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Elizabeth's Patriarchy

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“The best protection any women can have is courage.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Courage to speak out, courage to break social castings, courage to choose love over money, and the courage to choose oneself over another. In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the reader sees that these struggles are only the beginning of the differences faced by the main characters. As the women of the book show both ends of the spectrum for feminist rights, the reader sees that wealth plays a large part in this spectrum. Austen’s novel outlines the feminist struggles of social independence, economic pride, and civil prejudices of the regency era as women felt the need to validate their existence, which ultimately came at the decency of the pride of those supporting …show more content…

While most women often agreed with the patriarchy ideologies of the 1800s, Elizabeth become of rich interest to the reader as she did not feel the weight of theses ideas, but rather used them to fuel her autonomy in society. Upon meeting Elizabeth, she is described by her father as possessing “something more of quickness than her sisters” (Austen 3). This excerpt perfectly describes who she is, as her quickness grants her to independence to make her own path throughout the story, rather than following the norms. Elizabeth first shows her independence as she must go to assist Jane, and upon hearing the carriage is not available, she elects to walk to Netherfields (Austen 28).While walking to Netherfields showed that she was not at all proper, the reader easily sees that she does not place weight in others opinions of herself. Holding onto her pride to walk to Netherfields, she finds herself being scorned by the prejudice of Miss Bingley and Miss Hurst. As Susan Morgan outlines in her report, “Pride and Prejudice in terms of a dichotomy (suggested by the title) in which Elizabeth's freedom constitutes one pole and some sort of social sense the other” (Morgan 1). Morgan’s identification of the title and how it is so easily seen in the story of Elizabeth and her independence, the reader can see that this trend is constant— because of her deviation from societal norms. Her freedom is the pole opposite of the “social sense” which is seen through Caroline Bingley and Miss

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