Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Writing in the Regency era of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792), who argued that women shouldn’t have to rely on marriage to attain financial independence, Austen reveals the benefits from marrying for love, rather than for economic reasons. By charactering Mrs Bennet as a woman obsessed with seeing her “daughters happily settled at Netherfield”, an outcome she hyperbolically insinuates would mean she would “have nothing to wish for”; Austen presents her views on marriage as hysterical and archaic. In contrast, she employs high modality diction to articulate Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Collins’ proposal, despite its financial advantages, on account of the absence of love for him: “I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy”, thus portraying her as a woman who stubbornly and affirmatively believes in marrying for love. Later, she uses contrasting, antithetical nomenclature by identifying herself as a “rational creature”, rather than an “elegant female”, thereby rejecting the passive, submissive attitude society expected of her, and instead, embracing Wollstonecraft’s advice to adopting a proactive attitude toward choosing a husband. Thus, Austen elicits a deeper understanding on the conservative and traditional role of women in marriage during her context to her readers.

1) In which ways does Jane Austen 's Pride and Prejudice conform to ideas of the Enlightenment? In which ways does it foreshadow Romanticism?

“I wish someone would have told me that, just because I’m a girl, doesn’t mean I have to get married.” (Marlo Thomas). Standards were set during the 1700’s that women must get married to live up to their expectations set by society. In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice that is set in the 1700’s, there are many different personalities between the characters. Mary has knowledge, Jane has kindness, Elizabeth has self confidence, Mr. Bennet has the laid back personality, Lydia has the sporadic attitude, ect. Most characters seem to bicker throughout the novel causing a lot of conflicts. For example, Mary and Lydia contradict each other at Netherfield when first bringing up the idea about a ball being held there. Lydia is very eager to

“I have found the one whom my soul loves.” Men and women, since the beginning of time, have always dreamed of quoting this line. People show and express love in all sort of ways and for numerous reasons. As seen in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, men and women in the 19th century expressed their love for one another very differently than we do today. American society’s views on love have emerged into something completely different than what they were two hundred years ago. The formal courtship, simple engagement, and development of marriage in the 19th century were vastly contrasting than in the present day.

Jane Austen enjoyed using irony in Pride and Prejudice to convey her story of Elizabeth Bennet. Many critics say that there is an incredible connection between the author, Jane Austen, and her fictional character, Elizabeth Bennet (Brownstein 54). It has been acknowledged that the wit and sarcastic nature of Elizabeth, was a large part of Jane’s personality. The ironic wit used by Elizabeth is what sets her aside from the other female characters in the book that are not very deep.

The Enlightenment was a radical intellectual, philosophical and cultural movement that spread throughout Western Europe during the 18th century. Defined by its reliance on reason and individualism, this era replaced the traditional view of the authoritative power of institutions with an emphasis on the importance of freedom to think for oneself. This shift in focus to individual thought brought with it the freedom to question society, morals, religions, and customs. Written during the height of this movement, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice captures much of the complexity of this new Age of Reason. The main character, Elizabeth, is nothing if not individualistic. From the very beginning of the novel, she demonstrates a demand for self-expression, evidenced in her conversations at the dinner at Rosings, in which Elizabeth was “ready to speak whenever there was an opening” and responded to Lady Catherine’s inquiries about her sisters with confidence and composure, suspecting herself to “be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with Lady Catherine with so much dignified impertinence” (Austen 125). Elizabeth’s interactions at Rosings illustrate her refusal to accept and be ruled by the social conventions and expectations of her time. As such, Elizabeth relies on her own reasoning to rationalize the world around her, and in turn creates a series of personal paradigms by which she leads her life. However, in an effort to stubbornly defend these ideals, Elizabeth falls

In the 19th century, marriage was the primary interest for women because it was believed to be their sole means of happiness and comfort. For women, opportunities of living a life without a husband were scorned by all of society and nearly impossible; women had little choice but to search for their suitors. Women searched for wealthy life partners in belief that an estate and a lavish lifestyle could provide them with a lifetime’s worth of enjoyment. However, love was not an element of such an accord. Their search for a wealthy partner provided them with the security of money, land and comfort in life. Prosperity meant that the woman and her children would never have to face financial problems or hardships. This significant predicament of marriage for young women is ever present in the novel, Pride and Prejudice. The Bennet girls are at the ripe age for marriage and struggle to find affluent suitors. Throughout the novel, Jane Austen reveals that the only marriages that contain pure happiness are the ones that are built on true love, adoration and affection. The other marriages in the novel are considered unhappy and miserable because they are out of either convenience, materialism or physical attraction. Elizabeth and Darcy, along with Jane and Bingley, are the only couples who receive genuine happiness from their marriage. Their marriages are not out of trivial reasons like money or class but out of true admiration and affection for their partners. As a result, contrary

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was considered a radical novel back in 1813 when she wrote and published the piece. It is a social commentary on the treatment and societal standards of women, as well marriage expectations at the turn of the 19th century. Austen criticizes the patriarchal society, materialism, double standards of men and women by centering the book around Elizabeth Bennett, a young woman of decent means who does not understand the reason for the pressure to find a suitable husband as soon as she is of marrying age, nor does she feel the need to commit herself to one man for the rest of her life when there is no romantic involvement in the relationship, although her mother pushes her to do so. Through the characters in

Darcy is not interested in her. By portraying Elizabeth like this, Austen emphasizes how Elizabeth is her own individual and deserves respect: “She is the solitary instance of a young, unmarried girl of strong individuality as the chief and most interesting figure in the novel, which does really represent the life of what early Victorian England called the gentry” (Courtney 665). Also, another instance where Elizabeth acts against the patriarchal rules is during Mr. Collin’s proposal. When this happens Elizabeth does not even let Mr. Collins finish his proposal. She turns him down immediately, and finds out that he goes on to propose to her friend Charlotte. Charlotte accepts because she fears being a widow especially because she is getting older. Elizabeth disregards thinking this way and focusses only on who she wants to marry. The reason she marries Darcy is because she loves him and she likes the superiority of his complicated yet accomplished mind, which according to the novel Mr. Collins does not have (Brown 332). Elizabeth’s mother became very upset with her because rejection is very rare in their society especially when the house was going to Mr. Collins and the only way for them to keep it was to marry off all the daughters. Mrs. Bennet hardly cared who her daughters marry, because that is her sole purpose, to get all her daughters married off. Jane Austen created Elizabeth to portray feminism in a time of patriarchal societies.

Jane Austen 's exceptional novel Pride and Prejudice has been depicted as "a classic that is as much a social study on class, marriage and gender as it is a romantic tale". It is an amusing representation of the social atmosphere of the late eighteenth and mid nineteenth century England, and it is primarily required with courtship rituals of the English high class. The novel is more than a romantic tale, however through Austen 's subtle, and ironic style, it addresses gender, class, and marriage. These subjects are however out the novel and will be discussed exhaustive out the discourse.

Jane Austen’s’ Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813. The setting of the novel was based in England. During the 18th century, society’s main focus was on social status, courtship, and marriage. Pride and Prejudice depicts the commotion of a town called Longbourn by the arrival of Mr. Bingley, a wealthy man.

The book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a book that mainly focuses on the romantic dramas of a small society of rich people in and around the town of Hertfordshire. In her book, Jane Austen portrays some of the common characteristics of people as they try to find a mate. She uniquely illustrates the romantic dramas people encounter in everyday life. Although Pride and Prejudice certainly pertained to the living style of the 1800’s, its concepts, and analysis of human nature still apply today. Austen shows the psychology of romantic dramas that are common in human nature, as she conveys these concepts throughout Pride and Prejudice. We get a better understanding of ourselves as we watch the different characters interact as their relationships unfold.

Jane Austen is a woman who fights for women rights and the equality of women with men since she had to live with inequality and injustice in her own life. In this regard, Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice proves herself to be a clear feminist. To prove her feminists, Austen had used this novel of hers as a tool to portray her views on the unequal and injustice society of men where woman had been always sidelined and subjective to men. Since the novel deals with female subjectivity and a strong-minded heroine, feminist theory is the most effective school of thought to apply to this novel. Feminism is not new to Austen literary style. Since the 1970s, critical theories have begun to place Austen within a feminist context. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has earned the categorization of a novel about marriage and satire according to the

The iconic line that begins the novel “A single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”(Austen,Chapter 1) sets the tone with a rather shrewd and cynical definition of the marriage market where men owning large fortunes are prey for mothers with single daughters. The whole business of marriage is considered a hunt and chase and by putting the protagonist's mother as someone showing similar traits to the theme, the author tries to give an inside glimpse to the reader by showing conversations amongst family members which uphold the different viewpoints of the family. Mrs. Bennet herself is shown to be a cunning strategist in her endeavors to marry her daughters. She tries to send Mr. Bennet off to pay his respects to their new neighbors so that the gentlemen may return the favor and in the process meet her pretty marriageable daughters. When Jane is invited over to the Bingley estate, her mother

In the 1800s, women 's sole purpose in life was to find a suitable husband, women had no other choice but to depend on a man for certain needs and wants. “Most feminist studies have represented Austen as a conscious or unconscious subversive voicing a woman 's frustration at the rigid and sexist social order which enforces women’s subservience and dependence.” (Morrison, 337). The protagonist in the novel, Elizabeth Bennet defies the social norms of the 1800s by not wanting to marry solely for economic gain. For example, Elizabeth is impoverished and needs to marry a man with good wealth but she realises that with being in a loveless marriage comes with unhappiness. The daughters of the Bennet family had