Jane Austen may not have been a feminist, but she definitely had feminist tendencies. The theme is recurrent in the four books which I am discussing in this paper. Since she herself did not marry, it was probably easier for her to look objectively at the way her sex was treated by men and society. At her social level, women were expected to marry well (at least for money, if not for love) and then spend the rest of their lives attending their husbands and children. Money was not spent on their education except for music and literature. It is not surprising that the women´s suffragist movement began in England a hundred years later.
With regard to the inferior female mind, the following instance is an example of the male attitude. Elizabeth´s father tells his daughter: "I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable unless you truly esteemed your husband - unless you looked up to him as a superior".
The female attitude was not much better. All that mattered was finding a rich husband. Mrs. Bennet´s original opinion of Mr. Darcy was honest. She considered him: "a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing...." Her opinion, though, was completely reversed when she was told that Elizabeth planned to marry him: "...How rich and how great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have!...Such a charming man! - so handsome! so tall! ... Ten thousand a year! Oh, Lord! What will become of me? I shall go distracted".
Not all women were so shallow. Jane Austen takes the opportunity to deny that the purpose of women is to catch a man in the words of Mrs. Dashwood: "I do not believe, ... that Mr. Willoughby will be incommoded by the attempts of either of my daughters towards what you call catching him. It is not an employment to which they have been brought up. Men are very safe with us, let them be ever so rich" (Chapter 9, Sense and Sensibility).
These extracts show us how false and hypocritical society was during Jane Austen´s era. It is interesting to note that there´s a constant reference to the income of both men and women and to their situation in society and the advantages or disadvantages of marrying one person or another. The following quotes prove the point:
"Mr. Martin may be the richest of the two, but he is undoubtedly her inferior as to rank society. - The sphere in which she moves is much above his. - It would be a degradation" (Volume I, Chapter VIII, Emma).
"They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others" (Chapter 4, Pride and Prejudice).
"My objection is this: though I think very well of Mrs. Jennings´s heart, she is not a woman whose society can afford us pleasure, or whose protection will give us consequence" (Chapter XXV, Sense and Sensibility).
"Who is Colonel Brandon? Is he a man of fortune? (...) I am glad of it. He seems a most gentlemanlike man, and I think, Elinor, I may congratulate you on the prospect of a very respectable establishment in life" (Chapter XXXIII, Sense and Sensibility).
It is clear that the society of the late 1700´s and early 1800´s was full of egotistical men and women who thought too much of themselves and about themselves and their entertainment and comfort. They would not mingle with anyone whose social rank was below theirs. A situation ilustrating this point occurs in Emma. Harriet Smith must chose between accepting or refusing to be Mr. Martin´s (a farmer) wife. The question is not whether she should accept him as her husband, but if he will accept her as his wife. In addition, there exists the problem of social rank. Emma takes this opportunity to tell Harriet that if she had accepted to marry him: "I could not have visited Mrs. Robert Martin, of Abbey-Mill Rarm (...) You would have thrown yourself out of all good society. I must have given you up" (Chapter VII, Emma).
Academic year 1998/1999
12.Marzo 1999
© a.r.e.a./ Dr.
Vicente Forés López
© Kathleen Pérez
Garrity
Universitat de València
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Created: 23-5-99
Updated: 23-5-99
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