Though Jane Austen lived a much-too-short life and created only six novels, these works, along with her minor works and letters, have made her a legend and a great life coach. For in her letters and writings are tidbits of advice on understanding human nature, bettering oneself, and managing one’s life.
Her wisdom extends to all of the most important elements of life. She closely observed and learned about human nature and sought out the best way of living, and her observations are still astute and fitting for present-day life.
“Wisdom is better than wit, and in the long run will certainly have the laugh on her side.” Jane Austen wrote this in a letter to her niece, Fanny Knight, as described in The Jane Austen Companion to Life. She also observes, in Pride and Prejudice, that “Angry people are not always wise.”
Thus she advises trying to keep an even temper to function at your very best.
Jane Austen was a great proponent of believing in oneself and making decisions based upon one’s own knowledge, character, and preferences.
“…but indeed you must not let anything depend on my opinion; your own feelings, and none but your own, should determine such an important point.” According to The Jane Austen Companion to Life, Jane Austen wrote this to her niece Fanny Knight about whether Fanny should accept a marriage proposal.
One of the clearest and best examples of Jane Austen’s belief in self-guidance comes from the character Fanny Price in Mansfield Park: “We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”
From The Jane Austen Companion to Life, she continues the theme in Emma, when the character Mr. Weston says: “One man’s style must not be the rule of another’s.” Admiral Croft, in Persuasion, makes a similar observation: “One man’s ways may be as good as another’s, but we all like our own best.”
One can thus draw the conclusion that Jane Austen felt very strongly about self-guidance and keen thought about one’s own feelings and opinions about life events and decisions, large and small. She believed that people should ultimately look to themselves, and not others, to direct their own lives.
People have been searching for satisfaction, contentment, and happiness for as long as civilizations have existed. Jane Austen had some definite thoughts on how to live a contented, truly happy life.
Jane Austen seemed to take pleasure in simple things, which, indeed, are the only places where true joy can be found.
“There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort,” says the character Mrs. Elton in Jane Austen’s novel Emma.
Included in The Jane Austen Companion to Life isa letter Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra about her thoughts on finding happiness. “I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worthwhile to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.”
Jane Austen knew grief and disappointment, yet believed that happiness and contentment could come out of it. “There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow,” she wrote in Mansfield Park.
Also in Mansfield Park, included in The Jane Austen Companion to Life, she has the character Mrs. Grant say: “There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.”
Jane Austen’s life, as all of our lives today, contained moments of deep mourning and periods of dull disappointment and sharp misgivings, but she always returned to her common sense, to her inner guide, her inner self, to find contentment and to keep moving forward.
These are lessons that are as vital today as they were back in the Regency Period, and Jane Austen used her literature and letters to express her thoughts and guide and teach life skills.
After all, Jane used the character Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey to express her ultimate thoughts on living a contented, pleasant life: “It is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”
Source:
The Jane Austen Companion to Life, Sourcebooks, Inc., 2010
Pamela Mooman - Pamela Mooman I am an award-winning writer and editor. I have more than 19 years of experience working in a variety of subjects and ...
Join the Conversation