Exploration of intertextual connections between Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen highlights the re-evaluation of the values explored from 18th century England into the 20th century context. Weldon’s letters affirm the insights offered regarding social values of Austen’s context in relation to her postmodern context. By encouraging the reader to discern the relationship between the values of resistance to the well-established patriarchy and literature and education, Weldon utilises the foundation of Pride and Prejudice to validate how values have remained consistent albeit throughout changing contexts.
Intertextual connections between texts are useful in stressing the continuity of the concept of challenging the patriarchy. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen explicitly
…show more content…
Austen establishes the significance that this value held during the Regency period and how it ultimately acted as an impetus to dictate character. This concept is expressed through mockery, which then creates a sarcastic tone, to portray society’s outward perception of Mary in “some new extracts to admire, and some new observations of thread-bare morality to listen to” ultimately indication to readers how during Regency, reading acted as an indicator of character, depending on one’s role in society. Furthermore, society’s high expectations of education are emphasised through Elizabeth’s rhetoric “Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education…is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers?”. This dialogue consequently institutes the expectation and generates an understanding of society’s reception: deeming those with the attained education to be of ideal character. By stressing Regency society’s expectations of reading and literature, Austen effectively establishes how it was a significant indication of