Essay Comparing Pride And Prejudice And Letters To Alice
Connections enrich understanding in the pairs of texts set for study. To what extent is this made evident in the texts you have studied? (Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice)
Through exploring the connections between Jane Austen’s canonical Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen readers gain a better understanding of the ways the values explored in the former are reshaped to contextually fit the latter. Although Austen and Weldon voice their perceptions and criticisms of society in different ways, they both explore women’s position and the expectations of women in society, whilst also exploring women’s journey towards independence and self-development through a common use of letters and the exploration of the value of literature.
Both Austen and Weldon make perceptions and criticisms of their societies although both authors omit the political and economical events of their times “surely from choice rather than ignorance”. Furthermore, Weldon is able to criticise Austen’s society more harshly than Austen could as she is “looking at a society from the outside in, not the inside out.” Weldon also critiques her own society as can be seen through the repetition of ‘too’ in “you are, I suspect… too secure in your opinions to care much about what goes on in your society”. It is here we …show more content…
The extent of Aunt Fay’s didacticism is ironically conveyed when even after Alice’s success, Aunt Fay continues to provide Alice with reading lists; “I hope you don’t think this is patronising of me. You have sold more copies of The Wife’s Revenge in three months than I have of all my novels put together...” The reshaped context between the texts connects movement towards liberation for both Elizabeth and Alice and results in an enhanced understanding of the pair of
Through exploring the connections between Jane Austen’s canonical Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen readers gain a better understanding of the ways the values explored in the former are reshaped to contextually fit the latter. Although Austen and Weldon voice their perceptions and criticisms of society in different ways, they both explore women’s position and the expectations of women in society, whilst also exploring women’s journey towards independence and self-development through a common use of letters and the exploration of the value of literature.
Both Austen and Weldon make perceptions and criticisms of their societies although both authors omit the political and economical events of their times “surely from choice rather than ignorance”. Furthermore, Weldon is able to criticise Austen’s society more harshly than Austen could as she is “looking at a society from the outside in, not the inside out.” Weldon also critiques her own society as can be seen through the repetition of ‘too’ in “you are, I suspect… too secure in your opinions to care much about what goes on in your society”. It is here we …show more content…
The extent of Aunt Fay’s didacticism is ironically conveyed when even after Alice’s success, Aunt Fay continues to provide Alice with reading lists; “I hope you don’t think this is patronising of me. You have sold more copies of The Wife’s Revenge in three months than I have of all my novels put together...” The reshaped context between the texts connects movement towards liberation for both Elizabeth and Alice and results in an enhanced understanding of the pair of