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Pride And Prejudice Criticism

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Criticizing something or someone did not need to be done frontally is one of the lesson that can be taken from Jane Austen’s work. Specifically Austen’s work, Pride and Prejudice is first published in 1813, during the Regency period. The Regency period is a society full of elegance, fine arts and cultural refinement. Decorum, appearances and social class are the standards of this period. Men needs to be wealthy and own many property while women are supposed to find a spouse as soon as they can. Behaviors need to be appropriate and social class is one of the determining factors on how people will be treated. Jane Austen satirized her society customs through her novel, using the character of Elizabeth and Lady Catherine.
Many people believed …show more content…

Her actions and words are considered vulgar by people at that time. She is the heroine Jane Austen made to criticize the society. Elizabeth did not dressed fancifully to try and keep up her appearances in social events. She does not really care about appearances or getting married. All of these are against the decorum of that time. A woman in that period is supposed to know what to say in front of the people and also she need to have abilities such as playing piano to ‘promote’ herself. Also women need to get married as soon as they can, and they got married only for financial stability. Elizabeth, on the other hand, did not play piano beautifully, she speaks up her opinion in front of many people and she refuses to marry only for money. This is different than Lady Catherine who maintains the importance of decorum and the power of social class. Lady Catherine dresses extravagantly, her actions are so to show that she comes from a higher class. “Because honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it. Yes, Miss Bennet, interest; for do not expect to be noticed by his family or friends, if you wilfully act against the inclinations of all” (Austen 336), this quote shows that Lady Catherine really cares about honor, decorum and prudence. She does not agree with Elizabeth marrying Mr. Darcy, her nephew, because Lady Catherine views Elizabeth as her inferior …show more content…

She made a foil that contrasted both characters in order to make a statement in her time period. She made the character of Lady Catherine and Elizabeth polar opposites to tell the reader that social customs is not everything that matters. Elizabeth is a woman from the lower class that did not really care about what society says about her, while Lady Catherine is a woman of propriety that believes appearances are everything. Elizabeth touched the subject on marriage and customs because she thought that the way it is portrayed in her period is absurd. While Lady Catherine’s character symbolized the behavior of the majority of the people in her society. Therefore, by the big differences of the two character, Jane Austen was sending a message to the readers about how her society actually is and that the customs did not really matter for her because it is not everything that could determine a person’s

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