Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, wrote this piece in satire of her own life in which she grew up in. A society where you were told who to marry, and you knew you were doing it for the money. This type of conformity is based on marxism, or the analysis of social and class relations using a materialistic interpretation. Elizabeth Bennet is a main character, a daughter, and a sister in the book whom is trying to find a husband and a future estate. She breaks the societal norm when she abruptly turns down a proposal from a man of much fortune, Mr. Darcy, by saying, “From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry” (Ch. 34). In the article about Jane’s life, the author states, “Feminine action is contracted by numberless difficulties, that there are no impediments of masculine exertion”(pg.2), in other words stating that a woman almost never has a right to disapprove someone in the way Austen wrote of Elizabeth to Darcy in his proposal. This proves that Austen was mocking the normality, and trying to focus the reader on feminism (advocacy of women’s rights), and the resistance against conformity (“marxism”). Jane Austen also portrays feminism through the character Lydia Bennet, another daughter/sister in the Bennet family who needs to marry in order to find money and a place to live. During this era, class was a big affair, in which it was highly scorned upon. In Sulloway’s

Pride and Prejudice, a novel written by Jane Austen, is a story of overcoming pride and prejudices. The story takes place in Longbourn, where the Bennet family and their five girls live on their rented estate. Mrs.Bennet is obsessed to get her daughters to marry rich, as they are all still single. Their financial status is poor, placing them into a lower social class.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813(Gary vii) a time when women had “few legal and economic rights or even receiving little respect, women can be seen as oppressed victims of a patriarchal society, subordinate first to their fathers and, then, to their husbands who had, of course, been selected by their fathers” (Swords, 76-82). At first glance one might think that Pride and Prejudice reinforces sexist stereotypes, however upon further examination of Jane Austen and her heroine Elizabeth it is clear that Pride and Prejudice in fact erodes the sexist stereotypes of women.

In Pride and Prejudice Author Jane Austen claims that marriage should be between a man and women who love each other equally. Austen's disgust of Marriage and decorum in British culture is written through the eyes of main the main character in Pride and Prejudice, Miss Elizabeth Bennett. It is sad to think that marriage could be bought or in Elizabeth Bennett’s case not afforded. Marriage shouldn’t be the only measure of worth for women. Someone should not feel “repugnance” for a marriage due to situation.

During the time period of the 1800s in England, not only was the economic situation different but the social norms were differently. Jane Austen depicts this greatly in her novel pride and prejudice, not only was the social classes a big deal, but the marriage between families was a bigger deal. Throughout the novel many of the characters encounter this problem of, love in marriage or money in marriage, and many of the families and females within this time period choice money in marriage. The author Jane Austen feels that the idea of marring for money rather than love is preposterous and expresses this through the character Elizabeth

Pride and prejudice is a novel that was written by Jane Austen concerning manners, pride and intolerance. Austen is a writer of distinction that manages to catch the attention of the audience in issues such as marriage, class, love and deceit. The novel is a love story; however, its author was also aimed at explaining the unfairness and discrimination that presides over the relationships that exists between people as well as how it impacts the choices of men and women. She was also concerned about how women make decisions concerning marriage. Austen depicts a society where different choices for people are rather limited, on the basis of almost entirely on a family 's connections and social ranking (Austen, 13). Austen 's novel “Pride and Prejudice” brings into spotlight various critical moral concerns in relation to the subject of the institution of marriage as well as other significant issues related to it.

Personal compatibility is one of criteria Austen uses for choosing the right mate, however it is not the criteria that most people follow when choosing their mate. Austen shows couples that choose not to marry a mate that are personal compatibility with them and couples that do. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are one of the couples that Austen uses to represent not choosing personal compatibility as a criterion for finding the right mate. Mr. Bennett says, he married his wife for her “youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour, which youth and beauty generally give, had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem, and confidence, had vanished for ever.” (Austen 155). They do not have the happiest of marriages, but they do stay together for “twenty years at least” (Austen 4). Another couple that Austen uses to represent not choosing this criterion when selecting a mate are Lydia and Mr. Wickham. Lydia is young and “silly” (Austen 20) while

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.

In the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the author begins the novel with a quote about marriage. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. (p.1) Austen alludes to the fact that in 18th century England, once a man has become wealthy, it is the natural progression for him to seek out a wife. Likewise, women were aware of the fact that men of high social position would be in search of a wife, and they knew it was their responsibility to make such a man ask for their hand in marriage. For women of this era, marriage was the only respectable option for them to be independent of their

Pride and Prejudice portrays many central values that Weldon in Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen an epistolary attempts to put right in the readers mind. The values of the Female Experience, Marriage and social structure and class. Jane Austen portrays issues in some form or another through her characters, but it is through a reading of Weldon’s ‘letters to Alice’ that clarification of these issues is made more apparent. These intertextual connections that Weldon gives to the reader about Austen’s novel helps them understand Austen’s context, views of marriage and the structure and guidelines of the social system. Weldon encourages Alice to think of these themes in context of her own life, to explore the similarities and differences.

In her opening statement, Austen illustrates the the reasoning for marriage at this time, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 9). For nearly everyone in the eighteenth century,marriage was seen as a business. A man seeked a wife solely because it was seen as a requirement to be viewed as a resectable addition to society. Once a man asked a woman for her hand in marriage, the woman would almost always immediately accept, as it was valued as an honor for a woman to be desired for this type of role. Her family was to pay her future husband a sum of money in which he saw suitable. Austen’s protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, contradicts this belief. She finds it ridiculous and in a way humorous that men and women actually find a status such as this something of honor. In contrast, Elizabeth Bennet feels marriage should be something that holds greater value than a price tag and a measurement of one’s worthiness for a good reputation, but rather she feels it should be based off of feelings that a man and woman share for one another. As said by Elizabeth herself, “The true perfection of man lies not in what he has, but in what he is.” Jane Austen constructs a way in which Elizabeth Bennet mocks marriages formulated in the ways in which she disagrees

“Pride and Prejudice”, is a novel which explores the huge chasm between love and marriage in Georgian England. Jane Austen’s presentation of passion and matrimony reiterates the fact that marriage is a “business arrangement”. Austen uses irony to make fun of polite society in this satire and Austen also emphasizes the point that social hierarchy dictates whom you can marry. The pressures of men and women in Georgian England are revealed through her exploration of the aristocracy’s prejudice against the middle class society in which she lived. Finally uses comedy to expose hypocrisy

In Jane Austen’s 1813 novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’, the opening line of the novel; “a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a good wife" sets the tone for the aftermath of the novel, addressing the fixation of wealth and the benefit of money. Wealth can be seen as being there for social progression in the Nineteenth-Century English society. Through the use of the imperative verb “must”, Austen is emphasising on the fact that within society to have a “good wife” is an order. In contrast, it is revealed in the novel that a single man marries those who are in his class, whereas women want to marry those who are above their class. Contextually, men in Nineteenth Century England were considered to be marrying those who were daughters of a gentleman as their fathers had wealth of their own. From this, it can be inferred that social adjustment is seen as being the ultimate goal for the characters of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. This can be referenced in Bronte’s 'Wuthering Heights ' by "he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband." This illustrates that Catherine is marrying Edgar for the wealth he owns and his status but this can be seen as being a social norm in

Jane Austen’s well-known novel, Pride and Prejudice, discussed multiple social themes in the 19th century. Austen mainly criticized marriage during her era, when she says that, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). As she explains that it was valuable to women since it provided them with security and a social title. The author explored the diverse motives behind matrimony in her time period by using a humorous and romantic plot to discuss the social issues. For instance, Charlotte Lucas’s unreasonable marriage to Mr. Collins is a vital example of how women needed to secure a future and attain social status. To conclude, Lydia Bennet’s meaningless marriage to George Wickham shows that entering the marriage estate could have also been for mainly financial purposes. Contrastingly, Jane Bennet, the heroine’s older sister, marries Charles Bingley for love, security, and a social ranking. On the other hand, Elizabeth Bennet marries Fitzwilliam Darcy after months of misunderstandings and romantic drama for none other than true love. Thus, Austen uses her leading characters’ marriages in Pride and Prejudice to exhibit the various attitudes and reasons for marrying in the 19th century. (Lane 2015)