Pride And Prejudice Sexism

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It is difficult to apply modern ideologies such as feminism to works of past generations because of how greatly gender dynamics have evolved. Still, Pride and Prejudice can be considered a feminist work because Jane Austen presents a realistic protagonist that fights against the sexist social conventions of her time without falling into reductionist cliches. Austen portrays Elizabeth as a realistically imperfect character rather than either characterizing her as an exaggerated ideal or as sexist cliche. Like all the other characters--male and female--in Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth is flawed. In fact, the novel’s central theme, that people form prejudices without fully understanding situations, reflects one of Elizabeth’s greatest personal …show more content…
In the Victorian era, marriage represented the only real path towards security for women. Because of the rules of primogeniture, women had to marry within or above their class in order to secure their social and economic standing. Austen emphasizes the importance of marriage through the characters’ reverence towards it as a social institution. For Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte, “marriage had always been her object; it was the only honourable provision for well-educated young women of a small fortune” (Austen 120). By interjecting the importance of marriage throughout the novel, Austen reinforces the significance of Elizabeth’s brazen actions in rejecting multiple suitors. Mr. Collins’ disbelief in response to Elizabeth’s rejection further underscores the rarity of her actions. He insists that “my situation in life, my connections with the family of De Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances highly in my favor; [...] it is by no means certain that another offer of marriage may ever be made to you. Your portion is unhappily so small” (106). In response to Mr. Collins’ protestations, Elizabeth implores him to “not consider me now as an elegant female [...] but as a rational creature” (106). Elizabeth wants Mr. Collins to treat her as an equal rather than reducing her to the cultural stereotype of women he avows to. This exchange embodies Elizabeth’s repudiation of the sexist norms of her time and, therefore, solidifies Austen’s status as a feminist
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