D. W. Harding assignment thing

D. W. Harding's argument is that the population who has not read Austen believes that she is a harsh satirist who openly criticized the virtues and values of her society. When he read her books, Harding realized that she is critical of society because she needs to vent her dissatisfactions with it (not for pure hatred and attacking), and in a way that was acceptable to the people around her. What was acceptable was caricatures of people who interact with realer and realer people eventually leading to a real person with whom people can be compared. She also presents real criticisms of people she knows but with the mask of "this is just a caricature like the other characters, not meant to harm."  He also realizes that even in these exaggerated people who attack only "small" flaws of people whom she knew, there is a deeper underlying attack of society as a whole that her contemporaries did not see because of the attacks of others that were civil enough to be laughed at but not offended by. Then, he concludes by denouncing his argument by saying that he is just pointing out the good parts (and acknowledging the bad parts) of Austen's writing to reduce the "haters" of her writing.

I agree with his argument that she satirizes carefully with caricatures and things like that, and that there is always an underlying attack on society as a whole. I also recognize that Austen does not attack purely out of malice, rather a need to show the world all of the bad things she saw in society. It makes sense, too, that he would think of her books as a way for social outcasts and critics to escape the real world.

I disagree with the notion that Austen is always subtle with her criticisms. When you read her books, you know exactly what/who she's attacking and when she is doing it. Yes, she does use the techniques mentioned earlier, but she also directly criticizes people by attacking their main flaws. For example, she attacks social rules with the ridiculousness of Collins' nature outright just by having him speak in the story. Her attack on society as a whole is not purely out of malice, but there is a little bit of it. Also, it is not only a way for social outcasts and critics to escape the real world, it is also a means by which they can attack society. so really, contrary to Harding's argument, it is a harsh satire. And, he provided an argument against his own, which means (for me) that not even he fully agreed with his main points