Fay Weldon Sexism

In Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen (1984), Fay Weldon offers a reshaping of the values portrayed in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813). Utilising the didactic literary form of an epistolary novel, both authors implore their readers to accept their views on the contemporary values of their respective historical contexts. Austen presents the expected roles and standards of women during the Regency Era, the perception of women in literature, as well as satirically commenting on the purpose and motivation for marriage. Weldon, through the inclusion of relevant contextual information, is able to further Austen’s criticism of the unrealistic expectations of women and sexist view of women and literature, and analyse the immediate

Austen presents the sexist standards of what literature women can both appreciate and compose. During the 20th Century, women’s writing was considered of less value than that of men, and was regarded as being in the lower levels of the literary hierarchy. Women’s writing was deemed too feminine by male critics, as it focused on romance, family and the house. However, this ideology was being challenged by the second wave feminism movement, which Weldon draws upon to convey the negative influences of this restrictive societal perception in relation to literature. Weldon purposefully employs the epistolary form of writing in order to create a sense of authenticity and authority, presenting the words of narrator Aunt Fay as gospel truth. However, Weldon ironically undermines this established authority figure, by presenting her as an unreliable narrator, so that the reader must decide for themselves what is true. Such an example includes Aunt Fay’s description to Alice of what she categorises as vernacular and canonical literature. She condemns the majority of contemporary literature, deeming it “dangerous”, “temporary” and . . . so safe, they defeat themselves, they can never enlighten” (pg. 8). However, Aunt Fay as well as her niece Alice are both female contemporary authors, thereby betraying her initial defense of canonical, women’s literature. Aunt Fay, implores the

Weldon presents a more compassionate perspective to the commentary provided by Austen in her work Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen. During the Regency Era, practicality and convenience were prioritised over mutual love and affection in relation to marriage. Austen’s was a primogeniture society where wealth and estate were inherited exclusively by male heirs. Therefore, in order for women to receive financial security, they had few options. Using a statistic of how many women were prostitutes in London during Austen’s time, she states, “70,000 they reckoned . . . out of a population of 900,000” (pg. 29). However, the most preferable option for security was as Weldon states, “. . . to marry.” Austen challenges the accepted paradigm of marriage, through the characterisation and caricaturing of Mrs. Bennet. Austen’s omniscient narrator informs us that “The business of her [Mrs. Bennet’s] life, was to get her daughter’s married (pg. 7). Austen demonstrates the lengths to which Mrs. Bennet will go through the course of her novel. She continually promotes her daughters at any opportunity and often inappropriately. Weldon responds to Austen’s harsh characterisation of Mrs. Bennet, by analyzing Mrs. Bennet’s actions in her cultural and historical context. Aunt Fay satirically comments, “It is the stuff of our women’s magazines, but it was