Monday, September 24, 2012

Satire in the first sentence

The first sentence of the novel effectively demonstrates Austen's dissatisfaction with societal expectations regarding marriage, love, and courtship.
The first sentence implies that a man with a good fortune does not have a complete life or a real fortune until he has a wife. Back in that time, a single man was expected to marry once or before he gained great fortune because all men were supposed to want to improve their social class and exemplify the normal family unit. By saying "must" and by explaining how men usually don't know about this when moving to a new town, Austen makes fun of the marital expectations for rich bachelors.
Austen implies, here, that all single men must be searching for love and incomplete without a wife. Even if a man has achieved fortune and all that good stuffed cannot be truly satisfied or complete until he has found a wife, even if he does not love her. This is apparent because Austen says that a man with a good fortune must be in want of a wife, not that she does not say that said man doesnt necessarily want love. In making fun of this, Austen shows that she believes a man is really searching for love and the societal nexpectation of a wife is less important.

By saying that a rich single man must be in want of a wife, Austen satirizes the practice seen in the book of women actively seeking out courtship from said men. Let me explain this better: if a rich man must be in want of a wife, then it is acceptable for women to fawn over him as much as they do. But, because Austen does not actually believe this to be true she is making fun of women who seek courtship from men who are visibly uninterested. This satire continues throughout the novel.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Going to analyze how Janie's polarized ideals compared to the reality of her marriages and how that makes her perpetually dissatisfied with in her marriages