Methods of characterization, character foils (in Jane Austen`s Novels)

Seminar paper from the year 1993 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, Ruhr-University of Bochum, course: Literature III: Jane Austen, language: English, abstract: Plot and characters grow together in a perfectly balanced compost of manners and values. Both elements live in the design of manners, customs and values which altogether form the social fabric. The centre of the novel is the firm and rock-solid society which is based on values like status, manners, education and goodness, which again all rest on wealth. Those values are absolutes but not constants. This means that a rich man might have a lack of education or goodness and that a poor man might have goodness, education and taste (although this second combination is not very likely). Of all the values status is the one that comes first. It is sought after by everybody and is displayed to everybody, too. The display is usually also a way of pursuing status, for it indicates what one has a right to covet. The acquisition of status (e.g. inheritance or marriage) is always accompanied by its display.