Feminist Undertones in Pride and Prejudice

FEMINIST UNDERTONES IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Introduction Jane Austen authored the novel Pride and Prejudice in 1813, a period in the loving history of England that saw close to women as best equipped for the private and domestic realm. An ideal charwo humankind was the picture of chastity, innocence and compliancy. Even women authors in this period were anticipate to follow to genres that were considered to be solely their domain- the refined arts, ho customhold escapement, love, courtship, family c arer and fidelity in the face of temptation.Although Pride and Prejudice was primarily a romance amidst two free-thinking individuals, Elizabeth white avens and Fitzwilliam Darcy, it has grave feminist undercurrents that are displayed to the contributor in m whatever incidents and conversations that ensue between the character references. The nineteenth century was integrity of progressive transience, especi t kayoed ensembley for women who forged a impertinently identity for themselves. literature was a vital mouthpiece for their miseries. Jane Austen takes a strong jibe at the existing patriarchy under the more(prenominal) dulcet t adepts of feminine affairs like love, courtships, gossip and bitchery.Austens protagonist Elizabeth bennet is the second of quintette sisters in the white avens family. Out of either her sisters, Elizabeth is the only one who exhibits a bent of mind that was perspicacious and aboutwhat gumptious. Her principal c one timerns in support were not winning the affections of wealthy men in order to strike herself a suitable match. Austen penned Pride and Prejudice much prior to the time referred to as the age of New Woman Fiction and yet her musical composition is a powerful satire on the position of women in smart set and how this position limited their viewpoint to petty affairs.A good instance of this is the character of Mrs. bennet or even Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Jane Austen explores various facets of the spiri t material body society of nineteenth century England, successfully giving a seeable view of the prevalent social mores and mindsets, especially those pertaining to the status of women. The different characters in her novel render a variegated purview of feminist notions. The vul rearized fiber of Mrs. Bennet and Austens Satirical Critique From the opening lines of the story Mrs. Bennet is put forth as a dominating, albeit directing, force in the Bennet household.Her very first dialogue jesth Mr. Bennet, wherein she tries to convince him to meet Mr. Bingley, a man of a fortune as handsome as his manner, to try and induce a match for one of their daughters, is evident of her mindset. Her scope of interests in life is limited only to the stable marital settlement of her five daughters. Her maintain is not of much interest to the reader because of his al well-nigh insipid candidate of affairs. Mrs. Bennet inspite of her condescending and parochial behavior is a multi dimensiona l character, elicit readers very much.Her outragous schemes to send Jane on horse patronize to Netherfield so as to rile her contract a cold to extend her stay at the Bingleys home, manage to shock those who believe in subtlety. Some critics have besides referred to Mrs. Bennet as vulgar, a term too extreme for our times. However back then it probably had the connotation of something that was socially hideous. Mrs Bennet is also a prototype of how the women, repressed by society, had stopped striving for social and bright advancement. Mrs Bennets mental horizons are extremely narrow and she is not ashamed of this fact. Rather she is voluble, to an annoying extent.Mrs Bennet is unable to meet the parameters of bonny conduct and behaviour as illustrated in many instances finishedout the story. Mr. Bingleys sisters are extremely repelled by her brash outspokenness, so much so that they use it as a means to break off Mr. Bingleys association with Jane. Mrs. Bennet also displays a n almost obnoxious double measuring towards Charlotte Lucas, a very close friend of Elizabeth, by demeaning her appearance in front of her daughters and also Mr. Bingley. However Mrs. Bennet also exhibits some positively feminine inclinations in the course of the novel.One such instance can be her complete disdain for the fact that despite having five daughters, their demesne should be inherited by Mr Collins, a complete stranger. Austen makes remarkable use of wit and sarcasm to impersonate Mrs. Bennet. Her novels use comic fiction as a chief means of exploring the individualisation of womens lives and the revolution in the relation of the sexes at the beginning of the 19th century. Heroine Centric Novels Almost all of Jane Austens works feature a female protagonist and most of the other characters are women with a miscellenia of personalities.Austens heroines are free juicy young women who have a wide horizon of interests, be it Emma Woodhouse (Emma), Catherine Morland (Northan ger Abbey), Marianne (Sense and Sensibility) or Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice). In all of these novels the heroine is sh profess to have her own subjectivity and opinions of life, alternatively than play a restricted role in the background of the plot. Austens stories portray women and the problems faced by them in their daily life through a union of comic and moral indignation. Robert M Polhemus writes, Austen was disposed through comic license to ridicule the inadequacies and constraints of her society. Through a lens of satire, Austen gave a candid view of the existing social, financial 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 situations relating to love, marriage ceremony, family, inheritance and courtships. Virginia Woolf once said, Austens characters are so rounded and substantial that people dainty them as if they are financial support peop le. The heroines in the novels had plentiful substance to exercise their will.They overcame obstacles very modernisitically. In the novel Pride and Prejudice, the social world of Elizabeth, is scrupulously described, but within these limitations, the heroine as well as the hero, Mr. Darcy are allowed to achieve self expression. Love and marriage for them signify the run of egoism and misperception and the regenerative merging of the self with the ongoing community. With their earnest tone, clear memoir line, contemporary settings, drama and pathos, Jane Austens writings become a ingratiatory communicator of significant beliefs and values.Elizabeth Bennet is a vivacious young woman 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 opinions of people and situations are rational and her sense of judgement is almost always sound. She possesses not only intelligence but is also sharp and has a great presence of mind. She reads books, plays the piano and loves walking in the outdoors, an act deeply condemned by Mrs Bennet as well as the Bingley sisters as not ladylike. However these attributes endear her even more to Mr. Darcy.Rachel Trickett, in her essay courtesy and Society, writes Jane Austen singles out the snobbery and limitation to censure it. She is the opposition of any kind of distinction that fails to take into account personal merit, expense and intelligence. Elizabeth has clarity of thought and farsightedness that helps her to see things in the right perspective. earlyish in the novel she is depicted as being arrogant of her wit and her accuracy in judging the social behaviour and intentions. She believes not in a marriage of economic convenience, but in a marriage that is a result of love.Her acuity and sharpness is much admired by her friends, acquaintances and men who look to court her. However Elizabeths quickness also sometimes leads her to misunde rstand the actions of others, like in the case of Mr. Wickhams opnions of Mr. Darcy which are dispelled after she receives Darcys self explainatory letter, following his first proposal of marriage to her. Through Elizabeth, Austen tries to promote the image of a sovereign identity of a woman who is as subjective as her male counterparts. Narrative musical mode used to convey feminist themeThe novel in some instances does externalise men, though in obvious humour. This is hinted in the opening lines of the story, It is a legality universally acknowledged that a single man in self-possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrouding families, that he is considered the rightful(prenominal) property of some one or other of their daughters. The author gives an complete(a) overview of each characters mindset, adhering t o no stereotypes.The man and the woman are treated equally, the description of their human psyche not influenced by any sexual convention. Their characteristic virtues and shortfalls are viewed through an objective lens. Mr. Darcys liking isnt perfect, nor is Elizabeths. If Mrs. Bennet is shown to be an annoying, domineering figure then Mr. Bennets sarcasm and witty remarks are equated with almost indifference. Janes kindliness is sometimes over-the-top and in many instances harms her own situation instead than helping her. Charlotte Lucas marriage of convenience to Mr. Collins doesnt turn out to be exactly as comfortable as she had imagined.From the above examples, one may say that Austens narrative style is lucidly uninflected of personal psyches, interpersonal relationships and social mores. The heroine is a woman of substance, not bow to set patterns of society. The strings of relationships are drawn and managed by her while the men, though attractive in their characterizat ion are usually arranged in the backdrop. Jane Austen cannot be called a feminist openly, because she never ventured into this foray directly. Rather, her works give her feminist recollections running collateral to the story, which can be soft enough interpreted.Austens writings cannot be termed as a feminist empty talk because they positively lean towards a humourous critical overview of the prevalent office towards women in the middle classes of England and the usual perception one had of them. Austens mental representation of the characters and incidents in familiar context to the readers made their acquaintance with her feminist impartations more intimate. One could connect and emapathise with the characters due to their individuality and familiar spirit. Elizabeth Bennet could easily be imagined as ones own sister, friend or neighbour.Thorugh the novel, Austen doesnt disgrace any character for cutting through conventions. For instance, frivoulous Lydia is lastly honourably united 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 specify is that they deserve each other and are completely unabashed by their correlative unworthiness (a very different conclusion from the conventional fate of the undone girl in the late- eighteenth-century novel and a comic reversal of the expected and entirely typical of Jane Austens realism.Jane Austens own childhood and development indicates that despite rigid codes of manners in the conduct of everyday life, the education and sphere of action of a young woman of the time was good 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 highly 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 found 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 combine an idealized version of femininity, repressing the woman figure into the margins, Austens sweet-smelling approach to regarding women in a progressive light, through literature has been astray acknowledged and appreciated. She is very often referred to as the most loved 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 inheritance (London and New York, 1968) 3. Watt, Ian Introduction to Jane Austen- A Collection of critical essays (Englewood Cliffs. N. J. , 1963) 4. Luria, Gina The Feminist joust in England (New York, 1972) 5. Kirkham, Margaret Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction (Lond on, 1982) 6. Harman, Clare Janes Fame, How Jane Austen Conquered the World (Edinburgh, 2009)