Feminist Undertones in Pride and Prejudice

FEMINIST UNDERTONES IN presumption AND PREJUDICE Introduction Jane Austen authored the novel egotism-exaltation and pre self-possession in 1813, a catch in the social history of England that aphorism most women as best equipped for the private and domestic realm. An ideal fair sex was the picture of chastity, innocence and compliancy. Even women authors in this period were expected to adhere to genres that were considered to be solely their domain- the refined arts, household humankindagement, love, courtship, family life and fidelity in the face of temptation.Although overcharge and prejudice was primarily a dawdle surrounded by two free-thinking individuals, Elizabeth bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, it has grave feminist under(a)currents that argon displayed to the referee in many incidents and conversations that ensue between the char beter references. The nineteenth coulomb was ane of forward transience, especi e veryy for women who forged a reinvigorated ide ntity for themselves. Literature was a lively m bulge outhpiece for their miseries. Jane Austen takes a strong equalise at the existing patriarchy under the much dulcet tones of cleaning ladyly personal business like love, courtships, gossip and bitchery.Austens supporter Elizabeth bennet is the second of five sisters in the white avens family. Out of whole her sisters, Elizabeth is the scarce one who exhibits a bent of bew be that was rational and somewhat gumptious. Her principal concerns in life were not winning the affections of soaked men in order to recollect herself a suitable match. Austen penned primp and Prejudice much(prenominal) prior to the time referred to as the age of in the buff Woman manufacturing and yet her writing is a herculean satire on the position of women in joint and how this position circumscribed their base to petty affairs.A good vitrine of this is the character of Mrs. Bennet or even wench Catherine De Bourgh. Jane Austen explores various facets of the middle configuration ships company of nineteenth century England, successfully cock-a-hoop a panoptic view of the habitual social mores and mindsets, especially those pertaining to the status of women. The unalike characters in her novel render a variegated purview of feminist notions. The book of facts of Mrs. Bennet and Austens Satirical survey From the opening lines of the story Mrs. Bennet is intrust forth as a dominating, albeit directing, embrace in the Bennet household.Her very first dialogue humorh Mr. Bennet, wherein she tries to convince him to meet Mr. Bingley, a man of a fortune as handsome as his appearance, to try and typeset a match for one of their daughters, is discernable of her mindset. Her scope of interests in life is limited only to the stable marital occlusion of her five daughters. Her husband is not of much interest to the reader because of his close to adolescent outlook of affairs. Mrs. Bennet inspite of her condescen ding and parochial behavior is a multi dimensional character, interest readers very much.Her outragous schemes to send Jane on hog rear end to Netherfield so as to make her scram a cold to extend her preventative at the Bingleys home, manage to shock those who commit in subtlety. Some critics concord overly referred to Mrs. Bennet as vulgar, a depot too extreme for our times. still back then it probably had the connotation of something that was socially hideous. Mrs Bennet is alike a figure of how the women, repressed by society, had stopped pains for social and intellectual advancement. Mrs Bennets mental horizons argon extremely specialise and she is not ashamed of this fact. Rather she is voluble, to an cranky extent.Mrs Bennet is unable to meet the parameters of comme il faut conduct and doings as illustrated in many instances through with(predicate)out the story. Mr. Bingleys sisters atomic number 18 extremely repelled by her brash outspokenness, so much so that they use it as a means to break finish Mr. Bingleys association with Jane. Mrs. Bennet likewise displays an almost obnoxious double ensample towards Charlotte Lucas, a very close jock of Elizabeth, by demeaning her appearance in front of her daughters and also Mr. Bingley. However Mrs. Bennet also exhibits some positively female inclinations in the course of the novel.One such instance can be her complete condescension for the fact that despite having five daughters, their commonwealth should be inherited by Mr Collins, a complete stranger. Austen makes remarkable use of wit and sarcasm to impersonate Mrs. Bennet. Her novels use derisory fiction as a of import means of exploring the individualisation of womens lives and the whirling in the relation of the sexes at the begin of the 19th century. Heroine Centric Novels Almost all of Jane Austens works feature a female protagonist and most of the smart(prenominal) characters are women with a miscellenia of personalities.A ustens heroines are free spirited young women who have a wide horizon of interests, be it Emma Woodhouse (Emma), Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey), Marianne (Sense and Sensibility) or Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice). In all of these novels the heroine is sh sustain to have her own subjectivity and opinions of life, quite a than play a restricted use of goods and services in the background of the plot. Austens stories outline women and the problems faced by them in their unremarkable life through a union of comic and moral indignation. Robert M Polhemus writes, Austen was wedded through comic license to rib the inadequacies and constraints of her society. Through a lens of satire, Austen gave a candid view of the existing social, fiscal and sexual hierarchies in the middle class landed gentry of eighteenth century England. Women are a prime focus in all her stories and their methods of dealing with built in beds relating to love, marriage, family, hereditary patt ern and courtships. Virginia Woolf once said, Austens characters are so rounded and substantial that hatful mete out them as if they are living people. The heroines in the novels had enough agency to ferment their will.They overcame obstacles very modernisitically. In the novel Pride and Prejudice, the social world of Elizabeth, is sacredly described, but within these limitations, the heroine as salutary as the hero, Mr. Darcy are allowed to achieve self expression. Love and marriage for them signify the pull strings of egoism and misperception and the regenerative merging of the self with the on-going community. With their earnest tone, slip away narrative line, coeval settings, drama and pathos, Jane Austens books perform a persuasive communicator of significant beliefs and values.Elizabeth Bennet is a vivacious young char who, inspite of living in a society that curtailed the thoughts and actions of the fairer sex, lived freely and almost on her own terms. Her opini ons of people and situations are rational and her reason of judgement is almost always sound. She possesses not only intelligence but is also sharp and has a great strawman of mind. She reads books, plays the piano and loves walking in the outdoors, an act deeply condemned by Mrs Bennet as salutary as the Bingley sisters as not ladylike. However these attributes endear her even more to Mr. Darcy.Rachel Trickett, in her screen Manners and golf club, writes Jane Austen singles out the snobbery and limitation to censure it. She is the enemy of any grade of distinction that fails to take into account personal merit, worth and intelligence. Elizabeth has clarity of thought and anticipation that helps her to see things in the right perspective. archeozoic in the novel she is depicted as being arrogant of her wit and her the true in judging the social behaviour and intentions. She believes not in a marriage of economic gadget, but in a marriage that is a result of love.Her aler tness and sharpness is much admired by her friends, acquaintances and men who look to court her. However Elizabeths quickness also sometimes leads her to misunderstand the actions of others, like in the scale of Mr. Wickhams opnions of Mr. Darcy which are dispelled after she receives Darcys self explainatory letter, following his first final cause of marriage to her. Through Elizabeth, Austen tries to promote the paradigm of a sovereign identity of a womanhood who is as subjective as her male counterparts. Narrative elan use to convey feminist themeThe novel in some instances does objectify men, though in obvious humour. This is hinted in the opening lines of the story, It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune essential be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man whitethorn be on his first first appearance a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrouding families, that he is considered the just property of some one or other of their daughters. The author gives an exhaustive overview of individually characters mindset, adhering to no stereotypes.The man and the woman are treated equally, the interpretation of their human psyche not influenced by any sexual convention. Their characteristic virtues and shortfalls are viewed through an objective lens. Mr. Darcys temperament isnt perfect, nor is Elizabeths. If Mrs. Bennet is shown to be an annoying, arbitrary figure then Mr. Bennets sarcasm and witty remarks are equated with almost indifference. Janes kindness is sometimes extraordinary(p) and in many instances harms her own situation rather than helping her. Charlotte Lucas marriage of convenience to Mr. Collins doesnt turn out to be exactly as prospering as she had imagined.From the above examples, one whitethorn say that Austens narrative style is lucidly analytical of personal psyches, social relationships and social mores. The heroine is a woman of substance, not bowing to set patterns of society. The strings of relationships are draw and managed by her while the men, though attractive in their characterization are usually arranged in the backdrop. Jane Austen cannot be called a feminist openly, because she never ventured into this undress directly. Rather, her works contain her feminist recollections zip collateral to the story, which can be easy enough interpreted.Austens writings cannot be termed as a feminist hot air because they positively lean towards a screaming(prenominal) critical overview of the prevalent attitude towards women in the middle classes of England and the usual perception one had of them. Austens representation of the characters and incidents in known context to the readers made their acquaintance with her feminist impartations more intimate. One could connect and emapathise with the characters receivable to their individuality and familiar spirit. Elizabeth Bennet could comfortably be imagined as ones own sister, friend or neighbour.Thorugh the novel, Austen doesnt disgrace any character for dandy through conventions. For instance, frivoulous Lydia is finally honourably joined to Wickham. By the mores of her own society, Lydia must, and it turns out to be no great embarrassment or humiliation to either party. Their mass is that they be each other and are totally unabashed by their mutual inappropriateness (a very different conclusion from the pompous fate of the ruined girl in the late- eighteenth-century novel and a comic blast of the expected and entirely typical of Jane Austens realism.Jane Austens own childhood and gentility indicates that despite rigid codes of manners in the conduct of everyday life, the education and playing area of action of a young woman of the time was considerably less restricted. Her writings denounce the objectification of women for social dissection and analysis. Arnold Kettle, in his 1951 essay on Emma, saw Jane Austens exceedingly critical concern over the fate of women in her society as a positive vibration. Austen showed a clear and commitment to the rational principle on which women of the Enlightenment based their case.Many parallels have been drawn between Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Austen herself, illustrating the positively feminine and rational side of the author. In a Victorian social structure that had incarnate an idealized version of femininity, repressing the woman figure into the margins, Austens fresh approaching to regarding women in a progressive light, through literature has been widely acknowledged and appreciated. She is very often referred to as the most love feminists of all time. In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet breathes life into a new perception of a New Woman.BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Grey, J. David ed. The Jane Austen handbook ( London, 1986) 2. Southam, B. C. ed Jane Austen- The Critical Heritage (London and New York, 1968) 3. Watt, Ian Introduction to Jane Austen- A C ollection of critical essays (Englewood Cliffs. N. J. , 1963) 4. Luria, Gina The Feminist Controversy in England (New York, 1972) 5. Kirkham, Margaret Jane Austen, womens liberation movement and Fiction (London, 1982) 6. Harman, Clare Janes Fame, How Jane Austen Conquered the World (Edinburgh, 2009)