A BENEVOLENT SPIRIT TOWARD EVERY FELLOW CREATURE: CHARITY IN THE LATER NOVELS OF JANE AUSTEN
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2016-05
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Hood College Arts and Humanities
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Abstract
This capstone paper explores the virtue of charity in Jane Austen's final three
novels: Persuasion, Emma, and Mansfield Park. Charity is a major theme in Austen's
later works, in the letters and prayers that she wrote, and in the books of the Bible that
would have been familiar to her. My project takes a fresh look at the moral and religious
culture in which Austen wrote. Jane Austen was a clergyman's daughter and grew up in a
society that had a Christian/Bible based understanding. I argue that some of Austen's
subtleties of plot and characterization can be lost on readers who aren't familiar with the
mores of Regency England. In addition to closely reading the novels themselves, I focus
attention on Austen's letters and prayers, as well as three passages from the Bible that
correspond to themes in the novels: Colossians in Persuasion, the Epistle of James in
Emma, and 1 Corinthians 13 in Mansfield Park. I conclude by addressing the rarely
looked at prayers of Jane Austen, which is like glimpsing her heart and soul and finding
charity as a theme there as well.