The Use of Free Indirect Speech in Jane Austen's Emma Abstract Jane Austen, generally considered as a great realistic novelist, portrays English middle-class life, especially on the subject of marriage, from her own perspective. Among her works, Emma, featuring its rich domestic realism of the late eighteenth century and unique narrative strategies, stands out as Austen’s foremost epitome, owing much to the use of Free Indirect Speech (FIS) as a major narrative device. This article intends to analyze the use of Free Indirect Speech in Emma and further investigate its role in narratives and characterization.58542

Keywords: Free indirect speech; Emma; narrative discourse; characterization  

论自由间接引语在《爱玛》中的运用

摘  要简•奥斯汀是英国文学世上一位杰出的现实主义小说家。她以女性独特的视角，描绘了英国乡村中产阶级的真实生活，尤其是他们的婚姻。在她的作品中，《爱玛》以其18世纪末期丰富的现实主义色彩和独特的叙述策略——自由间接引语，成为了简•奥斯汀写作生涯中最重要的也最为成熟的一部作品。本文旨在分析《爱玛》中自由间接引语的使用，以进一步在分析自由间接引语在人物塑造及叙事发展中起到的作用。

毕业论文关键词：自由间接引语，《爱玛》，叙事话语，人物塑造

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Literature Review on Jane Austen 1

1.2 Literature Review on Emma 1

2. Introduction to Free Indirect Speech 3

2.1 The History of Free Indirect Speech 3

2.2 The Features and Functions of Free Indirect Speech 4

2.3 Recent studies about Free Indirect Speech in Emma 4

3. Free Indirect Speech and Emma 6

3.1 Free indirect speech in characterization: an imperfect but endearing heroine 6

3.2 Free indirect speech in narration: Austen’s Deliberate Choice 10

3.3 The significance of Austen’s use of Free Indirect Speech in Emma 12

5. Conclusion 12

References 13

1. Introduction

Jane Austen, one of the most distinguished female writers in Britain, was generally considered as a great realistic novelist who describes the middle-class life, especially marriage, in country of England through her unique feminine perspective. Not only did she develop realist tradition of the 18th century, but also lays a foundation for the climax of realistic style in 19th century. Her novels, filled with humorous and comic conflicts, refresh the British literary world in the end of the 18th century differing from those ‘sentimental novels’ and ‘gothic novels’.  

Among her works, Emma, featuring its rich domestic realism and unique narration strategies of the late eighteenth century, has been long considered as the most mature one. Also, the use of Free Indirect Speech (FIS) as major utterances also made Emma the most successful novel of Austen’s. This article intends to analyze the use of Free Indirect Speech in Emma and further investigate its role in narrative and characterization. 

1.1 Literature Review on Jane Austen

Being one of the few female novelists, Austen and her novels still keep drawing critics’ attention with many controversial views. The research on Austen has been processed for a long time in Western. According to Alistair M. Duckworth, the research on Austen’s can be pided into four periods.