Consequence and Consequences in Jane Austen

Abstract

This reading of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park suggests that the semantic framework of the novels is provided by the contrast between two meanings of the word consequence, the archaic meaning of social or emotional importance and the common and garden meaning of effect of a cause. It also suggests that the narrative structure of the novels is that of a game of consequences, a game that was played at the time of Jane Austen.

Keywords

• Adorno Theodor
• Austen Jane
• consequence
• consequences
• dignity
• Goethe Johann Wolfgang von