At this time life was dominated by society and a women’s desire for the company of a man in marriage. This was seen as a competition between a family and others in society. A woman’s life revolved around reading and socialising, and life was very quiet. This meant that a man was a way of conceit to others in the social order, and would create a whole new context to her life. Love was very rare because of this. If a man were to marry a woman it would be as if she were a trophy and a symbol of his manly hood. From a woman’s perspective, she would have no choice who she was to marry for it would be up to her parent’s to decide. This decision would be based on the man’s wealth and status in society. Women were at a disadvantage to men. They could not inherit anything not even a small share. The woman was the property of a man and her father or husband defined her position. In the novel Mr Bennet announces the arrival of Mr Collins who is set to inherit Mr Bennet’s estate straight after he dies. Having five daughters and no son, Mrs Bennet suspects the worst and is worried that Mr Bennet will die and the Bennets will be left homeless.
Women in conventional society were also expected to be modest and incapable of independent thought, submissive and were not permitted to discuss politics, business and current affairs. A woman would have very little education compared to a man. Men were seen as much more important and their education was seen as being superior to that of a woman’s. Women were also not allowed to go out on their own unaccompanied.
Middle class women such as the Bennet sisters were into sewing, cooking, dancig, buying dresses and gossiping.
Women were in great pressure to get married. It was absolutely essential. From the very beginning of the novel, Mrs Bennet comes across as a woman obsessed about marriage. She seems desperate to get all her daughter married because if worst comes to worst Mr Bennet dies and Longbourn House is inherited the Bennets will have no where to live. If Mrs Bennet gets her daughters married off she will be safe. The richest husband of her daughters would give Mrs Bennet a house to live in and some money to pay for her expenses.
Jane Austen to a very large extent accepts the stereotypical views of women and promotes them. Austen uses literary devices to portray people’s stereotypical image of women. Using satire she showed the social snobbery between the classes. She showed how the wealthy upper class abused their rank and class and considered himself or herself higher than anyone else. They used people to gain social status in society, and for example, Mr. Collin’s used to name drop to gain respect from others, when frequently it would backfire on him, and the people would either end up laughing at him or disliking him entirely. Jane Austen gives Mrs Bennet a comical representation. There are several characters that are continually made fun of satirically. The novel starts with a good statement, “It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This is as if it is set in stone, and believed by a lot of the characters, such as Mrs. Bennet, Lydia and Charlotte Lucas. By saying this, it is showing the woman to be shallow, and only really caring about the material things in life, such as how much money a man has. The more money he has, the more appealing he is to marry and not caring about love.
In ‘Pride and Prejudice’ the author, Jane Austen is critical of conventional women like Mrs Bennet, who lack intelligence and are narrow minded. From the very beginning of the novel, Mrs Bennet comes across as a woman obsessed about marriage. The first event in the entire book is Mrs Bennet gossiping about a young man of good fortune, Mr Bingley, who has just moved into the area. Mrs Bennet is already planning for one of her daughters to marry Mr Bingley, even though she has never met him and doesn’t know anything about him apart from the he is ‘a single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year.’ She says, ‘What a fine thing for our girls!’ This clearly shows that Mrs Bennet aims to get her daughters married to wealthy men, not minding if her daughter’s love them or if they are nice people or not. This demonstrates an element of foolishness especially as she of all people should know about the problems of having a marriage with out love and one, which doesn’t work out. A woman tried her hardest to marry up in society because she would then live a comfortable life, in a large house with high connections. Her children would be well educated and she would never have to anything. They wanted to marry for financial security but not for love. This was the case for Charlotte Lucas.
Lydia Bennet is the youngest of the Bennet children. The favouritism is portrayed numerous times throughout the novel, such as here where Mrs. Bennet comments on how she was once young and energetic like that of her daughter, Lydia. Her mother supports her in her frivolous behaviour constantly. She spends the majority of her time gossiping and flirting. Lydia disgraces her family by eloping with Wickham. Elizabeth is devastated by news of Lydia’s disappearance with George Wickham. It was thought at first that the couple had eloped to Scotland, but the Bennets’ fears are then confirmed when it is discovered that the couple stayed in London and Wickham had no intention of marrying Lydia. She causes the whole family to go through a rough time.
Elizabeth is the protagonist in this novel. Elizabeth goes against all the stereotype of women. She makes it clear that she will only marry for love. She is not like many woman of her time, she is very unique and her own individual. This is shown all the way throughout the book. Many women of the nineteenth century were from a young age and are encouraged to settle down and get married to a rich husband. Many women would marry a man of who they did not love, and would never love. Married to a man that they did not love was a better off life than a life of a single. In the novel this is shown through Charlottes Lucas and Mr Collins marriage. Charlotte Lucas does not love Mr Collins but seeing as she does not have any other better choices she has no other option than to do so.
Elizabeth does not feel pressurised and nervous when speaking to Lady Catherine De Burgh. She does not feel the pressure of pleasing and satisfying her. Elizabeth is herself and will give her opinion to Lady Catherine De Burgh no matter what. Elizabeth is like this because she does not believe in inequality and she feels that everyone deserve to have the same respect no one is higher or lower than anyone While many in the same financial position as Elizabeth would have felt afraid when faced by Lady Catherine, she remained composed, seeing the woman the same as anybody else. ‘Elizabeth suspected herself to be the first creature who had ever dared to trifle with so much dignified impertinence.’ Her actions towards Lady Catherine De Burgh show she is a strong and exceptional young woman.
Austen is a brilliant novelist. She uses lots of humour in her presentation of characters. Her presentation of Lady Catherine shows that she is satirising the aristocracy. Lady Catherine is presented as a snobbish and pompous person. Jane Austen uses other characters to help portray Lady Catherine. Mr Collins is one of the other characters who is portrayed as a superficial and very annoying man. He continuously praises Lady Catherine in his letter and compares her with everything and everyone. He says that she is an “honourable” lady “whose bounty and beneficence has preferred me to the valuable rectory of his parish, where it shall be my earnest endeavour to demean myself with grateful respect towards her ladyship.” His descriptions of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the letter are very humorous. One of the marriages that does not seem to be going well and not producing much happiness is Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins’s. Their marriage is not one based on any true emotion. After a refused proposal from Elizabeth, Mr. Collins hastily moves on to her best friend, Charlotte Lucas who accepts. Mr Collins haste to pursue marriage in the misguided belief that it would enhance his reputation as a clergyman and “add greatly to my happiness”. This shows that he is a very selfish man, as he is not marrying for love.
Jane Austen presents the role of women in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ through her characters and by using literary devices. This is a very effective method because she has many different characters in different levels of society who have different views towards each other. The main women in the novel are Elizabeth, Lady Catherine and Lydia. I have chosen these as the main women as they sum up the role of women. Jane Austen presents each one well and how she wants them to be. Elizabeth is the heroine and goes against the whole stereotypical views of women in that period of time. I believe that Elizabeth was a brilliant character and she has helped women to think about whether they will marry for love or money. Sometimes women can be forced into marriage that I believe was the situation with Charlotte because if she didn’t accept Collins she may never be asked again. Elizabeth took a risk and ended up in complete happiness marrying Darcy.
