Essay On Gender Roles In Pride And Prejudice

The novel “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen depicts a social structure in which there are clear gender expectations. These gender expectations control and restrict the lives of both genders, most notably women. In. Austen’s world, women have few opportunities to support themselves, and have high expectations attributed to them. Men were held to similar standards. Upper and middle class men were expected to add to their families’ wealth, be charming, and eventually marry. Deviation from these spoken and unspoken rules, such as Lydia and Wickham’s elopement, would result in becoming a social pariah. In “Pride and Prejudice”, the characters of Elizabeth Bennet, her sister Lydia, and Mr. Darcy challenge the aforementioned gender roles put in

Just as the characters unknowingly follow Darcy's example of pride, they commit Elizabeth's crucial mistake, prejudging people (especially Darcy) according to horribly inadequate experience. Elizabeth's positive judgement of Wickham and negative one of Darcy prevent her from seeing Wickham's devious and whimsical nature and Darcy's honest efforts to improve despite the apparent lack of incentive. Like Elizabeth, the rest of the Bennets, and indeed the rest of those living in the vicinity of Meryton, believe Darcy to be a wholly disagreeable man. (In fact, he began as such, but even when he began to change, everyone refused to realize it, and maintained their dislike of him because of their previous judgements.) Mrs. Bennet is prejudiced against all other mothers with young daughters, believing them to be just as ambitious and scheming as she herself is. When told that Mrs. Long promised to introduce the Bennet sisters to Bingley, Mrs. Bennet hisses

Pride and Prejudice tells a story of a young girl in the midst of a very materialistic society. Jane Austen uses the setting to dramatize the restraints women had to endure in society. As the novel develops, we see how women have to act in a way according to their gender, social class, and family lineage. Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters represent the proper societal lady while Lizzy is the rebel. Through her characters Austen shows how a women’s happiness came second to the comfort of wealth. As the plot develops, events are laid out to illustrate how true love is unattainable when women marry for intentions of wealth. Women have very specific and limited roles in a society where men are the superior. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

A hastily drawn conclusion one might make about Pride and Prejudice is that it appears to reinforce the sexist stereotypes of women during the 18th century. The first sentence of the book reads “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1). Dorothy Van Ghent described this opening sentence as being “read as the opposite-a single woman must be in want of a man with a good fortune” (Van Ghent 301). This also introduces one of the central themes of the novel and that is Mrs. Bennet’s desire to see her daughters married “Her mind was less difficult to develop she was a woman of mean understanding little information and uncertain temper when she was discontented she fancied herself nervous the business of her life was to get her daughters married” (Austen 3). Marriage was crucial to ensure a woman’s

The bicycle, the tin can, the steam locomotive, exercise, and the Bennet sisters; all of these were creations that came from Regency England. All of these things have had a lasting effect on modern day society. While the Bennet sisters seem the least important, the story of their lives provides modern society with insight into how the upper class in Regency England lived. The Bennet sisters themselves are an eclectic group of girls; each one has her own distinct personality. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the minor characters: Mary, Lydia, and Kitty, serve as literary foils to glorify the good traits of the major characters: Jane and Lizzy.

Mrs. Bennet, another integral character in the novel is known for her bubbly, ditzy, and vivacious personality. It is easy to say that Mrs. Bennet only cares about her daughters and ensuring that they are married. She insists that her daughters marry men in a high social class with a lot of money. Because of this, many would agree that Mrs. Bennet is extremely prejudice in various aspects, but primarily when it comes to the marriage of her daughters. For example, when the Bennets first meet Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Bennet thinks that he is nice looking and likes that he has such a large amount of money. However, she ignores him after she realizes he is rude and snobbish. But the moment that Mr. Darcy proposed to Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet treated him as well as she treated Mr. Bingley, simply because her daughter was potentially marrying him. She didn’t care if Elizabeth was happy or if she didn’t love him. This proves that Mrs. Bingley is prejudice towards others solely for her daughter’s and her own benefit. Many would agree that Mrs. Bennet is so extremely prejudice because her daughters are truly the only thing that she has in life. The Bennets aren’t incredibly rich and she and her husband aren’t truly in

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice examines and critiques a society built upon gender roles. Austen does this by examining the obstacles women experienced in the Regency Period. Austen expresses how women were controlled, and objectified by men through their need to get married to a man. Additionally, the novel ridicules how women who could not afford to live without men were shadowed by their partner. This commentary is seen through the portrayal of the Bennet sisters. The females of the family are forced to marry because they do not inherit any wealth. The family is forced to comply with the same boundaries Austen was governed by. Therefore, Austen focuses on how the Bennet sisters overcome a society that suppresses them. This allows the reader to comprehend the strength, perseverance, determination, and assertiveness of the women in this time. Overall, Jane Austen addresses gender issues throughout the story. This is seen in the progressive image of Elizabeth, as she combats the inequality women experience. Although it was not common for women to criticize the patriarchy, the overall depiction of females is progressive. Elizabeth represents Austen’s feminist views, and the depiction of women in the novel is seen through her feminist image as she deals with Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.

Caroline Bingley is a particularly interesting character, whose chief purpose is to aid in plot complications and undoubtedly irritate the reader. Economically, she is very much like her brother. As a product of the new gentry, she possesses a dowry of £20,000, a large sum, even for her social ranking, which gives her an advantage in marrying up on the social ladder. Her negative qualities of hypocrisy and selfishness do not aid her in her pursuit of Mr. Darcy as a potential husband; in fact they discourage Darcy as he often responds to her compliments with silence (Austen 42). Upon recognition of Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth, she proceeds to criticize everything about the Bennet sister, right down to the hem of her skirt (39). This two-facedness portrays the hypocrisy of and the effect of elevated rank on the attitudes of the new gentry of Nineteenth

Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters. With what delighted pride she afterwards visited Mrs. Bingley and talked of Mrs. Darcy may be guessed. ( Austen 393).

In Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennet, the mother of the protagonist, Elizabeth, is generally portrayed as a buffoon who is an adversary for he daughter that is trying to force her into a marriage she does not want. One may wonder how she can be justified in any way, considering that she is known to embarrass her family members and behave idiotically. However, in the time period they live in, a marriage is necessary for all of the family to avoid a terrible fate. Mrs. Bennet, while often behaving improperly, does try to do the best for her daughters based on the world she lives in.

At this point in the novel, Mrs. Bennet knows absolutely nothing about this man that she is more than willing to let one of her daughters go off with, other than his income and the existence of his wealth; yet she is still certain that it is a fantastic idea for one of her daughters to end up with him. It is extremely relevant that Mrs. Bennet pays no mind to which daughter should be with him- it simply does not matter to her. She takes no time to think of which daughter may like him best or if any of them will even like him at all. She is primarily concerned with the surface level issues of her society, and the importance of marrying well in society without regard to the compatibility of the two people. All that matters to Mrs. Bennet is social ranking, wealth, and marriage. While these are all extreme conservative views, Austen is actually mocking Mrs. Bennet with the exaggerative manner in which she has Mrs. Bennet go about life. Austen describes Mrs. Bennet as “a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancies herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news” (4). A woman of “little information” can only mean a woman without much of a brain or smarts. The fact that Austen would describe a character with such conservative views as an ignorant being proves that Austen’s goal of Pride and Prejudice was to stray away from conservative

She is also very smart in trying to marry off all of her daughters as soon as possible. The key reason was that women at this time depended on the men in their life to survive, it may have been their father or their husband but they relied heavily on the males in their lives. Because Mrs. Bennet and her daughters were so heavily reliant on Mr. Bennet, Mrs. Bennet was completely justified in trying to have her daughters married off to the richest and most socially advanced bachelors. She was also very aware of a women's role in society and knew that marriage was what society had in stall for them.

Throughout Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice , there are many references to the unusual character of Elizabeth Bennet ; she is seen to be an atypical female during those times. Wit , bravery , independence , and feminist views all describe a most extraordinary model for women.

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she

In the Regency Era, women were oppressed by society’s roles and they have a totally different life with men because of the gender inequality. “Why must she be scampering all about the country, because her sister had a cold? Her hair so untidy, so blousy!” is said by Miss Bingley to Elizabeth. Austen uses rhetorical question to exposes Elizabeth walk across the country is how unexpected to Miss Bingley because women usually have domestic lives and she objects that Elizabeth’s behaviour is too wild and independent for a woman. Also, Austen uses repetition to highlights the negative adjective that describes Elizabeth’s appearance is not ‘like’ a woman and end up with exclamatory mark to emphasises the tone of Miss Bingley to Elizabeth’s behaviour. The repetition of “...your arrogance, your conceit and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others.” argues how Elizabeth challenges this value in that period, she is not a quiet and agreeable woman like normal, she gives her opinions on Mr Darcy when Mr Darcy “debases” her family and because of her prejudice about Mr Darcy that the repetition better trans