feminist point of view of Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen has written her stories in a traditional way due to be read by many readers. However,
that makes her to write in a defined way and particular topics as marriage and being a woman in
that society in England. Jane Austen tries to give the truths of the socity for the readers of her
novels. In 19th century, the novel readers are mostly women and they prefer to read the stories
that is from their lives. Thus, Pride and Prejudice is very important novel for looking the position of
women in the society.
The thema of the Pride and Prejudice women, their love relations, their marriages, their social
status in the society, their thoughts about marriage and their drahomas and family status. In the
novel, the female characters are Elizabeth, her sisters, her best friend who is called Charlotte, her
mother and her aunt. The female characters can be analyzed by looking at their status and
thoughts about marriage.
Firstly, I will mention about their thoughts about marriage. The family of Benet is landed gentry
and they do not have any son. Thus, their daughters do not own any property. For these girls, the
best way to own a house to get marry with a rich man. Their mother always tries to find a good
husband for her daughters. By looking these parts of the novel, it can be said that women must get
marry if they do not have any male relative to live with. For indicating the importance of that
keynote, the dialoge between Charlotte and Elizabeth can be given as an example. Charlotte says
to her friend that she will mary with Mr. Collins. Elizabeth gets shocked and she did not like that
idea. Charlotte said to Elizabeth that she does not want a romantic love relationship, she just want
to have a secure house with a husband. Her father has an appellation as “Sir” however he does not
have marriage portion for her daughter. These situation of them make the marrige as a salvation.
The other example can be the mother of the girls about the marriage. She always says to her
daughters to marry with a rich man who can support them. When Mr. Bingly moves there, she
wanted to be visit him at the first day with an aim of to show him her daughters. She always
mention about marriage and findind a husband to her daughters. Thus, the girls are grown up the
idea of marriage.
Elizabeth is the more rational character in the novel however, she have the same idea as her
mother. Firstly, she liked Mr. Wickham. She heard about him and also she knows that he is not so
rich. In my opinion, Mr. Wickham was the first love of her however it is not said exactly in the
novel. In addition to that, when she goes to Mr. Darcy's house, she thinks that to be a lady of that
house would be great. By looking at these events and situations, it can be said that Elizabeth is not
totally different than her sisters about marriage thoughts. However, it is clear that she thinks more
rational than her sisters about marriage.
In addition to that, marriage of women should be in appropriate ways as it is accepted in the
society. When Lydia escapes from home, Mr. Collins write a letter to Mr. Bennet. In that letter, it is
written that the situation of Lydia is worse than death of her. That expression is so rude that shows
to the reader about the thoughts of men for the women who escaped from home and marry
without permission of her family. That is not acceptable even in modern world however saying that
it is worse than her death vs not acceptable.
I will mention about the status of woman in the novel. Lydia escapes from home. After that, she
returns back to home as a marrried woman. She sits on the table in an arranged way as she sits
previous chair than her elder sisters because she is a married woman. However, she escapes from
home and married in an unappropriate way. It can be said that in 19th century marriage gives some
priorities to women in the society. In addition to that, when she enters in a community, she
introduce her as a wife of Mr. Wickham. That means, marriage gives to female social identity.
In Pride and Prejudice, the main aims of the girls is having a good marriage. However, in the first
sentence of the novel Jane Austen write a ironic sentence that give the message that is a man who
wants to have a good fortune, wants to have a wife. With that sentence, Jane Austen gives the idea
of the women at 19th century. To understand the society, that novel can show the reader many
aspects.
In addition to that, Pride and Prejudice indicates that drahoma of the woman is so important for
marriage. Mrs. Bennet had a good amount of drahoma. Due to that Mr. Bennet married with her,
probably. In some part of the novels, he realizes that however he does not accept that idea so he
thinks that when they get married she was beautiful. He is not rich so his daughters do not have
drahomas. Thus, he does not interfere his wife in her attitudes. She says that, my daughters should
find a rich husband to survive because of not having good drahomas.
To sum up, it can be said that Pride and Prejudice represents the women of 19th century and their
status in the society as a married woman. Pride and Prejudice can be accepted as a good novel for
understanding the lives of women due to written by a woman writer. There is a question in my
mind and that is if the writer was a man, could the novel change. My answer is yes because seeing
a clear portrait of female characters in that novel and male characters are not seem to me exactly
from real life especially Mr. Collins who seems more likely as a cartoon character. In addition to
that, the proposal of Mr. Darcy is also shows that the writer of the novel is a woman.

the role of women in Great Expectations and Crime and Punishment

In the classical novels, women, their representations and their roles reflect the real life at 19th
century. There are so many female characters in Great Expectations and Crime and Punishment
and in both novels there are various types of female characters.
In Great Expectations, the female characters are Mrs. Gragery, Miss Havisham, Estella and Biddy.
These female characters have different roles in that novel, however they have some similarities
also. Mrs. Gragery is a mother-like character. She always takes care for her husband and her
brother. She does the house works as cooking, washing and so on. She is proud of her selfsacrifice.
When someone says that she looks after her orphan brother which is a very difficult and
good behaviour, she perks from it. However, she sometimes behave in a bad attitude to her
brother and also her husband. When we observe Mrs. Gragery, we can say that she is the ideal
woman. Furthermore, we can say that she is not good at looking after a children in a good way. In
my opinion, she sometimes thinks that her brother and her husband ruins her life. Thus, she
behaves like that. In addition to that, she has not got her own children. It can be the possible
reason for her attitude to her brother.
The other female character is Biddy. She has some similarities with Mrs. Gragery however she
bahaves to people better that Mrs. Gragery. Thus, it can be said that she is the most perfect female
character in that novel. She shows to the reader the stereotyped woman in the society who is selfsacrifice,
apt, intelligent, gentle and amenable. At the end of the novel, we see the perfect
marriage of Biddy and Joe. They have that perfect marriage because of her characteristic features.
Miss. Havisham is the most problematic female character in that novel. She was left by her fiance
before her marriage. Thus, she begins to live as a living dead. She is a rich woman and her fiance
wanted to marry with her probably because of her money. By that event, novel gives a general
survey to the arranged marriages because of money. She hates men, so she tries to grow Estella as
a robot to break the heart of men who loves her. With Miss. Havisham, the novel gives the idea
that girls can be affected by their mothers. To explain it briefly, it can be said that Estella can be
affected from Miss. Havisham because she is the only woman that she can take as a role-model.
Estella does everything that Miss. Havisham teaches and says to her. Lastly, it can said that she
cannot be a character that is taken from real life because of her attitudes and her life is told
overblown in the novel.
Estella is the girl that is raised by a strange female. Thus, she is also strange. However, she is the
perfect representation of a daughter who takes her mother as a role-model. She always does
whatever Miss. Havisham says to her. She accepts everything that she teaches her. She is a created
character in that novel. However, at the end of the novel she realizes that Miss. Havisham shaped
her in a wrong way and she begins to taker her decisions with her mind and her own emotions.
When we read the novel, we observe all female characters from outside. There is not any emotions
of them and their inner lives. In some parts, these woman characters speak and say something
about their emotions however it is not as deep as the male characters as Pip and Joe. To sum up, it
can be said that, the representation of female characters is not so deep. The role of the female
characters in the novel is identical to the real life. The novel and their lives represent the realities
of that times.
In Crime and Punishment there are also so many female characters. They are Alyona, Lizaveta,
Dunya, Sonya and Pulheriya. These characters are different than the female charachters from
Great Expectations. They are more real and they are represented deeper. In some parts, we can
feel their emotions. However, it cannot be said that, we can see their inner world and emotions so
clear.
Alyona is the woman that Raskolnikov murdered. We do not know much about her but we are sure
about she behaves her sister in a bad attitude. We read that she sometimes beat her as Mrs.
Gragery in Great Expectations. Thus, it can be said that she is not a good character. She is a victim
of a crime, so the reader can forget her bad attitudes. Her death makes Raskolnikov a worse man
even he helps many people as looking after a old man, rescuing some children from fire and so on.
In the novel, Alyona represents the old, rich and bad attituded woman. However, the novel does
not gives many information about her and just focuses on death of her and the murderer of her.
Lizaveta is a kind of victim in that novel. Firstly, she is the victim of her sister and after that she is
the victim of murderer. In some parts, some people says good things about her, especially Sonya.
She is a friend of Sonya and she gives Gospel and the cross to her. She also fixes a dress for Sonya
and her sisters that shows she is a nice woman.
Dunya is the sister of Raskolnikov. She is the most ideal woman in that novel. She accepts to marry
with a man to have money for her mother and her brother even she does not love him. She is well
educated, intelligent and noble. Thus, some men want to marry with her. With that, the novel
shows to the reader that the ideal woman for marriage at that times. We see that she had some
bad manners from Svidrigaylov however she clears her name and she straightens up to gossip
about her morality. She resembles Biddy in some ways as being self-sacrifice. However, she does
more than Biddy to sacrifice herself for her brother and mother. At the end of the novel, she makes
up stories and hides the truth from her mother and sustain to her brother. By looking these
attitudes, it can be said that she lives for her mother and brother not for herself. She dedicated
herself to them. She is the most perfect and stereotyped female character in the novel.
Sonya dedicates herself to her family. She earns money for them from prostitution. She is not
accepted from society because of her job. Except her job and being not accepted, she resembles
Dunya. She also sacrifice herself to her family and for Raskolnikov. In some ways she resembles
Biddy because she tries to understand Raskolnikov as Biddy tries to understand Pip. These two
woman gives rational reasons to behaviour of these men. When Raskolnikov says about the
murder she says “What did you do to yourself?”. That means, she does not accuse him for the
crime. In Great Expectations, Biddy does not accuse Pip because of his shame of his family and life.
However, she says to Pip that is not good. In Crime and Punishment, Sonya says Raskolnikov that to
go and confess your crime afterwards you will be forgiven. In addition to that she leads her to be
religious. She always tries to make him believe in God and pray. In Great Expectations, Biddy
teaches Pip how to read some religious passages. Both women in these novels have a role as a
mother who shows a way to her children.
Pulheriya is the mother of Raskolnikov. She has a role as a good mother to her children. She always
thinks her children. She wants Raskolnikov to have a good education so she tries to send him
money by borrowing money from usurer that shows her sacrifice. She is always proud of her
children and she has great expectations from her son as being a very educated and intelligent man
after she reads his article on journal even she does not understand well. As a mother, she is well
enough. However, she cannot accept that her son can commit a crime. She always thinks that her
son is perfect as many mothers in the world as usual.
To sum up, both novels have female characters who reflects the structure of the society at 19th
century. In many classical novels, reader cannot go into the female characters inner world. Thus,
these two novels are well enough to understand the women in the society due to hear their voices
in some parts as being a part of some events. However, readers cannot hears their feelings directly
from their mouth. In 19th century, the role of woman can be explained very clearly in these novels.

marriages in Pride and Prejudice and Madame Bovary.

In Pride and Prejudice, there can be seen many married couples as Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet,
Mr. Gardiner and Mrs. Gardiner, Charlotte and Mr. Colins. Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet loved each
other at the first time before they had married. After time has passed, Mr. Bennet realized that he
does not love Mrs. Bennet anymore. However, he makes some jokes to his wife. He has the idea
that she is his wife and the mother of his daughters. Thus, he just accepted her with her status as a
wife and a mother. The other marriage in the novel is between Charlotte and Mr. Collins which has
no romance as the marriage of Bennets. She married with Mr. Collins to have a secure house. She
does not love her husband. Thus, she arranged their house for not to see each other a lot. She has
her own room to stay. In addition to that, she always make her husband to get involved in to the
gardening. Thus, he can be in the garden rahter than the house for many times. The last marriage
in the novel is the ideal marriage that is between Gardiners. In the novel, they can be seen as going
to the trips together and they give importance to each other ideas.
In Madam Bovary, the marriage between Charles and Emma have both differences and similarities
with the marriages it Pride and Prejudice. Their marriage is as Benets in having no romance. They
do not make jokes to each other. Emma does not love her husband however Charles loves her. As
time by time, she started to hate from her husband. She always sees the bad and negative sides of
her marriage and her husband. In Pride and Prejudice, women do not do that also the men. They
just accept everything as what they are. The similarities of the marriages of Emma and Charlotte

are having a status as a wife of a man, having a house and having their own places apart from their
husbands. Charlotte has her own room and Emma read and do mant other things without her
husband. Emma's marriage and Gardeners' marriage has similarities as asking each other about
their ideas on the point of view of Charles.
In the marriages, women and a men have a role as wives and husbands. In both novels, there is
not any ideal marriage except the marrvage of Gardeners. However, in the novel the marriage of
Gardeners is not much mentioned. Mrs. Bennet has her role as a mother of daughters. She always
thinks about her daughters and marrige of them. It can be said that, some women has a role as a
mther in their marriages. However, Emma Bovary does not have a role like that. Besides, she never
behave as a mother to her daughter. In fact, Emma Bovary is not a kind of woman who has a role in
the marriage. She always wants to be free to have a romantic affairs. The other women characters
in Pride and Prejudice accepted the reality that marriage must be rational and there can not be too
much romance in the marriage. In addition to that, Emma has love affairs without marriages that
can show that she is not a type of a woman who wants to be get married. The difference between
emma and other married women is desire to have romantic relationship.
In the marriages in both novels, one couple is more dominant that the other one. In Bennet's
marriage, Mrs. Bennet is more dominant than her husband. She wants something and her husband
does that thing. The same situation can be seen in the marriage of Bovarys. Emma wants many
things that her husband can do and her husband does. Being dominant gives them self confidence
and power. Thus, Emma can overreach her husband. However, Mrs. Bennet cannot do these kind
of things and she does not have power and self confidence. This is because, she just think about
the marriages of her daughters. She is a mother more than a woman. The opposite of that can be
said for Emma Bovary.

To sum up, in every marriages in both novels there can be similarities and differences just in some
ways. However, they are not totally same or totally different from each other. Emma is totally
different from other female characters. In Pride and Prejudice, women have nearly the same
keynote about the marriage. The role of the women in the marriage can be shaped with the
mentality of the characters and the lifes of the characters that they lived. For instance, Emma's
mother has died when she was a little girl. She has grown up in school and with her father. Mostly,
she reads books. The other female characters have their mother and they do not read so many
books. Having a mother when they are growing up makes them to get marry and be a wife of their
husband. Emma does not have a mother as a guide, because of that she accepts the books as a
guide for herself. In addition to that, Emma is more fanciful in comparision to other female
characters. She has many dreams about love and life. The other female characters do not have so
wide dreams as Emma. Because of these characteristic differences their roles in the marriage and
their marriages can be differed.