JANE AUSTEN, CAPTAINS AND THE SEA: MARITIME IMAGERY IN ENGLISH WRITER’S NOVELS

Abstract

Maritime imagery holds a significant place in the literary work of the classical English novelist Jane Austen. This is caused both by the circumstances of her life and by literary strategies and genre experiments. Images of the sea and seaside towns most often appear in later Austin novels: “Persuasion”, “Mansfield-Park”, and the unfinished “Sanditon”. The novel “Persuasion” novel is the most “nautical” of all the works of the author. It addresses the theme of a maritime career as a social lift, enabling heroes to have personal happiness. This is evident in the storyline of Captain Frederick Wentworth and his beloved Anne Elliott. The Lyme Seashore is a place for change for heroes, restoring their relations after eight years of separation. The sea also symbolizes uncertainty, danger. The “Sanditon” is the “first seaside novel,” according to researcher Katheryn Sutherland. It depicts a fashionable seaside resort where a colorful society gathers. The main character of novel, Charlotte Haywood, follows a gallery of comic and eccentric types, in violation of common sense. “Sanditon” was written before the death of the writer, so the work remains incomplete, there is only a fragment of the novel. Many writers have tried to continue the story lines of the novel, unfolding a love story between Charlotte and Mr. Sidney Parker. The latest attempt to continue the plot is the television mini-series “Sanditon” by screenwriter Andrew Davis, shown on the British TV channel ITV in August-October 2019. The series is criticized for over-updating the subject matter, including motives for sexuality and racial intolerance, as well as the lack of a happy ending that is atypical for Jane Austen's novels. The image of a seaside resort in the novel is a setting for the unfolding of both a romance and a “comedy of manners.”