Pride and Prejudice Women in Society Today

Pride and Prejudice

Women in society today have come a long way from those in the 18th and 19th centuries. In terms of education, work, and marriage prospects, women today have many more choices than those in Jane Austen's novels, for example. Education for a young lady was generally seen as a way towards becoming a school teacher or becoming a high society married woman. There were few choices inbetween. For independently minded women like Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, then, there were relatively few options to transcend the general social expectations of young ladies such as herself. Nevertheless, the character rises above what is expected of her, while at the same time satisfying her own independence. It is a novel that is satisfying even to today's reader, because its themes are both era specific and universal.

In Austen's novel, Elizabeth Bennet is an independent, free-speaking woman who evolves, throughout the novel, towards maturity and more rational decision making processes. For Elizabeth, it is not as necessary to transcend the expectation her society and family have of her as a young woman. Instead, it is to use these expectations to her advantage and to ultimately become the independent and free thinking person she strives towards being. In order to do this, however, she learns to suppress her rash decisions and judgments about others and ultimately finds her match in her suitor, Mr. Darcy.

In order to become desirable to such a match, Elizabeth is obliged to come to terms with a general truth of the time; that men are somewhat more free to choose marriage partners than women are: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters" (Austen 43).

The fact that this truth is "universally acknowledged" suggests that young women and their families have little choice in this regard beyond making them as desirable as possible to the young bachelors in question. In other words, young men who are bachelors are expected to be as desirable as the wealth of their fortunes, while young women are expected to be as desirable as the conventions of femininity and beauty of the time suggested.

Both Darcy and Elizabeth appear to violate these conventions by falling in love with each other. The road to their union is, however, a difficult one, precisely because of the expectations imposed upon them by society. Elizabeth's headstrong nature serves only as a stronger attracting factor for Darcy, while Darcy's apparently aloof nature creates a strong alluring force for Elizabeth. The difficulty of their path creates for readers a satisfying romance that far exceeds the period of its writing.

The timeless nature of the novel, even more than Austen's other works, is confirmed by Francus, who cites derivations of Austen's work, such as The Diary of Bridget Jones, The Jane Austen Bookclub, and other derivations of her work that have appeared in popular culture. These have truly solidified Austen's work in Pride and Prejudice as indicative of timeless concerns with love and dating. For Elizabeth and Darcy, these concerns related to a society that wanted to curb the wild spirits that reigned in both their hearts. While Elizabeth and Darcy ultimately succumb to social expectations by courting and marrying, they do so on their own terms. This means that, rather than completely superseding social expectations, both characters use these to ultimately find and claim what they feel should belong to them.

Francus suggests that reading Pride and Prejudice can act as at type of therapy or escapism, which helps the reader find reprieve from the complicated realities of today. It may also be true, however, that the novel provides more than this. For its context, the novel provides a sense of hope that everything is not as "universal" as suggested by the values of the time. Perhaps this central truth can also be applied to love and society today. Elizabeth and Darcy are two people who, each for reasons of his or her own, are conventionally undesirable to the opposite gender. They nevertheless find each other and build their relationship on the strength of their match. They are truly each other's equal, which is perhaps the ultimate aim of dating, not only at the time, but today as well.

In the difficult social environment Darcy and Elizabeth had to navigate to find their love, both had to at least acknowledge their flaws and learn to manage these in such a way to avoid spending the rest of their lives in misery. Both characters have a good amount of both "pride" and "prejudice," as suggested by Anderson. Hence, they are both obliged not only to navigate the restrictions imposed upon them by their society, but also the inner challenges they both face as people. It is only after they can find a balance among these pressures that they can finally be together and happy.

In conclusion, one might view Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship as the one that most closely resembles the ideal romance today. Despite the general social view that women are inferior to men and only worthy of attention once they are married well, Darcy and Elizabeth somewhat transcend this by acknowledging that they are both equals to each other. Elizabeth is significantly stubborn, and even proud. However, she is not subject to the snobbery that might have caused her to overlook Darcy as a potential suitor. Darcy, in turn, is sufficiently secure in his masculinity to acknowledge that he prefers a partner who stimulates him not only physically, but also intellectually, rather than a subordinate.