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How Did Mary Wollstonecraft Use Jane Austen Respond To Feminism?

Decent Essays

While Jane Austen is often viewed as one of the most beloved English novelists of all time, the criticism surrounding her work has been split. Critics either view Austen as an early feminist or as a conservative who used her works to set a social standard, rather than challenge that social standard. What Ian Watt referred to as, “the enduring problem of Jane Austen criticism: scale versus stature; the slightness of the matter and the authority of the manner,” (Kirkham xxi) can be addressed by changing the historical perspective with which we read Austen’s novels. Read within the context of eighteenth-century feminism it can be seen that Austen’s subject matter fits in with the feminist ideas of her time. Her opinions on the status of …show more content…

The ideals that are represented in Austen’s writing are similar to the feminist writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. Austen realized and highlighted the important role that marriage played in the lives of eighteenth century women, as did Wollstonecraft. As previously stated, this focus on marriage and courtship has led to Austen’s works being ignored or disregarded by feminist theorists. As Julia Brown states, “To Jane Austen, the selection of spouse is of crucial importance to the individual and society, for the individual is the agent of a social purpose” (Brown 7). This focus on an individual’s agency and marriage as a means of influencing society lines up with Wollstonecraft’s ideas. Wollstonecraft also recognized that marriage was an important social institution that had an enormous impact on social power. Austen and Wollstonecraft both do not accept the traditional eighteenth century idea of marriage and they both critique how marriage is incorporated within their culture and conceive of a marriage based instead on companionship. The critiques of society in Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman connect to Austen’s satirical and comedic representation of society. If one keeps in mind Wollstonecraft’s ideology while reading Austen, the subtle critique of a woman’s treatment and place within society becomes obvious. Austen addresses the same issues as Wollstonecraft in her novels, the issues of women’s education, women’s ability to reason, and issues of marriage and family, and through her use of irony and satire offers her own style of criticism. This creates a place for Austen as an eighteenth century feminist

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