The Portrayal of Women in Jane Austen's Novels

1207 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's role in jane austen

The Portrayal of Women in Jane Austen's Novels

'I expect my husband to be good-tempered and cheerful and to consult

my happiness in all his actions and to love me with constancy and

sincerity'- Jane Austen's Three sisters, 3rd letter.

This is the view that men and women have of marriage today. However

this was not the case in the 18th and 19th century, in the days of

Jane Austen. The word 'Marriage' meant financial support and

materialistic commitment to most women. Marrying for love was rarely

heard of. This is strongly illustrated by Jane Austen in two of her

novels, 'The Three Sisters' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. I will compare

these with a third novel called 'A Stench of Kerosene' written by

Amrita Pritam. I will look closely at how both writers set across

corresponding messages but with very diverse methods. The portrayal of

marriage is very different in 'A Stench of Kerosene' then that of 'The

Three Sisters'. It concerns a Sikh couple, Guleri and Manak, who love

each other dear. In 7 years Guleri had not born a child and Manak's

mother had made a 'secret resolve'. She would not let it go beyond the

8th year and so she gets Manak a new wife. When Guleri heard of this

'she soaked her clothes in kerosene and set fire to them'. Guleri

marries Manak for love, whereas Mary marries Mr. Watts for competitive

and materialistic reasons.

The representation of women in all three novels is that they do not

have the freedom that they have today. Men played a dominant role in

life. Jane Austen conveys in 'The Three Sisters' and 'Pride and

Prejudice' a very patriarchal society.

In 'A Stench of Kerosene' Amrita Pritam conveys the Sikh culture at

that time to marry for love and to keep the family name going. However

in Jane Austen's novels marrying was competition with other siblings

and to fulfill materialistic needs.

The similarities in the role of women in the two stories are that they

are confined and within limits set by their culture or society.

Show More
Related

  • Investigating the Effect to Which the Factions Were in Control of Henrican Government Between 1540 and 1547

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    to play one off the other. In many ways the 1540's saw a return to

    Read More

  • The Diversity of the American Society on the Eve of the Boom

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    at the end of the 19th century. In addition of that there was only an

    Read More

  • Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Characters and Social Expectations

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.

    Read More

  • A Women’s Quest for Power in Jane Austen’s Emma

    1563 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the ordered English town of Highbury in Jane Austen’s Emma, people live a well constructed life, which shapes the views of social classes in their world. Despite the fact that Emma is a nineteenth-century novel, it represents a time when women depended on economic support from men. This method is observed through the main character Emma, who spends a great deal of her time agonizing about wealth and potential power. In the novel, readers are introduced to Emma as a young prosperous woman who manages her father’s house. Since she is younger than her two sisters, she is introduced to various female characters, which influence her social development and exemplify a range of gender roles available to her. In Emma’s household women are superior to men, as her father demonstrates feminine tendencies and the women are portrayed as masculine. This could be the reason Emma prides herself in being an advocate of structuring prosperous relationships within her community. When Emma considers prosperous relationship, she begins by categories people by their power and beauty. In Emma’s mind, power and beauty is the ideal combination to developing a perfect society. In Jane Austen‘s Emma, the main character Emma uses her obsession with beauty and power to create her own utopia. Emma’s utopia reconfigures the social system so that hierarchy is defined by looks and character instead of birthrights. However, when Emma’s attempt to create her own utopia fails, Austen challenges readers to accept the existing order and structure of the early nineteenth century English society.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Patriarchy In Jane Austen's Emma

    1968 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, Emma, Austen introduced her audience to a new idea of patriarchy. While she is known to satirize society for the “faulty education of female children, limited expectations for girls and women, and the perils of the marriage market” (“Austen, Jane”). Austen expresses the irony of the men of her patriarchal society and proposes the ideal gentleman in Mr. Knightley. In Emma, Austen moves away from “a traditional idea of 'natural' male supremacy towards a 'modern' notion of gender equity” (Marsh). Jane Austen is a revolutionary in the way she transforms the idea of Nineteenth Century patriarchy by not “reinforcing the traditional gender stereotypes” (Rosenbury) but instead challenging the status quo. While her characters still hold some ties to traditional ideals, Austen proves to be ahead of her time, influencing the way gender is regarded today.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles Of Men And Women In Jane Austen's Persuasion

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    In a world dominated by patriarchal societies, Jane Austen wrote several novels concerning the gender roles of men and women. During the period Persuasion was written, society began toying with the idea of equity in gender roles. Jane Austen explored the idea of gender evenhandedness in the novel Persuasion. Austen used her book as a tool to express that both men and women could be emotional, stoic, irrational and rational. By using social class and customs to express the nonsensicality of believing all men and women were given birth roles in society based on gender and social class, Austen created a world that challenged gender roles. After reading Persuasion, it is evident that Jane Austen wanted readers to see men and women as equally

    Read More

  • Jane Austen's Influence on Literature: Pride and Prejudice

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though today Jane Austen is regarded for her writing, during her time she couldn’t even publish her work under her own name, because it was considered unladylike for women to be intellectual figures. Unlike J. K. Rowling and other English female writers today, who are well known for their works even without using their full names, Jane Austen lived within the sanctuary of a close-knit family and always published her works under a pseudonym that could not be traced back to her (jasna.org). Writing at the time was a male-dominated profession and women depended completely on men for their livelihood. During her upbringing she knew the importance of money to women in a severely classist and patriarchal society, and so marriage was the answer to the survival of women during this time (Helms 32). Even knowing these qualities were important in her life she criticized them. Jane’s writing is somewhat comical, because even while criticising those normal discriminations in her book Pride and Prejudice, the book was published with a prejudiced nameless cover, shedding even greater light on the lack of sense and shortcoming of sensibility of eighteenth century Great Britain. So in order for women to hide their identity while writing about things that were highly controversial they used male pen names. Female authors resorted to pseudonyms to become published and to not be shunned away by their readers, and only after they did this their work was taken as serious literature. Although we ask why do we see Jane Austen’s name printed on all her classical works? That is because we see it “today” in the current year. During her lifetime Jane Austen remained pretty much unidentified because all her novels were published anonymously unde...

    Read More

  • Characteristics of Romanticism in the History of Art.

    1403 Words  | 3 Pages

    1775 – 1830 it is important to note that this was a period of change

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself, and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.

    Read More

  • Women's Role in Society in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen

    2714 Words  | 6 Pages

    Over the centuries, women’s duties or roles in the home and in the work force have arguably changed for the better. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen teaches the reader about reputation and loves in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries by showing how Elizabeth shows up in a muddy dress, declines a marriage proposal and how women have changed over time. Anything a woman does is reflected on her future and how other people look at her. When Elizabeth shows up to the Bingley’s in a muddy dress they categorize her as being low class and unfashionable. Charles Bingley, a rich attractive man, and his sister had a reputation to protect by not letting their brother marry a ‘low class girl’. Reputation even today and back in the nineteenth century is still very important aspect in culture. In the twenty-first century, women have attempted to make their lives easier by wanting to be more equal with the men in their society. Women are wanting to be the apart of the ‘bread winnings’ efforts within a family. Since evolving from the culture of the nineteenth century, women have lost a lot of family and home making traditions but women have gained equality with more rights such as voting, working, and overall equal rights. In the twenty-first century world, most women are seen for losing their morals for and manners for others. As for example in the novel when Mr. Darcy is talking badly about Elizabeth she over hears what he and his friend, Mr. Bingley, are saying about her but she does not stand up for herself.

    Read More

  • A Character Analysis Of Jane Austen's Emma

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    To be a mentor is to hold influence over a person’s actions or education. Overall, “Emma” is a novel about the influence that people hold over each other, and how that influence can affect people. Conflict is built by different characters who view themselves as mentors struggling to assert their opinions over others and pupil characters who accept their mentor’s opinions without bothering to form their own.

    Read More

  • Femininity In Jane Eyre

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre, the author juxtaposes the representations of femininity of Bertha Mason and the title character to champion Bronte’s ideal conceptualization of independent women.

    Read More

  • Feminism and Jane Austen's Emma

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    In eighteenth century which feminist in social status was not popular by that time, author can only through literature to express her thought and discontented about society. Jane Austen’s Emma advocates a concept about the equality of men and women. Also satirizes women would depend on marriage in exchange to make a living or money in that era. By the effect of society bourgeois, Emma has little self-arrogant. She is a middle class that everyone could admire, “Young, pretty, rich and clever”, she has whatever she needs. She disdains to have friends with lower levels. However, she is soon reach satisfaction with matchmaking for her friend. Story characterizes a distorted society images and the superiority of higher class status. It brought out the importance of class divided over that time. Story Emma is female bildungsroman. In this thesis will explore the essentials of old society, feminism and the fear of marriage and how main character’s spiritual growth to transform distorted ethic on social value and value of marriage.

    Read More

  • Role of Women in Jane Eyre

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre represents the role of women in the Victorian era by giving the reader an insight into the lives of women from all social classes. Jane Eyre therefore represents figures of the Victorian time yet the character of Jane Eyre, herself, can be seen as very unconventional for the Victorian society.

    Read More

  • Jane Austen's Writing Style

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jane Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Austen created a transition into Romanticism which encourages passion and imagination in writing instead of a strict and stale writing style. It is very emotional and follows a flowing not structured form. Mixing these two styles was one of Austen's strongest talents, which gave her an edge in the literary world. No other author in her time was able to create such a strong transition between writing styles. Austen used her sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing including in one of her most famous works; Pride and Prejudice. She could create a powerful and dramatic scene and immediately lead it into a satirical cathartic scene. We see these in various locations in Pride and Prejudice. She was able to use her experiences as well as her intense knowledge to create meaningful insights into her words, regardless of what topic she would be discussing. She often talks about marriage, or breaking the roles of what a person should be. She made controversial works that praised imperfections which praised the...

    Read More

More about The Portrayal of Women in Jane Austen's Novels

Open Document