Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice written in the early 19th century is a classic novel that can be well dissected and understand by considering the values and attitudes in which people performed in that context. Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen, written in the late 20th century has enhanced this understanding through the intensive facts in which she has provided in her text about Jane Austen’s context. Both being a successful female writer, audiences are able to see the similarities in which both authors has made about the world of women. This similarity is established through the numerous values in which both texts have used to allow audiences to compare the lives of women in the two completely different contexts. These values include: marriage, self-actualisation.

In her text, Weldon has used the idea of marriage to compare and contrast of how is it different in the context of Pride and Prejudice and the context of Letters to Alice. In Pride and Prejudice, the idea of marriage is convey through the decision in which characters made about marriage and their motive behind these decisions. In a highly patriarchal society, marriage is considered to be a need, and that happiness only occurs in special occasions, just as Charlotte Lucas says, “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance”, the use of emotive languages allow readers to understand that women’s existence in the patriarchal society is to get marry. On the other hand, the main protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet fails to acknowledge this, as she remains strong and independent. In the text, Elizabeth marries due to love. This is evident in her rejection to Mr Collins and Mr Darcy, in which in that society is considered to be two very eligible men. “…you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry”, the use of high modality words showed how Elizabeth is determined that she will only marry for love and nothing else. By looking at Charlotte and...