In literature, femininity is a theme commonly explored by literary critics. How femininity is represented in literary texts depends on several contextual factors including the date it was produced, and the author’s background. In this essay, I will be exploring the representation of femininity in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and John Milton’s Paradise Lost in relation to these factors.
Milton’s Paradise Lost and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice were written around two centuries apart, the former written in the Stuart period and the latter written in the Georgian period. During both these periods in time, femininity was regarded as inferior to masculinity. In literature, female characters were widely portrayed as weak and passive, or more …show more content…
Eve is the more significant character, Sin being an allegorical character who plays a relatively small role in book two, where she acts as the gatekeeper of Hell along with her son Death. Despite her minor role in the text, Sin is symbolic of contemporaneous views of femininity. Her appearance is described as ‘woman to the waist and fair,/ But ended in many a scaly fold’, making her a physical representation of the supposed duality of female nature. The description of her womanly half preceding the description of her serpentine half is significant as it emphasises her facade, her beauty distracting from her monstrous nature. Many parallels can be drawn between her and Eve, including a similar creation, a manipulative front, and the symbolism of the serpent. With Eve’s status as the first woman, Milton is suggesting that femininity is inherently deceptive and sinful. Sin is also portrayed as being a victim of her own femininity with the depiction of the hellhounds, the product of Death raping her. The hellhounds are graphically described as burrowing into her womb where they ‘still barked and howled’, the use of sound creating a sense of chaos and turning the womb into a hell in its own right. Sin is a passive character, doing nothing about the hellhounds or her son. This inability to take action, while misogynistic by modern day standards, can also be interpreted as a way of eliciting a sympathetic response.
Milton’s Paradise Lost and Austen’s Pride and Prejudice were written around two centuries apart, the former written in the Stuart period and the latter written in the Georgian period. During both these periods in time, femininity was regarded as inferior to masculinity. In literature, female characters were widely portrayed as weak and passive, or more …show more content…
Eve is the more significant character, Sin being an allegorical character who plays a relatively small role in book two, where she acts as the gatekeeper of Hell along with her son Death. Despite her minor role in the text, Sin is symbolic of contemporaneous views of femininity. Her appearance is described as ‘woman to the waist and fair,/ But ended in many a scaly fold’, making her a physical representation of the supposed duality of female nature. The description of her womanly half preceding the description of her serpentine half is significant as it emphasises her facade, her beauty distracting from her monstrous nature. Many parallels can be drawn between her and Eve, including a similar creation, a manipulative front, and the symbolism of the serpent. With Eve’s status as the first woman, Milton is suggesting that femininity is inherently deceptive and sinful. Sin is also portrayed as being a victim of her own femininity with the depiction of the hellhounds, the product of Death raping her. The hellhounds are graphically described as burrowing into her womb where they ‘still barked and howled’, the use of sound creating a sense of chaos and turning the womb into a hell in its own right. Sin is a passive character, doing nothing about the hellhounds or her son. This inability to take action, while misogynistic by modern day standards, can also be interpreted as a way of eliciting a sympathetic response.