On Characterization in Emma by Jane Austen

On Characterization in Emma by Jane Austen Introduction Jane Austen, one of the distinguished English novelists of the 19th century, is indeed so fine an artist and credited with having brought the English novel to its maturity. Born on December 16, 1775, the seventh of eight children-six boys and two girls, she had more than common varied contact with the limited world of provincial gentry because her father was a rector of Steventon in the county of Hampshire in South-central England. She lived with her family at Steventon until 1801, when her father retired. After his death in 1805, she moved around with her mother, and settled in Clawrton, near Alton. Hampshire in 1809. Here she remained except for a few visits to London, until in May 1817 she moved to Winchester to be near her doctor. There she died on 18 July 1817. Austen had the advantage of growing up and studying in an educated family, though she was away from home many years for company of her elder sister Cassandra in two boarding schools, returning home at the age of nine onlye. In the evenings amid the needle work and other domestic activities, Mr.Austen read aloud. Some time was probably devoted to the utility of '`improving conversation''. In addition, the Austens were a novel-reading family. Though she was completely isolated from literary friendship, and never in touch with professional writers or critics, Jane Austen's compensations were almost unique. Inheriting the culture of the classics and respect for style from generations of distinguished university men, she grew up in the midst of her father's pupils and a family in which all loved books, some of them were fluent penmen, sharing her thoughts, her interests, and ambitions, above all, blessed with a sense of humor and the love for life. But for the novelist she was to become, her "education" was totally in the provincial community in which she came to maturity and of which she was to remain ever fond, as both a place to live in and a