Jane Austen is one of British literature’s most successful writers. Her enthusiastic writing and specific detailing are one of the many reasons Austen has a broad group of readers. Austen was even quoted by the novelist of that time to have a “talent for describing the involvements and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with”- Sir Walter Scott (Graham3). Jane Austen’s proper upbringing and social standing in life, as well as her belief in the importance of social stability and class are clearly expressed throughout her classic novel Pride and Prejudice.
Born in 1775 to a scholarly clergyman in rural Hampshire, New England, Austen had a well financially stable and ultimately educational life. Growing up Austen had two very intelligent parents who valued knowledge and provided a learning environment for their 8 children. Austen had a very happy and comfortable home. Replete with the pleasures of country life, genteel society, perpetual reading, and lively discussion of ideas serious and frivolous (Graham 3). The Austen children had ample opportunity to analyze human motivations and relationships; it is not surprising that two of Jane’s brothers and her sister Cassandra all did some writing at one time or another (Reisman8). Living in an intelligent and prosperous home is one of the major similarities in Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. In her novel, there are many traits that connect Austen’s personal life to her work. Pride and Prejudice is set in the same environment as in Austen’s life. The Bennet’s from her novel, live in a rural area where they can enjoy the pleasures of country living. The girls are brought up to be intelligent young women by their father, Mr. Bennet....
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... our life together be ordered?” is the central issue of politics. Both the seriousness and the beauty of Pride and Prejudice arise out of Austen’s concern with how to get from sin to justice” (Emsley292). Austen may have had many critics but of all of them she herself was one of the biggest. In her letters to her elder sister Cassandra, Austen revealed some of her self criticism saying that “Pride and Prejudice is too light and bright and sparkling; it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter—of sense if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense—about something unconnected with the story; and essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte, or anything that would for a contrast and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the general stile” (Emsley291).
To conclude, Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice displays many varied opinions on love and marriage. Elizabeth Bennet’s unconventional view that marriage is for love can be seen to completely contrast the conventional and materialistic views from her friend Charlotte Lucas, and her mother Mrs Bennet. Austen help’s readers to understand these differing views through her various writing techniques throughout the
Pride and Prejudice is a story that addresses a collective reality in early 19th century England, that a woman lacking a good fortune needed to marry well. This novel focuses on Mr. & Mrs. Bennet and their five daughters (all of whom are of marriageable age): Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia. The Bennets live on the Long bourn estate, in England. It has become Mrs. Bennet’s sole purpose to help each of her daughters marry a wealthy man with high social status. This seem to be of particular importance to Mrs. Bennet as there is an entailment on their estate and, with no male heirs, she and her daughters will be evicted from their home upon her husbands death. When a nearby Nether field estate is rented by Mr. Bingley, a man who is handsome,
Pride and Prejudice is a novel anonymously published in 1813 and is based on Jane Austen’s idea of the strict class prejudice and values during the regency period. Jane Austen’s intent of Pride and Prejudice was to respectively satirise the purely economic, utilitarian motives for marriage as well as the societal constraints which leave women with no choice but to marry. In doing so the themes of marriage and class are developed throughout the novel. The modern adaptation, Bride and Prejudice to a large extent minimises and trivialises Jane Austen’s original intent through the altering of societal values, the representation of Mr Collins and his proposal to Elizabeth, and the lose retelling of Mr Wickham’s betrayals in her novel, Pride and Prejudice.
The Regency Period in England was an extravagant era often associated with prominent social, political, economic, and artistic advancements. It took place in the early 1800’s and was a time of much elegance and aristocracy. Movies and books set in this time period all seem to highlight the elegance and romance that was prevalent at the time. Famous Regency Era literary works, such as Pride and Prejudice, portray young English women getting their happily-ever-after endings with their true loves. Unfortunately, such endings did not actually happen to real women of the era because they lived very austere and vapid lives. They hardly had a choice in many of their lives’ decisions and had little to no career options. These women were raised from birth to be lady-like, obedient, and agreeable in order to attract respectable men to marry, as they were fully dependant on men. Women were essentially treated as property passed on from their fathers to their husbands. They had many restrictions placed on them and often weren’t even allowed to walk outside without proper accompaniment. Because the expectations placed on women were so rigid and absurd, some feminist authors from the time ridiculed these social standards in their writing. Famous novelist Jane Austen was known for satirizing many social customs of the Regency Period in her romantic fiction novels, placing a special emphasis on women’s rights. Pride and Prejudice in particular depicted protagonist Elizabeth Bennet as a smart, headstrong, free thinking individual who didn’t let negative outside forces sway her beliefs. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen challenges the social propriety and creates her own ideals for women through Elizabeth Bennet’s independence, intelligence, and stron...
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 seems to have been disheartened by the decay of England's aristocratic society. The exploration of the innocent protagonist of each novel further into her core ethics, and the relation of these to the imposing culture of her immediate family and surrounding social class gives the reader a fresh taste of the prominence of class distinction and the apparent emptiness of the aristocratic society that in reality existed in Austen's own life. A close examination of the evolution of Austen's ideals through her novels will reveal the essence of the protagonist's relationship to her family, and its direct relationship to the family's moral stance, as well as conclusive evidence regarding Austen's own values.
Pride and Prejudice is a story about two married couples who do not respect each other. Mrs. Bennet business is to get her five daughter's to marry the most richest man in England. She is willing to take on any obstacles that get in her way. Mr. Bennet is a very outspoken and sardonic person. If there is anything he dislikes about mrs. Bennet or about what she is doing, he let her know. He love to criticize his wife. "I see no occasion for that. You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party." I chose this quote because it shows how Mr. Bennet criticize his wife. Mr bennet plays around with Miss Bennet not
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Concepts of femininity in eighteenth-century England guided many young women, forging their paths for a supposed happy future. However, these set concepts and resulting ideas of happiness were not universal and did not pertain to every English woman, as seen in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice. The novel follows the Bennet sisters on their quest for marriage, with much of it focusing on the two oldest sisters, Jane and Elizabeth. By the end, three women – Jane, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s friend, Charlotte Lucas – are married. However, these three women differ greatly in their following of feminine concepts, as well as their attitude towards marriage. Austen foils Jane, Charlotte, and Elizabeth’s personas and their pursuits of love, demonstrating that both submission and deviance from the rigid eighteenth-century concepts of femininity can lead to their own individualized happiness.
Austen was raised in an unusually liberal family where her father was a part of the middle-landowning class. They had a moderate amount of luxuries, but were not considered well off. Unlike many girls of her time Austen received a fairly comprehensive education. She received this mainly through the undivided support of her family. Austen and her sisters, like most girls of their time, were homeschooled. Austen’s zealous parents encouraged the girls to play piano, read and write. Her parent’s encouragement led to her interest in writing. Austen’s father housed an extensive library filled with books which kept Austen occupied for years (“Sense and Sensibility” 119). Through her observant nature and passion to read and write, Austen was able to eloquently write of the many “hidden truths” of social and class distinction during her time. They included daily societal changes some of which foreshadowed future societal leniency. Familial support also extended societal norm of marriage. Her parents attempt...
Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a female centric novel. The contrast between Austen’s strong female protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, and the theme of marriage as a driving force throughout the novel suggests that, for an author whose own life was independent from a man, Austen was providing social commentary on women in society and could thus be seen to challenge traditional female roles. This is particularly important when taken into account the time period the novel was produced in. Austen was writing during a time where feminism was not a developed idea. As a female writer she was viewed as highly unusual for not marrying and having a career, something which ran contrary to the middle-upper class view for women as the domesticated, subservient housewife. Therefore, although Austen can be seen to conform to the view of gender stereotyping, it is possible to see the emergence of feminist attitudes in the way Austen presents strong female protagonists.
Jane Austen’s works are characterized by their classic portrayals of love among the gentry of England. Most of Austen’s novels use the lens of romance in order to provide social commentary through both realism and irony. Austen’s first published bookThe central conflicts in both of Jane Austen’s novels Emma and Persuasion are founded on the structure of class systems and the ensuing societal differences between the gentry and the proletariat. Although Emma and Persuasion were written only a year apart, Austen’s treatment of social class systems differs greatly between the two novels, thus allowing us to trace the development of her beliefs regarding the gentry and their role in society through the analysis of Austen’s differing treatment of class systems in the Emma and Persuasion. The society depicted in Emma is based on a far more rigid social structure than that of the naval society of Persuasion, which Austen embodies through her strikingly different female protagonists, Emma Woodhouse and Anne Eliot, and their respective conflicts. In her final novel, Persuasion, Austen explores the emerging idea of a meritocracy through her portrayal of the male protagonist, Captain Wentworth. The evolution from a traditional aristocracy-based society in Emma to that of a contemporary meritocracy-based society in Persuasion embodies Austen’s own development and illustrates her subversion of almost all the social attitudes and institutions that were central to her initial novels.
Pride and Prejudice, one of Jane Austen’s masterpieces makes use of satire to promote social change, because the English society of the 19th century only saw marriage as a ticket that would help you move upward on the social ladder. Throughout the book, the reader gets front row seats as Austen mocks both the conservative middle class and upper class, giving the dissentient characters a chance to be seen in society with a better image. Austen expresses her feelings on why social changes must occur to her audience by making use of satire to describe Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Hurt, and Miss Bingley in comparison to the way she develops characters such as Elizabeth Bennet and the wealthy gentleman Fitzwilliam Darcy. Furthermore, while the reader gets to witness dramatic moments from Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Hurst, and Miss. Bingley as they strive to comply by the traditions of the 19th century, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy play a significant role in trying to demonstrate to the reader on why love should be the chief reason for marriage.
Austen follows the development of an outspoken, middle-class British woman, Elizabeth Bennet, as she encounters and overcomes the many social barriers that separate her from her aristocratic neighbors. Throughout the novel, Lizzie must confront society’s class-consciousness, particularly with her family’s growing relationship with the wellborn Bingleys and their friend, Mr. Darcy. It is clear that author, Jane Austen, intended Pride and Prejudice to be a parody of English society’s emphasis on the social class structure, which parallels the social class system of today.
On the surface, Jane Austen's 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of how three of the five daughters of a family living in 19th century England become engaged to be married. Underlying themes of the story, however, reveal a message about growing up and the judgments of people based on either outward appearances, behavior, or secondhand information from another person. The title of the novel proves to be extremely fitting, as Elizabeth, the main protagonist, learns that too much pride, along with many unjustified prejudices come to result in ignorance as to who a person really is inside and renders one incapable of finding true love.