The Heroine, Prioritized: Manipulations in Omniscient Narration in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (May 2020)
INTRODUCTION:
First published in 1813, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice explores the vocational nature of marriage for women in class-ridden English society while centering the main plot on one young woman and her romantic trials. Though the narratorial voice in the novel maintains the properties of traditional omniscience, Austen employs a masterful sleight of hand to maneuver the omniscient narration so that her narrative focuses on one character, while simultaneously imparting the stories of a large ensemble and entwining multiple subplots. While, on the most basic level, an author might prioritize her main character by simply spending more time with that character and her actions, a close read of Pride and Prejudice reveals that Austen prioritizes her heroine through a deliberate and fine manipulation of craft.
In this essay, I investigate the subtle designs Austen employs to focus her omniscient voice on one character. I will discuss some of the ways in which Elizabeth Bennet, the emergent heroine in Pride and Prejudice, is handled differently from other characters in the novel. First, I will explore how Austen spotlights Elizabeth’s prominence, in spite of her character not appearing initially to be the driver of the narrative; how Austen keeps Elizabeth in focus even when her character is not in a scene; and how Austen uses the subplots of other characters to keep the focus of the narrative always on Elizabeth. Next, I will examine the ways in which Austen manipulates narrative distance in the omniscience to bring us closer to Elizabeth; and, specifically, how the effects of Austen’s use of interiority, dramatic irony, ironic tone, and free indirect discourse differ when she is focusing our attention on Elizabeth rather than other characters, and the way those differences demonstrate to the reader Elizabeth’s centrality in the story.
Paper available upon request.