Good morning Mrs. Dale…. The speech I’m about to present to you will explore the intertextual connections between Pride and Prejudice, a prose fiction novel by Jane Austen published in 1831 and Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, an epistolary novel by Fay Weldon published in 1984. The initial connection is in the title; it becomes obvious that the related text is reliant on Jane Austen’s writing for purpose. Through comparing the two texts it is evident that both authors were influenced by cultural, social and historical backgrounds in view of their choice of similar language forms, values and attitudes such as the marriage, social status, the bildungsroman form and the use of letters.
Marriage
Marriage was a concept that was universal throughout Austen’s time and in Weldon’s modern society. In Pride and Prejudice this importance is …show more content…
Not only were letters the most popular form of communication in Jane Austen’s times, she was also very fond of epistolary novels after reading many which accounts for the 21 letters present in Pride and Prejudice. Fay Weldon writes an epistolary novel to link her ideas to these letters, allowing her to provide reason for her personal opinions. Weldon also draws from the context of Jane Austen, as she herself used to frequently write to her own niece Fanny Knight, to give advice about making an agreeable marriage. Weldon similarly does the same when talking about the Alice’s relationship with her professor giving advice, asking “Why not fall out of love with the professor and go back to your first draft? But I’m afraid you won’t”. This quote shows that Weldon still respects that people are entitled to making their own decisions, which was different to what was expected in Jane Austen’s times. If you disobeyed the rules back then, you would be an outcast and an embarrassment to your
Marriage
Marriage was a concept that was universal throughout Austen’s time and in Weldon’s modern society. In Pride and Prejudice this importance is …show more content…
Not only were letters the most popular form of communication in Jane Austen’s times, she was also very fond of epistolary novels after reading many which accounts for the 21 letters present in Pride and Prejudice. Fay Weldon writes an epistolary novel to link her ideas to these letters, allowing her to provide reason for her personal opinions. Weldon also draws from the context of Jane Austen, as she herself used to frequently write to her own niece Fanny Knight, to give advice about making an agreeable marriage. Weldon similarly does the same when talking about the Alice’s relationship with her professor giving advice, asking “Why not fall out of love with the professor and go back to your first draft? But I’m afraid you won’t”. This quote shows that Weldon still respects that people are entitled to making their own decisions, which was different to what was expected in Jane Austen’s times. If you disobeyed the rules back then, you would be an outcast and an embarrassment to your