Letters To Alice And Weldon's

The comparative study between Jane Austen’s 19th century fictional novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and Fey Weldon’s 1984 epistolary text ‘Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen’, allows intertextual connections between the two texts to be developed and an understanding of how values can be affected by different contexts. The concepts of the education and accomplishments of women and their position in society are demonstrated in both Austen and Weldon’s text in relation to their corresponding contexts.
The theme of a woman’s education and accomplishments are valued differently in accordance to different contexts.
Women of the regency period were brought up to be accomplished not for the purpose of one’s self development but rather to attract
Education played a significant role during the 1980s as it would allow one to develop skills for a job and earn their own money to be financially independent. This notion is symbolised through Aunt Fay’s letter as she offers to “pay” for Alice to “try an American university,” after assuming that Alice has not been doing well in her exams. This is an indication of women being socially expected to complete their education as a means to progress in society. Weldon’s wrote ‘Letters to Alice’ during the second wave of feminism which focused on the equal status of women and their education and jobs. This is demonstrated through Aunt Fay’s use of accumulative listing as she states “’strong’ women, women who work, think, earn,” which evokes a strong and serious tone to epitomise the relevance of a woman’s education in society. In addition to this, Weldon discusses the importance of literature and education for women which is displayed through her imperative language stating that ‘you must read’ which allowed Weldon to ultimately establish the significance of education to women of the 1980s. Overall, Austen’s context conveys the notion that women of her time had to be accomplished whereas Weldon’s depicts the notion that women must be educated. However, both authors share the same outcome of which these accomplishments and education would lead the women to what their context would consider
The notion of education and accomplishments depicted in Austen and Weldon’s text, share the same value in term of how education and accomplishments are required to gain financial stability. However, Austen’s context values differ with that of Weldon’s in terms of women’s position in society. Women of Austen’s time were confined to limited positions within society contrasting with women of Weldon’s context as they were free from a patriarchal society and were not dependent on men. Overall, the comparative study between Austen and Weldon texts reveals how a change in context can affect the questions of