Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen and Letters to Alice- Fay Weldon Essay

An examination of Jane Austens 1813 kindly satire rob and Prejudice, and the reading of Fay Wel outwears 1984 epistolary school text Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, moves intelligence of Austens clean to be moulded and then shifted. surcharge and Prejudice is a novel of manners, focusing on marriage, overcharge, Prejudice and Social Class which be communicate with and through the oddb wholes, gentry- pattern setting and Austens authorial comment. Austens dissolve was to portray the world of the gentry material body, and blackguard about aspects of her b all(prenominal) club and praise others. Weldons purpose is to encourage an arrangement of the value of literature for individuals and society. She models Austens paternity to demonstrate her argument and in so doing she gives a heightened deducting of values in Austens context of use. She reviews Austens society, providing an explanation of companionable conventions such(prenominal) as marriag e, social stratification and women. aunty Fays opinions forget readers to reshape their cause of events and characters in Pride and Prejudice. Her conclusions allow the reader to assimilate connections between our modern-day society and Austens context, which then enables us to reshape our veritable understanding of Pride and Prejudice and our own context. finished Letters to Alice, Weldon discusses the importance in the value of literature. This is displayed through practice session of the imperative you essential read. Her detect of literature come toing to the extendence of time is examined when adopting the metaphor of the metropolis of invention, which educates the readers of what good literature is and the solid foundations that make it hold firm time. auntie Fay says Through reading literature we try about the way people thought and how they springyd, the ship canal we are different and the things we share, suggesting an implicit subsume to Austens work. Wel don keeps that good literature has the ability to transcend time and r to each one readers across centuries.She demonstrates that the characters Austen created, are static relevant in sophisticated society. The universal themes of faults and failings such as prejudice are travel ton in twain texts, as they were been written for moral guidance purposes. Austen uses her novel to suggest how people should be deem. She condemns snobbery, pride and prejudice. For example, Austen uses the character transformation between Elizabeth and Darcy and rewards them with happiness. Through Mary, Austen uses authorial comment on pride by saying human spirit is particularly prone to itaperson whitethorn be proud without cosmos vain. Weldons character aunty Fay is comparable to Jane Austen, as she teaches her niece Alice to read, be appreciative of her world and develop empathy for those who are slight fortunate. Through aunt Fays didacticism, the readers chink a changing Alice, similarly to Elizabeth bennets character transformation in Pride and Prejudice.Elizabeth has to overcome her sign judgements of Mr Darcy in order to gain a heightened understanding of herself. For example, after the first brief encounter with Darcy she remained with no very cordial olfactory propertyings towards him. She is left believing he is arrogant and the virtually disagreeable man. However she learns from her incorrectness when she begins to understand his character and his motives. This is similar to Alices experience, as she is taught to reshape her opinionated first impressions of Jane Austen and the Professors wife. Alice comes to understand, through Aunt Fays letters, that she has depleten her life and educational opportunities for granted and should not make judgements of Unlovable when only base on her Professors opinion. Marriage is the essential concern of Austens novel.The immense importance of which is referred to by Mrs bennet If I can but see one of my daughters happily settled at Netherfield, and all the others equally well conjoin, I have zip to wish for. The plot follows Mrs bennets despondency in having her five daughters married to men who have inherited a substantial fortune. The novel reflects Austens context where marriage was a result of visual perception profitable prospects rather than relish. This is exemplified through Mrs Bennets comment A single man of a large fortunewhat a fine thing for our girls Marriage benefited the couple in both riches and social status. Austen utilises a variety of marriages to contrast and turn up preference to the uniting of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy who have love and respect, and have had to overcome initial personal judgements of each other. Elizabeth Bennet, who has to reassess her prejudice and Mr Darcy, who has to overcome his pride.They become the most affluent and respected couple in the novel. The conceit of entailment ensured the family fortune was inherited by the men, which me ant women had express inheritance rights. This is the main incentive for Mrs Bennet having her children married to men with a substantial fortune, as when Mr Bennet dies, the family will be left poor. This is augmented through Weldon who expresses empathy towards Mrs Bennet, and says life was not rosy whether women married or not. This helps to reshape theunderstanding of marriage gained in Austens novel, as it was previously believed that marriage lead to a better lifestyle for women. Fay Weldon connects the idea of marriage by linking the two generations, and interpreting the changing facets of matrimony. In Jane Austens period, marriage was a prerequisite rather than a commodity. Alice, the representative for the contemporary context, perceives marriage as an modify institution.Alice views Austens novel as boring, lower-ranking and irrelevant, as her context believes love should be factored into marriage. Fay Weldon connects the generations by justifying aspects that have rem ained the same or have changed. She highlights the harsh realities of married women in Jane Austens venerable world. For example, she writes men could beat you if they saw fit. Weldon describes Austens contextual ideas on marriage through Aunt Fay who attempts to help her niece Alice, a rebellious university student, understand the necessity for marriage in Austens context. She uses the metaphor To tie was a great prize. It was a womans aimNo wonder Mrs Bennet determined half mad by anxiety, knowing they would be unprovided for when her husband died. This helps the readers to reshape their understanding of Mrs Bennet.In Pride and Prejudice, Austen satirises and condemns her character for her obsession with finding suitable partners for her unmarried daughters. However, Aunt Fays didactic attempt on using empathy is expressed through Mrs Bennet, who is described as politeness warred with desperation. Weldon details the unions between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy to be unlikely, given their discriminations in social standing. This is reinforce by Aunt Fay reminding Alice, Novels are illusion not reality. This perspective on matrimony takes the reader back to Pride and Prejudice and reinforces Charlottes pragmatic sanction perspective Happiness in marriage is but a matter of chance.Aunt Fay recognises that some unions have not changed from Austens period. There are women who still marry for survival. For example, the importation of Asian wives link to the marriage between Charlotte and Mr Collins, as she found happiness, inspite of marrying for all the wrong reasons. To heighten the readers understanding of marriage in Pride and Prejudice, she says is the block off of our womens magazines, but it was the stuff of their life, their very existence. This is Weldon reinforcing the idea of necessity for marriage for women of Austens context. It helps Alice to overcome her initialthoughts on marriage in Pride and Prejudice. In Pride and Prejudice, social cla ss overrides all other emotions such love and happiness. Mr Darcy is the aboriginal character who defines the upper class of Regency England. Mr Wickham uses bitter communicative irony to describe Darcy, noting He was to be higher up all company, in having been unworthy to be compared. Austen defies her stately ideas on social stratification through the case unions of matrimony between Elizabeth and Darcy or Jane and Bingley.These marriages occur, despite the authorative skirt Catherine saying Your alliance will be a disgrace, you name will never be mentioned by any of us. This allows the readers to see that Austen had created Elizabeth Bennet, to break through her societys rigid values. This is linked to Weldons comment Jane Austen likes to see the ingredient between noblesse and gentry broken down, as the division had been created when Elizabeth married Darcy. Fay Weldon uses social stratification to connect the bed cover between Austens society and the modern world. She contemporises Austens text by having the didactic Aunt Fay write to Alice explaining the gentry thought well of themselves, and liked to pooh-pooh the nobility for their rackety ways, and were despised by them, in turn for creation worthy and boring. In this, Weldon suggests that people of both societies were limited by social boundaries. Through Weldons text, Aunt Fay attempts to make the readers feel empathy through the explanation of stratified womens lives Women were born(p) poor, and stayed poor, and lived well only by their husbands favour.Weldons use of stratification, like Austens, is employ for didactic purposes. She writes human temperament does not change over the centuries, indicating that snobbery, pride, prejudice and criticism, which Austen satirised in Pride and Prejudice, are still relevant in modern society. For example, Caroline Bingleys criticism of the midsection class is similar to criticism aimed at writers, filiation from the readers who do not underst and the difficulty of writing well. Austen believes women should have options and opinions. Her character Elizabeth is independent, witty and judgemental. She defies social conventions and is used as a model for achieving Austens purpose, and in return, is rewarded with love. There was also the idea of complaisant women being more suitable to men. Women who were well educated in the art of music, literature and languages, were thought to be accomplished and therefore more attractive to a suitor. get out Bingley states, usingaccumulation A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word. In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet sisters did not see to it school and were only happy in accomplishment. This juxtaposes with Alices lifestyle, as she is eligible to attend university on a different continent to only her education. An example of this is when Aunt Fay plants the idea why dont you go to UCLA and write? This h elps people understand the limitations of women in Pride and Prejudice and justify the difference between the ideas of a successful woman in both contexts. Fay Weldon defines womens lives in Austens context and compares it to modern society. She models Austens life for Alice to gain a heightened understanding of the difficulties women faced to defy social conventions. She demonstrates this by using the metaphor It takes great courage to travel against the stream of communal ideas.In this, Weldon is depicting the complications for Austen to see her world and reprimand its values on marriage, social class and women, whilst providing an alternative perspective. Weldon describes the limitations for female writers as they were evaluate to be tender, flatter, deceivenever let anybody shooting that you have a mind of your own. distaff writers were discouraged from inventing and were only allowed to write about their world. Aunt Fays brief explanation of the female writers contrasts wit h contemporary society, with Aunt Fay being the example. With the ability of travel and freely express her opinions, she is able to write without concern of her work being unpublished because of contemporary values. Unlike Austen, she is being paid and recognised for the texts she writes. Fay Weldon uses didacticism to develop an empathetic link to women in Austens context by exposit to Alice by your standards it was a horrible time to live.For example, she gives statistical evidence of childbirth childbirth was immemorialthere was no analgesicsyour chances of dying wereone in two. In this, Aunt Fay highlights that Alice should not take being autonomous for granted. This is delineated through Aunt Fay expressing You do not know little Alice, how novel or lucky you are. A weedy study of Jane Austens 1813 social satire Pride and Prejudice and the 1984 epistolary text Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon, allows us to draw connections between the two texts an d for our original understanding of Austens text to be shaped and shifted. Austen uses the main themes in Prideand Prejudice, such as Marriage, social class and Pride, to express her approval or disapproval of her societies attitudes. Weldons text is used for didactic purposes to encourage an understanding of the value of literature, for which she uses Austens writing to project her ideas. She reviews Austens context by providing an explanation of social conventions such as marriage, social stratification and women.