Running head: DROPPING THE PREJUDICE OF WOMEN

Dropping the Prejudice of Women

Jacob House
Period 8
April 18th, 2016
West Career and Technical Academy

DROPPING THE PREJUDICE OF WOMEN

Abstract
The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen evaluates various ideas about gender
criticism during the time of its publishing. Throughout the novel, there are many examples of
how women are treated in relationships and in day to day life. The main duties of a woman was
to survive, find a man to marry, bear a child (hopefully a son), and care for the child and the
family. Austen criticises this with one of the main characters Elizabeth Bennett who defies social
norms and reject not just one, but two marriage proposals. In addition, the novel sets a precedent
to which womens rights have improved tremendously. The work when looked through the lens
of feminism reveals a strong support of women and their right to be equal in society.

DROPPING THE PREJUDICE OF WOMEN

Dropping the Prejudice of Women

Women's rights in the time of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was almost a joke. A
women could do nothing but be married, take care of a house (but not own it), and take care of
the children. Anything else, only a man could do. If one were to look through the literary lense of
gender criticism, it would be found that Jane Austen is a queen of criticising gender roles. She
writes about these gender roles in the novel Pride and Prejudice where Austen uses the daughters
of the Bennett family to portray each gender's roles and how men treat women and vice versa.
Austens work is a symbol for womens rights in its time setting and is a contribution to the
advancement and change for womens rights around the world.
The lens of gender criticism/feminism encompasses many different ideas. One could be
gender equality, another could be womens rights, and one could even be the pressures of a
gender (which would apply to both men and women). The main principle, however, is how is
each gender treated and how are we as a society working for equality. Prior to the 18th century
across the entire world, women had either little to no rights. In America, law accepted the
principle that a wife had no legal identity apart from her husband. She could not be sued, nor
could she bring a legal suit; she could not make a contract, nor could she own property, (Digital
History, 2016). These rights were common in other countries, including the United Kingdom, the
main setting of Pride and Prejudice. Feminism is a subject in which people have to draw
attention to it until someone is screaming in anothers face, and then convince them to do
something about it. There was a lot of prejudice toward women like in the mid-1830s when
female antislavery societies were being created,... A key question was whether women
abolitionists would be permitted to lecture to mixed audiences of men and women. (Digital

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History, 2016). It was works like Pride and Prejudice that brought attention to these issues. In
similar novels written during the time period, they contain a lot of attempted (and achieved)
rape The plots of novels are littered with endangered virgins. As Nancy K. Miller puts it in her
study of some eighteenth-century British and French novels, the heroines text is the text of an
ideology that codes femininity in the paradigms of sexual vulnerability, (Morgan, 2010).
Austen does not include any description of illicit acts as other authors use this to promote the
passion and feeling and also because of the male domination that these acts represent. Austen
takes these ideas in her writing and criticises gender roles through the progression of the novel.
Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice primarily addresses two ideas of gender criticism. The
first idea is gender roles. A part of the very first few pages of the novel where Mrs. Bennett
excitedly reports that (a) single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year (is moving
in). What a fine thing for our girls! (Austen, 1813/1995, p.1), and that Mr. Bennett shall
introduce himself at once so that her daughters could respectfully meet the new man.
Immediately, the reader is presented with the gender roles at the time, and as the book
progresses, we then arrive at the marriage proposal of Mr. Collins. His infamous words are, My
reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy
circumstances (like myself) to set the example of matrimony in his parish. Secondly, that I am
convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness; and thirdly, which perhaps I ought to have
mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady
whom I have the honour of calling patroness." (Austen, 1813/1995, p. 62). The most disturbing
part of this proposal is that Mr. Collins does not mention any sort of love, or at least
acknowledgement of Elizabeth. These are just two examples of how Austen criticised the role of
a woman in her setting and the novel includes many more.

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The other idea that Pride and Prejudice criticises is the freedom of a woman and
domination of men. As evaluated previously, Mr. Collins makes an empty marriage proposal that
does not include the acknowledgement of any feelings toward Elizabeth. Elizabeth has a very
unique characteristic that not many of the other women in the novel have, beside her sister Jane,
which is an awareness of oneself. She is able to ask herself, What do I want? and be able to
answer it. While most other women, like Caroline, would have accepted Mr. Collins proposal,
she rejects him. Enabled by her father, this unique Bennet daughter sets out with a surplus of
intellectual confidence and authority which, in the course of the novel, she must largely
relinquish. (Emsley, 2010). This unique characteristic of a female character is used by Austen
to also interact with Mr. Darcy in a very unique way to the time period. Elizabeth has a courtship
with Mr. Darcy in which she initially rejects him, which is a very uncommon thing for a women
to reject one just one, but two marriage proposals. However, Precisely halfway through the
novel (almost to the very letter by a computer count of words), Elizabeth...is the recipient of a
letter...from Fitzwilliam Darcy, (Bonaparte, 2005) where he explains himself in which Elizabeth
is required to make the choice to ignore prejudices and not just read the letter, but to understand
it. This switches gender roles and Mr. Darcy must appeal to Elizabeth and work for her attention.
However, this type of interaction between men and women was very uncommon and almost
scandalous. If anyone were to learn of this interaction, they would be forced to be married for
they would suffer the wrath of society.
Austens work is a part of actions that begins a shift in the role of women toward being
more like Elizabeths. Looking at Pride and Prejudice from this lens of gender criticism realises
that the novel had the intention of holding the reader by the head and screaming in their face.
Shortly after the publishing of Pride and Prejudice, womens rights and gender roles were

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changing not only in the United Kingdom, but also in other major economic countries. Today,
womens rights have greatly improved. In countries like the UK, the US, Japan, Italy, Germany,
and France, they all protect women from domestic violence, women can own property and enter
agreements, and all have the right to work equally as men. However, there are still notable issues
that some of these countries have not yet addressed, primarily in sexual harassment. In all of the
mentioned countries, there is no protection from military sexual harassment, and some do not
have specific laws protecting against harassment or a special process to handle such cases
("Women's Rights Country by Country," 2014). This evidence suggests that Pride and Prejudice
impacted the creation of these womens rights as the way rights were in the time of the novel
were not fair nor were they working. It also reflects on Austens personal life and how herself
remained single, mostly by choice, which was a major difference from normal society.
Pride and Prejudice is an important work for gender criticism because it flags issues at
the time it was written, and acts like a history book to us today in how women were treated and
what rights that they had. Society has improved tremendously from the time of Austens work
where more and more people are being treated equally and fairly today. It proves that when we
forget our pride, especially the men, and drop prejudice on what women can do, we as a society
are more connected and equal so everyone may enjoy life.

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References
Austen, J. (1813/1995). Pride and prejudice. New York: Dover.
Bonaparte, F. (2005). Conjecturing Possibilities: Reading and Misreading Texts in Jane
Austens Pride and Prejudice. In University of North Texas (Author), Studies in the novel
37 (Vol. 2, pp. 141-161). Retrieved from Salem Online database.
Digital History. (2016). Women's Rights. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from Digital History
website: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3539
Emsley, S. (2010). Pride and Prejudice and the Beauty of Justice. In J. Lynch (Ed.),
Critical Insights: Jane Austen. Hackensack: Salem. Retrieved from
http://online.salempress.com
Morgan, Susan. (2010). Why There's No Sex in Jane Austen's Fiction. In J. Lynch (Ed.),
Critical Insights: Jane Austen. Hackensack: Salem. Retrieved from
http://online.salempress.com
Women's rights country by country - interactive. (2014, February 4). Retrieved April 3,
2016, from thegardian website: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/nginteractive/2014/feb/04/womens-rights-country-by-country-interactive