Miss Austen’s body of work is rife with flawed parent-child relationships. For our Heroines, marriage was the only escape. In this essay I will review the parent figures in Persuasion, Emma, and Pride and Prejudice. Anne and Emma are motherless, and while both girls are burdened by ineffective juvenile fathers, their households couldn’t differ more. Manheimer believes that although ‘standard rhetoric’ would render a motherless child vulnerable, “nineteenth century novels resound with the success of orphans” (533), and though this could be true for Emma Woodhouse it was certainly not beneficial to Anne Elliot.
Charlotte does not desire love or happiness, but asks ‘only for a comfortable home’ (106), and believes that ‘happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance’ (18). Austen contrasts this conventional view of a sensible, convenient marriage with Elizabeth’s desire for love and harmony in a marriage. Elizabeth’s contrast to Charlotte is evident as early as chapter 6, where Charlotte speaks of Jane’s need to ‘secure’ Bingley, and once she does, there will be ‘leisure for falling in love’ (17). Charlotte’s belief that it is better to know little about someone before marriage and the idea that happiness in marriage is determined by ‘chance,’ is countered with Elizabeth’s view of love in marriage, who tells Charlotte that this advice ‘is not sound’ (18). Elizabeth refuses ‘to be treated as a commodity in the marriage market,
Through his conversation with the Bennets, Jane Austen portrays the way in which Mr Collins is pretentious and pompous. Elizabeth and Mr Bennet make clear to the reader the fact that he is conceited; yet he still maintains a sycophantic behaviour where Lady Catherine is concerned. Mr Collins is shown to be superficial and pretentious; it is done through his conversation with the Bennets and Mr Bennet and Elizabeth commenting on his behaviour. When asked by Mr Bennet whether his “pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment”, Mr Collins replies he “always wish to give them as unstudied an air as possible”. Mr Bennet purposefully asks such a question in order to satirise Mr Collins and due to this, it shows that Mr Collins prepares compliments and tries to not make it known that it is rehearsed, portraying his pretentious nature.
The industrial revolution, particularly in England at this point (where the revolution first gained momentum), served to weaken the position of women in society in a number of ways, for even the women not immediately drafted for labor in the factories, would be inevitably repressed by the institutionalized and newly refined forms of degradation, that came along with the “rationalization” of society (the “civilization” of middle-class women, she argues, degrades them much more than laboring women). That the state of women in 1790 is the product of circumstance and imperfect education, rather than nature, is what Wollstonecraft attempts to prove (and successfully so). Wollstonecraft begins her argument with one simple, logical premise: That the intentional and artificial elevation of one man over others breeds malaise and corruption in such individuals, and
His confidence, devotion, and reason intrigue Jane almost enough to silence her inner passionate spirit, but it is the forces of nature that prove to be stronger than human will. The life path of a Victorian woman was somewhat limited in it's direction and expression of individuality. Jane Eyre strongly adheres to the Victorian morality, which was dominated by the Anglican party of the Church of England in which passion and emotion were kept concealed. Jane's instinct for asserting herself was stifled at an early age and could only be expressed through defiance. The wrongful statement from Mrs. Reed, “You are deceitful”, (pg.
Through this, Charlotte Bronte implies that the women who rebelled against their role in society had a hard time finding people to relate to or be friends with. It is also clear that Jane’s desire to have an equal power relationship, which has homosexual undertones, with another masculine personality, is another reason for Jane’s failed female relationships, especially her negative relationship with Mrs. Reed. By showing Jane’s inability to have a female friendship with any women of her acquaintance, Charlotte Bronte implies that equality in Victorian society is rare or even impossible. Jane’s female cousins are not capable of having an intense relationship with Jane that fulfills the criteria of Jane’s ideal relationship. While Jane and her cousins appear to have a strong relationship with each other as they enjoy participating in the same activities and having the same opinions in their conversations, which Jane claims to find “a reviving
Critics have described Beatrice and Benedick as characters who defy the romantic expectation. Evaluate this and other interpretations, adding your own personal responses. In Much Ado About Nothing, the principal characters of the plot are Beatrice and Benedict (though some see Hero and Claudio as the main storyline in the play) and are poles apart it first seems. Beatrice is fiery and independent, and doesn’t live up to the Victorian stereotype that her more reserved and naïve cousin Hero does. Benedick also doesn’t sit with his stereotype either, though more so than Beatrice does.
Marlene calls Thatcher; ‘Maggie’ – colloquial use of her name suggesting closeness, perhaps a metaphor for the incorporation of the prime minister’s ideology into society and presenting its strong impact on ordinary life, especially Marlene’s. Churchill however shows how this allusion to a return of the ‘stupendous eighties’ is unrealistic, Thatcher’s contemporary ideology doesn’t work for women or those of lower class unless they lose their identity but perhaps contrasting that it’s exactly this strong ideology that has enabled Marlene to succeed in a world of ‘monetarism.’ For example, Nijo doesn’t actually beat her husband but for the purpose of the play, to highlight the feminist theme, Churchill exaggerates - her thoughts and desires are so strong that they seem real. Nijo defies male dominance like Marlene breaks stereotypical male dominance by reaching ‘top’ through gaining the promotion over other male contenders. The embodiment of Marlene in the character of Nijo emphasises the loss of parts of Marlene’s identity. It’s ironic that Marlene sympathises with characters of Act1 and doesn’t realise the catharsis of her unconscious manifesting itself in this surreal scene.
How is the theme of isolation portrayed in Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Robert frost poetry, with reference to Atonement? Tess of the D’Urbervilles was a novel written by Thomas Hardy, who was a Victorian realist. The novel challenged the ideas and rules of society at its time of release. The theme of isolation runs throughout Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Tess feels that not only has society abandoned her, but god as well. As Victorians viewed pregnancy outside of wedlock, scandalous and the woman’s fault, she was ostracised by society.
Jane’s cousin, Master John, discovers her reading a book from ‘his’ bookshelf, and assaults her. When taking Jane to the red-room, Miss Abbot comments: “And you ought not to think of yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because Missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money, and you will have none: it is your place to be humble and to try to make yourself agreeable to them.” Even as a child, Jane is emotionally neglected because of the prejudices of society. Of no fault of her own, she was predetermined a social outcast to her aristocratic relatives, purely because of her genealogy. Whilst this approach would have been accepted by readers of the time as natural, within a modern society a strong sense of injustice is aroused.