View Of Gender In Pride And Prejudice
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Submitted by XanderAxel on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM
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View Of Gender In Pride And Prejudice
“A View of Gender in Pride and Prejudice”
Throughout history, the actions of people have been governed or influenced by the
restrictions of their gender. Traditionally, women are expected to act in a way that men
will find sexually attractive. They must be timid, weak, and submissive to their male
counterparts. Likewise, men have expectations from society that they need to meet. Men
must be strong, confident, and emotionally distant. If a member of either gender acted in a
way that does not fit the social 'norm', they would be looked down upon. In Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice, gender roles are expressed in certain characters, while other
characters clearly cross the gender line, and as in life, they are looked scorned for their
'gender bending'. In either case, these characters are limited by the rules society has
placed for them and their gender.
Elizabeth Bennet is one of five sisters. She lives with them and her mother and
father on a small estate in the country. If her father should happen to die, Elizabeth, her
sisters, and her mother would all have nowhere to live. In this time period, women were
not usually allowed to own property, so the estate would go to the male next of kin. In
this case, the estate would go to a Mr. Collins, a cousin of Elizabeth. These gender
restrictions would force six people onto the street just because they were women, they
would have to depend on the kindness of their friends and neighbors. When Mr. Collins
comes to visit the estate, he comes looking to make a wife out of one of the daughters.
After a few days Elizabeth realizes that he has his eye on her, and when he proposes she
refuses him. This came very...
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