Social Satire in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Abstract

In Persuasion, Jane Austen offers a penetrating critique of the

standards of the British class system. She criticizes a system based on

social distinctions and definitions like “Superior” and “ Inferior .”

Through irony and satire, she vividly shows Victorian class

rigidity and its traditional values.

This paper aims at showing that through her realistic portrayal of

families and characters; Austen manages to capture the major defects of

her social circle and sets to expose them one by one.