Marriage

The Jane Austen Society evokes Jane Austen’s novels by using the marriage plot in a similar way as the famous author. The novel’s final destination is a wedding, and the events preceding it function to form successful romantic couples. Like Jane Austen, Jenner enforces the notion that women should marry for love rather than wealth, stability, or social standing. The marriage plot helps The Jane Austen Society maintain the “comfort,” “satisfaction,” and “closure” that Austen’s novels provide despite dealing with subjects like “war and injury and poverty and pain” (45, 193). Similarly, Austen uses the marriage plot to soften her novels’ “consuming fear” with women’s lack of financial agency (224). The female members of the Jane Austen Society also find it difficult to maintain their autonomy in this way. But by finding true love, the characters find a way to resolve the problems that plagued...