I said in my earlier post that around the time of my book, a woman's job was to just marry a man and serve him in the house. There's a million different ways to look at that - and Jane Austen included a lot of them.
Feminism is one obvious way one can look at that "norm" from the past. There were two different types of "feminism" I spotted so far, although I don't think everyone might agree with me. One was the main character, Elizabeth Bennet. She was an intelligent girl who knew how society was shaped and she was aware of what rights women had or didn't have. But she didn't allow herself to mold herself into what was expected of her. Elizabeth knew that a lot of women often tried to please men or made themselves look more "elegant" with their pretentious ways, but she was flat-out honest with her motivations and thoughts instead of trying to impress others. Her cousin, who was to have Elizabeth's father's estate after her father died, proposed to Elizabeth. There were a lot of advantages that came along with the marriage. Elizabeth still refused because she knew that her cousin wasn't the man for her, and she couldn't force herself to marry a man like him, even if her cousin was socially superior to her.
Another person with a bit of feminism seemed to be Mrs. Bennet, although I don't think she is a true feminist. Mrs. Bennet is upset over the fact that women don't have the right to own property, because if her husband dies, she knows she would be kicked out of her house by Mr. Bennet's cousin. When Mrs. Bennet complains about it, her daughters try explaining how property works to her. The author writes, "Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail. They had often attempted it before: but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason; an estate away from a family of five daughters, in favor of a man whom nobody cared any thing about" (Austen 63). She is uneducated in the rules enforced on women, nor does she understands it when her daughter explains the laws to her. I think that she thinks that she is trying to protect herself and her daughters from getting kicked out of a home. But her actions are derived from plainly wanting to keep her money and estate, and she isn't even aware why some rules exist. Elizabeth is well aware why, and Elizabeth is more focused on her plain rights to live honestly. Mrs. Bennet is more focused on the wealth and doesn't even understand what topic she's arguing against.
There was also indifference towards the topic. Elizabeth's older sister Jane seemed to be educated in the rights and women and their gender roles in society. She did not mold herself into the expectation of women pleasing men, and it wasn't that she cared nothing about it. She just didn't spend the time arguing against it. She just built self-respect and civilized character to earn respect of others. She falls in love with her neighbor, and although others approach her with the simple idea of marrying a rich man, she allows herself to attach to her neighbor out of love instead of for just marriage and acceptance in society. In a way she is like Elizabeth, except she has more acceptance to it while Elizabeth is more hard-headed about it.
Pride and Prejudice uses a lot older English, which sounds more formal and slow. So although the language sounds stiff, the plot behind it is intriguing. I think it's the first time in a classic where I actually really wanted to know what happens next, so I'll have fun reading!
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