A first sight, “Pride and Prejudice” seems to be a novel about first impressions, but the truth of the matter is that this novel of five-hundred something pages goes further, because its main attempt is to reveal the constant fascination of the 19th century British society in being someone in life using social standing, wealth, and of course marriage. With this premise, this novel of manners shows us a large fan of women, who are the representation of that era, an era hungry of female revolution. However, it was not a totally spread thought; if we analyze this book we are going to be surprised with a novel that in its first half screams for a change regarding women, but in its second half that view changes in a jaw-dropping way, because at the end all women wanted that “novel-esque” fairy tale, with a happy prince in a shiny armor. I will follow this idea with the assumption that Austen wanted to change the view of the female persona or, in other words, how real is the fact that women wanted different things for their lives, because if we make a second reading we can deduct that all the females inside the novel, for better or worse, wanted to reach the same goal: stability in all its sense. Economic stability would improve their lifestyles and emotional stability would let them think about what they really want. At the end of the day, the so-called female revolution that made this novel so famous is not so revolutionary, because the main character of this book (Elizabeth Bennet) was a courageous girl with a different way of thinking about life and society, but she ended just like the girls of that era, marrying a wealthy man, hoping to live happily ever after, so the question is the following: How revolutionary were the Bennet girls, in order to follow their goals in life? Were those goals more important than being married with the man of their dreams?
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Along these pages I will analyze how those females archetypes were developed in order to follow their dreams, doing whatever it takes to make it, or in other cases using denial as a method of self-convincement, to avoid the dream of being the perfect housewife instead of being a ground-breaking model for a conservative society, who expected minimum things in relation to women.
With Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen wanted to put on discussion the moral rightness of the British high society, but more than that, Austen made a referent about how relationships worked in that time, and how sadly those same patterns of two centuries ago are still remaining, because in our society there are many girls with that same Lizzie Bennet attitude of “I’m not going to be like the rest”, but want the same, just like all of us: to love and to be loved. Just like the beginning of the book -It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife- and just like in our days, human relationships are led with that premise that being single and feeling pleased with that singlehood is an attempt against family, moral, and society.
So following that premise could be that all of us are wild cats waiting to be tamed? Or could it be that, just like the men of the novel, we are the ones that want to tame those hellcats?
Inside the world of this novel, my focus is on the females, because they changed from femme fatales to lovely wives, and that change is very amazing, especially in the case of the Bennets, who were firecrackers, and more specifically Lydia, who was my favorite character of the novel because of her naughtiness. But before Lydia it was Elizabeth, a smart girl who was charmed with the hot and cold tension of a very arrogant Fitzwilliam Darcy who was finally the hero, the today’s equivalent of Edward Cullen of the Twilight saga, because he was wearing an armor that protected him from a life full of suffering, thanks to his naïve sister Georgiana, his major concern. And that attitude of yet sensitive man is still a magnet for the female genre. Continuing with Lizzie’s predicament with her on and off tension with Darcy, the attraction was undeniable, but the judgmental mind of Lizzie was her worst enemy. Her attitude was in some moments the dynamo that created a lot of awkward situations even for her, because her so-called involvement or in other words their rapid “friendship” with George Wickham was just an excuse to forget Darcy after his intermission in the relationship of Mr. Bingley with her sister Jane, and that decision cost her falling in the claws of an ambitious predator that her little sister Lydia caught him using her audacity and playing her cards very well, turning the predator into the prey. Returning to Lizzie’s reluctant attitude against Darcy, it was in some moments annoying and lacking of arguments, because Darcy saves her sister’s honor to win Lizzie’s heart and after that noble act, Elizabeth fell at his feet almost immediately, but what about before? What about the entire scene about Georgiana, judging Darcy of being a liar, because he was involved with Georgiana, who as I wrote before, was her sister? It is a fact that Darcy was arrogant at first sight, but Bennet was it as well, but that attitude was the perfect spice to make this couple absolutely perfect for each other, because Elizabeth wanted for her the same of her sisters, getting married and being happy. Nevertheless, she constantly denied that fact, avoiding the issue of marriage; she was just waiting for Mr. Right, that special man that every woman wants. For that reason, just like her sister, she attended to balls, showing her flirtatious side in order to wait or get a Mr. Right, which is a huge contradiction of her statement. I could sound a bit cruel but her tomboy attitude never overshadowed her glossy feminine nature. Following the idea of waiting for the right one, that notion exists only in novels or in soap-operas and sadly for the rest of the Bennet clan, that fact was the drive of Elizabeth to avoid commitment and create a son-like bond with her father. That close relationship was a shield for her, a shelter that protected her from suffering for love, but it was not stronger enough to protect her from the spell of Darcy, because Lizzie confessed to her dad her true feelings about Darcy and her dad, the always relaxed, Mr. Bennet only advised her to follow her heart, a thing that this young girl never did until she figured out that she could not fight against love.
In contrast with her attitude, there was her sister Jane, who was the total opposite. She was sweeter, shyer, but not as “clever” than her sister Elizabeth. Jane was the portrait of a good wife and she represented all the things that Elizabeth despised about women of that age, because Jane was the girl who was waiting for a good man to take her as his wife and stating that she was willing to “sacrifice herself” in order to save her family, but getting married with a charming and sometimes dumb Charles Bingley was not so bad as her younger sister portrayed it, because sparks flied when those two met each other, but sadly for Jane, Mr. Darcy’s interference almost cost them their marriage.
This inappropriate intermission was meant to protect his friend from a “hypocrite woman” that did not feel the same, but in the end it that was only a prejudice of Darcy against women, especially against the Bennet girls, because his concept of love was stained after his sister escaped with the story’s Casanova: George Wickham. It must be considered that during the novel Darcy explained that notion of distrust saying that in some occasions he was kinder with Bingley than with himself, assuming the fact that Bingley was not smart enough to make the right choices.
Forgetting about the most contrastive ladies of the Bennet entourage, I am going to highlight who, in my humble opinion, was the smartest and the best character of the Bennet family: Lydia. With only fifteen years old, this little minx proved to be brighter than her sisters, because she had a very clear goal in life; she wanted a husband that would cause Elizabeth to do not respect her so much, because of her frivolous goal, it is important to mention that Kitty suffered from the same disrespect from her sister as well. Retuning with Lydia, she always desired that Lizzie suffered from jealousy attacks, because her sister disposed of so many men, and she only wanted to be old enough to be courted by high society men, and she always complained, along with Kitty, about how her sister Lizzie avoided the issue of marriage, cutting their chances of being eligible bachelorettes. But this frivolous and headstrong little lady (the curse of the Bennet girls) was ready for bigger and better things, because she wanted a husband by any means necessary, that is why her favorite activity was socializing, specially with the Meryton officers, and that so-called frivolous act made her lay her eyes in Mr. Wickham. She did not think it twice and she ran away with him, leaving all behind, because she wanted so desperately to be with a man that she did not care about anything else. After this crazy rendezvous, this wild child did not feel any remorse of action and even worse, she was so worried of loosing his charming man that she overlooked the fact that her reputation was destroyed after her escapade with George. In fact, she uses that situation as a hook to attach her man with her, and finally she hitches Wickham and they pretended to be a happy couple, after a secret intervention of Darcy which included money. We have to consider that Wickham’s career was at stake, given that Mrs. Bennet put pressure on Wickham’s officer to make them return because her daughter’s reputation was deeply damaged. The curious and funny thing was that Lydia knew the arrangement and once again she did not care, she even acted as she had the perfect marriage, and also she flaunted her marriage with her sisters, because they should be jealous. That frivolous attitude of Lydia is absolutely captivating, because she was trapped in a fixed relation and she did not care just because the only thing that she wanted was to be married with a wealthy and handsome man and she nailed it perfectly.
Lydia was my favorite character because she was the only truly honest character of the book. This little girl was shameless, but at least she was real, she did not hide her feelings and did not feel a pinch of embarrassment with her actions, and that is the attitude of a real modern girl, unlike Elizabeth who was trying to stop the unstoppable, and deny the undeniable.
Following with the femme fatales, the next one is Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who was the real antagonist of book, the cold blooded woman that wanted to tear our perfect couple apart, but beneath that surface, this women was the real example of the upper class of British society of the nineteen century, because she embraced to the fact that marriages were arrangements in order to maintain a dynasty, and not a union of feelings, because “love comes after”. That prehistoric attitude is still present in our days, because some women think in that chauvinist way and de Bourgh is one of her most characteristic referents.
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Lady Catherine was a dominant female thanks to her fortune; she always disliked the Bennets because of their notorious lack of manners. She also was an old-fashioned woman that did not allow the breaking of an already fixed union and for that reason this fearful lady faced Elizabeth, in order to firmly keep her very far from Darcy to make his intended arrangement with her daughter Anne.
Another Female that represented this old fashioned thought was Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte, who was “the poor little girl” that had to marry a man at any cost, because her family depended on that union, and also because she had not any clear aspirations because of her age. This could sound weird from someone who adores that attitude in Lydia, but frankly Lydia had a drive, while Charlotte only had the idea of escape of her miserable and lonely life, so she took the easy way and tied the knots with the hideous Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine’s protégée.
Finally the last woman that I want to put on the hot seat is Mrs. Bennet, because she was the exemplification of a social climber. The only thing that she wanted was her family to emerge from the “ashes of poverty” and rise as a prestigious family, and her method to make this was using her daughters as wealthy men bait, because the fact of not having a son was an impediment to inherit the family trust fund of fortune. This is the reason why this dramatic lady put all her intentions in marrying their elder girls (Jane and Elizabeth) with some gentlemen of an accommodated family. Her ambition was so high that she did not doubt in offering Lizzie as a wife to Mr. Collins, idea that her husband refused, causing huge disappointment and deep sorrow in her, because she figured out that her man was not going to help her in her idea of marrying their daughters with random guys whose main attribute was being loaded of goods. Even worst, in some moment I had the notion that her husband, Mr. Bennet, did not respect her so much since he always questioned her decisions. A curious aspect of this lady was her dramatic attitude, because she always abused of her palpitations and tremors in order to get attention of her family, but sadly for her, their daughters felt embarrassment of their narrow-minded and “excitable” mother.
Her public manners were despicable, and that behavior was not something for their daughters to be proud of, excluding the little girls Kitty and Lydia, specially the latter, who was her favorite, given the fact that she was just like her, a person with hunger for more riches and a higher level in the social ladder, and shallower than a dusty piece of furniture.
After describing all the characters that I have picked to support my idea of female archetypes, the only thing left in this essay is answering the question: are those women symbols of a female revolution? Are those ladies examples of fierceness? It might sound a bit harsh, but the answer to these questions is, in my opinion, a categorical no, because this novel was not a ground-breaking element to encourage the female revolution. In fact, “Pride and Prejudice” was a good supporter of future female-focused fairy tales because of the way that Austen put her characters to play, using the old Shakespearian ensemble of Midnight’s summer dreams, which was basically consisted in creating relationships between odd characters. So the concept of revolutionized women was not expressed in the book; it even showed a totally different concept, because Austen played with the premise of “true love finds you in the end”.
Those ladies were portraits of all the women of that era, they showed the life-style of an oppressing age for women, but the twist was that Jane Austen portrayed women as powerful players in the game of love. She also put her effort in revitalizing the role of women in the London scene, because her intention was put to women in a position of power-holders, and decision makers. More importantly, she put women as the owners of their destiny, building their own story basing it on their decisions. However, if we talk about a female revolution, the concept is misused, because “Pride and Prejudice” was not a story about women fighting for her rights, but rather a love-story which sets the parameters of our current writing, mainly due to the love triangles, the cliché of falling under the spell of the unthinkable men. It can not be denied the fact that these elements put this book in the shelves of an all-time female classic. It is a novel which makes you smell femininity on it when you open it, and that feature makes this book irresistible to read and sometimes a guilty pleasure. Sadly, I can not say that the shrews were tame, because in the end they were not shrews nor hell cats; they were only little kittens which used their sharp claws in order to get what they wanted or simply to defend her posture against the world. But that does not mean that they were soft, and just like the old phrase, I have very clear that even the smaller roses have thorns.
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