An excursion regarding women's impediments in Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Abstract

Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners. In the novel Jane Austen characterises the complex conditions of women in nineteenth-century England. A woman's happiness is associated with marriage. Her social status is being guided by a man whom she chooses as her husband. Happiness and love are the secondary themes in the marriage, what carries weight is the wealth and the property of the man or groom. A woman tries to mould her identity at the optimum level to deem fit for married apparel because unmarried daughters are considered a burden on their parents. Women's priorities and choices are often ignored. The patriarchal civilization has always dominated the female counterparts through their authoritative voices. Women play a submissive role in society, their voices are crushed and they are compelled to follow in the footsteps of their husbands and fathers. In the novel, there is not a single self-made woman. All women are tied to societal constraints