Pride and Prejudice Essay
- Submitted by: kriss
- Views: 1450
- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 07/30/2010 08:22 PM
- Pages: 4
- Report this Essay
Intro:
In comparing these two texts, connections can be established in regards to context and questions of value, whether indirect or direct.
Comparing these texts and exploring connections between them helps to add depth to our appreciation and ultimately shape and reshape our understanding of them.
Paragraphs:
Firstly, both these texts are connected with the underlying truths of the society they are a part of and both are critical of conventional values and beliefs. In reading Weldon’s LTA, which explains the conventions of Austen’s contexts, the reader’s appreciation of the subversive nature of PP is shaped. On first reading PP, awareness of the power the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed to possess over her male acquaintances, as her witty intellect, a key characterisation by Austen, gives her control over determining her male relationships. In particular, this is seen when she refuses marriage proposals from both Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy for personal reasons. When she refuses Mr. Collins she says, “I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them...you could not make me happy.” Similarly she says to Darcy, “You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.” In Weldon’s LTA, in a chapter titled ‘A terrible time to be alive’ highlighting the oppressive and rigid nature of Austen’s context, Weldon states that in Austen’s time women “lived well only by their husband’s favour.” And so “to marry was a great prize...a women’s aim” and any other notions were “quite new at the time” thus drawing attention to the fact that by refusing these marriage proposals simply because at the time, neither potential husbands would make her “happy”, Elizabeth Bennett was opposing the social convention of Austen’s time to marry simply for economic survival. This exposes the subversive nature of Pride as Austen’s values appear to have differed from...
In comparing these two texts, connections can be established in regards to context and questions of value, whether indirect or direct.
Comparing these texts and exploring connections between them helps to add depth to our appreciation and ultimately shape and reshape our understanding of them.
Paragraphs:
Firstly, both these texts are connected with the underlying truths of the society they are a part of and both are critical of conventional values and beliefs. In reading Weldon’s LTA, which explains the conventions of Austen’s contexts, the reader’s appreciation of the subversive nature of PP is shaped. On first reading PP, awareness of the power the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed to possess over her male acquaintances, as her witty intellect, a key characterisation by Austen, gives her control over determining her male relationships. In particular, this is seen when she refuses marriage proposals from both Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy for personal reasons. When she refuses Mr. Collins she says, “I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them...you could not make me happy.” Similarly she says to Darcy, “You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.” In Weldon’s LTA, in a chapter titled ‘A terrible time to be alive’ highlighting the oppressive and rigid nature of Austen’s context, Weldon states that in Austen’s time women “lived well only by their husband’s favour.” And so “to marry was a great prize...a women’s aim” and any other notions were “quite new at the time” thus drawing attention to the fact that by refusing these marriage proposals simply because at the time, neither potential husbands would make her “happy”, Elizabeth Bennett was opposing the social convention of Austen’s time to marry simply for economic survival. This exposes the subversive nature of Pride as Austen’s values appear to have differed from...