Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

Introduction

Originally written in the late 1700s, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice satirically depicts the universal ideals in Regency England, primarily regarding social class. Austen follows the development of an outspoken, middle-class British woman, Elizabeth Bennet, as she encounters and overcomes the many social barriers that separate her from her aristocratic neighbors. Throughout the novel, Lizzie must face society's class-consciousness, particularly with her family's growing relationship with the wellborn Bingleys and their friend, Mr. Darcy. The author's objective of writing Pride and Prejudice is to provide an examination of English society's emphasis on the social class structure, which seems to parallel our own modern day society.

Our present-day social class system is more flexible than it was in the 1700's, despite this, we can assume that people from the elite class, such as celebrities, will tend to marry other upper-class citizens.

In this report we are going to evaluate social class (class struggle) relating to marriage in the novel.

While not all scholars of the period agree, some have observed a paradigm shift regarding marriage and gender during the eighteenth century. Thomas Laqueur cogently argues that the two-sex model came into being during this time period, and Lawrence Stone traces the dominance of companionate marriage to the eighteenth century. Anthony Fletcher demonstrates the shift from a medically and theologically based subordination of women to a more secular ideology, while Susan Kingsley Kent claims that notions of inherent gender differences arose out of natural rights ideology. She writes that by the end of the century, women were understood to be passionless and distinct from men biologically. Certainly the most popular and perhaps most important genre of the period, the novel, brings these issues to the forefront with its tendency to focus on mate choice. This near obsession with mate selection and the above paradigm shifts indicate a culture that valued and emphasized companionate marriage both in fact and fiction. In life and print, therefore, we find mating behavior best explained by the genetically influenced method of mate selection that humans adopted in the Pleistocene era, the subject of evolutionary psychology. The rise of the novel, then, represents an expression not only of new ideologies of gender and marriage but also of universal desire explained by evolutionary psychology; nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the most canonical of domestic novels, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Discussion

Jane Austen writing tends to be witty and romantic. Though her name never appeared on her published books during her life, Austin's works rose to fame after her death in 1817. In fact, her popular books, such as Pride and Prejudice, have never gone out of print. She is now considered one of England's most famous novelists.

Writing Style

Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Neoclassicism encourages reason and restraint in writing. It is logical and follows a structured form. Romanticism encourages passion and imagination in writing. It is emotional and follows a flowing form. Mixing these two styles may seem ...