Jane Eyre And Pride And Prejudice Comparative Essay

“Writers often highlight the values of a culture or a society by using characters who are alienated from that culture or society because of gender, race, or creed.

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

The overall message of the book is that inequality between social classes prevents interaction between them. These rigid surroundings that are displayed throughout the book shape Elizabeth’s character. Elizabeth is portrayed as somewhat of an outcast in her family because she will not play by society’s rules. She and her sisters know their place in society as poor women from the lower class: they are meant to attract a wealthy suitor to help and support their family. However, Elizabeth wants to marry for love. She attracts the attention of her cousin Mr. Collins, who is to inherit her father’s estate as the closest male relative. Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth and she refuses his offer several times, as he believes that women always decline the first few times because they cannot make up their minds. Elizabeth's mother insists to Mr. Collins that Elizabeth will come to her

In the book Elizabeth always tries to seek for true love, this is evidenced by the fact that she turns down Mr. Collins, despite the fact that if she were to marry him she would have been able to live a carefree life with no financial worries whatsoever much like Charlotte Lucas who ended up marrying Mr. Collins instead. Elizabeth’s reasoning for turning down Mr. Collins is simply the fact that she does not love him which is a shock to the other characters of the story, who know that in this society it is not normal for a woman to pick a husband, quite the contrary the man is always the one to pick a woman to marry. The other characters, especially Mrs. Bennet are also disapproving about the fact that Elizabeth is so picky, Mrs. Bennet simply wishes her daughter’s to marry rich men. Perhaps because of this Elizabeth is described and considered to be an intelligent character, she knows that marrying Mr. Collins wouldn’t make her happy, she knows that would not be true love. Instead by the end of the book upon having an epiphany about loving Mr. Darcy she chooses to marry him and she has a happy

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.

Elizabeth had an incredible wit, was funny, liked to read from time to time, spoke up about certain subjects she didn’t agree on. Elizabeth even walked three miles when Jane fell ill after it rained on her. Elizabeth showed up on the Bingley’s doorstep looking disheveled, flushed cheeks, and mud on the bottom of her jacket and dress. That didn't stop her from asking of her sister’s health and where she was located. Darcy, the man who has high expectations, thought it was admirable what she did just to see Jane. Elizabeth also wasn’t looking for a wealthy husband, she wanted to find love and not end up like her parents who disagree on mostly everything and rarely ever talk. Elizabeth went as far as rejecting marriage proposals from three very handsome, rich men. Her mother might’ve not agreed with Elizabeth’s actions, but Elizabeth wasn’t going to marry someone she didn't

or other, and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense

To begin, readers can detect that Elizabeth is acting out of a moral compass because of her firm beliefs about marriage. While the main concern of most women during this time period was to find financial stability, Elizabeth sought to find a partner to marry out of love. This sharp contrast to the status-quo woman is found in the character of Charlotte Lucas, who repeatedly affirms the fact that she is only looking for a man with wealth and a comfortable home. Charlotte also accepts a marriage proposal three days after her fiancé had

Mr. Darcy manages to screw up the future engagement of Elizabeth’s older sister, Jane to Mr. Darcy’s close friend, Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy also ruins his friendship with Mr. Wickham a love interest of Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy did not deny that he had been in charge of ruining these situations, at some points he was even proud of it. Mr. Darcy is known as “the proudest, most disagreeable ma in the world” (Austen 14). Because of this statement, which is being spoken by many of the people in the town, Elizabeth has a hard time of liking Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth then becomes “disgusted with his pride. [She cannot] find him more favorably spoken of by anyone (Austen 75). The rumors and gossip going around the town just encourage Elizabeth to continue her basic instinct on the way Mr. Darcy is as a gentleman. Elizabeth has no problem in telling Mr. Darcy her true feelings on him at any moment, but “Mr. Darcy’s concern for Elizabeth is so great (…) that whether or not she loves him, he wants to make her happy and never claim the credit” (Kneedler). At this moment Elizabeth realizes that Mr. Darcy truly does have feelings for her but she ignores the fact because she is to upset with him from his previous actions to act upon the feeling.

The protagonist of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet, shares her personal thoughts, feelings, and impressions with her elder sister Jane Bennet. Through confiding in Jane, Elizabeth shares more. She allows Jane to share her pleasure and distress. As Elizabeth’s confidante, Jane influences the plot, theme, and message that Jane Austen conveys in the novel.

Pride and Prejudice In Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, women have few opportunities to support themselves aside from marrying into wealth and prestige. The male-dominated society that Austen writes in is one in which women have no rights and are used as doormats to men. However Austen’s main character, Elizabeth, is portrayed as a very strong willed and intelligent woman of her time. Austen can be seen as a feminist ahead of her times because she does not view women as intellectually or morally lesser to men by marrying for money instead of love, also this novel Austen authors proves the hierarchy of social-class during the time period.

When pride encounters prejudice. The novel Pride and Prejudice revolve around two characters – Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy – from different socioeconomic class and their impression of each other. As the title indicates, one character is prideful and the other prejudice. As the protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice feelings in to find happiness. But the path towards finding romantic happiness involved two phase in the novel: the first phase involved Elizabeth finding Mr. Darcy to be abhorrent in the beginning and the second phase is involved her overcoming her misconception of Mr. Darcy. The shift in Elizabeth perception of Mr. Darcy leads to her falling in love with Mr. Darcy.

She wanted to be expressive and take a stance, but in her time and age, it was unrealistic. A struggle she faced, for example, was when Jane was ill at Netherfield Park. Elizabeth was torn between her sister, and being a proper lady. She didn’t know whether to sit at home and wait, or run through the muddy fields to her sister. Elizabeth’s mother was against her going through fields as she said, “How can you be so silly, as to think of such a thing, in all this dirt! You will not be fit to be seen when you get there.”(Austen 24) Her mother did not want her to go, because it would look very poorly on her behalf. Elizabeth however not caring about her reputation, was insistent on walking to Jane. Elizabeth did not want to conform to society, ever. So when Collins asks for Elizabeth’s hand in marriage, she, among the pressure from her family, promptly refused. To Elizabeth, Collins was foolish and pompous, and she could stand to think to ever marry someone so humiliating. Even when Darcy proposes to her for the first time, she refuses. Her hasty judgments led her to think that he was an arrogant man who only cared for his

In her writing, Wollstonecraft argues that women should be treated with the same equals as men. This was a conflicting transformation in women’s roles that occurred within the century. Elizabeth Bennet can be considered as an example and a supporter of the writing. Disinherited of her father’s property, Elizabeth is not financially independent, and depends upon advantageous marriage for her future survival. Although throughout the novel she asserts her independence that reflects some of Wollstonecraft’s opinions and beliefs. An example would be when she rejected to be married with Mr. Collins even though she was in need of the financial support, as he was the one who was to inherit the family estate. However Miss Elizabeth Bennet’s friend did the exact opposite and married Mr. Collins because she was already a burden to her parents and was afraid that she would never be asked to marry again. Elizabeth also stood up to Mr. Darcy when he was making remarks about the country even though he was at a much higher social status than she was, and she was reminded of that by her

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, is a remarkable story showing the complications between men and women before and during their time of falling in love. The plot is based on how the main characters, Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, escape their pride, prejudice and vanity to find each other; however, both must recognize their faults and change them. Jane Austen follows the development of Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s relationship in how they both change in order to overcome their own vanities and be able to love each other.