MONTAIGNE/AUSTEN ESSAY

The Styles of Montaigne and Austen

In “Good Old Neon,” David Foster Wallace states, “what goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barley sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.” Wallace's notion contradicts Montaigne's techniques and topics, while it supports the techniques and topics of Jane Austen. Although both Montaigne and Austen's works share certain similarities, Montaigne's writing style is unorganized and based on his inner thoughts and ideas, Austen's style of writing, on the other hand, is very structured. 

Both Montaigne and Austen have a completely different writing style, Montaigne expresses his opinions and observations of life throughout his writing, while Austen's work is a piece of organized fiction. In Essays of Michel De Montaigne, Montaigne's essays consisted of random topics such as liars, thumbs, friendships, and cowardice. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice was a romantic piece of fiction that portrayed life during the 1800s. Montaigne's writing was very unstructured and scattered, however, the reader was able to understand his points and ideas. Austen's writing consisted of a very structured plot, which directly stated themes such as reputation and love.

Montaigne's Essays of Michel De Montaigne was written in the first person point of view. He shared his ideas with his readers, using “I” and “myself” throughout his entire work. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's story was developed through the third person point of view. Austen's writing also included characters and the use of dialogue, while Montaigne used a series of inserts and stories throughout his work in order to support his topics.

Though both Montaigne and Austen had completely different writing styles, they did, however, happen to share a few similarities in there writing as well. Both authors used criticism, in Essays of Michel De Montaigne, Montaigne criticized various kings, while Elizabeth criticized the ways of Mr. Collins. Anecdotes were also used by both writers. Montaigne used a series of anecdotes to support his ideas and Jane Austen used an anecdote when Darcy explained Wickham's past to Elizabeth.
 

Both authors have very different styles of writing. Montaigne uses the stream of consciousness within his writing and lets readers understand his inner thoughts and ideas. Austen's writing style is much more structured, using her characters in order to get her ideas across.