As one of the most beloved authors throughout the history, there are a lot of controversial views about Jane Austen。 George Henry Lewis wrote that Austen and Fielding were “the greatest novelists in our language” and instructed his readers to mark “the greatness” and “marvelous dramatic power” of Austen, an artist no less than a “prose Shakespeare” (Lewes, 99)。 

The publication in 1939 of Mary Lascelle’s Jane Austen and Her Art, the first comprehensive study of Austen and her novels, indicated the beginning of modern Austen criticism。 Since then such various facets of Jane Austen’s works as language, structure, characters, social background and irony have been analyzed。 Norman Page studied Jane Austen’s language in his The Language of Jane Austen (1972)。 E。 M。 Forster discussed the round and flat characters of Jane Austen’s novels in his Aspects of the Novel (1927)。 In an article”Character and Caricature” in Jane Austen, D。 W。 Harding analyzed deeply Jane Austen’s delineation of characters。 Douglas Bush, Mark Schorer and others discussed the social background of Jane Austen’s novels。 

    Richard Simpson was the first one to bring forth the issue of irony in Jane Austen’s works: “Criticism, humor, irony, the judgment not of one that gives sentence but of the mimic who quizzes while he mocks, are her characteristics”(Harris 34) Besides Richard Simpson, D。 W。 Harding, Marvin Mudrick, Reuben Arthur Brower and Lionel Trilling also commented on the irony in Jane Austen’s novels。 D。 W。 Harding analyzed the irony in Jane Austen from the perspective of psychology in his article “Regulated Hatred: An Aspect of the Work of Jane Austen” (1940)。 In his opinion, Jane Austen “was a delicate satirist, revealing with inimitable lightness of touch the comic foibles and amiable weaknesses of the people whom she lived amongst and liked”(Harding 10)。 He pointed out the aim of Jane Austen’s irony was “the more desperate one of merely finding some mode of existence for her critical attitude”, that “part of her aim is to find the means for unobtrusive spiritual survival, 。。。a means。。。of self-preservation”(Harding 12-13)。 Mudrick regarded the use of irony as the primary characteristic of her novels。 Her often ambivalent attitude toward the social value of her world could be revealed through the use of irony。 来*自-优=尔,论:文+网www.chuibin.com

Lionel Trilling analyzed the irony in Jane Austen as follows: Jane Austen’s irony is only secondarily a matter of tone。 Primarily it is a method of comprehension。 It perceives the world through an awareness of its contradictions, paradoxes, and anomalies。。。It is partisan with generosity of spirit-it is on the side of “life”, of  “affirmation”(Littlewood 41)。

This thesis intentionally chooses Pride and Prejudicee as the textual evidence of Austen’s application of irony for the following reasons。 Pride and Prejudicee is Austen’s most popular novel, and in some sense also one of her most mature works。 In the Austen’s short and great life, she wrote six novels, including her masterpiece Pride and Prejudicee , Maugham calles it one of the world's ten largest masterpiece of novels。 This novel is the favorite work of Austen herself。 In the letter to her sister Cassandra, she called it "my baby"。 On the view of the themes, structure, characters and the use of irony, the novel must has unique charm in the ideological and artistic。