Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice Part 2

     In the second half of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we see a lot of controversy regarding love interests amongst the characters. One quote I pulled from the reading stated, “His sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit.” In this, Darcy was explaining his marriage proposal to Darcy. But with doing so, he was very degrading towards her. He spent more time being condescending towards her than he did explaining why he wanted to be with her. In this, she rejected the proposal, which I felt showed her power in the situation. The later we get in time, the more power women seem to have in situations like these.

    Another quote that stood out to me occurred when Elizabeth was speaking to Darcy. She stated, “You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less. The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them.” During this, she was reevaluating her feelings towards him after receiving his letter. She was questioning his reasoning on why he fell in love with her. This quote was a good representation of the power Elizabeth had in this part. We see a lot of women in this time that had no power over their husbands or any man, but she was sticking up for herself and seemed to have power in this situation. 


Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 

Comments

  1. Rebekah CrawfordFebruary 22, 2021 at 6:19 AM

    I agree with your points that Austen creates powerful and independent female characters that were often uncommon at the time. I think both of your quotes were very well chosen in describing Elizabeth's character and will. I think that Elizabeth definitely shows more qualities of a modern woman through her decisions.

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