Jane Austen s Pride And Prejudice - 1142 Words

Pride and Prejudice: Feminist Origins Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in 1813, and it is seen as an important novel. Jane Austen grew up in a patriarchal society, with a father being a clergyman. Austen went against the normal for girls and rejected the man that proposed to her. She then began to write in a woman’s perspective. By using the feminist lens to analyze Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, readers can realize how Austen used the characters in her novel to portray feminism, which at the time was a predominate movement. Jane Austen mainly uses Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Bennet to depict feminism, but it can also be emphasized in the writing style. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet‘s attitude reflects feminism.†¦show more content†¦Darcy is not interested in her. By portraying Elizabeth like this, Austen emphasizes how Elizabeth is her own individual and deserves respect: â€Å"She is the solitary instance of a young, unmarried girl of strong individuality as the chief and most interesting figure in the novel, which does really represent the life of what early Victorian England called the gentry† (Courtney 665). Also, another instance where Elizabeth acts against the patriarchal rules is during Mr. Collin’s proposal. When this happens Elizabeth does not even let Mr. Collins finish his proposal. She turns him down immediately, and finds out that he goes on to propose to her friend Charlotte. Charlotte accepts because she fears being a widow especially because she is getting older. Elizabeth disregards thinking this way and focusses only on who she wants to marry. The reason she marries Darcy i s because she loves him and she likes the superiority of his complicated yet accomplished mind, which according to the novel Mr. Collins does not have (Brown 332). Elizabeth’s mother became very upset with her because rejection is very rare in their society especially when the house was going to Mr. Collins and the only way for them to keep it was to marry off all the daughters. Mrs. Bennet hardly cared who her daughters marry, because that is her sole purpose, to get all her daughters married off. Jane Austen created Elizabeth to portray feminism in a time of patriarchal societies.