Another way of stylistic distancing is the use of anticlimax. When Emma and George have become engaged and return to the house, Mr. Woodhouse is anxious that George not take a cold from his earlier ride; the author's wry comment is that "Could he have seen the heart, he would have cared very little for the lungs." Anticlimax can also be brutally though subtly frank in observations on mankind. The authorial statement about the death of Mrs. Churchill is this: "It was felt as such things must be felt. Everybody had a degree of gravity and sorrow; tenderness towards the departed, solicitude for the surviving friends; and, in a reasonable time, curiosity to know where she would be buried." This is an acute and realistic observation, but the concluding anticlimax ironically points to the difference between human intention and performance. Immediately following this observation is a stylistic illustration of the influence from the eighteenth-century concern for balancing phrasing and the eighteenth-century penchant for epigram: "Goldsmith tells us, that when lovely woman stoops to folly, she has nothing to do but to die; and when she stoops to be disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame." Only through stylistic treatment such as this could Austen have provided for the reader the necessary esthetic distance to appreciate the latent satire connected with a serious subject like death.
Finally, in discussing Austen's style, one has to point to what has been called her mastery of dialogue. Her ear for the way women in particular talk is very good indeed. And though Augusta Elton's attempts at cleverness make a fine example, the best is Miss Bates' fragmentary speech, her habitual tone. But in terms of authorial style, it should be further noted that the use of direct and indirect conversation varies according to how much the reader needs to be involved in the immediate material, for the indirect reportage puts more distance between the reader and the material and allows at times a better satirical view.
Thus, from the smallest choice of words to the largest presentation of conversations and scenes, Austen's style is subtle and may be witty, sharp, epigrammatic, abstract, or distancing according to the satiric need.
