Dining Room

"I did not know before that you were a studier of character. It must be an amusing study." Charles Bingley, Pride and Prejudice

In her novels, Jane Austen has created a variety of characters that represent different aspects of human nature. Through them we see which qualities were most important to Jane: sense, loyalty, friendship, and love; as well as those qualities which were most ridiculous to her: vanity, pride, fickleness, and selfishness.

Jane, did not come from a materially rich family but from a close knit family rich in love, laughter, information, intelligence, and literary appreciation. From this atmosphere she had many models of character from which to choose as she 'painted' her novels. The people in her stories were people from her everyday life, they were her family, friends, and aquaintances.

Unlike many novels of her day, Jane's stories were based on the character of her characters, what made them do the things they'd do, say the things they'd say, and make the choices they would make. She was a watcher of human nature, she truly valued the people she wrote about, for they were, in a sense, her 'children'.

Here we will be introduced to each of Jane Austen's litereary characters and see the parts they play in her books.

Jane also used names common to her family for names of her characters. James, George, Edward, Henry, (Cassandra) Elizabeth, Frank, Jane, and Charles were names she used again and again. Check out the other names she used. http://www.pemberley.com/pemb/admin/readlist/janames.html