Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775. She had seven siblings, six of them brothers and one sister. Her father was a reverend. Jane and her sister were sent to be educated by Mrs. Ann Cawley at Oxford. Jane started her writing career with poems and stories about her family. Austen, at the age of 41, died of Addison’s’ disease in Winchester, England.
Pride and Prejudice is about five sisters whose mother desperately wants to see them all get married. The main character of the novel is Elizabeth Bennet who has different views of love, life and marriage than the surrounding society. The five girls from youngest to oldest are: Lydia, Kitty, Mary, Elizabeth, and Jane. The parents Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet are seemingly excited about the arrival of a rich man named Charles Bingley. The couple wishes for their daughters to marry Mr. Bingley and his friend Mr. Darcy, who is also rich. The book goes on with struggles of Jane and Mr. Bingley; Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth deals with not being very fond of Mr. Darcy due to bad first impressions and his snotty sister. Jane gets sick when she is on the way to see Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth has to tend to her until she gets well so she can return home. There is presence of other men throughout the book but, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy seem to be the most important. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet seem to be pretty unhappy; they argue, Mrs. Bennet nags at Mr. Bennet a lot. Lydia elopes with Wickham and they run off together. Upsetting Mr. bennet. At the end of the book, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy get married and Jane and Mr. Bingley get married.
Some major themes in this novel are; love, social status, class, and marriage. Love seemingly is and is not a need of all of the marriages in this book. For Example, Charlotte Lucas marries Mr. Collins to gain good social status and financial stability; she only cares about having a stable life. In contrary to that, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet married on a romantic whim and now they are miserable. Other characters in the book like Jane and Darcy marry for love and stability, which seem to be the best reasons to get married. Pride and Prejudice shows a society that a woman’s social status is very important.
Women are expected to be well behaved, well dressed, kind, happy, and just all around put together. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet want their daughters to maintain good social statuses because she wants to see all of them get married. Elizabeth rejects these ideas when she arrives at Netherfield with a muddy skirt and not caring about it. For a good bit of the book, Darcy is prejudice against Elizabeth’s bad social stance in their society. Keeping him from wanting to marry her. Eventually he gets past that prejudice but, it takes a lot of the book for him to move past it. Lydia also rejects these “societal expectations” when she runs off with Wickham and elopes. Mr. Bingley doesn’t seem to care much about social status, he is impartial about it because he cares about Jane.
Class relates to social status. The Bennet’s are obviously inferior to Bingley and Darcy. The Bennet’s being middle class; Bingley and Darcy being upper class, doesn’t seem to affect things that much seeing that Jane and Elizabeth marry the two of them. Though there are a few who are focused of their class. Including: Mr. Collins, Miss Bingley and Wickham. Mr. Collins is always obeying and trying to impress Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Miss Bingley genuinely does not like anybody below her class. Wickham will do anything to climb the class stairs. Those three characters emphasize the importance of class in their society.
Then there is marriage, it is the biggest theme in the novel. In fact, the whole book is about these women breaking down the meanings of marriage. The very first sentence of the novel says, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1). This particular quote starts off the book with the direct theme of marriage. Elizabeth Bennet goes throughout the book analyzing what marriages should look for; love, stability, or happiness? Austen breaks down the ideas of marriage through the several different couples. Showing her ideals about what marriage should and shouldn’t be. She shows us the bad side of only having love with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. She shows the practicalities of only having stability between Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins. She also shows the benefits of love and stability through Darcy and Elizabeth. In my research I found a master’s thesis by Amber Nav Haydar, a graduate student at the University of Tennessee; she says, “I found Many of the female characters in the novel find themselves in situations which present them with a choice regarding their future, and they must decide whether to adhere to their own value and belief system or succumb to the pressure of expectation. The expectation of matrimonial bliss (read: love) was an uncommon motive for marriage, often disregarded in favor of more practical benefits such as financial security and social mobility, and it was frequently settled upon by the parents of the woman to be wed and her intended” (Haydar 31). I agree with this statement. It speaks to the way Austen felt controversy with marriage, going back to the decision of having love, having stability, or both. An article from The Atlantic identifies five lessons from the novels. The first one being, first impressions can be misleading (Prior). She showed us this through Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship:
“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Elizabeth’s astonishment was beyond expression. She stared, coloured, doubted, and was silent. This he considered sufficient encouragement, and the avowal of all that he felt and had long felt for her, immediately followed. He spoke well, but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed, and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding but was very unlikely to recommend his suit (Austen 178).
This quote shows that they both started off not liking each other for multiple reasons and then throughout the book they came to love each other. The second lesson being, Romance is not enough (Prior). Austen shows us this through Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. They married on a romantic whim and they are seemingly miserable together. The third lesson, you really do marry a whole family, not just one person (Prior). When Elizabeth marries Darcy, she has to put up with his snobbish sister. The fourth lesson is communication. Communication is key, not only in this book but in real life you will hear couples have all of these troubles that sprout from the lack of communication (Prior). Lastly, the fifth lesson, marriage is not one size fits all, just because certain methods work for certain married couples doesn’t mean they work for everyone (Prior). I find that these five lessons are important to the theme of marriage because, they are great foundational advice to those who are married.
Acknowledging the big question of whether or not Jane Austen was a feminist or not. This novel is her most widely renowned novel. Therefore, there has been multiple interpretations of Pride and prejudice. Many people question whether or not Jane Austen was a feminist. Haydar states “In examining Austen’s novels, I align myself with Poovey, Johnson, and others who identify Austen as occupying more mediated stance–recognizing the need for change in the system, yet rather than actively working to make changes, offering her audience a glimpse into the various inequalities” (Haydar 10). I find this statement intriguing, I can see where Jane Austen had a more middle of the road stance on feminism. She never directly goes against the “societal expectations” rather she shows the controversy through these women trying to make crucial decisions all while having their well-being in mind. For the era that this novel was written, it definitely offered a more feminine opinion that the society at the time, had not yet been exposed to. Austen provides a feminine perspective through her character Elizabeth Bennet. Elizabeth is annoyed by the ideals that women are property. She also shows that she thinks marrying for just stability rather than love or love rather than stability doesn’t work. She seems to think you need both to be happy long term. The book is narrated by Elizabeth in third person. The novel has a rather dry mood. Elizabeth tells the story in a cold way, almost seeming analytical. Emotions throughout this book are not right in front of your face they are beneath the writing. Most of the novel is composed of ideas and opinions that lead to the plot. The way the book lacks warm and gooey emotions makes it have a more feminist twist to it because women, in that time, were expected to be warm and nurturing, not cold and literal. Though going back to Haydar’s opinion, I feel that Jane Austen would not have taken a step to change things but rather she would offer the exposure to the women of her time, opening their eyes to the “societal expectations”.
It speaks out to gender roles in a subtle way. Elizabeth’s character in general has qualities that were defying what was expected of women. In chapter one, “they are silly and ignorant like other girls; but Lizzy has something more of a quickness than her sisters” (Austen 16). She is witty, educated, and she doesn’t swoon over every man with money. Austen expresses her frustrations with the way women are expected to fulfill certain roles. This specific idea relates to The Awakening and how Edna resists the social “norms” that make her feel unfulfilled with her life. Those social norms consist of being a stay at home mom that cooks, cleans, has kids, and stays perfectly content with those social roles. I personally feel that this novel also relates to Arrogant Beggar in the way that Adele, the main character, gets out of where she came from and finds the home for girls. There she is held to all of these societal standards that drive her crazy. Thus, she rebels against those who are taking advantage of her and belittling her because of her social class; making her go back to where she came from and realize that she didn’t need those people to achieve success and happiness.
There is plenty of patriarchal ideology throughout the novel. All of it relates to the idea that a man, in their time, was seeking a woman who possessed the qualities within the societal norms. In this period of time, women had no right to own property, they depended on their husbands for money. Mrs. Bennet says “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!” (Austen 15); thus being that even the women had a patriarchal view of what was “good” for women. Mr. Darcy shows many patriarchal ideals through the way he struggles to love Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy would only dance with Bingley’s sisters. Mr. Darcy said, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humor at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men” (Austen 22). This quote was Darcy rejecting Bingley’s suggestion to dance with Elizabeth, showing his snobby views towards people who were “below” him. He acted as if he was above the Bennet’s in society.
Overall, Pride and Prejudice is a 200-year-old book that has greatly impacted some ideas of feminism from the 1800’s. The novel holds many different views of Feministic and Patriarchal ideology. I found that this novel was appropriate to the woman in literature course because, it challenged the society surrounding the time it was set in. It had a strong female protagonist, who challenged social norms and expectations. The theme of marriage is relevant to the course because, marriage has many expectations directed toward women. Thus, the author’s background, book summary, major themes, feminist perspective, and patriarchal ideology, all have correlation with women’s literature.