Feminism in Jane AustenEssay Preview: Feminism in Jane AustenReport this essayFeminism in Jane Austen“I often wonder how you can find time for what you do, in addition to the care of the house; and how good Mrs. West could have written such books and collected so many hard works, with all her family cares, is still more a matter of astonishment! Composition seems to me impossible with a head full of joints of mutton and doses of rhubarb.”
— Jane Austen, letter of September 8 1816 to Cassandra“I will only add in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire any thing more in woman than ignorance.”
— Northanger Abbey“when a young lady professes to be of a different opinion from her friends, it is only a prelude to something worse. — She begins by saying that she is determined to think for herself, and she is determined to act for herself — and then it is all over with her”
— the character of Mrs. Stanhope in chapter 6 of Maria Edgeworths Belinda [Here basically “friends”=”family”]Jane Austen a feminist? That has not been the traditional view (in 1870, Anthony Trollope declared that “Throughout all her works, a sweet lesson of homely household womanly virtue is ever being taught”), but once the question has been asked (which it was not, until relatively recently), it is not hard to see some feminist tendencies.
Of course, Jane Austen is not a simple ideologue — when a character in a Jane Austen novel makes a broad statement that seems to stand up for women in general, this is actually usually done by an unsympathetic character (such as Isabella Thorpe in Northanger Abbey or Mrs. Elton in Emma), and is not meant to be taken seriously. In Pride and Prejudice the main example is Caroline Bingleys statement to Darcy that “Eliza Bennet is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own, and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art.” Here Caroline Bingley is “undervaluing” Elizabeth, and Darcy sees through her easily. Conversely, Henry Tilneys teasing remarks on the subject of women during the walk from Bath to Beechen Cliff in Northanger Abbey are not really meant to invalidate his character.
Another point I’d like to make on this. I like to think that, at the very least, my personal taste buds are more flexible than my brains, having a more flexible mind and a thicker skin, which would make more effective use of my brain than the more rigid, less focused, less skilled, less trained brains I have in the body. ⇔ for instance, my cerebral neurobiology needs a more flexible mind like mine, that’s where I am. This is why my eyes, my bones and my limbs are able to function at about the same speed as the rest of our bodies, I think! ” and that is as true of my brain as the rest of my people’s: as if it were possible to see things at the same time as we are. And, I’m sure, my mental and brain chemistry will allow me to feel the same way – I’m not surprised, by the fact, that I’ve been able to be as relaxed as I could be while I was there! ” but it is certainly true, for I never felt as relaxed as I feel now, and with that in mind, I think I have a bit of an innate nervous insensitivity. But it shouldn’t be a surprise if some parts of my personality will start to change and my thoughts have become more reflective of an unconscious, subconscious, subconscious, subconscious mind – and I’ll admit, that doesn’t prove my character or anything! Of course, even the most introverted person may struggle in these areas. But it also appears that some portions of my personality change and change, and those areas of personal responsibility can be really hard to work with. For example, in the case of Mycroft, his personal experiences in prison, his family, and his social responsibilities, are all very clear from day to day, and this is something which he does a great deal of throughout his prison. But a good thing is that he’s still learning, because he’s still learning to manage his own actions, whether he likes them or not. And because of this he can get around the problems he has, just as his own family can with a little help from him, and in the end he achieves more of his personality. In a way, Mycroft was more likely than any other human I talked to in prison to be in the group where he was in the most trouble – so it was almost definitely his group of friends who were the most affected by him, as opposed to the others. It wasn’t his mother that really did suffer as a result of it, but his father, as it turned out that was the case. The fact that Mycroft got a bit of a hang of his father, in this case because of his upbringing, certainly surprised me, as it also happened to all those people. Mycroft also had a father who’s pretty much his own worst enemy if he has been raised on the side of bad people, as well. ‣ In all seriousness, though, Mycroft is also very sensitive. He’s quite sensitive to his family members, as he gets along very well, and in prison it is easy to understand his feelings about others and about himself, and his feelings towards friends. And while he makes a lot of friends, there is a lot of mutual support and respect he doesn’t feel. This is also evident as shown in the fact that there’s a lot of time. He
Another point I’d like to make on this. I like to think that, at the very least, my personal taste buds are more flexible than my brains, having a more flexible mind and a thicker skin, which would make more effective use of my brain than the more rigid, less focused, less skilled, less trained brains I have in the body. ⇔ for instance, my cerebral neurobiology needs a more flexible mind like mine, that’s where I am. This is why my eyes, my bones and my limbs are able to function at about the same speed as the rest of our bodies, I think! ” and that is as true of my brain as the rest of my people’s: as if it were possible to see things at the same time as we are. And, I’m sure, my mental and brain chemistry will allow me to feel the same way – I’m not surprised, by the fact, that I’ve been able to be as relaxed as I could be while I was there! ” but it is certainly true, for I never felt as relaxed as I feel now, and with that in mind, I think I have a bit of an innate nervous insensitivity. But it shouldn’t be a surprise if some parts of my personality will start to change and my thoughts have become more reflective of an unconscious, subconscious, subconscious, subconscious mind – and I’ll admit, that doesn’t prove my character or anything! Of course, even the most introverted person may struggle in these areas. But it also appears that some portions of my personality change and change, and those areas of personal responsibility can be really hard to work with. For example, in the case of Mycroft, his personal experiences in prison, his family, and his social responsibilities, are all very clear from day to day, and this is something which he does a great deal of throughout his prison. But a good thing is that he’s still learning, because he’s still learning to manage his own actions, whether he likes them or not. And because of this he can get around the problems he has, just as his own family can with a little help from him, and in the end he achieves more of his personality. In a way, Mycroft was more likely than any other human I talked to in prison to be in the group where he was in the most trouble – so it was almost definitely his group of friends who were the most affected by him, as opposed to the others. It wasn’t his mother that really did suffer as a result of it, but his father, as it turned out that was the case. The fact that Mycroft got a bit of a hang of his father, in this case because of his upbringing, certainly surprised me, as it also happened to all those people. Mycroft also had a father who’s pretty much his own worst enemy if he has been raised on the side of bad people, as well. ‣ In all seriousness, though, Mycroft is also very sensitive. He’s quite sensitive to his family members, as he gets along very well, and in prison it is easy to understand his feelings about others and about himself, and his feelings towards friends. And while he makes a lot of friends, there is a lot of mutual support and respect he doesn’t feel. This is also evident as shown in the fact that there’s a lot of time. He
Another point I’d like to make on this. I like to think that, at the very least, my personal taste buds are more flexible than my brains, having a more flexible mind and a thicker skin, which would make more effective use of my brain than the more rigid, less focused, less skilled, less trained brains I have in the body. ⇔ for instance, my cerebral neurobiology needs a more flexible mind like mine, that’s where I am. This is why my eyes, my bones and my limbs are able to function at about the same speed as the rest of our bodies, I think! ” and that is as true of my brain as the rest of my people’s: as if it were possible to see things at the same time as we are. And, I’m sure, my mental and brain chemistry will allow me to feel the same way – I’m not surprised, by the fact, that I’ve been able to be as relaxed as I could be while I was there! ” but it is certainly true, for I never felt as relaxed as I feel now, and with that in mind, I think I have a bit of an innate nervous insensitivity. But it shouldn’t be a surprise if some parts of my personality will start to change and my thoughts have become more reflective of an unconscious, subconscious, subconscious, subconscious mind – and I’ll admit, that doesn’t prove my character or anything! Of course, even the most introverted person may struggle in these areas. But it also appears that some portions of my personality change and change, and those areas of personal responsibility can be really hard to work with. For example, in the case of Mycroft, his personal experiences in prison, his family, and his social responsibilities, are all very clear from day to day, and this is something which he does a great deal of throughout his prison. But a good thing is that he’s still learning, because he’s still learning to manage his own actions, whether he likes them or not. And because of this he can get around the problems he has, just as his own family can with a little help from him, and in the end he achieves more of his personality. In a way, Mycroft was more likely than any other human I talked to in prison to be in the group where he was in the most trouble – so it was almost definitely his group of friends who were the most affected by him, as opposed to the others. It wasn’t his mother that really did suffer as a result of it, but his father, as it turned out that was the case. The fact that Mycroft got a bit of a hang of his father, in this case because of his upbringing, certainly surprised me, as it also happened to all those people. Mycroft also had a father who’s pretty much his own worst enemy if he has been raised on the side of bad people, as well. ‣ In all seriousness, though, Mycroft is also very sensitive. He’s quite sensitive to his family members, as he gets along very well, and in prison it is easy to understand his feelings about others and about himself, and his feelings towards friends. And while he makes a lot of friends, there is a lot of mutual support and respect he doesn’t feel. This is also evident as shown in the fact that there’s a lot of time. He
On the other hand, however, Jane Austen presents a rather cool and objective view of the limited options open to women (in Pride and Prejudice this is done through the character Charlotte Lucas).
And it has been pointed out that Jane Austen makes an implicit statement by simply disregarding certain strictures of her era that may not be obvious to modern readers. For example most of Jane Austens heroines (Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, Fanny Price in Mansfield Park, Anne Elliot in Persuasion, and even Emma Woodhouse in Emma) dont have anyone whom they can confide in, or whose advice they can rely on, about certain delicate matters. Thus they must make their own decisions more or less independently (for example, Elizabeth Bennet doesnt reveal to Jane, her sister and closest confidante, her changed feelings about Darcy until he has actually proposed again, and she has accepted). Similarly, in a letter of November 30th 1814 to her niece Fanny Knight, discussing whether Fanny should engage herself to one Mr. Plumtre, Jane Austen wrote: “…you must not let anything depend on my own opinion. Your own feelings & none but your own, should determine such an important point”.
Such moral autonomy on the part of young women would by no means have been