Questioning The Merit Of Pride And Prejudice Roger Gard Analysis

Decent Essays
“Questioning the Merit of Pride and Prejudice” by Roger Gard is an informal debate that was created to examine a range of perspectives from modern feminists to traditional critics. The article also discusses the merit of Austen’s characters, themes, realism and comedic style. Gard poses a number of questions throughout the article such as “Is Austen great or merely popular?” and “How do feminists view Pride and Prejudice?” Gard uses an imaginary reader, named Henry, to state that Austen is a great writer because of her ability to use comedy to convey important life lessons. In contrast, Gard uses another imaginary reader, named Alec, to state that Austen is a great writer simply because the novel is a great work of art. Gard also states that …show more content…
Austen gains her merit through appeals to feminism and Marxism as well as through her ability to accurately translate her message about the themes of marriage and women’s roles in society by using comedy. However, I feel that people who view the novel simply as comic relief miss the deeper meanings behind the complex jokes that reveal the true nature of nineteenth century society. Austen uses a feminist point of view to convey the message to her readers that in the nineteenth century women were viewed as property and valued based on their wealth and social status. Through the use of comedy, Austen is able to show her readers that the society in nineteenth century England was run primarily by capitalist males. She also uses satire to explain that marriage was viewed as something that was beneficial for a man and woman’s social rank and economic status rather than being viewed as a bond based on love and passion. Gard shows that people in the nineteenth century viewed marriage as something to maintain societal balance by stating that marrying for money and social rank contributed to “…the maintenance of the health of the society…” (112). The first sentence in the novel displays this theme superbly. Austen writes that “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in …show more content…
Austen uses Elizabeth in particular to accomplish this. Gard states that “Elizabeth is amused and wants to expose these subterranean meanings…” in reference to Elizabeth’s desires expose the sexist reason behind all of the marriage proposals and her mother’s desire for her girls to marry (117). Mrs. Bennet simply wants her children to marry because she doesn’t want to have to work to have a home and be lose her rank in the social system after her husband passes on. However, Austen uses Elizabeth to convey the message that marriage should be based on love and not wealth and social acceptability. Austen conveys Marxist ideas through strong male characters such as Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bennet. By using a Marxist perspective, Austen is able to show that Darcy seems egotistical and superior to his peers and that Mr. Bennet holds all the power in the family.
Some people think that the novel is simply a comedy and has no true meaning to it. However, Austen intended to use satire as a complex way to teach life lessons to her readers. These lessons include the fact that marriage should never be based on social status or wealth, but rather that it should be based on a true love for someone. Austen gains her merit by teaching her readers life lessons about marriage and relationships because the reveals important ideas about universal

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