Comparative Study: Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice
Analyse how the central values portrayed in Pride and Prejudice are creatively reshaped in Letters to Alice.
The two texts, Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice, mirror and contrast the central values shared and explored by evaluating them; presenting them against Jane Austen's context and that of Fay Weldon. Mirroring Austen's novel, Weldon presents the central values for women such as the social values of moral behaviour, independence, and, literary values of reading and writing, from Pride and Prejudice and adapts them to a 20th Century context. Weldon's novel's subtitle, On First Reading Jane Austen, suggests that the novel should serve as a filter to assist readers. The implication of this is that Weldon enables her readers to identify more fully the significance of Jane Austen as a writer, and, the significance of Pride and Prejudice as a piece of literature, exploring the ongoing relevance of its values concerning women.
The aspirations and expectations of women are explored wherein the contexts of Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice present women in different circumstances with varying opportunities. The changes of context between these two texts alter the situations of women and their predominant values.
For example, Weldon attempts to reshape the audience's perception of Mrs Bennet and her frantic obsession with marrying off her daughters. Jane Austen expresses a somewhat satirical tone when writing of Mrs Bennet, by using hyperbolic statements such as the constant reference to, "My poor nerves!" Although Weldon attempts to reshape the perception of the social value of marriage by sympathising with Mrs Bennett; "No wonder... [she was] driven half mad," after listing the gender injustices and the importance of marriage in the 18th century context; Aunt Fay's judgements aren't entirely reliable due to her common contradictory statements. Instead, Letters to Alice provokes readers to evaluate Mrs Bennett and her daughters'
The two texts, Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice, mirror and contrast the central values shared and explored by evaluating them; presenting them against Jane Austen's context and that of Fay Weldon. Mirroring Austen's novel, Weldon presents the central values for women such as the social values of moral behaviour, independence, and, literary values of reading and writing, from Pride and Prejudice and adapts them to a 20th Century context. Weldon's novel's subtitle, On First Reading Jane Austen, suggests that the novel should serve as a filter to assist readers. The implication of this is that Weldon enables her readers to identify more fully the significance of Jane Austen as a writer, and, the significance of Pride and Prejudice as a piece of literature, exploring the ongoing relevance of its values concerning women.
The aspirations and expectations of women are explored wherein the contexts of Letters to Alice and Pride and Prejudice present women in different circumstances with varying opportunities. The changes of context between these two texts alter the situations of women and their predominant values.
For example, Weldon attempts to reshape the audience's perception of Mrs Bennet and her frantic obsession with marrying off her daughters. Jane Austen expresses a somewhat satirical tone when writing of Mrs Bennet, by using hyperbolic statements such as the constant reference to, "My poor nerves!" Although Weldon attempts to reshape the perception of the social value of marriage by sympathising with Mrs Bennett; "No wonder... [she was] driven half mad," after listing the gender injustices and the importance of marriage in the 18th century context; Aunt Fay's judgements aren't entirely reliable due to her common contradictory statements. Instead, Letters to Alice provokes readers to evaluate Mrs Bennett and her daughters'