If there is one consistent social issue in history, it would be the treatment of women. Undoubtedly the rights and equality of women has always been a highly debated and controversial subject. Sparking an entire movement int eh twentieth century by repressed women, woman’s rights would become one of the biggest issues of the century.
Literature is no less prone to inequality than any of the other forms of artistic expression. The plight of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries can be seen through the pages of the great literary works of the time period. Hailed as great classical works of fiction, the authors often used the written word to express their societal repressions and restrictions. One of these authors is Jane Austen. Her great works include Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility. Raised on the fringes of English gentry, Austen’s life comes to life in the pages of her books. Pride and Prejudice, her second novel published in 1813, details the story of the Bennets and their two daughters. Depsite the seemingly lighthearted plot and storylline, Pride and Prejudice deals with many difficult issues of the era including socio economic status, gender inequality, and class. Many times over the years, the characters have been touted as dry and humorless, yet Austen portrays the characters in a way that common people can relate to.
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Throughout history, women have always been made to walk three steps behind men. Considered to be the weaker and lesser sex, society has always had strict ideals regarding how women should dress, how they should act, and how they should behave both publicly and privately. Gender equality in the Victorian era was based on a fixed structure that was dictated by societal expectations. Traditionally women have always been place socially behind men and were expected to defer to men in every aspect of their lives. Unable to own properties or control their own wealth, women relied upon their husbands, their fathers, or their brothers for everything. Until the Marriage Property Act of 1887, women weren’t allowed any ownership and everything they owned automatically transferred to their husbands upon marriage. During the nineteenth century, it was common law that when a woman married a man all of her property became his unless she had significant familial support to look after her properties. The husband gained all rights to his wife’s properties and monies. Similarly an unmarried woman could not hold property or inherit land. Early literature of the nineteenth century detailed some of the frustrations these women faced. It is obvious through literature of the time period that “women’s fortunes were normally given, along with their persons, to their husbands” (Moller Okin 133). Elizabeth Bennet spoke about the truth of marriage, women were little more than a possesion. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen PAGE #). The general consensus of the time was that the two went hand and hand but the good fortune must be acquired first.
The nineteenth century society was a strictly structured set of rulles that governed everything from interactions with peers and education to how one dressed and their public behavior. The classes within this strictly structured society were extremely fixed with little or no upward mobility allowed. Both gender and socially restrictive, this system clearly outlined everyone’s place within the society. The aristocracy and upper class were rigidly formed within these guidelines. Lower classes were not permitted to move up into the upper echelons of the gentry. In fact, if a person of the upper class married beneath their station it would reduce their status and standing within polite soceity.
Upper classes and aristocracy traditionally contolled all or most of the wealth among the people of England. Along with belonging to these social classes came expectations that included restrictions on mannerisms, conduct, and behavior. In addition to being restricted based on their gender, women were also restricted based on their social standings. This double restriction forced women into a strict code of behavior and set down rules that were enforced. For a woman to behave outside of this social box of appropriate behavior meant that she was ridiculed and outcast. Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Austen portrays these roles of women in the aristocracy and gentry and she does so in a way that most women of the time could relate to. The boundaries and restrictions placed on women during the nineteenth century greatly influenced the styles of writing during that time period. Rogers writes, “Women have always been under more pressure than men to stay within conventional bounds, in writing as in conduct” (Rogers 65). The rules that society placed on women for conduct and behavior was expected to be referred to and displayed in everything a woman did including writing. Greatly valued in women during that time period was “chastity, propriety, sense of duty, and delicacy”(Rogers 65). In most literary works the repression of the women often led to larger and more distressing plot twists.
In nineteenth century England, society valued “privacy, shy from false intimacy, and honor rank- at least when it flows from the impartial fount of honor and not from political favor or money grubbing” (Yoder Jr. 606). Within the context of Austen’s small world, her characters display manners that predict their behavior throughout the story. These manners determine their future behavior and how they are viewed by society.
Jane’s Life
Ms. Austen was born into the lower ranks of the English gentry in 1775. Her father was rector of the local parish and she was the seventh of eight children. Jane had six brothers and one older sister. Her father earned enough to adequately support the family and provide a comfortable life for his wife and daughters. Jane, along with her sister Cassandra, would receive little education outside of the home. Finances allowed for the girls to be under the tutelage of Mrs. Ann Crowley and to attend a boarding school. Lack of funding would force the education to be completed at home under the direction of her father and brothers. Her father’s position as rector allowed them many luxuries including a well appointed library from which Jane was able to expand her own paltry education.
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Even marriages were dictated by the societal expectations of class and status during the eighteenth century. Marriages were typically arranged among the gentry to further positions of wealth and power. Those of the aristocracy and upper classes did not marry outside of their small circle and never among those of the lower gentry. Strategic marriages to gain properties or combine titles of power were the commonplace. Jane would never marry, she rejected the only proposal she received and chose instead to live her life with her mother and father. This was not uncommon for a young woman of the gentry, however because of her lack of personal power and financial independence, the woman would be forced to rely upon her father or male relatives for the rest of their lives. Jane Austen would come to find herself in such a position after the death of her own father in 1805. Her very early literary works seem to closely resemble her own life. After the unexpected death of her father in the very early nineteenth century, Jane, her sister Cassandra, and her mother were left in a financially dangerous situation. The women were completely dependent on the remaining male members of the family for their support. Her brothers would eventually settle them into comfortable cottage and provide for them until her death in 1817. Her life and her own dependance on her father and brothers play a large part in her writing.
THE WORLD AS JANE AUSTEN KNEW IT..WHAT WAS HAPPENING.
CHARACTERS (ANALYSIS OF HOW THE PLOT/CHARACTERS WERE AFFECTED BY GENDER ISSUES) jENN’S
CLOSING.
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