"Pride and Prejudice"--an Analysis

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the role of women in 19th century England as presented in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." The paper defines these roles as mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, housekeepers, matchmakers, imperious controllers, and practical acceptors of their lot. These women fit into the picture Austen paints of middle class social life in England at the beginning of the 19th century. The paper further suggests that Austen is poking fun at and mildly criticizing some of the ideas expressed about what women are and should be.

From the Paper:

"The role of the economy and its effects on women's roles is introduced from the very first lines of the novel. Austen says, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife...[and]...he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other" (Austen 1) of the daughters of the neighborhood. Economy and financial matters is an appropriate way to begin the novel because it addresses a central problem for the main characters and for women in general in the early 19th century. Ownership at the beginning of the 19th century was denied to women. According to The Historical Context of Pride and Prejudice, "titles and property usually passed along a male line. Women were usually left something in securities, but such inheritances were often pittances that would not comfortably provide for a woman. While women of the highest classes managed to keep more control of their money and thus of their lives, women of the gentry, with few acceptable job options, had to secure their livelihood by marrying a man of means" (Shepherd xii). The five daughters of the Bennett household are of marriageable or near marriageable age and they are highly motivated to marry because of their financial condition. The fact that their father's estate is entailed away on their nearest male relative, Mr. Collins, will make their situation desperate upon the death of their father. Women could not own property, so they fell under the protection of a father and then a husband. Certainly, poverty and homelessness is not a romantic reason for matrimony, but it is a strong practical inducement to wed."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Signet Classic, 1980.
• Cohen, Paula Marantz. "Jane Austen's Rejection of Rousseau: A novelistic and feministic initiation." Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Summer, 1994. Reprinted in www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3708/is_199407/ai_n8715547/
• Moler, Kenneth L. Pride and Prejudice: A Study in Artistic Economy. Boston:Twayne Publishers, 1989.
• Shepherd, Robert D., series editor. Pride and Prejudice. St. Paul, MN: EMC/Paradigm Publishing, 1998.
• Woodring, Carl. Prose of the Romantic Period. Boston: The Riverside Press Cambridge, 1961.

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