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Theme Of Gender Inequality In Persuasion

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The gender roles of Jane Austen’s time, and the mirroring of them in Persuasion, are good examples of how hard it can be to resist inequality amongst sexes. Gender inequality is a social issue that recurs throughout the novel. Most of the characters that face gender inequality comply with their oppression. Moreover, the characters that are oppressed by gender inequality have come to expect such injustice. Jane Austen’s Persuasion demonstrates true-to-life examples of how both women and men accept their “role” in society, accept and expect it. Gender inequality can be defined as a lack of equal treatment between sexes, and the imposition of norms put in place by society (According to definitions in the English Encyclopedia). In Persuasion, the female characters Mary, Anne and Elizabeth are all involved in the complex concept of marriage. Anne, the only daughter that has not married, is faced with pressure by …show more content…

She feels that they are full of a kind of potential to be honest and good human beings, however a majority of them seem to belittle women and not show any great character. But men, in her opinion, can also be sensitive and poetic, as she portrays Anne’s love interest Captain Wentworth. Jane Austen’s social mirror reflects her very broken, unfair, Victorian society in an accurate and entertaining way. Her literary catalog is filled with commentary and wit regarding gender inequality, and she did not hesitate to inject her works with her own personal beliefs and thoughts. Austen was a brave individual for putting such hefty arguments into her works, and was a unique author in the ways she could encapsulate her society in such a realistic manner. Austen was among the first to make art that required an active and socially conscious mind, and she thrived on the concept of having to truly read between the lines to understand her message, a trait not often well

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