The Narrative Art In Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice

Jane Austen is viewed as one of the most distinguished novelists in the English literature. The famous literary critic George Henry Lewis compares Austen to "Shakespeare in prose". Edmund Wilson, a well-known contemporary critic says that "the change of literary interest almost influences all the writers'fame, except for Shakespeare and Jane Austen with an enduring popularity". It can be seen clearly that Austen's achievement has been universally recognized.Since the publication of Pride and Prejudice in 1813, many scholars have made various studies on Austen's works. The traditional study of this particular novel mainly focuses on Jane Austen's lucid manner of writing, lively style, moral values, views of love and marriage, and the art of irony. There are also a great number of articles analyzing the theme and language features. However, people haven't paid enough attention to the narratological features of this novel. In this thesis, narratology is employed to study Austen's unique narrative strategies in Pride and Prejudice, which is intended to further our understanding and gain a deep appreciation of the artistic glamour of this novel.This thesis consists of three parts:the introduction, three chapters and the conclusion. The introduction gives a brief presentation of Jane Austen and the literature review of her novel Pride and Prejudice. It also gives a brief introduction to narratology and states the objective and significance of this study.Chapter One deals with the narrative points of view in Pride and Prejudice. Firstly, it presents the classification of points of view in narratology. Then it analyzes Austen's adoption of points of view in Pride and Prejudice. She combines the omniscient narration with the limited third-person narration, thus creating an objective narrating mode. Austen's narrating mode is both objective and credible. Such alteration between subjective narration and objective narration opens a new field of narrative art.Chapter Two focuses on the narratological view of characters in the novel from the perspective of functional character and psychological character. It also analyzes the flat and round characters in Pride and Prejudice. During the characterization in the novel, Austen combines the two views of characters, not only making the well-rounded portrayal of characters more impressive but also rendering the particularity of some characters more unforgettable.Chapter Three analyzes the epistolary form in Pride and Prejudice. It presents the history and development of the epistolary novel and then studies the multi-functions of letters in the novel:revelation of characters' personalities, composition of the complete plot and introduction of sudden occurrences.The last part serves as a conclusion, emphasizing the narrative strategies used in Pride and Prejudice. By employing unique narrative techniques, Austen creates a real world in the readers'imagination, endowing this novel with enduring artistic glamour.