Pride and Prejudice

I really like to think of Jane Austin as one of the first feminist writers of the 19th century.

We see her pushing social norms of the time and even the expectations of women. 

We see Elizabeth as the fiercely independent woman who romanizes love and one wants to marry when she wants to and on her terms. 

It’s funny seeing the contrast between her parents but it’s so satisfying and charming. We see the mom as this over the top and is on the constant mission to make her daughters get married. While you have this chill father who thinks more like Elizabeth in the sense of she should marry who she wants and not necessarily for the money, but someone who will make her happy. 

Lucky for her though Mr. Darcy is both rich and is someone she loves. it’s funny to think about how true it is that Mr. Darcey is this fantasy that women even in the 21st century have the ideal male. Especially in lots of drama shows and romances, this formula Jane Austin has is genius.This a formula that is very used today in many rom-coms and tv shows. 

We also see this mythology that women are supposed to be gendered to stay at home, and need to be married. It’s refreshing to see a protagonist that takes her life into her own hands and see her decide her destiny. 

We also see the men in the novel trying to live up to this expectation they also have in society. I love how Mr. Collins is the complete opposite of that, and we see him as this awkward rather dull man. But he is still a good person but it’s interesting how almost none of the characters fit in the bubble of the “norm”. And if they do they’re rare or cocky about it being “better” than you. 

I also really think its amazing to see how even back in the 19th century we see female ideal that is hard to achieve. We see Jane Austin make fun of it when Elizabeth is spending the day with Mr. Darcey’s. I love how Elizabeth scoffs at him for these high expectations of women, but yet he barely can find any. 

Even in society today we see this high expectation on women to be pretty, this height, weight, has to be very well rounded. But in reality that is just crazy in general to have this expectation. 

We even see with lady Catherine that she even has this aspect in her head how and what a lady is supposed to do. And with a man, there is less responsibility but this idea that they need to be this masculine head of house that can fight, read, and lead the woman in any activity. 

This novel, in particular, is just a fun read, it’s hard at first to get into because of all the wording and the particular sentences formatting. But, this novel is a treat and I love the particular humor and modesty this book has. I’m definitely interested in reading the other interpretation of it in the future. 

I was thought it was interesting that Jane Austin seemed to right a lot of fantasies that maybe she wanted once, but could only came true in her novels…