However, I find it quite ridiculous that this way the way that women were expected to live. Marry, or become a poor "no one". Have children, busy yourself all day with learning to sing/dance/play instruments, and keep your man happy. That's what was expected of you. When rationalizing agreeing to marry Mr. Collins, Charlotte thinks, "Without thinking highly either of men or of matrimony, marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantest preservative from want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age of twenty-seven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the good luck of it". Even in both versions of the movies, there was a constant need to be hitched. It's quite ridiculous, and I am so proud to say now that women have made something of themselves. Not only are they STILL great mothers and housewives, but many have combined that with being CEO's of big companies, police officers, soldiers, government leaders, etc. It's great to read novels like this and really see how far women have come. I believe Jane Austen would be proud.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Marriage: The Ultimate Goal in the 19th Century
One thing that I admire about Jane Austen is the fact that she saw humor in the fact that just about every girl in her time wanted to do one thing: get married. Don't get me wrong, marriage is an amazingly wonderful thing (when approached in the right way), but make a girl believe that that is the one thing that she needs to do in her life, and it becomes toxic. Let's take, for example, Lydia Bennett in Pride and Prejudice. At one point Elizabeth in the novel describes her as, "the most determined flirt that ever made herself and her family ridiculous. A flirt, too, in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation; without any attraction beyond youth and a tolerable person; and from the ignorance and emptiness of her mind, wholly unable to ward off any portion of that universal contempt which her rage for admiration will excite". Aided by her mother's unending and constant pressure to get married, Lydia loses all self respect for herself to be in some sort of union with a man because that is the ending goal that her mother has always pushed upon her.
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Hi Shanna! I really liked reading your thoughts on the idea of marriage in the novel Pride and Prejudice. I agree with you when you say “One thing I admire about Jane Austen is the fact that she saw humor in the fact that just about every girl in her time wanted to do one thing” get married.” When reading this novel, I believe that it is vital for the reader to look deeper into what Austen is trying to say. If you just read the words without thinking about what they say, it would seem that Austen is portraying women to be there to marry a husband. But in reality, I think that she is questioning their actions. During this time marriage was the ultimate goal for any woman. Not just any man would do either; he needed to be a rich man. The first line of the novel, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” I believe that as the novel continues on, Austen demonstrates the opposite of this. Through the use of different characters, such as Lydia Bennet, Mrs. Bennet, and Charlotte, Austen presents the idea that a single woman must be in want of a single man in possession of a good fortune for a husband.
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