The Wandering Jew in Novels of Jane Austen: The Pursuit of an Organic Whole in Romanticism

Rebecca Kenseh Madaki ,Li Zeng

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.3n.5p.104

Abstract

Austen’s fictions may or may not set out to express the framework of imagery that projects the division of beings into four levels as enumerated by Northrop Frye in his Essay “The drunken boat: the revolutionary element in Romanticism”, her works, like the Romanticism poets are greatly influenced by this framework. This framework is found in the imagery of pre- Romanticism poetry and is the basis for the conflict between the Romanticism and the pre-Romanticism one despite their affiliation and similarities. Frye expounds the influence of this framework in the poetic garden of imagery in Romanticism, this work attempts to expand the influence in the prose garden of Austen’s symbolic expressions. Austen uses symbolism to interpret the structure of beings and their station, the concept of alienation, the journey, and the quest and finally the formation of an organic whole; the superb inter-change of the masculine and feminine domain in metaphoric representation excels Austen’s works within Romanticism expressions.

Highlights

The politics that dominate the movement and ideology of Romanticism can by association with era, principle, action, space or category establish its authority and propel its application
Three: A call to return to nature, and a return to the original state of man in the Garden of Eden before the fall. These themes occupy the works of Romantic poets like Lord Byron, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Romanticism canon was centered on the writings of the poets and the world of imagery
According to Rosen (2006) “Abrams expounds ideas in Romantic poetry that lose all vitality when reduced to plain prose that cats and dogs can read” (p. 27), Frye opines that Romanticism is a selective term projected through the language of imagery and is difficult to adapt to the novel (p. 122, 126)

Summary

Introduction

The politics that dominate the movement and ideology of Romanticism can by association with era, principle, action, space or category establish its authority and propel its application. Three: A call to return to nature, (the marriage of man to nature) and a return to the original state of man in the Garden of Eden before the fall These themes occupy the works of Romantic poets like Lord Byron, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Romanticism canon was centered on the writings of the poets and the world of imagery. Austen’s affiliations to the Romantic tradition is not deliberate neither is it a voluntary category It is not a subject of debate in this work but just to mention by passing that she does not write to be (come) a Romanticism writer. But the insights provided creates a solid foundation for Austen’s works within the land of romanticism and the need to establish any form of affinity is filled and Austen’s works can be treated without doubt as belonging to the Romantic era but to the Romanticism movement though her expressions are outside the great worlds of imagery

Analysis

The Framework

The Journey