One Writer’s Vision: Jane Austen Essay

Admiral Croft who was among the nouveau riche, had the financial means to rent Kellynch manse from Sir Walter, one of the so-c anyed landed gentry. What does Jane Austens treatment of section and fond mobility reveal about these men and their women such as Anne Elliot and Mrs. Smith? Which class fares better and why?In her novel, Persuasion, Jane Austen sends a absorb message that multiplication are changing and what was once the upper crust of society is in stages losing its foothold. Her portrayal of Sir Walter, alone, would be enough to make a case for this. present he is, a member of the landed gentry, who has squandered his money onward and has to rent out his home in graze to make ends meet.Nevertheless, he clings to his ancestral perspective, as described in the Baronetage, the only book he deems worthy of his magazine. Clearly, he is a silicon chip blinded by his position in society. This puts it mildly. He is so much more He is the bod of the ever changing, inst ability of the social classes and a walking depiction of the self-indulgence of it all. Oscar Wilde once said, in his play A Woman of No sizeableness that the Peerage is the best thing in fiction that the English bring on ever done.It is worth taking the time to examine Sir Walter a bit more closely for while it would be easy to cast him by as a mere caricature, not someone to take seriously, simply Jane Austen told us a very lot about her opinion of the class system in England, through the character of Sir Walter. As in all the characters in this novel, I find that there is much more than meets the eye. rootage and foremost we consider him the fool. He saunters about with a mirror everlastingly at hand so that he can admire his testify handsomeness as if this is quite an achievement. Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Elliots character vanity of person and of situation. (Persuasion, Chapter 1). Sir Walter is a snob of the first order whose hollow values include appearance and titles and beyond that, nothing more.He deplores the navy as demonstrated in the passage Yes it is in cardinal points offensive to me I cook two strong grounds of dissent to it. First, as being the means of bringing persons of obscure birth into groundless distinction, and raising men to honours which their novices and grandfathers never dreamt of and secondly, as it cuts up a mans youth and vigour most horribly a sailor grows old sooner than any other man. I make observed it all my life. A man is in greater riskiness in the navy of being insulted by the rise of one whose father, his father might create disdained to speak to, and of becoming prematurely an object of crime himself, than in any other line. (Persuasion, Chapter 3)The only characters in this novel that calculate to capture the attention and imagination of Sir Walter are his cousins, the Viscountess Dalrymple (what a name) and her daughter, the respectable Miss Cataret. Ironically enough these t wo, look upon Sir Walter as a disagreeable flea that they would prefer to shoo off but cannot, because of propriety. Even more ironic is the fact that the Honourable Miss Cataret is considerably ugly, a trait that is blasphemy to Sir Walter in any other case but this. I echo that through the character of Sir Walter, Jane Austen shows us what she really thinks of the class system of her time with its entailments and primogeniture.Now we have Admiral and Mrs. Croft, the nouveau riche who become the tenants of Kellynch Hall. Up until this point we have considered the wealth and position of the man in the domiciliatehold as the be all and end all not so with Admiral and Mrs. Croft. objet dart it is true that it was he, who was enlisted and employed in the navy, it was Mrs. Croft who accompanied him to sea many a time. She was much more, however than a companion to him on his voyages.When it came time to discourse the terms of the rental of Kellynch Hall, this is how she is descri bed by Mr. Shepherd, Sir Walters lawyer And a very well-spoken, genteel, shrewd lady, she seemed to be, continued he asked more questions about the house and terms, and taxes, than the Admiral himself, and seemed more conversant with business (Persuasion, Chapter 3). So we see that in this depiction of the nouveau riche, we are treated to another type of change in society here the woman has a say in the financial dealings of the family a very refreshing change, Im sure, to Jane Austen who was compositors case to the restrictions of entailment in her own family.In sharp contrast to this we have Mrs. Smith, who, like the majority of women at the time, have had their entire life hatful subsumed under their husbands authority. They seem to live lives of quiet desperation. whatsoever decisions, good or bad (in this case bad) have been made by the men in their lives are of extreme consequence to the unempowered woman.And so, to answer your question, it seems clear that the women of the nouveau riche do fare better than those of the antiquated class system which is so surely entering the realm of obscurity in this novel and only in the real times of Jane Austen.