It is quite gripping to view the oppressions that women faced in the early 1800s through the lens of a writer in accord with the push for feminism in literature. The story of Pride and Prejudice revolves around the Bennet family, a penniless group of women and their father, attempting to emerge into a predominantly wealthy society. The five Bennet daughters face innumerable challenges with men, the notion of marriage, and their lack of finances. Elizabeth Bennet defies the conventional idea of women in her time, proudly voicing her opinions, and ultimately falling in love with a man of substantial means, whom she previously detested. Pride and Prejudice portrays the ebb and flow of patriarchal society in the 19th century and how feministic
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Some background to this theory is that “women as readers” are consumers of solely male produced literature and oftentimes men hypothesize femininity, providing false pretenses surrounding the true nature of women (Showalter). A few prominent theorists and works are Charles Bressler, author of Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, Toril Moi and her essay “Feminist Literary Criticism,” and Elaine Showalter’s “Toward a Feminist Poetics.” The common motive behind the feminist literary criticism is to identify and restore female representation as well as debunk the typical patriarchal, or a governed by men control that is seen in the literary world. “In this patriarchal world, man more frequently than not defines what it means to be human. Woman has become the Other, the “not-male.” Man is the subject, the one who defines meaning. Woman is the object, having her existence defined and determined by the male” (Bressler). Bressler depicts the traditional form of literature prior to the 19th century, which was male oriented. This is the reason for such uproar from women to evolve literature into a representative device of both male and female interest. A patriarchal literary world gave heed to the feminist movement within literature, working in order to produce a shift from male …show more content…
Throughout the dramatic urbanization of England during this era, a majority of the English land concentrated on the “land gentry,” or the owner of land that received it through his lineage. In order to maintain solitary familial ownership, strict inheritance laws were created to prevent the distributing of the land to multiple family members, such as children. The only exception for this was if a child was male; daughters were not allowed to receive this land (Columbia College). This is an example of the typical entitlement that men were provided with during the 1800s, for which women would never be considered. It was more agreeable to endow a family home to one that was male, regardless of how far down the lineage they were, than to bestow it to a woman, even if said woman was a direct offspring and next in line. When discovering that the Bennet family home would be given to a cousin, Mr. Collins, upon Mr. Bennet’s death, Mrs. Bennet exclaims, “I cannot bear to hear that mentioned… I do think it is the hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own children” (Austen, 45). Mrs. Bennet says this in response to hearing of her daughter’s grave misfortune, in that being women will ultimately land them homeless and without any means. Another example of the uprooting of conventional views of women is
Some background to this theory is that “women as readers” are consumers of solely male produced literature and oftentimes men hypothesize femininity, providing false pretenses surrounding the true nature of women (Showalter). A few prominent theorists and works are Charles Bressler, author of Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, Toril Moi and her essay “Feminist Literary Criticism,” and Elaine Showalter’s “Toward a Feminist Poetics.” The common motive behind the feminist literary criticism is to identify and restore female representation as well as debunk the typical patriarchal, or a governed by men control that is seen in the literary world. “In this patriarchal world, man more frequently than not defines what it means to be human. Woman has become the Other, the “not-male.” Man is the subject, the one who defines meaning. Woman is the object, having her existence defined and determined by the male” (Bressler). Bressler depicts the traditional form of literature prior to the 19th century, which was male oriented. This is the reason for such uproar from women to evolve literature into a representative device of both male and female interest. A patriarchal literary world gave heed to the feminist movement within literature, working in order to produce a shift from male …show more content…
Throughout the dramatic urbanization of England during this era, a majority of the English land concentrated on the “land gentry,” or the owner of land that received it through his lineage. In order to maintain solitary familial ownership, strict inheritance laws were created to prevent the distributing of the land to multiple family members, such as children. The only exception for this was if a child was male; daughters were not allowed to receive this land (Columbia College). This is an example of the typical entitlement that men were provided with during the 1800s, for which women would never be considered. It was more agreeable to endow a family home to one that was male, regardless of how far down the lineage they were, than to bestow it to a woman, even if said woman was a direct offspring and next in line. When discovering that the Bennet family home would be given to a cousin, Mr. Collins, upon Mr. Bennet’s death, Mrs. Bennet exclaims, “I cannot bear to hear that mentioned… I do think it is the hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own children” (Austen, 45). Mrs. Bennet says this in response to hearing of her daughter’s grave misfortune, in that being women will ultimately land them homeless and without any means. Another example of the uprooting of conventional views of women is