Austen as one of the United Kingdom s most famous writers in modern times the humanistic Western society customs and the spirit reflected in her novels is worth studying 2 Definitions of irony 2 1 The concept of irony Irony is one of the most common Micro rhetorical skills It s the skill which allegory people or things from the opposite side or by using ironic words But the real mean is hidden in the lines And the reader also can understand Since we can narrative plot shape characters show the author s emotional attitude by using irony people draw attention to this technique Though the words seems small the topic is profound powerful and meaningful 2 2 The classification of irony As a literary technique irony can be divided into Verbal Irony Situational Irony Structural Irony Model Irony by YangJun We can see that irony is one of the main means of artistic in Jane Austen s novels and is also a principal way to comprehend the world 2 2 1 Verbal Irony Verbal Irony contains a metaphor meaning The speaker s remarks on the surface are usually contrary to real meaning The author s true intentions are inclued we can get it easy This ironic statement can express an attitude or evaluation of the speaker However it implicit the different even oppsite attitude or evaluation Verbal Irony is reflected in the surface of language used in fiction s narrative description and dialogue By using irony the auther can stimulate the reader s imagination It s 1 implicit rhetoric For example in the novel Emma the Verbal Irony is abound when we read the novel at the first time we can find that the irony is widely used Emma Woodhouse handsome clever and rich with a comortable home and a happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly twenty one years in the world with very little ti distress or vex her At the beginning of the novel Jane Austen uses the adjectives which are of broad and unclear meanings such as clever handsome and so on These broad and unclear word also are used in Jane Austen s other novels Northanger Abbey Sense and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice These words not only can describe the roles character truly but hint that clever people may be victims of their own cleverness Jane Austen uses those words to discribe Emma and this means that it is a story of Clever people may be victims of their own cleverness Besides the writer uses seem this hint the fact is not like this case And her life is too good to be unbelive As expected next paragraph is that she s fly in the ointment her wayward Estimates of their own highly In the pride and prejudice It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man inpossession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife In the famous opening sentence the author gives a hint of irony In her description of the society parents are always taking money as the standard when looking for their daughter s husband Therefore this work is the model for both Structure Irony and verbal Irony 2 2 2 Situational Irony Situational Irony extends to the novel the scene and circumstances of a relatively independent from the language level In the Situational Irony the writer and readers understand the present or the future development of the situation yet the people in the novels are unaware so they do what incompatible with the actual situation and things go contrary to their wishes In other words Situational Irony is the plot s development or character s idea in the novel runs counter to other side Or even contrary to the expectation of the readers And the atmosphere is disharmonious with character s inner flow Both of them formed a great contrast In Jane Austen s novels most of the heroine have the same weaknesses divorced from reality the reality of imagination is too romantic and legendary imagine people according to their own aesthetic standard and this is all Jane Austen heroines sin In the novel Emma Emma is not a exception And perhaps her imagination is the most active With Jenny Fairfax and Frank Churchill have returned to Highbury her imagination has been activated At this time readers can think her as the object of situational irony and have fun In accordance with the heaviest principle in Germany Ke muker s definition of Situational Irony that The 2 target of irony are unknown or ignored The other things except the present thing to put it simply the reason why we feel that a situation is an ironic sense because someone think it is a very ignorant Emma is such an irony object When she is flirting with Frank when she and Frank laugh at Jane Fairfax make joking and ridicule she has never thought of she is actually the object and victim of irony in this situation Even the reader is also kept in the dark For suspense of this part of the story the authors try to keep readers aren t aware of Frank and Jenny s marriage and who give Jenny the piano When the readers read at the second time they can find the tension of a dramatic irony after the mystery is exposed learn Emma prepare an abyss of erro for herself even those who first reading will be able to identify the secrets of Churchill who also particularly feel the effect of irony When Emma and Frank is together her naive and ignorant are even more impressive Because Frank is the only person who can outguess Emma in the story and also conceited a small smart like her But he beat her in her own game because he is not self deception like her Heroine was manipulated for the first time in the story by an even better person in the In Pride and Prejudice at first Elizabeth was with a strong prejudice of Darcy so when Darcy proposed to her with arrogant rhetoric for the first time Elizabeth rejected him firmly When read at this point readers are still doubt the possibility of their combining but they overcome their own arrogance and prejudice to become a pair of well being which is a typical Situational Irony 2 2 3 Structural Irony Structural Irony is to introduce a double meaning to contain the structural features of the whole work Which starting from the overall structure of the novel Common technique of Structural Irony is to creat a naive protagonist or an unnormal narrator Their naive always lead them to make a variety of simple or strange interpretation of many things Readers understand the author s satirical intent and thus be able to get a different evaluation while the parties concerned do not know In Emma Emma first imagined frustratedly because she misjudged the intentions of Mr Elton and she had specially strong control of Harriet In this section the authors use the Structure Irony mainly According to the definition of Man He Abrams MH Abrams Structure Irony is to create a pure female protagonist or a simple narrator her his simple minded can t overcome or a stupid cause she he is stubborn While the reader is able to realize the truth and can share the author s point of view behind the simple figure and follow the author s request to correct the error of this figure Structural Irony depends on that readers can share the author s satirical intention In fact the author s practicing of this irony is giving a compliment of reader s intelligence The key of Structural Irony is to create a simple and dull hero or heroine Readers and writers would share the truth at the same time 3 Emma Woodhouse handsome clever and rich with a comortable home and a happy disposition was spoiled by a loving and indulgent father and a docile and obedient female family teachers Despite her cheerful disposition she is stubborn and always indulged by imagination Her most fundamental characteristic is that only trust her own judgments She handled matters completely according to the imagination and speculation so she often explained things with wrong inference As a result of his father and the family teacher s overindulgence Emma cultivated a habit of control others Therefore after Miss Taylor the female Family teachers got married she need to control and patronize people And that is why she choose Harriet Smith as her companion Harriet is the kind of peole Emma likes patronizing because she is tempered and not calculating moreover she is ignorant In addition she is negligible At least Emma s vanity can be satisfied because she can enjoy a sense of superiority by transforming Harriet As Howard Sa Barber said when in the favors of others she also raised her own status at the same time 2 2 4 Model Irony Model Irony is reflected by comparing with other fictions is to smash the old model of fiction s genre character structure plot ect Model Irony creates a different novel model to satirize the old mode In the history of women writers literature Jane Austen made a pioneering effort to the lierature Her novel Pride and Prejudice completed the oversteping of narrative s mode of the literary by the construction of omnidirectional narrative pattern In the 18 century to the early 19th century English literature is full of vulgar silly sentimental novel and the Gothic novel and Austen brought new ideas forth for her novels Her novels comes out the daily life of the British rural middle classes and the rural scenery without the impact of the capitalist industrial revolution Her works often mock people s stupidity selfishness snobbery and blind self confidence contemptible weakness ridiculous through the comic scenes Austen s novels appeared in the early 19th century She swept away the popular pseudo romantic trend of that moment inherited and developed the good tradition of British 18th century realist and prepared for the climax of the 19th century realist novel Although reflection of the breadth and depth in her work is limited her works reflects the whole social formation and the ways of the world from a small window such as two inches ivory And she played a good role of changing the vulgar culture of creation She is the nexus in the history of the novel in British and is known as a writer on an equal footing with Shakespeare 3 The function of irony The function of irony is 1 To performance the theme 2 To shape characters 3 In 4 order to organize the plot and words 3 1 To performance the theme In Pride and Prejudice Austen criticized the single minded pursuit of money and status of marriage in the society at that time by using irony At the openning of the novel the writer contrast the theme by using Verbal Irony The first paragraph of the novel It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife This sentence seems to be a description of the facts and may arise the readers think widely However she immediately said that However the little feelings or views of such a man may be known when his first entering a neighbourhood this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters The beginning insinuated Mrs Bennett has been trying to marry her five pretty daughters to the rich So it is not a rich bachelor have to marry a wife but single daughter have to marry a man with industry The whole process is full of situational irony Darcy and Elizabeth s marriage is the most successful marriage combination in the novel At first they didn t like each other at all but they attracted each other and later loved each other and marriaged at last In the 19th century hero and heroine are perfect in the traditional romance novels they usually fall in love at first sight Yet in Pride and Prejudice arrangement is opposite A certain extent this model is the irony to a traditional novels mode in the 19th century Darcy appeared as a handsome rich man but was known as an arrogant indifferent and unpolite guy when he met Elizabeth in the ball for the first time he insulted her so it lead to the girl s extreme antipathy However after meeting again and again he was atrracted by Elizabeth s astute and wit and fell in love with her After the long repression Darcy finally proposed marriage to Elizabeth even though Elizabeth s status is low and her family is not so good However this marriage proposal was refused by the girl This scenario arrangement the outcome of rejected is the irony to good match concept of marriage in the upper classes of society At first Elizabeth thought Darcy with a strong prejudice so when he proposed to her for the first time Elizabeth firmly rejected him and claimed that she was much unwilling to marry such a person like Darcy in the world When we read at this point all readers is still doubt the possibility of the combining of them They overcome their own arrogance and prejudice to become a pair of well being This is a typical scenario irony But in any case such an arrangement is the same as the beginning of the novel the theme is the money and the status is still the basic of the marriage Although Elizabeth refused Darcy beause of her own prejudice and emotion but in the end she was married to the single people of wealth and status 5 In the Pride and Prejudice the four marriages four types of marriages all have happy endings When we laugh we could also see the writer how to criticize the real face of of the bourgeois marriage 3 2 To shape characters E W Foster divided the novels characters into flat figures and the round figures according to a single system and multi faceted of character Jane Austen extensively used Verbal Irony and Situational Irony When she shaped these two types of people 3 2 1 The irony of flat figures The flat figures are the persons who are relatively simple and sneered at by the narrator They are minor character In the Pride and Prejudice the most typical flat people is Mrs Bennet and Collins The irony of Mrs Bennet is Mrs Bennet is a poor intelligence moody woman The business of her life was to get her daughters married visiting and asking about news In the novel s first chapter when Mrs Bennet and Mr Bennet talk about Mr Bingley she had some wonderful performances The words of the bennets are root in the opening words It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife Mr Bennet disagreed the truth of this article about the man of large fortune Bingley It seemed noboby care what he thinks in the final analysis That was just wishful thinking of Mrs Bennet She talked to her husband about the news of the arrival of Mr Bingley fluently and endlessly She couldn t say something about irony and aphorism her words usually are long and she always shout emotionally This is the mental deficient temperamental Mrs Bennet s conversation There were many wonderful performances when Lydia and Wickham eloped she worried about her daughter s whereabouts and no new wedding dress for marriage these two kinds of feelings were intertwined They Turned to torture her After Elizabeth refusing Collins s proposal of marriage man of large fortune was robbed by Lucas instantly in the neighboring villages Mrs Bennet fell ill at least she thought she was ill She was not so much worried about her daughter but her own Frustration At that time sister in law s visit made her happy In her own words You come just in time give me great comfort I like to hear you speak of those long sleeves fashionable news This is Mrs Bennet a woman who is clumsy and looked funny Anther flat fingure is Mr Collins When he had not yet appeared he had been disclosed in the letter to be a philistine man That clumsy cumbersome but pretentious writing style betrayed him He showed his own self conceited narrow minded stupid vividly when he said his first word H