Pride And Prejudice Gender Roles
Gender Roles and Feminism in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Throughout the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Gender roles and feminism play a key role. The strong theme of Gender roles makes the smaller amount of feminism stand out. The themes of Gender Roles and Feminism help express the true nature of the characters in Pride and Prejudice.
The theme of Gender roles throughout Pride and Prejudice shows the expectations and the reality of a British woman in the 1800’s. For most women of this time, “Happiness in marriage is a matter of chance,” (Austen pg 14). In this quote Mrs. Bennett addresses the fact that you were lucky if you found happiness in your marriage. During this time, women who did not marry were considered outcasts who did not have a future. They were thought about this way because people did not believe women could live a happy, successful life without a man. Most women were treated like delicate items and guarded from anything a man did not think they could handle; because of this women were dependent on men. Due to this, women married for …show more content…
The pressure of being a woman and living up to standard sparks the idea of feminism in the main character, Elizabeth. Through Elizabeth, feminism is displayed in Pride and Prejudice.
One of the first examples to display Elizabeth’s individuality and feminism is when she goes to visit Jane at Netherfield. Her sister is sick and, “Elizabeth, feeling really anxious, was determined to go to her, though the carriage was not to be had; and as she was no horsewoman, walking was the only alternative,” (Austen pg 20). In this time if you were a female walking alone it was bad, but walking three miles, through fields and mud was unheard of! By doing this Elizabeth shows her disregard for society’s standards. From this example you can see that Elizabeth values her family over what society thinks of
The theme of Gender roles throughout Pride and Prejudice shows the expectations and the reality of a British woman in the 1800’s. For most women of this time, “Happiness in marriage is a matter of chance,” (Austen pg 14). In this quote Mrs. Bennett addresses the fact that you were lucky if you found happiness in your marriage. During this time, women who did not marry were considered outcasts who did not have a future. They were thought about this way because people did not believe women could live a happy, successful life without a man. Most women were treated like delicate items and guarded from anything a man did not think they could handle; because of this women were dependent on men. Due to this, women married for …show more content…
The pressure of being a woman and living up to standard sparks the idea of feminism in the main character, Elizabeth. Through Elizabeth, feminism is displayed in Pride and Prejudice.
One of the first examples to display Elizabeth’s individuality and feminism is when she goes to visit Jane at Netherfield. Her sister is sick and, “Elizabeth, feeling really anxious, was determined to go to her, though the carriage was not to be had; and as she was no horsewoman, walking was the only alternative,” (Austen pg 20). In this time if you were a female walking alone it was bad, but walking three miles, through fields and mud was unheard of! By doing this Elizabeth shows her disregard for society’s standards. From this example you can see that Elizabeth values her family over what society thinks of