No means no: A case study on landlords being rejected in "Mansfield Park" and "Pride and Prejudice" (Amanda Berchez e Maria Clara Pivato Biajoli) (original) (raw)

To Wed or not to Wed: Investigating Marriage Proposal in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

2014

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a classic literary work widely read and studied all over the world. Considered one of the most famous pieces of writing in Austen’s time, the novel has been thoroughly analysed especially in terms of its Victorian socio-cultural context where women’s lives and future happiness depend greatly on good marriages. Wishing to shed further light on the persuasive techniques deployed in different marriage proposals, we examine three significant dialogues: Mr. Collins’s proposal to Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s final proposal to Elizabeth Bennet. The analysis is based on Marwell and Schmitt (1967)’s theory of compliance-gaining strategies and Jacks and Cameron (2003)’s theory of resistance strategies. The findings suggest that in attempting to manipulate Elizabeth Bennet into accepting the proposals, Austen’s male characters employ different persuasive techniques in the three dialogues. Interestingly, th...

The Discourse of Gender and Marriage in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion

Jane Austen's reputation as a great English novelist, and as one who was able to raise the female voice at such a time when women could not be heard, or even get published, had been recognised by the likes of Leavis, Richards and Bloom – who consider her works as examples of the best that had been thought of and said in the world – thus worthy of inclusion in the great tradition. This paper examines Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion as products of a feminist state of mind. This way, it presents the pitiable depiction of the female in the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries – a period characterised by the need for women to preserve themselves from want through the institution of marriage. The paper also explores how Austen employed the narrative form which allows her heroines to recreate and redefine themselves through the medium of dialogue and feminine thinking.

Contrasting Attitudes Toward Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

2016

Through a liberal feminist perspective, this essay investigates the unconventional marital views of the fictional character Elizabeth Bennet. These are analyzed and compared to the traditional marital opinions of the novel's social environment. Moreover, the historical context is important in understanding the marital views in Pride and Prejudice, because the novel was written at a time when the views toward marriage changed significantly. This paper argues that Elizabeth's behavior, expressed opinions and rejections of Mr. Collins's and Mr. Darcy's proposals depict liberal feminist ideas of marriage. The literary review supports the notion that there are two contrasting attitudes toward marriage in Pride and Prejudice: the traditional view and the liberal feminist view. The thorough examination of Elizabeth Bennet's character strongly suggests that she represents the unconventional view of marriage, while characters such as Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, and Charlott...

How Jane Austen Uses Marriage to Get What She Wants

As a biochemistry major approaching the subject of Jane Austen and feminism, I found the dichotomy between pleasure readers and critical readers interesting. How can books that are almost 200 years old draw so much attention from both quarters still today? In my thesis, I use Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma to discuss how Austen uses the marriage plot in the context of the 18th century. This plot device allows her to point out problems with marriage as a market, such as emphasis on wealth and the social setup that requires women to be "taken care of" by men. Her strategy works because it is a mixture of the pleasurable and the critical: one cannot read Austen without enjoying the romantic love stories and learning deeper lessons. This intriguing overlap is one of the reasons Austen continues to impact the modern world.

Two Lovers in an Austenian Novel of Manners: The Impact of Social Status in Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a novel that reflects the reality of life at all times. True love must come through all kind of obstacles such as reputation and class. In Austen"s novel, the beauty, manner of speech, artistic and musical skills determine the women"s values. Set in society during the Georgian era, where marrying for wealth and social status is more common than marrying for love and suitability, Elizabeth makes the definite choice to wait for love even though she knows it may never come. The social context of literature provides insight into the ways society has progressed and changed or even maintained its social values. Pride and Prejudice is still a timeless novel that examines relatable events within today"s society. The power-dynamics between men and women and their effects on marriage and understanding one"s place and purpose is clearly shown in Austenian literarily approach. Social class is an underlying factor, and the idea of marrying among higher or own class still continues, although it dwindles.

“The Theo-Political Origins of the English Marriage Plot.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction, Special Issue: Theories of the Novel Now, 43.1 (Spring 2010): 31-37.

Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 2010

From Ian Watt on, accounts of the rise of the novel have focused on historical processes such as the emergence of the companionate domestic sphere, the rise of middle-class individualism, and the feminization of the literary marketplace. The novel has been analyzed in such terms as an agent and/or a product of the forces of modernization and secularization. I want here to make a case that this fundamentally secular account cannot explain key elements of the early novel's representational repertoire, and in particular why the topic of the legitimate marriage became so crucial to the genre's development after samuel Richardson, at least until Jane austen's time. This is not to reject the historicism implicit in all "rise of the novel" theses but to insist on the explanatory power of a different history. In particular, I want to make the case that the settings from within which marriage came to acquire sufficient signifying power to become a central event for english prose fiction were primarily political and religious-or, better, theopolitical-rather than simply social or literary. This is to say that literary history needs a new understanding of both history and social theory to account for the marriage plot's particular negotiation of connections among the sacred, the governmental, and the civic.

Stereotypical Gender Roles and New Construct of Marriage in Pride and Prejudice

International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 2019

Abstract: In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen criticizes society’s construct of marriage and questions the traditional stereotypical gender roles which considered women as objects and beautiful statues who have no rights. Through the Bennetts, the Collins and the Wickhams she portrays negative models of marriage based on long-established understanding of gender roles and the deire to meet pragmatic social needs. They fall short of of an ideal marriage. On the other side, in the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy and through the strong independent heroine, she suggests a new model that is built on understanding, love equality and respect. Keywords: Marriage; Stereotypes; Social; Traditional; Gender