Pride and Freedom
True freedom is a subjective and diverse concept. It will likely vary in meaning from one person to the next due to different time periods, race, gender, culture, and social class. What one person may think is a freedom, may be different to the next person. Pride and Prejudice shows a variety of freedoms and lack thereof throughout the novel. It shows how the pride of a woman can sometimes take the place of her freedoms. Pride and Prejudice is set in the Georgian period, during this time period, women lacked many freedoms that women have today. In the Georgian time period it was extremely common for women’s parents (primarily their fathers) to be setting up and preparing their daughters for marriage with a man of the father’s …show more content…
Did the Bennet daughters attend any sort of schooling? It’s not mentioned in detail, though we know they do enjoy reading. This is another lack of freedom. Education and the skills which someone would typically acquire in school may have changed the outcome for the Bennet women. Perhaps they would have been even more outspoken or confident to stand up for themselves and their beliefs. Though this may simply be another time period constraint as it was not common for women to be educated in school during the Georgian time period. Many could argue this is a huge lack of freedom and sexism since they were not given the same opportunity as most men received education wise, since men were typically more educated than women during this time. Women were mainly encouraged to simply exist, marry, bare children, support their husbands, clean, cook, and maintain and prepare any daughters to eventually marry. They were expected to be rule driven and proper, any unruly behavior was looked at as “unmarriageable” and greatly frowned upon, we see this lack of freedom with Lydia since she often got in trouble for her “unruly” …show more content…
Bennet does hold them at a high regard. This is seen when Mr. Bennet is seen talking to Elizabeth about how she deserves a man who is superior, meaning that her husband must be an intelligent man who is on the same level as her. Mr. Bennet says, “I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior.” (Austen 166). This shows that Mr. Bennet has respect for his daughter and her intelligence. Some may interpret this quote as Mr. Bennet telling Elizabeth that she needs to look up to her husband as a superior human who is better than her, but he is really saying that Elizabeth is a smart and superior human herself and her husband should be on the same level as her. Mr. Bennet doesn’t want his daughter to settle for someone less than what she deserves. This is an important moment in the book, it shows that even though the daughters are pressured to find a certain type of man, their father still cares about their feelings and well-being. He doesn’t want them to be pressured and forced to settle for someone who isn’t up to their level, he wants them to have freedom to be happily
True freedom is a subjective and diverse concept. It will likely vary in meaning from one person to the next due to different time periods, race, gender, culture, and social class. What one person may think is a freedom, may be different to the next person. Pride and Prejudice shows a variety of freedoms and lack thereof throughout the novel. It shows how the pride of a woman can sometimes take the place of her freedoms. Pride and Prejudice is set in the Georgian period, during this time period, women lacked many freedoms that women have today. In the Georgian time period it was extremely common for women’s parents (primarily their fathers) to be setting up and preparing their daughters for marriage with a man of the father’s …show more content…
Did the Bennet daughters attend any sort of schooling? It’s not mentioned in detail, though we know they do enjoy reading. This is another lack of freedom. Education and the skills which someone would typically acquire in school may have changed the outcome for the Bennet women. Perhaps they would have been even more outspoken or confident to stand up for themselves and their beliefs. Though this may simply be another time period constraint as it was not common for women to be educated in school during the Georgian time period. Many could argue this is a huge lack of freedom and sexism since they were not given the same opportunity as most men received education wise, since men were typically more educated than women during this time. Women were mainly encouraged to simply exist, marry, bare children, support their husbands, clean, cook, and maintain and prepare any daughters to eventually marry. They were expected to be rule driven and proper, any unruly behavior was looked at as “unmarriageable” and greatly frowned upon, we see this lack of freedom with Lydia since she often got in trouble for her “unruly” …show more content…
Bennet does hold them at a high regard. This is seen when Mr. Bennet is seen talking to Elizabeth about how she deserves a man who is superior, meaning that her husband must be an intelligent man who is on the same level as her. Mr. Bennet says, “I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior.” (Austen 166). This shows that Mr. Bennet has respect for his daughter and her intelligence. Some may interpret this quote as Mr. Bennet telling Elizabeth that she needs to look up to her husband as a superior human who is better than her, but he is really saying that Elizabeth is a smart and superior human herself and her husband should be on the same level as her. Mr. Bennet doesn’t want his daughter to settle for someone less than what she deserves. This is an important moment in the book, it shows that even though the daughters are pressured to find a certain type of man, their father still cares about their feelings and well-being. He doesn’t want them to be pressured and forced to settle for someone who isn’t up to their level, he wants them to have freedom to be happily