Gender Roles In Pride And Prejudice And The Awakening

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Women’s roles today quite differ from the roles back in the day. Looking at the novel Pride and Prejudice and The Awakening, the differences from the the time change, the early nineteenth-century and late nineteenth century, created quite a comparison from the lifestyles of the women. In the novels both the women of Pride and Prejudice and The Awakening seemed to have the same roles, yet seemed to take part differently on their motherhood and marriage life viewed from the outside world such as society.

First of all, being a good mother was one of the most important contributions at time for women in both novels. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening was a enterprising piece of fiction with the protagonist Edna Pontellier as a very controversial character. …show more content…

One of her most shocking behavior was her denial of her role as a mother and wife. Kate Chopin displays this rejection gradually, but the concept of motherhood is major theme throughout the novel. Edna had other ambitions, such as, artistic, financial, and sexual freedom which went against the societal structure of the Victorian Era declaring that a woman was suited to be only a wife. Equally significant, women in the nineteenth century had to be wives just as much as mother’s. An unmarried woman's social standing would be harmed by her living alone, outside of the orb of her family's influence. If a single woman who had never been married was not living with her family, she should at least be living with a fitting chaperone. Therefore, when the Bennet daughters travel in Pride and Prejudice, they always stay in the company of a relative or a respectable married woman. It was important to get married because marriage was a chance, to have a better life, since a woman for itself could not own anything and getting married meant a life of comfort. For that reason Elizabeth her sisters were under the pressure of her mother in terms on pursuing a husband. Elizabeth understood all the