Aunt Fay Letters To Alice

In Fay Weldon’s epistolary book, Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, Aunt Fay writes to her niece Alice “enlighten people, and you enlighten society”. Aunt Fay aims to teach Alice that since Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1813 the importance of reading and the accomplished woman still remain issues in the 1980s. Austen’s novel aims to entertain. Since Austen’s novel focuses on human behavior, these two issues remain timeless. While context is still important in influencing the importance of reading and the accomplished woman, Aunt Fay teaches Alice there still remains a continuity.

The importance of reading remained a central issue in the 1980s just as it was important value in Austen’s nineteenth century context. In

Austen intended her novel to be read aloud. Caroline Bingley highlights the importance of reading as she says to Mr Darcy “There is no enjoyment like reading” as she is aiming to impress Darcy. Bingly is proud to say that she enjoys reading as it proves her as educated which reveals how important reading was to the nineteenth century. Similarly in the 1980s, Aunt Fay was concerned with reading. She encourages Alice to read, saying “ you must read Alice, before it is too late”. Aunt Fay is encouraging alice to read Literature with a capital “L” rather than literature with a small “l”. She differentiates between literature and literature arguing the latter are “just books” and “interchangeable”. By classifying Pride and Prejudice as Literature, Aunt Fay hopes to sustain interest in values Austen emphasises

Lizzy Bennet challenges what it means to be accomplished. Mr Darcy points out an accomplished woman must have “a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages... She must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, her tone of voice, her address and expressions... Add something... Extensive reading”. By using cumulation Austen satirises what it means to be accomplished. Her satirical language highlights the difficulties it is to be accomplished. Lizzy challenges what it means to be accomplished since she is none of the things Darcy lists however we still admire her because of her independent though and refusal of two marriage proposals. Through her characterisation of Lizzy, Austen is challenging what it means to be accomplished. She re-defines what it is to be accomplished as Lizzy is a woman who has courage in her convictions rather than someone that is accomplished based on the more traditional definition outline by Darcy. Lizzy’s voice is significant. By reading Pride and Prejudice we as the contemporary reader can understand what is was to be accomplished in the century and draw similarities in our own