Mr P. Rofessor 123 School Ave.

University Hill 2345 24/02/13

To Mr S. Mart I am writing to you in regards to the confusion you created whilst speaking about contextual differences in Austens P+P and Weldons LTA in your lecture; that is there are major contextual differences between the times that the two texts were written. That is, in the regency period, there was a focus on manners, etiquette, social class as well as propriety between the sexes. In the 1980s (the time in which LTA was written), rules were less strict and it was the time of the Me generation where greed is good. Here you can see the differences in the contexts, in regards to P+P and the Regency Period, were subordinate to men, however with the growth of feminism in the 1980s, women were becoming more equal. In order to extend more on my point in order to clear up the confusion, I will give a brief analysis and comparison of the two texts in relation to gender roles. In P+P. Caroline Bingley states A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking or the word will be but halfdeserved in the quote, cumulation is used as there is a list of women must have or be. In the quote, Caroline Bingley means to say that women are present in a mans life to be ornamental. In LTA, Weldon quotes Virginia Woolf stating My dear Be sympathetic: be tender Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own with the use of a quotation and intertextuality, Weldon as well as Woolf intend to say that a woman must be deceiving and pretend to be dependent in order to survive. As you can see here, there is a strong difference within the use of superficiality, in P+P, the use of superficiality is liked, as the quote explains, a woman becomes accomplished when she has a knowledge of music, singing etc. In LTA, the quote states that women need to use superficiality as a weapon to get somewhere, as women are already seen to be accomplished. Here you see major differences within the two societies just through the two quotes, that is the use of superficiality in a time when women were subordinate and ornamental and when women were gaining strength in the 1980s through feminism. You are, I suspect, too privileged, too bright to care much what goes on in your society. Is another quote that is used in LTA which again uses cumulation as well as a direct address which scorns Alice however, even though the quote it directed at Alice it is subliminally directed at the reader. The quote insinuates that the youth of the modern era consider themselves too highly in order to care about what is going on in their society if it does not affect them. In P+P there is a quote from Mrs Bennets point of view which states Lady Lucas was a very good kid of woman, not too clever to be a valuable neighbour here, it is shown that intelligence leads to arrogance, however, because Lady Lucas was of the same lower class as Mrs Bennet they were both interested in the same subjects, those of which would not interest those of the upper classes. Here, the difference contexts change values in the way that in LTA nobody cares unless it directly affects them and in P+P different subjects were reserved for different social classes.

A major problem that I found within your speech is that of the way women were meant to obey in the different periods. That is, in the Regency Period, women were to obey and be submissive towards their male acquaintances or relations in order to succeed in life. However, in LTA this whole perception of how women were to behave was toppled and it is shown through the quote in the real world, the worse women behave, the better they get on Weldon uses this quote to comment on Lydia and how she ran off to get married, in the Regency Period, what Lydia did was strongly frowned upon, however in the 1980s it was seen to be a normal thing to do. In conclusion, both texts have a stark contrast between each other, women were meant to be submissive and ornamental in the regency period as well as being superficial and frivolous and in the 1980s women were rising to dominance in both social and political aspects of society this can be seen with Margaret Thatcher who was the female Prime Minister of England throughout the entire 1980s. Regards Mr P. Rofessor P.s I send this letter as a friendly reminder to the different contexts of the periods, I apologise for any harsh remarks, but I do not wish cause any offence.