Pride and Prejudice

Despite how frequently literature and society have fictionalized and stereotyped females as angels, bar maids, bitches whores, brainless housewives, or old maids, women must define themselves and articulate their roles, values, aspirations, and place in society. To do so, say feminist critics, women must...marshal a variety of resources to assert, clarify, and finally implement their beliefs and values” (Bressler 182). In regard to this quote, Elizabeth Bennet indeed clarifies and implements her own beliefs and values. The protagonist, in a final spat with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, asserts her position on marrying Mr. Darcy, free from societal restrictions: “I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected to me” (Austen 260). As such, Miss Bennet articulates her own role and place in society, although still only as a housewife but a housewife that marries for love and her own values as opposed to the societally dictated "values" of wealth and a vast fortune.
As one of the most significant developments in literary studies in the second half of the twentieth century, feminist literary criticism advocates equal rights for all women (indeed, all peoples) in all areas of life: socially, politically, professionally, personally, economically, aesthetically, and psychologically” (Bressler 167). Feminist literary criticism champions equal rights for women, so it would be apt to pay attention to an occasion in which Elizabeth Bennet claims equality with another upper-class man, Mr. Darcy. Again, in the same quarrel with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Miss Bennet claims, “In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere [in which I have been brought up]. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal” (Austen 258). In this instance, Miss Bennet claims equality with Mr. Darcy as she opposes Darcy's controlling aunt.