The Portrayal of Women in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

            I strongly feel as if the story of Pride and Prejudice is a strong representation of women in this period of time and can even extend to the modern day in some aspects. It gives many different types of women in one story line. A woman who gives up everything to be with a man and is even willing to disgrace her family because of it. This girl is obviously Lydia who ran away to marry a man whom is known by the reader as sort of a bad person. Lydia’s love for the soldiers shows how different she is than most women in this period and even in that sort of family class because she is willing to break the norm to marry a man. We get a woman, Jane, who is thought of as the prettiest and most likely to get married in their family. She is ready and willing to accept Bingley’s proposal of marriage. Jane is the most normal of women for this period and this needed to be shown to compare to her other sisters. Then we get Elizabeth who is seems to be the strongest and most independent of the women. She turns down Darcy’s marriage proposal because she sees him as somewhat of a jerk for getting Bingley away from her sister. Elizabeth is very outspoken and has a better idea of who she is as a woman. She wouldn’t rush into something unless it is completely true to herself. Even though she seems more independent, she still falls for Darcy and marries him like other women in this time would. I feel like Jane Austen’s portrayal of women is a bit slanted towards individuality in women but still pushes for the fact regarding women as sort of the same. Women in this time were pushed to marriage as their only option in life. It’s something they sort of have to do depending of their situation. The story ends with the sisters marrying away like any woman was thought to do in this period of time. I feel as if the story of Bridget Jones gives a great representation of Elizabeth in the modern day. She is a woman who is strong and desires to be successful yet still wants to find the man of her dreams. She falls head over heals for Darcy and, and after finding out that he may not be the man she thought he was, goes on to make something for herself job wise and even in enhancing her physical and mental self through fitness and work. This version really shows Elizabeth as someone who wants to be accomplished and ends up doing it. She acquires a name for herself. I feel as if this portrayal of Pride and Prejudice is the best in regards to feminism and pushes for women to be their own individuals and a life outside of marriage. Austen’s portrayal of women doesn’t really argue to change the system.” It begins with the same old idea of marriage as a necessity and something all woman really have to do and even simply want to do, then we get Elizabeth and we see a strong individual woman whom gives up chooses against someone’s proposal because of respect for her sister and even for herself, but then ultimately, Elizabeth ends up falling in love and marrying like any other woman in this period of time. I feel like if the story ended with a woman who completely does something unladylike in this time period such as not getting married at all to Darcy, that would be a stance against marriage and the story would be more of a push to change the system. The world would then see that women could sort of be okay without marriage. The story of Pride and Prejudice, even though it does follow the normal path of women in this period, it does argue against marriage for reasons other than love. All the interpretations since have really accentuated this belief with Bridgett Jones, I believe, as the most poignant example.