Forces and Pressures of Society - Pride and Prejudice

Forces and Pressures of Society - Pride and Prejudice

  • Submitted By: snout
  • Date Submitted: 05/04/2013 10:35 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1526
  • Page: 7
  • Views: 136

Jane Austen’s classic novel ‘pride and prejudice’ focuses on many different individuals and the pressures of their society that they must endure and overcome. Characters such as Elizabeth, Darcy and Lydia experience pressures more severely than others. They attempt to defy the rules and expectations of society in order to achieve the love and happiness they so dream of. Furthermore, Austen successfully creates heroines in a time that it was not socially acceptable to think of women in a heroic role. Therefore I agree that Austen deals with the forces and pressures of society and how it affects those who challenge it.

The novel begins with a quote which introduces the reader to the moral and social framework of the novel, “it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. This ironic sentence also offers a miniature sketch of the entire plot, which concerns itself with the pursuit of a ‘single man in possession of a good fortune’ by various female characters. The preoccupation with socially advantageous marriage in 19th century English society manifests itself here with its claim that a single man ‘must be in want of a wife’. The narrator uses humour and irony here by revealing that the reverse is also true, a single woman, whose socially prescribed options are quite limited, is perhaps in desperate want of a husband. This sentence encapsulates the novels central concern of marriage, but the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet challenges this preoccupation and obsession. She is outspoken, independent and a non-conformist and the most profound social pressure she faces is the pressure to marry. Not only does she refuse Mr Collins proposal but she also refuses Mr Darcy. Mr Collins proposal is made only to secure his own social standing. He himself is influenced by social pressure and believes it is only proper for him to become married. He arrogantly assumes Elizabeth will accept his proposal for if...

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