Gender Inequality and the Influence of Mary Wollstonecraft in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Abstract

The conception of gender and sex traditionally divides society into two. The establishment embraces this sexually gendered binarism creating a patriarchal status quo where the masculine dominates the feminine. The subordination of the feminine has then been consistently denounced by women, but their criticism began to be noticed in the eighteenth century with Mary Wollstonecraft’s publication of Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). As a mirror of society, literature has also captured gender disparity and has sometimes counterattacked it. This research delves into Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), a novel where women are at the centre of the narration. It addresses the possibility of Austen agreeing with Wollstonecraft’s proto-feminist postulates and subtly denouncing the foundations of the patriarchal system through her characters. For this purpose, the study dissects the Austenian female characters of Pride and Prejudice, focusing on the stereotypes that are historically associated to the traditional sex-gender binarism. Through this analysis, it also attempts to unveil whether said characters may or may not accept their role in Georgian society. In the end, this project will try to determine if Jane Austen may have been a revolutionary or may just be considered a master writer of romance.