People have this misconception that Jane Austen wrote romances. Especially Pride and Prejudice - which was written at a time when novels were just a step removed from the devils work and young ladies were encouraged to read sermons rather than the Gothic horrors, such as The Mysteries of Udolpho, which Austen references in Northhanger Abbey, that had been general fair available for young women to read instead.
I think people underestimate Pride and Prejudice as a guide to seeking employment and economics for a particular class of women society. The choice was, a) be rich and independently wealthy, such as Emma, Lady Russell, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter, b) be a governess, and c) marriage.
And thus it's considered to be a romance.
Austen states pretty clearly that women have to enter marriage with their eyes wide open (Charlotte Lucas and that love is for men). While keeping your eyes open when you have no idea what a man is like in private because you are only allowed to meet him in public (to ensure your virginity), you have little experience of the world (because you are very young) and figuring out how much money he has, has got to sound mercenary but the reality is many women died in child birth at the time. So if marrying might mean your death in delivering an heir, you might as well make it as comfortable as possible by being rich.
And this seems to have been so easily forgotten - it wasn't until very recently that women stopped dying in child birth but then again the numbers are increasing again, at least in the US.
Austen wrote about the class system and how easily the rich manipulate those with less money for their own amusement. Think of Emma and how easily she manipulates Harriet Smith and in the end (the book not the movies) Emma will no longer associate with Harriet who goes on to marry the farmer. In movies they always reunite Emma and Harriet, and imply they remain life long friends.
Probably the weirdest thing people have told me is that Bridget Jones is a modern Pride and Prejudice - I always cringe when hearing this because the Bridget Jones is nothing like Elizabeth Bennett. But the only reason why people say this is that in the 1995 BBC version was made with the same actor playing Darcy as they used in Bridget Jones. While Darcy is important to the story, Austen pretty much uses him as a potentially interchangeable protagonist - we never really get inside Darcy's mind until he writes his letter to Lizzy. Even the author of Bridget Jones said she has no pretensions of crafting a modern Elizabeth Bennett.
Pride and Prejudice is about Elizabeth and her mental life. I am pretty much convinced Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in response to Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria, where Wollstonecraft complains about the portrayal of women in literature.
I think people underestimate Pride and Prejudice as a guide to seeking employment and economics for a particular class of women society. The choice was, a) be rich and independently wealthy, such as Emma, Lady Russell, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her daughter, b) be a governess, and c) marriage.
And thus it's considered to be a romance.
Austen states pretty clearly that women have to enter marriage with their eyes wide open (Charlotte Lucas and that love is for men). While keeping your eyes open when you have no idea what a man is like in private because you are only allowed to meet him in public (to ensure your virginity), you have little experience of the world (because you are very young) and figuring out how much money he has, has got to sound mercenary but the reality is many women died in child birth at the time. So if marrying might mean your death in delivering an heir, you might as well make it as comfortable as possible by being rich.
And this seems to have been so easily forgotten - it wasn't until very recently that women stopped dying in child birth but then again the numbers are increasing again, at least in the US.
Austen wrote about the class system and how easily the rich manipulate those with less money for their own amusement. Think of Emma and how easily she manipulates Harriet Smith and in the end (the book not the movies) Emma will no longer associate with Harriet who goes on to marry the farmer. In movies they always reunite Emma and Harriet, and imply they remain life long friends.
Probably the weirdest thing people have told me is that Bridget Jones is a modern Pride and Prejudice - I always cringe when hearing this because the Bridget Jones is nothing like Elizabeth Bennett. But the only reason why people say this is that in the 1995 BBC version was made with the same actor playing Darcy as they used in Bridget Jones. While Darcy is important to the story, Austen pretty much uses him as a potentially interchangeable protagonist - we never really get inside Darcy's mind until he writes his letter to Lizzy. Even the author of Bridget Jones said she has no pretensions of crafting a modern Elizabeth Bennett.
Pride and Prejudice is about Elizabeth and her mental life. I am pretty much convinced Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice in response to Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria, where Wollstonecraft complains about the portrayal of women in literature.
RSS Feed
