Marriage: A Cover for the Reality Patriarchy

Gaining fresh, innovative insights that appeal to modern consciousness entails the adaption of a text to a contemporary contextual environment, and by comparing both Jane Austen’s Regency Era novel, Emma (1815), and Amy Heckerling’s postmodern American film, Clueless (1995), it is evident that the film has been re-appropriated in such a way that Austen’s voice is still heard today, while simultaneously projecting Heckerling’s views on present-day society. While both Emma and Clueless fall under similar timeless themes, such as the social hierarchy, the social values of marriage and patriarchal society, which contribute to the female bildungsroman of their main protagonist who both go through a process of being childish, ignorant and surrounded by misconception to maturing, the texts are moulded by differing contexts. Where Austen’s representation is shaped by the Regency Era conception of marriage which wasn’t for the purposes of genuine love but to maintain social status, Heckerling’s portrayal is derived from 1990s American teen culture of consumerism, materialism and superficiality and where marriage is represented as romantic in nature.

In the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the author begins the novel with a quote about marriage. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. (p.1) Austen alludes to the fact that in 18th century England, once a man has become wealthy, it is the natural progression for him to seek out a wife. Likewise, women were aware of the fact that men of high social position would be in search of a wife, and they knew it was their responsibility to make such a man ask for their hand in marriage. For women of this era, marriage was the only respectable option for them to be independent of their

In her opening statement, Austen illustrates the the reasoning for marriage at this time, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 9). For nearly everyone in the eighteenth century,marriage was seen as a business. A man seeked a wife solely because it was seen as a requirement to be viewed as a resectable addition to society. Once a man asked a woman for her hand in marriage, the woman would almost always immediately accept, as it was valued as an honor for a woman to be desired for this type of role. Her family was to pay her future husband a sum of money in which he saw suitable. Austen’s protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, contradicts this belief. She finds it ridiculous and in a way humorous that men and women actually find a status such as this something of honor. In contrast, Elizabeth Bennet feels marriage should be something that holds greater value than a price tag and a measurement of one’s worthiness for a good reputation, but rather she feels it should be based off of feelings that a man and woman share for one another. As said by Elizabeth herself, “The true perfection of man lies not in what he has, but in what he is.” Jane Austen constructs a way in which Elizabeth Bennet mocks marriages formulated in the ways in which she disagrees

During the time period of the 1800s in England, not only was the economic situation different but the social norms were differently. Jane Austen depicts this greatly in her novel pride and prejudice, not only was the social classes a big deal, but the marriage between families was a bigger deal. Throughout the novel many of the characters encounter this problem of, love in marriage or money in marriage, and many of the families and females within this time period choice money in marriage. The author Jane Austen feels that the idea of marring for money rather than love is preposterous and expresses this through the character Elizabeth

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her” (Austen 3). The opening words of Jane Austen’s Emma served to highlight the rest of the novel’s themes concerning social class rankings. As the heroine of the story, Emma Woodhouse represented all the benefits that came with her high social standing. In nineteenth-century England, the issue of social status and rank pervaded everyday life and determined almost everything about a person. Social status in regards to marriage greatly affected one’s options, and society only deemed marriages within one’s social class as “suitable.” In her novel Emma, Jane Austen illustrated the nature of nineteenth-century social classes by introducing diverse characters and used Emma’s errors in judgement to satirize preoccupation with social class.

Marriage has always been a convoluted subject to every era of time, especially when wealth is brought into the equation of it. During the Romantic Era, the state of marriage illustrated women’s continued inequality in society. For instance, women lacked legal equality once they entered marriage due to coverture, which is the condition of a woman during her married life, when she is under the law of being the authority of and protection of her husband. This basically entails that once a woman marries, she is property of her husband. In later decades, women would make great strides to gain legal recognition. However, during the late eighteenth century, Romantic feminists voiced more practical concerns rather than that of law (Feldman 280). Before the nation could acknowledge women as equals, husbands must first accept their wives as true partners in marriage. This was considered not only logical, but practical. Feminists located one of the sources of inequality within women’s own behavior and the methods they employed to gain husbands. Women had been taught to use beauty and love to attract husbands, but beauty and love are only temporary states. These states do not establish a solid foundation for a lasting marriage. As illustrated in Jane Austen’s novel Emma, a successful marriage is founded upon the match between two personalities, and not upon looks.

Their limited education consisted of needlework, fine handwriting, singing, dancing, playing piano, and reading (3). Marriage at this time was the only thing that could give a woman any sense of security. If their fathers were to die, it was custom that only the eldest son could inherit the money and property. Unfortunately, if the family did not have a male son the land would be given to the closet male relative, which left the women in a very delicate position. Austen show’s readers this aspect of her society by having the Bennet sisters in the same situation. Without a male sibling their land and home will be entailed to a Mr. Collins. If Mr. Bennet were to die, his five daughters and his wife would be left homeless or at the charity of others because Mr. Collins would not have it in his heart to let them reside in the house with him. Their only way to escape this fate would be to get married. However, there was many obstacles that middle class young women had to deal with that kept young suitors uninterested. One was their social station. The society of this time was so stratified that even one class could be broken down into more distinctions of rank (2). The people did not often marry outside of their social rank, which left middle class women with middle class men. Unfortunately, money also played a big part in the determination of whether

England has always had a rich history of interesting cultural traditions but arguably none as prevalent as marriage. Marriage, the union of two people with emotional ideals and expectations, are brought on by many different factors that include: for love, for money, for climbing social status, escapism, survival, etc. In Jane Austen’s novels, she focuses on the importance of marriage in her world because she wanted to emphasize how marriage is the most important life event of a woman as this would determine her place in society. Persuasion shows readers good and bad examples of marriage: the amiable Crofts and other couples such as Sir Walter & Lady Elliot and the Smiths. Jane Austen uses the Crofts to support the importance of marriage

In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen introduces the major thematic concept of marriage and financial wealth. Throughout the novel, Austen depicts various relationships that exhibit the two recurring themes. Set during the regency period, the perception of marriage revolves around a universal truth. Austen claims that a single man “must be in want of a wife.” Hence, the social stature and wealth of men were of principal importance for women. Austen, however, hints that the opposite may prove more exact: a single woman, under the social limitations, is in want of a husband. Through this speculation, Austen acknowledges that the economic pressure of social acceptance serves as a foundation for a proper marriage.

Humor serves as a universal medicine. A good laugh is surely to cure any case of sadness. In literature, even though many times authors incorporate satire just for humor, other authors like Jane Austen include satire to comment on specific practices of society. So called “good” satire consists of dry humor with weaved in criticism that addresses social norms and common practices of a specific era. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen successfully satirizes society’s view of marriage and the pressures society puts upon women to marry a man not for love but for a “business” relation.

The only way young women could find economic security in early 19th century England was through marriage. Personal wealth was important for a man looking for a wife as well. It was clear in the novel that Catherine’s inherent wealth was an important factor in deciding if John Thorpe, one of Catherine’s love interests, wanted to marry her. Austen describes Catherine’s family as average, or middle class, as she describes Catherine’s father as, “a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man” (15). Although Catherine is described in this way, John assumes her wealth because of her connections with the Allen family.

Some, like the Morlands, consider wealth as something to be conserved. Others, Isabella, links wealth with marriage and obsesses over it. The English Society was based on social hierarchy. Everything from the property they owned to the families they married into had an impact on their ranking in society. Jane Austen shows class-consciousness in relation to wealth and economic status. Edwards Copeland’s, Women Writing about Money, addresses the lives of women in Jane Austen’s time and the use of money in the lives of the women we see in her novels. He makes the relations between economic details and gender in the period of time of Austen and shows how they had no legal access to money yet were held responsible for domestic spending. His work and research is a sensible study of the relation between women and money in Austen’s

A single woman with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old made!’ (p. 68 – 69). She also adds that ‘single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable’ (p. 69). This shows what Emma’s thought about a woman with no fortune. One of the reasons for Emma’s view is that Jane is an orphan who is left with no fortune, which means that she needs to work for her living or marry a man who could support her living costs. Being a teacher or governess was one of the only occupations in which nineteenth-century single women like Jane Fairfax could earn a living. However, Jane shows hatred towards being a governess when she talks about governess as equal to slave trade. For example, in a conversation between Jane and Mrs. Elton, Jane says ‘There are places in town, offices, where inquiry would soon produce something-offices for the sale not quite of human flesh, but of human intellect’ (p. 235).

In the 1800s, marriage was arranged based on the suitors’ wealth and social status; Jane Austen employs Aristotelian ethics to demonstrate the strengths of

Marriage has no always been about the love and happiness two people bring eachother; instead it was concidered to be more of a business transaction. Emma by Jane Austen takes place during the early twentieth century, this time period was completly absorabed in social classes and had a much different view on marriage than today. Through the young, bold, wealthy, and beautiful character Emma Woodhouse, Jane Austen exposes the protocol of marriage as well as the effects marriage held based on social standing during the early twentieth centuery.