Reading Jane Austen is basically like reading Aristotle in novel form. Maybe not quite, but almost. I have read all her works multiple times through and on reading Aristotle’s Ethics I was amazed at her almost Aristotelian views on virtue and ethics. It seems a debated point whether she would have read him directly or not, but Aristotelian thought seems to have influenced her somehow. Aristotle and Austen had at least the same object of study: the human being and his or her social conditions. They both describe accurately the strengths and weaknesses of virtue and vice in humans and human interaction, which may explain in part the striking similarities. There are differences of course, and Austen had the advantage of being able to tie her moral theories back to Christianity, but at their best they bear a striking resemblance, one in philosophy and the other in literature.
Amanda Marie Kubic writes:
Austen’s and Aristotle’s ethics are undoubtedly similar in four main respects: both propose a multiplicity of virtues and have similar ideas as to what those virtues are; both suggest that there is a process to learning virtue and becoming moral; both maintain that virtue is a mean or intermediate between extremes; and both view ethical life as teleological in nature, with the practice of virtue aiming towards a higher good. These similarities, however, are not without qualification. Austen’s ethical ideas are similar to Aristotle’s in the aforementioned ways, but Aristotle’s ethical ideas are much more masculine, secular, and related to the state and public life, whereas Austen’s notions of virtue and morality are more Christian, traditionally feminine, and oriented around the private or domestic sphere of life.
Aristotelian Ethical Ideas in the Novels of Jane Austen. Volume 36 No. 1
Reflective Wanderer 