Comparative Essay On Pride And Prejudice

There is much to enjoy and critique about the 2005 cinematic adaption of Austen's, Pride and Prejudice. Despite some slight historical inaccurate the film serves to present a fairly accurate description of life in the 18th century for a well to do young woman on the cusp of adulthood. When comparing this specific cinematic portrayal of Pride and Prejudice to what we currently know about the British Empire at the time we can see certain similarities in the position of women in society and in the home as told through the perspective of young Elizabeth Bennet. This perspective is limited in the sense that Elizabeth is middle class and has a greater access to resources than the majority of people during this time which is evidenced by the film's

Though the Bennet's lived rather modestly they were not as Engle's describes in his piece, 'The Great Towns' troubled with the destitute poverty that plagued the working class of that time. Indeed the Bennet's were permitted the freedom of what can be assumed much better living qualities in terms of environment and living space than that of those living in the urban cities. Engle's described the slums of London and those like it as "The dwellings of the workers are everywhere badly planned, badly built, and kept in the worst condition, badly ventilated, damp, and unwholesome. The inhabitants are confined to the smallest possible space, and at least one family usually sleeps in each room. The interior arrangement of the dwellings is poverty-stricken in various degrees, down to the utter absence of even the most necessary furniture." (Engles, The Great Towns). The Bennet's estate, named Longbourn was no mansion but there was space enough for the girls and what was implied to be several members of the staff, several livestock and adequate access to natural spaces. The lack of enclosures and the free space that many of the lower to middle class had was evident in the film and between the classes given the stark differences between the Bennet's home and the Elizabeth's visit to London among the lower

Wollstonecraft's writing was indicative of a woman too radical for her time, holding a belief that women were not meant to be just equal to men but deserved an education that allowed them to continue acting as educators and moral safe guards. Wollstonecraft implied that the women of her time had reduced themselves to lesser people as evidenced when she said, “My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone." (Wollstonecraft 9). This belief was as much evidenced in the quick development of Charlotte's relationship with Collin's, who married out of necessity to gain financial security. The inability to stand alone was also seen in the crisis surrounding the Longbourn estate and the unjust manner in which the Bennet's girls would have been left without their home simply for being women. The film and the novel both display Austen's stance against this idea by having Elizabeth reject Collin's proposal believing that she had more respect for herself than to settle for a marriage out of