Comedy of Manners in Jane Austen’s Novels

From the preface: Literature grows out of life. It is a mirror of society. Aristotle said, ‘Art and literature is an imitation of life, of things as they are, as they are thought to be, as they ought to be.’ True to this characteristic of literature, there grew in the Restoration Period (1660-70) in English Literature a kind of comedy known in literature as ‘The Comedy of Manners’. This type of comedy is so known because it portrayed the social manners, practices, beliefs that prevailed among the aristocrats and nobles during the reign of Charles II. The aristocrats of the period, as a reaction against the moral austerity of the preceding age, namely, the Puritan Age, wished to break away from the shackles of moral strictness and live a life of licentiousness. Thus Restoration Comedy of Manners is a true reflection of the life of the aristocrats and the nobles of the Restoration Age.

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Biography and cultural & artistic background and brief summaries of the major novels of Jane Austen. 3. The dynamics of various types of comedies with special emphasis on comedy of manners. 4. Reassessment of the elements of comedy of manners of Jane Austen’s novels. 5. Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.