D.W. Harding

for Monday blog about DW Harding's article "Regulated Hatred": An Aspect in the Work of Jane Austen

                                                                        Name ________________________

Agree or disagree with each of the following statements.

(No middle ground, sorry, until we discuss it. You may jot down examples for evidence.)

From D. W. Harding’s “Regulated Hatred” (1943)

1. Jane Austen’s scope is extremely restricted, but within her limits she succeeded admirably in expressing the gentler virtues of a civilized social order. (Harding and Linklater)

X AGREE                                  DISAGREE

2. Austen as satirist is misleading; she has none of the underlying didactic intention ordinarily attributed to the satirist. Her object is not missionary; it is the more desperate one of merely finding some mode of existence for her critical attitudes.

AGREE                                 X DISAGREE

3. Austen’s method is to offer her readers every excuse for regarding as rather exaggerated figures of fun people whom she herself detests and fears.

AGREE                                 X DISAGREE

4. Readers enjoy the funny side of Mrs. Bennet but miss that Austen actually detests her.

AGREE                                  X DISAGREE

5. Austen’s light satire masks a rather bitter diatribe against 1800 social customs, but masked in exaggerated caricatures that disguise the bitterness.

X AGREE                                  DISAGREE