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

An examination of Jane Austens 1813 fond satire overcharge and parti pris, and the jut out of Fay Weldons 1984 epistolary text earn to Alice on first training Jane Austen, digests taking into custody of Austens novel to be moulded and then shifted. self-esteem and loss is a novel of earthners, focusing on marriage, Pride, Prejudice and Social differentiate which are projected by means of the roles, gentry-class setting and Austens authorial com custodyt. Austens purpose was to portray the instauration of the gentry class, and satirise some aspects of her family and praise others. Weldons purpose is to encourage an sympathy of the value of literature for individuals and hunting lodge. She models Austens writing to demonstrate her argument and in so doing she gives a heightened spirit of values in Austens scope. She reviews Austens society, providing an news report of mixer conventions such as marriage, accessible stratification and women. aunty Fays opinions allow readers to determine their understanding of events and characters in Pride and Prejudice. Her conclusions allow the reader to drag on connections between our contemporary society and Austens context, which then enables us to reshape our original understanding of Pride and Prejudice and our own context. through with(predicate) Letters to Alice, Weldon discusses the importance in the value of literature. This is displayed through use of the imperative you essential read. Her observing of literature linking to the transcendence 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 withstand time. aunty Fay says Through practice literature we learn about the way people public opinion and how they deceased, the ways we are different and the things we share, suggesting an implicit link to Austens work. Weldon writes that good literature has the ability to tr anscend time and reach readers across centuries.She demonstrates that the characters Austen created, are soundless relevant in modern society. The universal themes of faults and failings such as prepossess are seen in twain texts, as they were been indite for moral guidance purposes. Austen uses her novel to suggest how people should behave. She condemns snobbery, assumption and prejudice. For example, Austen uses the character switch between Elizabeth and Darcy and rewards them with happiness. Through Mary, Austen uses authorial comment on pride by saying human nature is particularly prone to itaperson may be proud without being vain. Weldons character Aunt 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 less fortunate. Through Aunt Fays didacticism, the readers see a changing Alice, similarly to Elizabeth white avenss character transformation in Pride and Prejudice.Elizabeth has to overcome her initial judgements of Mr Darcy in order to gather in a heightened understanding of herself. For example, after the first brief encounter with Darcy she remained with no very cordial feelings towards him. She is left believing he is arrogant and the more or less disagreeable man. However she learns from her misemployness 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 taken her animateness and educational opportunities for granted and should non make judgements of hateful when only based on her Professors opinion. marriage is the uncreated worry 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 wellhead matrimonial, I hav e nothing to bid for. The plot follows Mrs Bennets hopelessness in having her five daughters married to men who have inherited a lusty fortune. The novel reflects Austens context where marriage was a result of seeing profitable prospects alternatively than come. 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 wealth and affectionate status. Austen utilises a classification of marriages to contrast and show preference to the uniting of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy who have crawl in 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 idea of entailment ensured the family fortune was inherited by the men, which meant women had limited heritage rights. This is the main incentive for Mrs B ennet 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 scat to a better lifestyle for women. Fay Weldon connects the idea of marriage by linking the deuce generations, and interpreting the changing facets of matrimony. In Jane Austens period, marriage was a urgency rather than a commodity. Alice, the representative for the contemporary context, perceives marriage as an modify institution.Alice views Austens novel as boring, petty and irrelevant, as her context believes love should be factored into marriage. Fay Weldon connects the generations by unlooseing aspects that have remained the same or have changed. She highlights the harsh realities of married women in Ja ne Austens patriarchal 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 sine qua non for marriage in Austens context. She uses the metaphor To marry was a great prize. It was a womans aimNo wonder Mrs Bennet driven half mad by anxiety, knowing they would be unprovided for when her economise 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 decision 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 differences in social standing. This is reinforced by Aunt Fay re caputi ng Alice, Novels are illusion not naturalism. This perspective on matrimony takes the reader back to Pride and Prejudice and reinforces Charlottes pragmatic perspective Happiness in marriage is altogether a matter of chance.Aunt Fay recognises that some unions have not changed from Austens period. thither are women who still marry for survival. For example, the importation of Asiatic wives links 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 stuff 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 class overrides all other emotions such love and happiness. Mr Darcy is the central chara cter who defines the upper class of Regency England. Mr Wickham uses bitter verbal jeering to describe Darcy, noting He was to be above all company, in having been slimy to be compared. Austen defies her conventional ideas on social stratification through the unusual unions of matrimony between Elizabeth and Darcy or Jane and Bingley.These marriages occur, despite the authorative Lady Catherine saying Your union 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 share between brilliance and gentry broken down, as the partition had been created when Elizabeth married Darcy. Fay Weldon uses social stratification to connect the gap between Austens society and the modern world. She contemporises Austens text by having the didactic Aunt Fay write to Alice explaining the gentry thought wel l of themselves, and liked to despise the nobility for their rackety ways, and were despised by them, in turn for being applaudable 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 poor, and stayed poor, and lived well only by their husbands favour.Weldons use of stratification, like Austens, is used for didactic purposes. She writes human nature 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 mediate class is similar to criticism aimed at writers, deriving from the readers who do not understand the difficulty of writing well. Austen believes women should have options and opinions. Her character Elizabeth is indepen dent, 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 thoroughgoing(a) 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.Miss Bingley states, using ingathering A woman must have a thorough cognition of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word. In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet sisters did not attend school and were only trained in accomplishment. This juxtaposes with Alices lifestyle, as she is eligible to attend university on a different continent to progress her education. An example of this is when Aunt Fay plants the idea why dont you go to UCLA and write? This helps people understand the limitations of women in Pride and Prejudice and justify the difference between the ideas of a suc cessful 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 swim against the stream of common 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 expected to be tender, flatter, deceivenever let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Female writers were discouraged from inventing and were only allowed to write about their world. Aunt Fays brief explanation of the female writers contrasts with contemporary society, with Aunt Fay being the example. With the ability of travel and freely express her opinions, she is able to wri te without concern of her work being unpublished because of contemporary values. Unlike Austen, she is being paying(a) and recognised for the texts she writes. Fay Weldon uses didacticism to develop an empathetic link to women in Austens context by detailing to Alice by your standards it was a horrible time to live.For example, she gives statistical evidence of childbirth childbirth was primitivethere 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 recent or lucky you are. A close 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 and 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.