A Study On Jane Austen From The Perspective Of Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman is the fiction in which the protagonists experience mental or psychological growth. It traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development of a protagonist from (usually) childhood to maturity.Jane Austen's fictions fall in to this classification because they depict how the female protagonists progress out of their errors to their moral and emotional consummation and maturity. This dissertation focuses on the development of protagonists in Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. Consequently, it is found that her fictions not only match the criteria of a bildungsroman, but also the definition of the bildungsroman.The first chapter introduces the study on Jane Austen's fictions at home and abroad. The second chapter explains the concept of bildungsroman, its origin and characteristics which provide the theoretical basis. The third chapter analyzes three Austen's novels:Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emm. It is easy to find the female protagonists process from making mistakes to maturity. Besides, an analogy is made among six female protagonists. It is also found that all the female protagonists experience the same growth pattern, making mistakes, error correction, and then ultimately finding new places in society. The fourth chapter focuses on the uniqueness of Jane Austen's novel from the perspective of bildungsroman. The fifth chapter gives analysis on the fact Austen inherits and carries forward the English bildungsroman. The study on her fictions from the perspective of female bildungsroman can help the readers fully understand the psychological and moral development of women in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth century, which has reference value to the research on contemporary female adolescents.