On Austen's Feminism Embodied In The Characters In Pride And Prejudice

Enlightened and inspired by the related researches, this thesis is on Jane Austen's Feminism in characters in Pride and Prejudice.Elizabeth can be regarded as the good example of the feminism. Her wit and vivacity are vividly shown in her pursuit of equal position as a man. Her intelligence, sound judgment, self-knowledge, courage and independence represents Jane Austen's ideal of a perfect lady, who is different from the traditional perfect lady in patriarchal society.Jane Austen embodies her personal values such as self-discovering and self-identifying in Elizabeth to express her feminism. And the feminist consciousness of Elizabeth is disclosed through the relationship of the characters. From the analyses of her relationship with the male characters Darcy and Wickham, it is shown that her consciousness of female subject evolves from knowing males to self-knowledge. It also proves that the construction of independent female subject consciousness is not only a process of criticizing the male society, but also a process of self-rethinking and self-reproaches. Jane Austen reverses the traditional sexual educational relationship by having Elizabeth teach Darcy to recognize his own arrogance and over-seriousness. Darcy has to learn to readjust himself in order to be a suitable companion for Elizabeth. In this, Jane Austen delivers her feminist views that women are inherently as intelligent as men and thus can be the instructors as men.And through analysis of the relationship with some other female characters, it is shown that Elizabeth's consciousness of female subject evolves from self-knowledge to criticizing the society. If the process of gaining self-reproach by knowing males is the path from the outside to the inner world, the process of criticizing all the women is not only the way to self-reproach, but also the way from the inner world to the outside world. By comparing with the other females, Austen mocks the other females and eulogizes Elizabeth superficially, but essentially she is criticizing the patriarchal society. Thus the construction of the consciousness of female subject is built through the two paths: one is the process of self-reproach through knowing and criticizing others -the males; and the other is the process of knowing and criticizing the society from knowing and criticizing the other females. Combining the two paths is not only criticizing the males and the patriarchal society but also self-criticizing. With the consciousness of female subject, Elizabeth realizes her self-realization. And it is Elizabeth's self-realization that makes Elizabeth marry Darcy.Through the analyses of several comic characters, Jane Austen effectively and delicately melts her feminism into the characters in the novel.Through the analysis of the comic mother -Mrs. Bennet, Austen criticizes the injustice and absurdity of social system which gives rise to such a creature. Through mocking the vulgarity and ignorance of the comic domestic mother, Jane Austen puts her criticism finally on the society which produces such a victim. Mrs. Bennet's ignorance and vulgarity are caused mostly by patriarchal society which deprives women of the education and improvement. In fact, using Mrs. Bennet as a satirical tool, Jane Austen expresses her anger at the social conditions which leads to weakness in many women and other inequality of the sexes in every respect of life.In order to highlight Elizabeth's subjectivity, Jane Austen creates the comic male characters who are brought into a subordinating position to serve as foils to the heroine. Jane Austen creates the father image -Mr. Bennet and puts him aside from authority, showing her direct defiance against the male authority in a family. By mocking Mr. Bennet, Jane Austen mocks the patriarchal society. By mocking the failure of fatherhood, Jane Austen shows her essence of feminism -the equality of female with male.Jane Austen presents Mr. Collins through the use of dramatic irony. Through Elizabeth's rational remarks on her refusal, Jane Austen expresses her feminism that women deserve to share the equal rights with men, they can not be the ribs of men, the slaves of men, and therefore, they should not be treated as objects of exchange in the marriage market, they are rational creatures who have their own judgments and thus be able to make their own choices.