The Parallels and Differences between the Urban and Country Ways of Socializing in the Worlds of Jane Austen and Helen Fielding
The Parallels and Differences between the Urban and Country Ways of Socializing in the Worlds of Jane Austen and Helen Fielding

Summary/Abstract: This paper focused on several aspects of life in Great Britain. I wanted to concentrate chiefly on two important points. Firstly, I tried to find and compare the differences in lifestyle and related entertainment in the country villages, towns and cities in the early years of the nineteenth century which I perceived as largely dominated by deeply rooted traditions and strict social norms. As the basic source for my research I selected some of Jane Austen’s novels as they serve as real social chronicles of her times. Secondly, I did a similar analysis and comparison of the same aspects at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as they were reflected in Helen Fielding’s novel Bridget Jones’ Diary. I thoroughly analysed and compared the aspects of life, the habits, norms, rules and views, class affiliations, the snobbery, vanity and conceit of middle and upper classes in Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The findings, based mostly on the strictly observed and applied rules of socializing showed that no matter what century we live in now, nothing much has changed between Austen’s and present times when speaking of social rules, norms, class distinctions and equally importantly – position of women.

• Details
• Contents