Jane Austen 's Lessons On Dating And Marriage

Kruger, Daniel J., et al. "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE OR FAMILY AND FLIRTATION? JANE ….AUSTEN 'S DEPICTION OF WOMEN 'S MATING STRATEGIES." Philosophy and ….Literature, vol. 38, no. 1, 2014, pp. A114-A128, Arts & Humanities Database, ….http://nclive.org/cgibin/nclsm?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1626357652?accounti….d=13217.

Explore Jane Austen’s attitude to marriage in Pride and Prejudice Looking at the social, historical and cultural context In the 19th century when Austen wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’, the way in which marriage was viewed was very different. It would have been expected of a young woman to find a ‘suitable’ partner for marriage before they were thirty, as after this they could be seen as an embarrassment to their family. By suitable, it does not mean in the way in which marriage is viewed today.

Throughout ’Pride and Prejudice’ Jane Austen conveys the theme of marriage of being of paramount importance. The first line of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ defines the main themes of Austen’s’ novel, as well as subtly giving the reader an insight of Austen’s views of marriage. Her use of hyperbole ‘That a man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife’ hints at a somewhat mocking and ironic tone on Austen’s part, which indicates to the reader that Austen doesn’t agree with the general perception of marriage during her time.

The romantic era in literature was characterized by many different authors, male and female. Jane Austen was only one of many authors in that era, and one of the longest lasting; through her many novels, she shows various views on love and marriage. In Jane Austen’s critically acclaimed novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen spares no character, male or female, in her criticism of the understood custom that the only route to happiness was marriage.

Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in

Their limited education consisted of needlework, fine handwriting, singing, dancing, playing piano, and reading (3). Marriage at this time was the only thing that could give a woman any sense of security. If their fathers were to die, it was custom that only the eldest son could inherit the money and property. Unfortunately, if the family did not have a male son the land would be given to the closet male relative, which left the women in a very delicate position. Austen show’s readers this aspect of her society by having the Bennet sisters in the same situation. Without a male sibling their land and home will be entailed to a Mr. Collins. If Mr. Bennet were to die, his five daughters and his wife would be left homeless or at the charity of others because Mr. Collins would not have it in his heart to let them reside in the house with him. Their only way to escape this fate would be to get married. However, there was many obstacles that middle class young women had to deal with that kept young suitors uninterested. One was their social station. The society of this time was so stratified that even one class could be broken down into more distinctions of rank (2). The people did not often marry outside of their social rank, which left middle class women with middle class men. Unfortunately, money also played a big part in the determination of whether

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice focuses on the restrictive gender roles of early 19th century England. The only possibility of upwards social mobility for women is through marriage. However, the prospect of marriage is directly by men, leaving women at their mercy. Austen depicts marriage as a social construct designed to maintain gender roles in England’s Regency era.

Stylistically Austen, employs the third person restricted narrator to establish the central theme of marriage, and the trajectory of the narrative. In the ironic opening first sentence of the novel ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.’ ‘Jane Austen appears to state a fact that her use of the word truth implies to be a principle; a moral truth which all mankind can agree’ (Gooneratne, p. 44). This truth however is conveyed as ‘a good income in the hands of a bachelor’ therefore making him an attractive matrimonial proposition! In addition the semantics employed: ‘possession, fortune and want’ are associating the activities of courtship and marriage to that of a business transaction. However, it is the single females without the possession of a good fortune that are indeed in search of a husband. Therefore this opening sentence serves as an ironic reminder of the discrepancy between social conventions and economic need. Austen therefore creates a measured disjunction between received opinion and social reality.

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen is critical of the gender roles in place during the 19th century English Regency period. She critically assess these gender roles through Elizabeth Bennet, the second child in a family of five daughters. In general, this novel shows how many women conform to the socially constructed norms during this time period, in order to marry a wealthy and successful man. While marriage is thought of as a binding agreement between a man and a woman, marriage during this time period often conflicted with a woman’s sovereignty. A woman needed a man’s financial support in order to survive, and thus served as a primary impetus for marriage.

Jane Austen’s view of marriage in relation to the woman’s place in the hierarchical order furthers the notion of Daniel Defoe’s of how marriage is used as a means of survival and status. In Moll Flanders, Robin wanted to marry Moll which confused everyone. Robin would be marrying downwards which was not acceptable. Similarly, marriage is used as a form of commodity when Charlotte Lucas was at risk of becoming an unmarried old maid which risked her survival. When the younger girls and boys are formally entering adult society they worry about Charlotte’s status. “But still he would be her husband --Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated

A comparative study of Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s, Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, enhances the appreciation of the values of social restrictions in dictating notions of success. In Letters to Alice, Weldon re-embodies Austin’s traditional perspectives with her modern context, making both explicit and implicit connections throughout to explore the notions of social restrictions and success in love, mannerisms and marriage. By exploring the connections between these texts, there is a deeper appreciation and understanding of social values in each text as a different perspective is communicated.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries women, had almost no rights in society. They were not permitted to own or inherit property, their education was severely limited, there was a period in which they were not permitted to divorce their husband, and when they were given this right, they were not permitted to retain guardianship over their children. Since women were not allowed to have their own property it was essential that they married men who were able to provide for them the status that they had enjoyed in their father’s home. Preferably the status they gained in marriage was greater than what they had before. The hope was that the husband would help support the woman’s mother when her father passed away. For women who did not find husbands there were limited options left to them. In

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage

In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, she writes about the lives of young women in England and although the novel is from several hundred years ago, the themes of love and the search for happiness remain relevant no matter the day or age. The main characters of the novel are young Elizabeth “Lizzy” Bennet and her younger sister Jane, along with their suitors and eventual husbands, and the other young women they know engaged in the same quest to find a husband. The novel in particular focuses on a popular attitude at that time, the idea that in order to be happy, women need to get married, and makes fun of that attitude in a very modern and satirical way through the prolificity of characters who seem purely to make fun of

Through the use of literary devices, Pride and Prejudice reveals Jane Austen’s attitude towards the novel’s theme of true love through the actions of the suitors; the process of courtship in the 1800s articulates characterization, foreshadowing, and irony. The novel opens with the line, “it is a truth acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife,” (Austen 1) which foreshadows the conflict of finding a significant other . During the Victorian age, men and women courted others of the same education, wealth, and social status; it was considered uncommon for someone to marry beneath them or to marry for love. Jane Austen uses Elizabeth Bennett’s encounters with different characters of varying