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Social Division In Pride And Prejudice And Letters To Alice

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Letters to Alice a metafictional text by Fay Weldon is able to both offer new insights on social division and affirm those offered in Jane Austen’s canonical text Pride and Prejudice.
A social division is where a person or persons are differentiated due to their natural characteristics (such as gender) and socially approved criteria e.g. Literature reading. This differentiation has an effect on a person’s status, wealth, power etc. The insights on social divisions in these texts do differ to a degree which is due to the author’s context; Regency England and a post-marxist England. However through Weldon’s epilostory text and her intertextual references, Weldon affirms the social insights offered in Pride and Prejudice.

Both texts utilise their …show more content…

Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a canonical text set in Regency England which focuses on the Bennet family and their “business” to marry off their 5 daughters. Austen uses Elizabeth Bennet as the central character of this text to provide her insights on social divisions in her time. In Regency England, a woman’s marital status had a huge impact on their value in society and women who were not married were differentiated from society and were treated poorly. If a woman in Regency England was to be offered an advantageous proposal from a wealthy man it would be accepted blindly, however for Elizabeth Bennet it is not the case. Mr Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth is rejected due to him being ‘unjust and ungenerous’. Elizabeth’s act of rejection rebels against many of the social divisions within Regency England. Firstly it was highly irregular for a woman of a lower class to be assertive towards a man of higher class. Through Elizabeth's bold rejection she is able to challenge the division between gender and class. Secondly, Elizabeth tells Darcy he should have been more of a “gentleman-like manner” which again challenges social class division as that she reveals a person’s class does not make them socially superior is their behaviour as a person. Elizabeth is described by Miss Bingley as having a “conceited independence” as Elizabeth travelled to Netherfield without male accompaniment and dirtying her dress. Elizabeth once more challenges the gender restrictions that females in her time

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