Comparing the works, themes, and characteristics of the novels by Jane Austen and Zora Neal Hurston.
Jane Austen (December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817) was an English novelist. Her work is considered part of the Western canon. Her ability to look deeply into women’s lives and present them in such wonderful balance of form and irony had put her in the ranks of the literary greats of her time. She was considered the most notable and influential novelists of her time although her works then did not receive as warm a reception as in our times. Her literary endeavors did not achieve immense popularity during her lifetime.
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891-January 28, 1960) was an African-American folklorist. She wrote the critically-acclaimed Harlem Renaissance but was best remembered for her work Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Both authors were better-educated than most girls during their time. Austen entered Reading Ladies boarding school in the Abbey gatehouse in Reading, Berkshire. Hurston took undergraduate studies at Barnard College where she finished a degree B.A. in anthropology in 1928.
Despite a century that gulfed between them, Jane Austen and Zora Neale Hurston are authors that share similar characteristics and themes in their novels.
In consonance with the custom for female authors during her time, Jane Austen was forced to publish her works anonymously. Austen’s works revolved around love stories. During her time the Romantic movement of literature in England was in full bloom. But Austen’s writings were far from being romantic.
Romanticism often borders on passion. Austen, however, extolled love tempered with reason in her novels. She would most likely depict who people practiced moderation in love as having more chances of success than those who went for it at all costs.
In similar grain, we find American author Zora Neale Hurston’s novels reflecting the same values. Moderation is the key she preached. The characters she wrote were not subject to violent or overly emotions. As a matter of fact, anyone could relate to them.
Austen tackled social issues during her time. She delved on issues such as the dilemma of single genteel English women in the early 1800s. During this time, inheritance law and custom favored the male heirs. The bulk of the family’s fortune often went to them, leaving the unmarried women to cope on their own. Austen often depicted socially perceptive comedies on manners in her books. These are particularly true in her work Emma where critics often cited it for perfection of form.
The main plot of both authors’ stories center on the lives of women. Take for instance, Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God, we find Janie the main protagonist living a sheltered existence. Her grandmother, who was an ex-slave, did not want Janie to experience the harshness in the world. She brought up
Janie in a wealthy environment. As a natural consequence, she revolved around similarly well-to-do black social circle.
Her first husband was Logan who wasn’t able to provide her with financial stability. She was forced to find a job to augment their meager income. As tough times threatened, Janie left him. Her second husband was Jody, a mayor. Jody
brought her to the all black city called Eatonville.
The lifestyles of the people in Eatonville were similar to those of the white people. Her husband, Jody, being the town’s steward, implemented all the rules in the town. As a consequence, the town prospered. Jody, in turn, became financially stable. Somehow, despite her obvious wealth, Janie did not find the happiness she sought. Years rolled by and Jody died. Janie went to the Everglades with Tea Cake and found work in the fields where she was finally able to find true happiness.
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which is one of her most popular books, featured two sisters Marianne and Ellinor. Marianne, who, being emotional was acquainted with passionate feelings such as love at first sight. She expressed openly ardent emotions. She admired the grotesque “picturesque”. And she represented Austen’s idea of “sensibility”. Elinor, the sister, was the one blessed with more “sense” as shown by her rational moderation when it came to love. Despite her outlook she still suffered from disappointments brought about by love now and then.
Jane Austen and Zora Neale Hurston provide a strong voice for the issue of feminism in literature. Jane Austen, due to the constraints of her times, was forced to hide her gender and keeping her identity anonymous in order to promote feminist literature. Zora Neale Hurston, on the other hand, continued and promoted the feminist literature movement by her writings. The desired end Zora Neal Hurston had strived though, being a black person herself, was to promote freedom for black people. The issue of Black Liberation Movement, around 1910, was foremost in her times. Their Eyes Were
Watching God, Hurston’s most popular work, carried a themebased on a rural Southern setting. It focused on the relationship between man and nature, the ongoing dynamics of human relationships, and Janie’s thirst for independence.
Authors criticized Zora Neal Hurston because they expected her, being a black author during the black liberation movement in the 1910’s, to write stories depicting black people’s oppression and support the movement by writing about black people struggles for freedom. They wanted Hurston to voice out their experiences on how they are being suppressed by the people around them.
Instead, Zora focused her writings on the issues of the women being suppressed in their rights and not allowed to be free. She seemed largely apolitical. But by tackling this idea, Hurston probably wanted to depict the struggles of black people on their quest for freedom.
In a way, both authors went against popular opinion during their time when they opted not to join the bandwagon. Jane Austen did not pursue romanticism in her novels despite being under the influence of the Romantic Period. Instead, she gave her character like Ellinor a degree of control over her emotions. Zora Neal Hurston, like Austen, did not openly campaign for black independence just like her contemporaries were. She decided to take another route which was to present a more tame view on the movement by tackling women issues and relating them to black people’s struggles.
This is how Hurston deals with pressing issue of racism. Instead of taking sides, she pointed out that black critics during her time were themselves racist against other people. Hurston did not want to limit her view of freedom to a particular group of people alone such as blacks. Freedom for Hurston should be shared by everybody especially freedom from oppression – blacks, Indians, and women.
Austen described in her novels women who were after marriages that would provide them comforts. Readers during our time may find this abhorring but Austen was simply writing the practices during her period. During her time, men and women often married for money. Opportunities for wealth were not widespread. So they turned to marriage as a way to gain financial freedom.
Austen is popular for her ability to intertwine romance with the social situation in her era and produced a believable love story. The conflict in her novels often tackled emotional aspects such as love, friendship and morals being tested by financial concerns.
Just like Austen’s women characters, Hurston’s female lead in Their Eyes Were Watching God particularly Janie also married for money. Her first marriage did not work out because she was used to the life of wealth and abundance. She had not worked a day of her life when she was young being born to a privileged family. Being married to her husband Logan woke her up to the harsh realities that black women her age had to contend. Janie left her first husband in search of a man who could provide for her needs, to find advantageous marriages.
The strength of Austen’s works lies in her ability to give a unique voice on her characters especially women and depicting them in their everyday lives belonging to the middle or upper. It is easy to relate to Jane’s character because they did not out of the ordinary lives. Each woman especially in our generation finds themselves reflected in part by the characters Jane wrote.
Austen’s literary appeal is also due in part in her ability to depict her character vividly and firmly. The characters were always ordinary people who were consistent with their views and principles throughout the story. Austen did not try to embellish them with her own views. But, she managed to preserve the characters’ views all through out.
Just like Austen, Hurston too chose middle and upper class black women in her stories. Their lives just like Austen reflected the lives during their times. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston was able to escape being labeled or attributed to a single movement, whether literary or political. Wright’s criticism about the book which came out in 1937 is, to some degree, true: the book is not a political treatise-it carries no single, overwhelming message or moral. Far from being a weakness, however, this resistance is the secret of the novel’s strength: it is a profoundly rich, multifaceted work that can be read in a number of ways.”
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