Reception history of Jane Austen
Austen's works are noted for their realism, biting social commentary, and clever use of free indirect speech. They are also remarkable for their burlesque and irony. They criticize the novels of sensibility of the second half of the eighteenth century. They are part of the change to nineteenth-century realism. As Susan Gubar and Sandra Gilbert explain, Austen laughed at "love at first sight, the primacy (first importance) of passion over all other emotions and/or duties, the  exploits of the hero, the vulnerable sensitivity of the heroine, the lovers' proclaimed (declared) indifference to financial considerations, and the cruel  of parents". Austen's stories, though comic, focus on the way women depend on marriage to secure social standing and economic security. She was also concerned with moral problems, like Samuel Johnson, who strongly influenced her.