8/17/2019 Essay - Jane Austen

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Florencia Cal – 4thA (IPA)

Compare and contrast two female charters on “Pride and 

Prejudice” BBC (199) in terms of what was appropriate

!eha"ior#

Jane Austen’s works have been adapted to many visual formats until present

times, all of them, including the BBC’s TV series from !!", attempt to show the

essence of her views regarding society# her uni$ue and special satirical humor, plus

the wit that she conveys through her characters’ dialogues, allowed her to succeed

in accomplishing a resourceful social criticism of %eorgian times&

 A vast amount of different topics are dealt with in 'Pride and Prejudice(, such

as love, marriage, social class, reputation, and appropriate behavior according to

characters’ social status and genre& Through legendary female characters, Jane

 Austen spots those social e)pectations of women, like the appropriate behavior it

was re$uired from them, showing what should be e)pected and how that 'normal(

behavior defines your self*image in front of society’s eyes&

Two great female characters from the TV series are +liabeth Bennet and

Charlotte -ucas& These two women are good friends, e$ually intelligent, good*

natured and pleasant& Besides both of them seem to understand and share, to a

certain e)tent, the basic rules of appropriate behavior in society& Both of their fathers

had a title and an estate, which allowed the two girls to have access to the world of

well*educated people in order to get married& As it is shown in the TV series, both

+liabeth and Charlotte behave properly for the re$uirements of that period of time

for e)ample, during dances, they would remain silent at first as it was considered

appropriate, and they would not dance more than three times with the same partner&

 Also, while engaging in conversations with people from upper*classes, for instance

when .r& Bingley, his sisters and .r& /arcy are first introduced to them, both

+liabeth and Charlotte would wait until the people from a higher rank started

talking, showing respect even when .r& Bingley’s sisters and .r& /arcy were not

kind to the girls&

0n contrast, some differences in terms of appropriate and inappropriate

behavior between these two characters can be seen when they refer to the issue of

marriage& +liabeth Bennet tends to make emotion*driven 1udgements anddecisions about this topic, she usually idealies her vision of marriage, arguing that

8/17/2019 Essay - Jane Austen

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Florencia Cal – 4thA (IPA)

this social institution should, at least, have some elements such as respect, e$uality

and love for her to be happy with it& At times, she also seems to trivialie the issue,

even though her future condition as a possible maid is revolving around herself and

her sisters& +liabeth’s high e)pectations of marriage make her decline marriage

twice 2first she declines .r& Collin’s offer3 and then, she declines .r& /arcy’s first

proposal4& These actions can be taken as inappropriate behavior for that time, since

it was important for women to actually get married as soon as possible with any

eligible and suitable partner 2according to their social rank4 in order to make a living&

0t can be said that the love search was not a lu)ury all women could afford when

they belonged to lower social classes&

5ith rather different views on the same topic, Charlotte -ucas can be taken asthe counterpart of +liabeth# she takes into account social 1udgements and

appropriate behavior, as a result she is truly practical on the issue of marriage&

Charlotte is portrayed as a character able to see events and things in their

unembellished reality, she seems to be willing to obey or meet social e)pectations,

hence behaving properly for that time& At the age of 67, she is perfectly aware of her 

condition# she is already old to be single, she is not really fair, and she ended up

being a burden to her parents, thus, in a way, having the chance to get married

saves her life& According to Charlotte, a functional or happy marriage '89: is entirely 

a matter of chance.(, what is more, she argues that '89: it is better to know as little

as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.(

Charlotte’s thoughts regarding the marriage issue leads her to accept .r& Collin’s

proposal with no hesitation, in order to assure her own financial stability, as it was

socially e)pected&

 All things considered, Jane Austen’s 'Pride and Prejudice( aims to criticie%eorgian times through her distinctive way of writing3 and its adaptation into this

particular TV series from !!" achieved the author’s goal& 0n this case, women’s

appropriate or inappropriate behavior is depicted by agreeable and fascinating

female characters, such as +liabeth Bennet and Charlotte -ucas&