'Pride and Prejudice' in the late twentieth century: The female spectator and patriarchal culture

The current popularity of Jane Austen's work in film adaptation reflects a powerful, significant shift in societal focus, emphasizing the values of the existing patriarchal culture. In the recent A&E/BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, screenwriter Andrew Davies creates a film which upholds and celebrates the patriarchal institution of marriage. A comparison of Austen's Pride and Prejudice to the recent television dramatization illustrates how popular culture has betrayed Austen's intent by suppressing her subtle subversion of the marriage plot. Davies pares down the multiple sub-plots of Austen's novel which are representative of realistic female experiences and chooses, instead, to ignore Austen's feminism by employing a male point of view, the male gaze and overt sexuality to deny female subjectivity in the film.