Subquestion 1: How does it become clearer which positions the female characters have in the society from the way they are described in the books.
In the book pride and prejudice you can easily notice which positions the women have in society. The Bennet sisters , even though they may not be the wealthiest of their neighbourhood, have maids, which is very common for people in the middle class in that era. In the other book, Great Expectations ,you can read that the sister of the protagonist does all the housekeeping and they are not very wealthy. This shows what influence the financial position in society has on these females.
The two books also contrast in the appearance of women, which is very important for the reader to decide whether or
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The protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet has a good sense and a spirited wit. This makes her an attractive character and tends the reader to like her.
In the book Great Expectations the women are represented in an almost evil way, whiny, mean and heartless. There is not a lot of depth in the women, they are flat characters. The sister of the protagonist Pip, Mrs. Joe Gargery is a good example, from the moment she is introduced the reader gets an awful view of her, she is represented as violent and everything in her character makes her unattractive. :” I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me “(Great expectations,1992 ,p.53)
What there can be concluded from these examples is that Dickens, the male writer, did not mean the reader to have much sympathy for these female characters. From deep within they are not good people and they deserve what they get. It seems as though Dickens generalizes the entire female population as being corrupt and impure at the core. Jane Austen on the other hand describes her own sex more careful and positive. This makes it difficult for the reader to have hard feelings for the female