Women’s Challenge to Patriarchalism; Feminism Approach to “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen

“Pride and Prejudice,” probably the best work ever written by Jane Austen, has satisfied people in a number of ways. There are a lot of fascinations employed in this novel to make readers feel that way, especially engaging females in a sense of comfortableness. The story is successfully designed to make us conscious of new aspects of women that previously have been unseen or even ignored. For instance, while a number of eighteen-century novels demonstrate that women were actually sacrificing themselves pressured by a desperate need of getting married, this novel paves the way for defining women’s self-respect as totally independent of their husband hunting (Johnson, 92). For it “happily averts a showdown between survival and self-respect” by potentially settling some “competing claims without conflict or sacrifice” in the end (Johnson, 92). The compatibility between the necessity of marriage and pursuit of self-satisfaction is insisted on here, with a belief that women really need not even struggle faced with this impossible choice. A long-time agony for women in history, the stereotyped notion thus fades toward obsolescence in this story that they are supposed to forfeit their own happiness once married.
Among these kinds of employments of female fulfilment emerges one possible motif the author Jane Austen seems to have adopted in her writing of this novel. It can be safely said that there are some descriptions scattered in the story that make us convinced that Austen must have had a strong will to dispute a social trend in which women were looked down on. It is true, though, that this idea has been often susceptible to challenges suggested by those confident that this story’s overall plot contributes to female powerlessness confirmed after all. They say for example, the mere fact the Bennets women are struggling in their present situation created by an unfair patriarchal entailment system clearly suggests that they are abused by society, even void of an ability to challenge it.
However, the purpose of this paper is to prove that despite every argument proposed by those people it is still undeniable that we can clearly see in this novel Austen’s strong insistence upon women’s independence. In later sections, this opinion is confirmed mainly by three ideas: firstly by meticulous analysis of the unique way that the meaning of “female friendship” operates in the story, followed by an intriguing “absent-minded” theory established by critic Susan C. Greenfield; secondly by observation of the personality of Elizabeth Bennet, a heroine in this story, and of the relationship between her and her fiancé, Darcy Fitzwilliam, involving a theory by Jean Jacques Rousseau about sexual characteristics; thirdly by an interesting argument attached to a funny female character, Mrs. Bennet. Again, each of them is highly rewarding and useful to make convincing the thesis of Austen’s motive to establish women’s self-value in this novel.
Closer observation of female friendship in this novel reinforces the idea of Austen’s arduous challenge to the traditional approach to women. A lot of female characters appearing in this story, their relationship should not be defined as just mere “friends”; it is more than that. They try to construct a strong female community based on a common sense of aversion against the world dominated by male. In this regard, their relationship in this story can be identified as a female “alliance,” in which they are desperately eager to subvert the male’s governance over themselves. Elizabeth Bennet, one of the most major protagonists, is a chief leader of that party constantly obsessed by a hatred for patriarchal values. That is why she is all the more disappointed when faced with an unforgivable betrayal perpetrated by one of the members in her unity. Charlotte Lucas, whom Elizabeth definitely believed to be her closest friend, has decided to make an engagement with a man of great consequence and property merely searching for his security. This shocking news seems to have flabbergasted, and even mortified Elizabeth. He, called Mr. Collins, is actually the one whose passionate proposal she refused with such a determined resolution a few days before, that she was finally put under the necessity of declaring herself as “a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart” (Austen, 122). Her every effort thus done to reject Collin has been totally ruined by Charlotte’s later insensitive acceptance of him.
However, what Charlotte has ruined is not only Elizabeth’s refusal itself. Depending only on the mercenary motives without any real affection attached, Charlotte betrays her disloyalty to the community she belongs to, on the verge of ruining her friendship with Elizabeth. For Elizabeth, easily accepting a proposal only out of economic reasons is nothing but the subjugation to men. For those women who are really loyal to their own sex, she might say, would never concede that females lack an ability to own objects and advance in life. Of course they know it is true that women are apt to follow wealthy men to secure their own life; a man of a good fortune being “the rightful property of some one or other of their daughter” (Austen, 3). However, it is totally unprofessional for a member of the female community to relinquish her dignified pride as a woman and determined attitude against succumbing to the temptation of men’s property. Charlotte’s disloyalty has thus led to Elizabeth feeling alienated and their friendship becoming weakened (Kaplan, 104). Actually, an awkward politeness is suddenly produced between the two, in which “there was a restraint which kept them mutually silent on the subject” (Austen, 144). Thus, taking a rather austere attitude to the renegade careful lest any sign of forgiveness should escape herself, Elizabeth Bennet seems to show how the whole betrayal has been exasperating to herself. Her outrageous disappointment and devastation is accordingly indicative of how huge amount of confidence in and attachment for the female solidity she has held with strong loyalty.
In addition to the meaning of friendship as a “female alliance,” there is another implied definition of friendship operating in this novel. Austen also seems to indentify women friendship with a “sisterhood” (Kaplan, 195). This story’s use of the meaning of a women companionship as a sisterhood becomes particularly apparent when Elizabeth Bennet decides to refuse a proposal from Fitzwilliam Darcy. Unable to demonstrate her impartial discernment blinded by the distorted prejudice toward Darcy previously suggested by Mr. Wickham, Elizabeth dismisses his sincere proposal very negligently. One of the most disgusting things about Darcy Elizabeth has heard from Wickham is his intrigue to separate her dearest sister Jane from her intended fiancé Mr. Bingley. Elizabeth is actually so deeply astonished to hear this unforgivable information as to find herself in a need of mental consolation to apart from her “agitation and tears which the subject occasioned” (Austen, 208).
In this sedate meditation, Elizabeth lets her resentment against Darcy growing stronger and stronger, deeply sympathizing with her sister by reading “all the letters which Jane had written to her since her being in Kent” (Austen, 209). Darcy, unaware of her being amid the increasing hatred against himself, confesses his enthusiastic love to her with every gentlemanlike gallantry possible. In this scene, Darcy himself seems to be confident in seeing his sincere proposal immediately accepted by her a few moments later, because he has never imagined Elizabeth can be allegiant to her sister enough to kick out the great chance to marry him (Johnson, 91). However, by declaring no amount of reflection will allow herself to condone the man fully responsible for every disaster of “a most beloved sister” (Austen, 212), Elizabeth refuses his love confession in a very disrespectful manner. In this context, it is fully obvious that Elizabeth shows strong loyalty to a sisterhood with Jane by dumping a great opportunity of marriage which if accepted must have secured her subsequent life; camaraderie between them has intensified itself more than ever in her strenuous effort to defend her sisterhood.
One of the intriguing theories confirming the idea of this novel’s relatively stronger friendship is explained by the hidden fact that female characters in this story, especially Elizabeth, become more discerning when they are isolated by the power of absence (Greenfield). That is, estrangement from the public allows them to exercise the most sophisticated observation of things around them. For uncertainty makes one feel the need of stopping to think about things while those confident that they are well informed do not care about them (Greenfield). For example in this story, only after Darcy disappears from Elizabeth in his quest of Lydia and Wickham, a eloped couple, to reconstruct peace of the Bennets, does Elizabeth realize how admirable he is. Thus, separated for a while from the tangible Darcy and therefore allowed to re-identify him inside her head through a different perspective, Elizabeth implements her perception and judgement the best without any prejudice.
Now, what is to be noted here is that this highly-sophisticated exertion of judgement through the power of absence can be applied to other female characters too, with the result of contributing to their friendship intensified. They find themselves more conscious of and identified with each other when they are detached. Their relationship cultivates itself through “emotional intimacy and frankness” (Kaplan, 192). The most interesting example is maybe the one between Elizabeth and Jane. Their strong companionship, which we will examine closely in a different approach later, is a very convincing evidence to confirm the idea of intensified friendship by absence. For instance, Elizabeth is constantly preoccupied with her sister in her imagination when the latter stays at Mr. Bingil’s home, three miles away from the city the Bennets lives in. Her consideration for the absent Jane even encourages her to go to see the sick sister on foot; even though the weather is so dirty that anyone can guess easily Elizabeth in a few hours would be the person victimized by “weary ankles, dirty stockings, and a face glowing with the warmth of exercise” (Austen, 36), that she really is. Also, a great deal of correspondence itself with the two also shows that they are connected so strongly, constantly caring about each other even though they are not physically seen. Since absence enhances the quality of judgement, camaraderie between the sisters is made all the more reliable and solid amid the growing considerations for the intangible. This unique type of friendship is built on female solidarity eager to make their relationship stronger, a firm evidence of women’s desire for independence.
To vindicate the idea of Austen’s all discontent with the conventional way that women are looked down on, it is also highly rewarding to analyze Elizabeth’s personality itself, apart from the viewpoint of friendship. One of the keywords to describe her character is the word “individualism.” Elizabeth always does what she thinks is right, not shaken by any confrontation, especially the one provided by male. When dancing with Darcy at the Netherfield ball, she denies being subordinate to him, which women are supposed to be (Kaplan, 186). She says, “It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. －I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples” (Austen, 102). In this context, individualism can be established as part of the interpretation that Elizabeth plays a dominating role over Darcy in this story. Generally expected to show that men’s exertion of their educated knowledge leads women to change more dignifiedly and maturely, Austen seems to try to challenge the trend by her use of the relationship between the heroine and hero. Actually, it is Elizabeth who dominates the other with the result of his personality enhanced in the end. Elizabeth’s strong individualism thus exerted on Darcy, in its didactic effect on him, obviously demonstrates that she is totally against the conventional way women are supposed to be.
Here, this unlikely interaction between Elizabeth and Darcy suggests one possibility concerning conventional sexual characteristics. There has been a perennial debate as to whether a conventional behaviour of male and female is constructed naturally, or just acquired later in one’s life. That is for example, whether a commonly acknowledged female quality that they are of elegant propriety is intrinsically determined or contingent on their later experience. Jane Austen, by means of her use of Elizabeth’s deviation from a conventional female behaviour, insists that their characteristics be entirely acquired, not natural, and therefore actually replaceable (Cohen). It also leads us to be aware that Austen must have challenged the philosophy of sexual role suggested by a famous theorist in the mid-eighteenth century, Jean Jacques Rousseau (Cohen). He maintained the characteristic available to each sex is irrevocable and nothing can be done to change it because it is definitely natural, saying “Where they [men and women] differ, they are not comparable ... One ought to be active and strong, the other passive and weak” (Rousseau, 358). In later paragraphs, it will be argued that there is every intension scattered in this novel to call it into question that stereotyped characteristics attributed to each sex are innately determined, through the portrayal of “reversion” of conventional behaviours between male and female; presented in Elizabeth and Darcy. Since it is almost obvious, from hitherto arguments, that Elizabeth behaves rather male-like way, the focus will be on Darcy Fitzwilliam, proving he has gradually acquired womanish mannerism in the story. To verify the inversion of sexual traits would be to corroborate Austen’s insistence on women’s independence.
Darcy Fitzwilliam, apparently seen as if he, as most other men, were extremely loyal to his own sex － proud, conceited, arrogant, and narcissistic, － actually has undergone a huge material change in his nature. His personality is enhanced in the end, rather effeminate. First, he learns to behave in the way more devoted to others, as women were used to sacrificing themselves for men. After faced with his loving woman Elizabeth devastated a great deal by the news of a Lydia-and-Wickham elopement, Darcy suddenly disappears. A few weeks later, he is actually found to have paid a tremendous amount of debts, amounting to “considerably more than a thousand pounds” (Austen, 356), to settle the matter. It is all the more unbelievable given the long-term feud between Darcy and Wickham, which is attributed to the latter’s intolerable despicability and betrayal to the other in the past. Nevertheless, Darcy did it; mostly because he was spurred by his affection for Elizabeth, even though he was sure he would never be accepted by her. In this context, we can interpret that he, deciding to delicate himself to his loving woman, has abandoned his headstrong pride as a man, and started to gain a female-like personality of making a sacrifice. Second, a letter Darcy wrote to Elizabeth after he was refused also shows that Darcy comes to acquire an effeminate characteristic in his own self. The letter, ending itself with a phrase “God bless you” (Austen, 224), implies that it has a “show of genuine feeling,” which links “stylistic conventions to sentiment in a fashion that Rousseau would call properly female” (Cohen). Adding such a phrase means that he began to make himself considerate and thoughtful for others, a step to estrange himself from selfishness often seen in male and, reversely, to perform altruisms in female. Last, maybe the most overt, Darcy shows Elizabeth a kind of capitulation, accepting that his personality is to be blamed in some way. Men, thought of as always superior to women, generally would not admit their having faults at all, even sometimes regarding it as the most humiliating to accept that they are wrong. However, Darcy does it at the last scene. He bitterly thinks back of his life and admits he has just let his own pride and conceit growing up in his nature doing what he wants to: “I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice ... I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit” (Austen, 406). In this context, Darcy again learns to behave in a female-like manner, letting Elizabeth win himself by means of voluntarily vindicating her long-cherished argument that he has been disagreeable in a way.
Here, what must be remembered is that these reversed conventional behaviours between male and female in the story directly contribute to supporting Austen’s suggestion that sexual characteristics are entirely acquired. If they were inherently determined and unchangeable, Elizabeth would not have teased Darcy with such aggressiveness at the ball complying with female propriety; and Darcy would not have accepted his wrongness loyal to male pride. Thus, showing the fact that sexual characteristics are always interchangeable, Austen seems to say it is foolish to try to weigh up people’s value only from their sex. She might even say they originally have the same amount of ability to perform things, regardless of whether they are male or female. “Pride and Prejudice” is the work filled with her every message to claim the equality between men and women.
So far we have observed Austen’s feministic point of view mainly dealing with Elizabeth and Darcy. In later paragraphs however, a completely different approach will be done by sticking to another female character in this story: Mrs. Bennet, the mother of Elizabeth. Completely silly as she may seem, actually Mrs. Bennet, throughout the story, reveals her sense of hatred against the society being dominated by male. Her most overt criticism about patriarchal rules rooted in society perhaps is made apparent at the scene of a neighbourhood ball. At the first ball where all daughters from the Bennets are present, the origin of two of them meeting for the first time their future husband, Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Darcy, a tacit agreement at that time is vividly portrayed. Men and women are not equal there; it is only gentlemen who are qualified to ask people of the opposite sex to dance together (Kaplan, 187). While men fancy themselves in their authority to choose women and do not feel any anxiety in abundance of the objects, women are incessantly exposed to a sense of uneasiness for their powerlessness. Not until merciful gentlemen come to ask them to dance together, do they have no choice but to just wait, alone. Mr. Darcy, at first, is also one of the guys enjoying their privilege, fastidious about an eligible woman who deserves to dance with him. He, assuming there is no woman qualified to spend time with him, just stands alone with every appearance of a man who is unfriendliness itself. Such is his ill-natured behaviour that even his best friend Mr. Bingley says, rather offended, “I hate to see you standing about by yourself in this stupid manner” (Austen, 11).
However, Mr. Bingley is not the only one who has criticised Darcy’s bad conduct: Mrs. Bennet, who in her freewheeling use of some strong vocabularies breaks into a violent diatribe against him. After several severe criticisms about him, she says, “He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great!” (Austen, 14). This comment reflects her feministic point of view. While the comment mentioned by Mr. Bingley is just an admonishment to a friend who behaves badly, the one by Mrs. Bennet takes on a more pregnant meaning. Her remark is based on her strenuous wish to refuse accepting a social convention at the ball exclusively beneficial to male. The usual unreliableness in her discernment is not the case with that comment she then mentioned because it “captures nicely Mr. Darcy’s tendency at the ball to flaunt his power to choose by exhibiting himself detached and free”(Kaplan, 187).
Mrs. Bennet is never so perfect in her challenge to patriarchal values as when she refers to an entailment problem inherent in the family. She is always eager to encourage her daughters to get married; mostly because she is bitterly aware what would happen were they not to have husbands. Since she has failed to produce an eligible male heir, after her husband dies those left are going to be deprived of all the property they now have. Instead, the closest relative inherits it. Bennets women, including Mrs. Bennet, will have no place to live in, completely destitute of everything necessary to live a normal life. While Mrs. Bennet is constantly obsessed by this desperate thought for their future, her husband, Mr. Bennet, seems never to have any tiny interest in the subject. For he knows his life is secured until he dies. The entailment system designed to be advantageous to men never allows it to happen that he casts aspersions on its advisability aware how sexism-like it is and sympathizes with his wife and daughters (Wylie). Mrs. Bennet tries to make him understand it is a matter of death and life for female members, saying “Ah! You do not know what I suffer” (Austen, 5), and “I am sure if I had been you, I should have tried long ago to do something or other about it” (Austen, 69).
Paradoxical as it may sound, actually it is also true that Mrs. Bennet refuses to understand the legal system (Wylie); “Jane and Elizabeth attempted to explain to her the nature of an entail. They often attempted it before, but it was a subject on which Mrs. Bennet was beyond the reach of reason” (Austen, 69). Constantly desperate but also irrational and even silly her attitude toward the entailment problem, Mrs. Bennet seems to indicate that she is trying to make a fool of the legal system favour of the patriarchy. She herself has never admitted the validity of it. She probably knows that if she accepts the truth with her reasonable mind, she will be convinced that the problem is beyond her reach after all. She will be persuaded, she knows, that no amount of her individual challenge can be enough to change the whole social system anyway. Being irrational and silly is the only way for her to continue to encourage herself to ignore and escape from the unfair truth. Thus, rather than seriously reacting to the problem in her effort to contrive a constructive resolution, Mrs. Bennet tries to be always Mrs. Bennet; ridiculous, headstrong, and irrational. We must notice it is based upon her feministic energy to dismiss the way society is that she behaves that way.
Almost the same thing can be said with her reaction to a horrible event that is to throw the whole family into a huge trouble; a Lydia-and-Wickham elopement. This event influences those concerned in a number of ways; from the feministic point of view it is highly important to have a look at the examples of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Although usually Mr. Bennet is described as a quiet and gentle person, faced with his real daughter’s unforgivable impropriety, he is totally upset. It is not until then that he finally realizes that he has lacked his responsibility as a parent for what he has been supposed to do for his own daughters. He even notices his knowledge about his own daughter has been quite insufficient, even not enough to predict what her conduct of herself would be like when she goes out to the dance party full of officers. Elizabeth in advance suggests to him that Lydia be prevented from going there, conscious of her disposition to resort to flirtation wherever she goes. However, he negligently dismisses this remonstrance, foolishly misjudging that Lydia will be at the ball “too poor to be an object of prey to any body” (Austen, 256). However, now that it is revealed that Lydia ran away with Wickham, and therefore that his judgement is proved to have been completely stupid, his sense of dismay at what happened is gradually replaced by an even stronger sensation: rage.
Mr. Bennet finds Lydia’s misconduct extremely infuriating mostly because she has violated the legal and moral dictates of the patriarchy (Wylie). Lydia’s impropriety is completely subversive of a set of assumptions of what most people recognized should be the norm in society through the patriarchal perspective. Any woman should be prudent and unobtrusive when she is married off, just waiting for a proposal from a man; a shotgun marriage mainly motivated by an ebullient passion on the part of a bribe is unacceptable, and even inconceivable. Thus, there is more and more resentment growing up in Mr. Bennet’s mind to such a extent that he even decides that he will not “advance a guinea to buy clothes for his daughter,” without which her marriage will “scarcely seem valid” (Austen, 341). It is this highly cruel punishment to his own daughter suggested by Mr. Bennet that his wife finds most incomprehensible. She, being “alive to the disgrace, which the want of new clothes must reflect on her daughter’s nuptials” (Austen, 341), reveals her wild exasperation toward her husband’s negligence of a custom essential for women. That is exactly what is the most intolerable for her. Mrs. Bennet is clearly aware of how important it is to buy new clothes for her own daughter by her use of knowledge as a woman, a lack of which obviously shows Mr. Bennet is rather indifferent to his child. Also, while Mr. Bennet is made furious by his daughter’s deviation from patriarchal values, his wife actually does not mind it at all. Even though Lydia has totally trampled morality in terms of her wild challenge to social expectations of what women are supposed to be like, her mother feels no shame about that. For Mrs. Bennet herself has “never really acknowledged the validity” (Wylie) of patriarchal values. After all, she might feel even proud of Lydia’s accomplishment, in which her elopement lets it proved that any woman is capable of doing anything she wants to if the situation demands.
Thus, what we must notice from the way Mrs. Bennet reacts to the whole event is; firstly that she is more attached to her own daughter in her feministic desire to make her marriage proceed smoothly and successfully; secondly that she is not so much offended by as satisfied with her own child’s ignorance of patriarchal ethicality, happy that woman’s ability to perform things has been verified. In both cases, it is obvious that Mrs. Bennet is portrayed as an incarnation of every feministic wish to subvert a conventional approach to women in society, as is Lydia and Elizabeth also.
As we have observed so far, a number of evidences are employed in the whole plot to make readers estranged from the conventional view on women and therefore conscious of new aspects of them. Women must not be discriminated merely for being women. They have as much amount of power as men to advance in life and establish their own adamant identity. Reading “Pride and Prejudice” is surely the best medicine to kill our prejudice toward women deeply rooted in the way society has been.






Works Cited


Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Groups, 2006.

Cohen, Paula Marantz. “Jane Austen’s Rejection of Rousseau: a Novelistic and Feminist Initiation.” Papers on Language & Literature. 215. From Literature Resource Center.

Greenfield, Susan C. “The Absent-Minded Heroine: Or, Elizabeth Bennet Has a Thought.” Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Detroit: Gale, 337-350. From Literature Resource Center.

Johnson, Claudia. “Pride and Prejudice and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Jane Austen : Women, Politics, and the Novel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. 73-93.

Kaplan, Deborah. “Pride and Prejudice: Cultural Duality and Feminist Literary Criticism.” Jane Austen among Women. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. 182-205.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile. Trans. Allan Bloom. New York: Basic, 1979.

Wylie. Judith. “Dancing in Chains: Feminist Satire in Pride and Prejudice.” The Free Library. July 16 2009.