Jane Austen is a well-known and loved author. Some of his romantic fiction novels have been made into films and have evoked intense emotional attachment among readers and viewers. His books have become the basis for true love story since their appearance on the literary scene. Today Jane Austen is more popular than ever and revered as much as any literary figure in history for her realism and biting social commentary. Austen's plots highlight women's reliance on marriage to secure social position, economic security, and moral issues. Marriage was crucial because it was the only accessible form of self-definition for girls in society. Some critics suggest that her novels are based on her own life and that the protagonist character is herself. He wrote some of his novels in Bath, a place in London where he lived. This can be demonstrated in his novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Her two heroines have lived in Bath for some time and this marks a change in their lives. In Northanger Abbey he uses his brother's name to name a character who is actually the brother of his protagonist in the book, Catherine Morland. Something very peculiar in his stories is that he focuses on the importance of marriage and how his protagonist always ends the books with a happy marriage with his beloved man; even though she never married. However, Jane Austen uses marriage as more than a plot device. Indeed, it had its purpose and mission in the description of marriage. In Northanger Abbey, when Henry dances with Catherine in the Pump-Room, his comparison of dancing to marriage reveals Henry's intentions. Henry may see the dance as a symbol of something more than what he physically is “It is an engagement… middle of paper… who has earned the happiness she finds in a good husband and financial security . Anne Elliot marries Captain Wentworth as a deserved triumph. Austen showed her narrative vision of the ideal marriage in both stories. While Austen's ideas that women should be equal to men in marriage may have been revolutionary, she was still very much rooted in old ideas of class and knowledge of her place in the narrative of her novels. The perfect marriage that Austen presents through these comparisons should be founded on equality and shared responsibility, but it must still be between parents of equal standing in society and be undertaken with the blessing of both spouses' families. Only then could there be a happy ending. Works Cited Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Ed. Giorgio Stade. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003. Print.- Northanger Abbey. New York: The Modern Library, 1995. Print.