Jane Austen's Influence on Literature: Pride and Prejudice

In today 's society, marriage is a significant bond that must be on the basis of love and understanding. Marriage is a relationship described as more for love and emotion rather than convenience or money. Through the experience of Lydia and Wickham, Charlotte and Collins, and Elizabeth and Darcy, Austen criticizes marriages based on infatuation, convenience and money, and emphasizes that marriage can only be successful if they are founded on mutual love.

The life of Jane Austen is a very interesting story and many would say that Jane Austen wasn’t like the rest. She was an English novelist who was not only successful but also very quiet about her writings and publishments; most of her novels were not open to the public during her lifetime. She was born on December 16th of the year 1775, and she was the seventh child to a well known clergyman and wife. Jane was not educated like most would be; she was homeschooled by her father. Her father had huge libraries in their home and this is what created the school-like feeling of the Austen estate. Jane was a normal, and a quiet young lady but also had the opportunities to live life in the greater world, by the access

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, feminism is described as “the advocacy of equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social and economic rights of the female sex.” It emphasizes the many ways women have been suppressed, repressed, and oppressed. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is about Elizabeth, a young middle-class woman who falls in love with Mr. Darcy, a rich, prideful man whom she has sworn to loath based on a misguided first impression. Furthermore, it’s about the unfairness of society and income. Based on the plot of the story and the definition of feminism, Pride and Prejudice has aspects of feminism but is not considered a feminist film.

Born December 16, 1775, Jane Austen was an English novelist known mainly for her six major novels, which interpret and critique upon the British society at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often deal with the women’s dependence to marry to achieve a higher social standing and economic security. There is little to no information about Jane Austen's life because only a few letters out of the many survived. Austen attended the Reading Abbey Girls’ School, but mostly formed her education at home by reading and self-practice. Austen was feeling ill by 1816 but ignored the warning

Middle class women in particular attempted to avoid poverty by being a governess or getting married. Overall, marriage was the more appealing option. Fay Weldon, in her criticism “England in Austen’s Time”, states, “No wonder Jane Austen’s heroines were so absorbed by the matter. It is the stuff of our women’s magazines but it was the stuff of their life, their very existence” (37). Since Jane Austen lived in a time in which marriage was almost imperative for a woman’s survival, Emma is inundated with the theme. Throughout the course of the novel, about five marriages occur and a few other flirtations. Jane Fairfax and Harriet Smith are examples of characters dependent on marriage because neither have a wealthy family for support (Austen 4, 22, 170, 528). Marriage prevented a life of hardship for many women; however, Jane Austen lived comfortably with financial aid from her family and published novels. Her advantageous situation enabled her to have an atypical attitude towards marriage for the early nineteenth century. David Monaghan, a critic, says in “Austen’s Women in a Conservative Society” that Jane Austen believed “the proper marriage is one in which the two parties operate on a basis of mutual respect” (44). Jane Austen’s personal situation and viewpoint influenced her character Emma Woodhouse. While advising Harriet Smith, Emma says, “I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry.

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, a person’s social rank was based on their reputation, wealth, family, and most importantly marriage, as it was the primary way in which someone could elevate their status. Jane Austen’s Emma, explores a number of marriages and anticipated vows, and how the relationships are often based on social status. The rise in social rank through romantic relationships is essential to women as they are unable to improve their status through personal achievements. At the time, social norms dictated that marriage be a critically important accomplishment for women, especially since they had very few prospects for employment. For example, Harriet is astonished that Emma chooses to remain single given the stigma associated with unmarried women, such as poor Miss Bates. Austen also highlights how the wealthy and “well-bred” govern society through their strategic distribution of invitations and steering of new friendships. In contrast, people with less means depend on the charity of those in a higher social strata. In the book Emma, the criteria for proper marriages is examined as well as the class conflicts that often interfered with romantic relationships. The book also underscores the gender limitations women experienced.

Jane Austen was born in 1775 in England. She was the second to last of eight kids and the youngest daughter of two. Her family was not poor nor were they very well off. They were more middle class. Growing up Jane went to a boarding school for two years then finished her education at home from her Oxford-educated father and her aristocratic mother. Jane’s love for reading and writing came from being able to read from her father’s collection of five hundred books. There she found out that books could take her anywhere and she wanted to write her own stories. She began writing in her early teens and finished three novels by age twenty-three. Having support from her family, Jane decided to try to publish her novels. She published them anonymous and got good and bad responses. She later rewrote some of her

Jane Austen is a very special person that will always be remembered. Jane is the most widely read writers in the English literature. The most special thing about Jane is that she was never really acknowledged about her writing when she was alive at her time. Her writings became know several years after she had past nut miraculously she is very memorable to the literature world. Jane was never married during her 41 years of living. The novels that Jane has written are the formula for most romance stories today. At only 7 years old and Jane had joined Mrs. Crawley’s boarding school to receive her education. She had finished her boarding school at age 10.

This shows how influential her writing has become throughout the years. Austen’s writing opened the door for other writers to explore romantic literature. “J.K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, grew up reading Austen, who she described as ‘the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire’” (Redman). She inspires others, not only to write romance, but science fiction like Rowling has done. Her influence on the literature work is is astonishing considering she lived in the 1700’s. Many writers of that time are forgotten by most, but she has lived on way past her death. Austen is taught in high school and college English classes. She has been a huge inspiration for female writers as well. “Jane Austen is now thought of as one of the greatest English authors and considered by many as the first great woman novelist” (Jane Austen [b.1775-d. 1817]). Being considered as one of the first female novelist is a great accomplishment and a huge honor, it is a great shame the “creator” of romance did not get the recognition until after her death. She could have helped develop most extraordinary writers in her

Did you know that Jane Austen’s Facebook page has 1,494,088 likes (facebook.com)? The author that has been described as “the mother of the English nineteenth century novel” is even more popular today than she was 200 years ago (Wilson). Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, England and died on July 18, 1817 in Winchester, Hampshire. She wrote about ordinary people in everyday life. Her books were satires of middle-class life in England at the time of her books. Her novels include Sense and Sensibility (published 1811), Pride and Prejudice (published 1813), Mansfield Park (published 1814), Emma (published 1815), along with Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (published after her death in

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries You Tube web series is a version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that has expanded the book by Austen so well that the characters are very different from the book. Picture Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice did not take place in 19th century England, and instead took place in 21st century California. Would our smart, honest character Elizabeth Bennet be a graduate student with a hobby for video blogging? Wouldn’t Darcy’s snobbery and reserved character make him the typical bowtie-wearing hipster?

Austen began writing the novel and started developing each character’s amusing personality at only twenty-one years old. While describing the conflict between the exuberant daughter of a country gentleman and a wealthy landowner, Pride and Prejudice quickly became one of the world’s most popular novels. Despite this, many critics like Priscilla Gilman and Elvira Casal address their rigid opinions and assessments about Jane Austen’s style of writing.

The study of two comparative texts emphasises the understanding of social, historical and cultural contexts through the reflections of illicit and explicit similarities and differences in the values and attributes presented. Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s 1993 epistolary text Letters to Alice, both challenge the worth of their time as contexts change, but values are upheld. Weldon’s reflection on Austen’s nineteenth century environment, conveys to responders how marriage, gender roles and social class continue to be relevant issues in both regency times and the modern world. Through witnessing Aunt fay’s commentaries on the world of Austen, responders are provided with a foundation for a modern understanding

In Pride and Prejudice, a novel written by Jane Austen, class differentiation, distinction, and hierarchy are prominent and well-developed themes. Austen majorly expresses that wealthier individuals may have prominence on the surface, but this prominence is ultimately a façade. True class is determined by the content of a person’s character. Austen uses multiple characters in the novel to express her thoughts on this matter. One of these examples is expressed through the comparison of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Mrs. Bennet. They serve as the obliviously loathed and laughed at females in the novel. These characters complement one another in their foolishness, regardless of the fact they originate from opposing classes. As such, Austen

Pride and Prejudice is a story written by Jane Austen. Jane, born in December of 1775, has written multiple stories, though Pride and Prejudice is the story she is most remembered by. Jane Austen, during her lifetime, gained little fame. It was not until after her death, when her brother published A Memoir of Jane Austen, that her books began gaining fame. This story, set in England in the 19th Century, tells the tale of a family known as the Bennet’s. In this family there is Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, along with their daughters Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Lydia, and Kitty. During this story the reader will learn about how the daughters have trouble finding love with two men named Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy. Two of the main factors that help push the daughters is the parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet both love their daughters very much, and they have some similarities, but they differ in their personalities, their involvement with their daughters, and their involvement in their daughters’ relationships.