Pride and Prejudice and Me

By Yair Layoun Escobio

1) Which of the topics discussed in class in relation with the novel do you consider
the most outdated? Why? Write about 300 words.

1) I consider that the most outdated topics in this narrative would be either the
constant pursuit of women to marry wealthy men, or the etiquette present in almost
every character in the story.
The first case being superannuated given to the fact that, nowadays, women have
developed a strong independency that was little to no present in Jane Austin’s
times which was a patriarchal society ruled by men who held economic and social
power. There is, to this very day, little disagreement about whether or not Austen
can be considered a possible feminist, taking into account that she was notoriously
critical of the injustice of the gender roles in the English society. We can appreciate
this in the beginning of the novel, where Austen goes into a description of the
unfairness of the idea of an entailment, though Mr. Bennett has no more and less
than five daughters, he is impotent to leave them his property as his rightful
children. Instead he is forced by law to hand it over to his closets male relative, a
positively ludicrous clergy man by the name of Mr. Collins. Mrs. Bennett in
particular mourns this injustice as she cries to Mr. Bennett that “I do think it is the
hardest thing in the world, that your estate should be entailed away from your own
children”.
The second case being also behind the times given that the strict protocol of
behaviours present in the nineteenth century are rendered useless in modern
times, mainly due to the enforcement of informality in our society during these last
decades. For example, in Jane Austen’s times, it was considered a violation of
etiquette for a woman to decline a man's invitation to dance in any way which would
make it seem that she didn't want to dance with him personally; rather, she had to
maintain the pretence that she didn't want to dance at all with anybody for the
moment, and then sit down for at least the next few "sets" of two dances each. In
some cases, it means she won't dance at all for the rest of the evening.

2) This novel is considered one of the first feminist novels of all times. Why? Write
about 200 words.

2) This novel is considered one of the earliest feminist novels because it

represented in certain ways the struggles of a woman in the patriarchal society of
the nineteen century. The character that could be considered feminists based in
their actions and philosophy are Elizabeth Bennett and her older sister Jane. The
novel is not only the love story of these two, but it also shows the lack of love
experienced by Charlotte Lucas, who marries Mr. Collins in order to gain financial
security.
Elizabeth is portrayed as a strong independent woman, who is not afraid to hold out
for true love, and when Mr. Collins proposes to her, she declines him despite the
pressure of Mrs. Bennet as well as how uncertain her future was going to be. She
is proposed to for a second time later in the novel by Mr. Darcy, whom she also
rejects despite the enormous quantity of money that he earned per year. It is also
clear that Mr. Darcy admires Elizabeth for her guts and cheerful disposition rather
than just for her pretty face and superficial accomplishments, which is partly shown
near the beginning of the novel.
In the case of her sister Jane, her only option for a financially stable future is to
marry, and even this outlook is completely dependent on their father, due to the fact
that he is the man of the house. Austen’s feminism is also seen in her views on
love. In 1813 it was still unusual to marry for love, and Austen can be considered to
be one of the pioneers for it. She herself never married despite codes demanding it
of her, and through her words written in her letters, she often advised her friends to
only marry for love.

3) How would you have reacted to these two proposals below? Write about 300
words.

3) In the scene of Mr. Collins proposal and Elizabeth's refusal, when everybody in
the room except for these two characters leaves, Mr. Collins initiates his proposal
by talking about Elizabeth and praising such qualities that he is attributing to her
"natural delicacy” and explaining why it was that he had chosen to marry her.
Nevertheless, he comes short, and overemphasizes logos (reasoning) with a
preposterous reasoning and ideology, letting little to no use of pathos (feelings),
which leads to blinding Elizabeth without any of his qualities, emotions or feeling he
may have for her. Elizabeth rejects several times while he continues to bring up
foolish points about women and her economic standpoint. Throughout the proposal
Mr. Collins uses his own logic to worsen things by assuming he knows the ways of
women’s rejection and does not take Elizabeth in a serious manner. Mr. Collins
lacked the only thing that many women would have agreed when proposed in such
a manner, and that thing wold be sentimentality.
If I were in his place, I would cease any use of the logos and only focused on the
pathos, since Elizabeth is a character with a great bond to her emotions. If rejected,
I would try to fetch Jane instead.
In the scene of Mr. Darcy’s Proposal and Elizabeth's second refusal, the two figures
are seen having a rendezvous in the rain under a ceiling, where Mr. Darcy first
proposes to her balancing pathos and logos in his speech. This was much more
pleasant to hear as opposed to Mr. Collins, but he is rejected by Lizzy too because
he wasn’t being heartfelt and in addition to sabotage Jane’s happiness by
convincing Bingley that she didn’t care for him, and it would be her mother that
pressured her to marry him due to his wealth. After an emotional conversation
between Darcy and Elizabeth, he apologizes for stealing so much of her time and
leaves.
In his position, I wouldn’t even try to confess if I have done such mischievous
things, let alone having the nerve to show my face after this kind of detrimental
actions.