Montaigne/ Austen Essay

       Montaigne and Austen styles

     Its shocking how authors techniques and styles can be so similar even though they are from two completely different lives, and have different attitudes. David Foster wrote"What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant." I feel that you can relate this quote to some of Montaigne's thoughts because it is very insightful and of Fosters opinions. Fosters point is that what we think is so big that its almost impossible to be able to speak what we actually mean at any moment. The essays of Micheal de Montaigne and Pride and Prejudice are two books that have very different meanings and techniques.

      Montaigne in his writing uses a very different technique then most authors, he uses his own personal aspects on life. His essays reflect the things he believes and the reasoning behind his feelings. At some points the reader gets the feel that he is rambling and it is hard to follow. Montaigne talks about his own life as well as past philosophers. This is much different the Austen because she uses a more common way of writing. She has a plot, with characters. She develops the characters based on what she wishes them to be like, and what actions she wants them to do. The two authors in my opinion don't have much in common because the stories hardly relate.

   

      The Essays of Micheal de Montaigne are meant to persuade you to think more like Montaigne. Whether its on the topic of Friendship, or Cruelty his main purpose is to give his input on how he feels about the specific subject at hand. Throughout his work you find him contradicting himself, which also makes is work difficult to understand. Austen's technique is also to persuade the reader, but in a different way. She focuses more on persuading the reader to like characters more then others, for example she makes Elizabeth very likable to many of her readers. The reason this is different then Montaigne is because his is own thoughts, and Austen uses characters such as Elizabeth and Darcy to help her thoughts on certain subjects come to life. I think that this is only a slight similarity since they use different actions to persuade their audience.

   

      Both authors focus is on depicting human nature and why people do certain things in life. Montaigne uses rhetorical questions, logos, and metaphors to contemplate why certain things happen in life. On the other hand Austen uses her characters actions and other rhetorical devices to help her readers focus on the characters as they make certain decisions. They both stress their own opinions but, again they do it through different manors. They both have themes in their works Austen's is more clear and precise and about love, and Montaigne's is all over the place because he feels strongly and makes points about several things in his work.

      Montaigne and Austen don't not share many of the same techniques in my opinion. They both have a clear way they want their work to look like, but they use different strategies to make their work come to life. Austen uses a more traditional way of writing, and Montaigne uses his own thoughts also known as stream of consciousness. They both are unique authors but aren't very similar in their techniques.