INFLUENCE OF JANE AUSTEN’S NOVEL ON THE SOCIAL LIFE OF

THE WOMEN IN 19TH CENTURY

Contents
CHAPTER 1.................................................................................................................................... 3

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 3

1.1 OVERVIEW....................................................................................................................... 3 1.2

LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................... 4 1.3

SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES- ............................................................................................ 5 1.4

RESEARCH QUESTIONS-....................................................................................................... 5 1.5

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY-........................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER

2.................................................................................................................................... 6

BIOGRAPHY: LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN .................................................................................. 6

CHAPTER 3.................................................................................................................................... 8

EDUCATION:IN 19THCENTURY ............................................................................................. 8

CHAPTER 4...................................................................................................................................11

FAMILY:IMPACT OF JANE AUSTEN’S NOVEL.................................................................11

CHAPTER 5...................................................................................................................................14

MARRIAGE:IN JANE AUSTEN’S TIME................................................................................14

CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................16

REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................17

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERVIEW

The contribution and expectations of women in the 18th and 19th centuries are both represented
and queried in Jane Austen's works. This project discusses how Austen used her novels to depict
the society in which she lived, as well as how that society imposed a sense of duty on women,
particularly in terms of family, education, and marriage. Along with the depiction of these duties,
the article focused on how Austen uses her main characters, particularly in the novel Pride and
Prejudice to question those requirements and provide examples of women to her readers who
they can relate to and learn from. Certain roles were traditional for women in English society at
the time. However, in Austen's novels, she explicitly addresses these preconceptions in the
situations she generates for her female characters. Each novel features a female protagonist who
was born into a specific circumstance, typically including the family system and economic
status, as well as the ways in which her social circle, family, and culture have added strain to the
preconceptions that have been placed on her. Like in that era's society, the female characters are
not handled as powerful, intelligent beings with the ability to think and choose for themselves;
instead, they are placed in boxes and told not to break any of society's rules. As a result, Austen
identifies the important issues that women face when confronted with such daunting
expectations. Austen presents her readers with situations that are similar to those that they may
have faced in their lives, but they must always go against their societal expectations, whether in a
very extreme or subtle way. This is the primary method by which Austen's novels reflect and
challenge the obligations imposed on young women in her English society. The main focus is on
how Austen concerns her readers to learn from the countercultural female protagonists'
examples. Finally, taking into account how Austen conveys and challenges women's roles, reach
the conclusion with an emphasis on how Austen emphasizes the significance of novels within her
society, while also evaluating the influence that novel interpretation has in both the society in
which Austen lived and the twenty-first century. So, in this project the author shall be discussing
how Austen used her novels to depict the society in which she lived, as well as how that society
imposed a sense of duty on women, particularly in terms of family, education, and marriage.
1.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

⮚ Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”

This book had been written by Jane Austen in 1813. Jane Austen described the change of
Darcy and Elizabeth's relationship from pride and prejudice to love. Darcy, in particular,
is the major person in this essay because he represents the novel's idea of Pride. The
entire work depicts the status of women in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as how
 the female protagonist overcomes the constraints that existed at the time. Jane
demonstrates how women were bound by their families based on their education, how
marriage was the only way for women to survive a reputable life, and how a woman's
parents began looking for a perfect match in her early childhood and did not even ask the
girls whether they wanted to marry or not.

⮚ Chloe E. Rojas Ms. , More Than a Lady: How Jane Austen’s Works Impacted the Role of
Women in English Society in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries
This paper by Chole E. Rojas Ms. from Eastern Kentucky University provides a detailed
work on Jane’s Austen’s works and how it impacted the role of women in English society
in the 18th and 19th centuries. This paper looks deep into how Austen used her novels to
represent the society in which she lived and how that society placed a sense of duty on
women, specifically in terms of family, education, and marriage.

⮚ Mei Hariyanti, Social Stratification related at Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Novel
(1813): A sociological approach
This paper by Mei Hariyanti from Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta provides a
sociological approach of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. This paper looks deep
on the sociological approach, by identifying the relation between the novel and the social
background of the early nineteenth century in English society based on sociological
approach.
1.3 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
Scope:
The scope of this project is limited to researching the influence of Jane Austen on the social
lives of women in the 19th century.
Objective:
The study's objectives are as follows:

⮚ To analyze the level of education available to women in the nineteenth century, as well as
the contribution of Jane Austen's novel.
⮚ To evaluate the meaning and role of marriage in the lives of women, as well as Jane's
 influence on them.
⮚ To investigate the role of women in a family and the extent to which Jane's novels
influenced women.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS-

⮚ How does Austen convey and challenge women's roles through her novels?
⮚ Does Austen emphasize the significance of novels within her society?
⮚ How did Jane Austen influence the women of the 19 th century through her novels?

1.5RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1.5.1 Approach to Research: Doctrinal research was used in this project. Doctrinal research
employs secondary sources and materials gathered from libraries, archives, and other
repositories. This project made use of books, journals, and articles.
1.5.2 Type of Research: Explanatory type of research has been used while writing this project
because various concepts were needed to be explained.
1.5.3 Sources of Data: A secondary source of data collection was used, which entailed
gathering information from books, articles, websites, and so on. There were no surveys
or case studies.
1.5.4 System of citation and footing: The researcher has followed the APA system of citation
throughout the project to maintain uniformity.
CHAPTER 2
BIOGRAPHY: LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN

Jane Austen was born in 1775, the youngest of seven children one of only two daughters. Her
father was Reverend George Austen, an Anglican parish clergyman, and he consistently
encouraged Austen to interpret the novels in their family study. Despite their modest means, her
father purchased paper and ink for her so she could begin to write at a young age. Austen
completed the first three draughts of her first novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice,
and Northanger Abbey, in the 1790s; however, due to personal problems and publishing failures,
her first novel was not published until 1811. When she tried to disclose Pride and Prejudice,
which was then titled First Impressions, in 1797, the publisher brought back it to her, unread,
with the stamp “declined by Return of Post.” Austen's father died in 1805, along with other
rejections and failures, forcing Austen to relocate with her mother and sister, Cassandra, to one‘s
homestead, where her brother, Edward, lived.

Austen developed an ailment that many believe was Addison's disease when she was 41 years
old. Despite her deteriorating health, she continued to write until her condition rendered her
unable to do so. She died in Winchester, Hampshire, England, in 1817. Austen never married
during her lifetime. Following her death, Henry, her brother, published her final two works,
Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and included a special biographies note in which he
revealed her name to the public. It wasn't until the 1920s that works of literature began to
recognise and accredit Austen's works as masterworks, causing her prominence to rise in the
public's eyes. Having followed these events, Austen was able to successfully publish Sense and
Sensibility anonymously, and two years later, Pride and Prejudice. Within the next two years,
Mansfield Park and Emma were published.

Though Austen's writings do not necessarily fit into a specific genre, many literary historians
think her writing to be “romance” in conjunction with “comedy of manners”. At the time she was
writing, romance literature referred to novels that “prioritised human emotions and fantasy – as
well as emphasising the beauty of nature”, which differed from the novels that are now
considered romance. Austen’s plots all revolve around a courtship between her main characters,
so the concept of each of her books does include a significant element of love and marriage,
emphasising the genre wherein her novels have been placed. The genre of comedy of manners
makes reference to a satiric exemplification of social norms in which the primary function of the
writing is to mock the social order and the secondary purpose is to make the characters happy.
This reflective thinking of the society in which Austen lived is evident in her writings, as is her
use of satire to challenge it. Similarly, she outlines the preconceptions placed on women in her
English society, employing satire as well as circumstances in which she writes, she reflects these
standards set for women while also questioning them in her text.

In this project, the author focus on the family structure and how it affects the livelihood of young
women, the level of education required and available for women, and the meaning and role of
marriage in women's lives with the reference of Pride and Prejudice.
 CHAPTER 3
EDUCATION:IN 19THCENTURY

This need and willingness for economic security was frequently a primary reason for marriage in
Austen's day. However, in attempt for a woman to marry, she must first obtain the education
required to draw the interest of an appropriate man. A woman was said to be "out" between the
ages of 15 and 19, which meant she might be approached by a suitor. Once a woman was out, her
financial, social, and educational standings became extremely important to a man looking for a
wife who would fit his lifestyle and advantage him financially in the future.

For many women, that meant that much of “her life revolved around developing skills and
abilities that would make her an accomplished woman, so well-respected men would be attracted
to her and interested in courting her when that day came”.1

In a conversation between Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth Bennet, and Miss Bingley, Austen describes this
idea of a woman developing certain skills primarily to be appealing to a future husband. “A
thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, all the modern languages, to deserve
the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of
walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half
deserved.”2 The skills mentioned in this discussion are not those of housekeeping or child rearing,
which are expected of women as wives and mothers. However, the skills described by Miss
Bingley were legitimate aspirations of women in English society, and these were the abilities that
men looked for in a future wife, believing that these were what made a woman a good spouse
and, later, a good mother. As a result, to become an accomplished woman was its not about
herself, but for a man to first be allured to her and then to have the requisite skills to be a
“pleasing” spouse.

Therefore, women’s education during Austen’s day included of “drawing, dancing, piano
playing, penmanship, grammar, spelling, elementary arithmetic, sometimes French”3. Most
young women were taught these limited skills by their mothers at first, and then as they grew

1
Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993, 21.
2
Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993,76.
3
More Than a Lady: How Jane Austen’s Works Impacted the Role of Women in English Society in the Late 18th and
Early 19th Centuries by Chloe E. Rojas Ms. Eastern Kentucky University, chloe_rojas@mymail.eku.edu.
older, they will either attend a boarding school or be taught by a headmistress in their family
home. Elite schools and universities, such as Winchester, Oxford, and Cambridge, were available
for young men to attend; young women, on the other hand, had no public school or university to
attend. Aside from being instructed by their mothers, governesses, or boarding schools, the only
other way a young woman could start educating herself was through independent reading. Her
family home may have had a library4, particularly for the father and sons, but it was also
accessible for the daughters to use for further education if the father and mother allowed it.

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth outlines the Bennet girls' lack of a governess while talking
with Lady Catherine, who claims to believe that the lack of a governess has hampered Elizabeth
and her sisters' education. In reaction, Elizabeth says, “Compared with some families, I believe
we were; but such of us as wished to learn, never wanted the means. We were always encouraged
to read, and had all the masters that were necessary. Those who chose to be idle certainly
might”.5 Austen examines the social issue of women being not properly educated or having
access to quality education as men while using Elizabeth Bennett as a woman who selected to
educate herself using the resources she had, which set Elizabeth apart from other women of her
time.

Austen employs her main character as a sub-cultural agent to encourage her readers to use the
potential available resources to educate themselves in order to become more than just a
“accomplished woman”6. She encourages her viewers to be like Elizabeth, to read and learn more
than the bare necessities for finding a suitor of merit and wealth. The plot is driven by Austen's
overarching message of women being intelligent, albeit differently than men, and having the
capacity to learn and be educated. Austen uses her protagonists as models for her readers to
follow in their own lives since it is likely that her readers were in similar situations to her
characters, and this is no coincidence. It was a deliberate choice made by Austen to highlight her
society's lack of education for women – a selection that drew the attention of her readers. Though
Austen was not a revolutionary, her protagonists were examples of how her female readers could
create small choices to deviate from the expectations that had always been placed

4
More Than a Lady: How Jane Austen’s Works Impacted the Role of Women in English Society in the Late 18th and
Early 19th Centuries by Chloe E. Rojas Ms. Eastern Kentucky University, chloe_rojas@mymail.eku.edu.

5
Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993, 79.
6
Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993, 21.
on them. In this case, educating themselves and making it a primary concern was a fine place to
begin.
CHAPTER 4
FAMILY:IMPACT OF JANE AUSTEN’S NOVEL

A class structure existed in English society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As
per British historian Roy Porter, an Englishman's identity was formed by where he was
positioned communally, and this rank was determined by his profession, assets, and economic
status. The rank of an Englishwoman was determined by the rating of her spouse. The royals
were at the extremely top of a pyramid: the king, queen, and their family. Aristocracy was mainly
a hereditary title conferred by birth; however, women could achieve this status through marriage
in some cases. In Austen's time, the chances of a working-class person rising through the ranks
were slim, though a woman might be able to marry up one or two tiers to the condition of trading
class or even woman. This was frequently the goal of fathers in order for his family to
accomplish increased financial stability and ensure a prosperous future for his family after he
passed away. The disparity between the poor and the rich was extreme and vast; as a result, upper
class members frequently believed themselves to be better compared to lower class members,
having caused upper class representatives to regard lower class representatives with less dignity
and respect than members of their own class.

The characters in Austen's novels are all from the upper classes for example, Jane Austen
demonstrates in Pride and Prejudice that the Darcy family is of the upper class. Their elitist
lifestyle is evident from their estate. They are staying at a beautiful estate with company.
Someone's social position is also determined by their income. The higher someone’s income the
higher social status she or he gets in society. Darcy's social status is determined by his salary.
Fitzwilliam Darcy earns tens of thousands of pounds per year; The Bingley family is yet another
upper-class character. Darcy's best buddy is Mr. Bingley. He's always the one who organises the
dance party. He is classified based on his riches. His affluent received property from inheritances
in addition to the amount from his father. As a member of the Bingley family, she believes that
wearing a beautiful gown to every celebration and ball is crucial to determining her social status.
She believes it demonstrates one's pride and social standing; etc.

Because of their high social status, the concerns they face regarding family, education, marriage,
and their participation in life are only those that upper-class English people face. A person's
family, in addition to their economic status, played an important role in defining them during
Austen's time period. Women, in particular, were subjected to societalstandards for the first time
in the family unit. A woman's rights classified as belonging to her father from the moment she
was born, both legally and socially. Prior to marriage, a woman's legal protection and having to
stand were discovered in her father; his fiscal, social, and financial status was the same as the
woman's until the day she was “out,” which meant the time when a woman was in rising
transportation and prepared to be courted for marriage7.

In Pride and Prejudice, Austen represents the typical relationship with parents and their
daughter within in the Bennet family. Austen depicts Mrs. Bennet as a mother whose life goal is
to find a suitor for each of her daughters who will provide them with the means to have healthy
economic futures and to support her once Mr. Bennet dies and she loses the right to live in their
family home. Mrs. Bennet is more concerned with getting her daughters married and she
frequently addresses this in discussions with both her daughters and Mr. Bennet. She explains
their new neighbour to Mr. Bennet in one of their conversations as “A single man of large
fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”8 Austen uses Mrs. Bennet
as a personality who fulfils the typical relationship that a mother had with her daughter during
this period to maintain the idea that women were given definite standards to live up to be within
their family. Austen claims that all women were viewed as a means of maintaining their family's
social and economic status, perhaps by their own families. This is continued in her novel so that
she can create a female main character, Elizabeth Bennet, who, in turn, refuses to accept the
standard set by her mother and society, challenges that standard by marrying for love instead of
purely for economic gain, and creates her own future that differs from her parents' marriage,
which was the standard for their time.
Elizabeth's rejection of Mr. Collins' marriage proposal exemplifies this. Mr. Collins classified as
belonging to the upper class because he was a clergyman, and while clergymen were not seen as
incredibly rich or effective, some were able to do is provide economic stability and better wealth
for their wife and kids. In the eyes of the people of the Bennets' status, and especially Mrs.
Bennet herself, marrying Mr. Collins would be considered a success. Mr. Collins was the
descendant to Longbourn Estate, the Bennet family home, which meant that if Elizabeth married
Mr. Collins, her family could stay in their home. However, Elizabeth turned down Mr. Collins'
7
Swords, Barbara W. “Woman’s Place’ in Jane Austen’s England 1770-1820”, page 78.
8
Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993, 5.
proposal, to want a more pleasurable future and a loving marriage, going against her mother's
wishes and the aspirations of her societal structure to marry an appropriate man who could
provide a secure future. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen confronts these standards for women by
portraying Elizabeth as a woman who comes from families with a typical family dynamic of the
time, but Elizabeth refused to give up her desires simply to be obedient to her family. Elizabeth
was ascertained to marry not only for a secure future for herself and her family, but also for love.
Austen is demonstrating to her readers that their sole responsibility in life is not to appease their
parents. In reality, Austen is emphasizing the polar opposite. Her portrayal of Elizabeth sets an
example for her viewers of a woman who feels pressured by her family to support them and
follow their wishes for her future. However, she prioritizes her own desires over her family's
approval. This was not the norm for women in Austen's time, which is why she creates a
protagonist for women to look up to and possibly emulate in their own lives.
Her main purpose of writing Elizabeth as a determined, passionate, and somewhat rebellious
character is to provide her readers with a first-hand account, albeit pure fiction, of a woman who
does not resolve and fall into dutiful conformity to her family. She portrays Elizabeth as a
woman who would rather be a spinster than marry a man she does not adore, even if it meant
failure to obey her own mother.
CHAPTER 5
MARRIAGE:IN JANE AUSTEN’S TIME

Prior to Jane Austen's time, marriage was primarily viewed as an economic and social agreement
between family members made by parents of the couple to be married, with no thought given to
the preference of either participant of the pair, particularly the woman. As Austen’s England
emerged at the end of the eighteenth century, radical changes began to take place. In her essay,
Sword describes this shift and this newfound foundation for love: “Marriage was coming to be
regarded as a lifetime, intimate, happy companionship based upon love, esteem, and
compatibility, and both woman and man were to have voice in choosing the spouse. As positive
as this new attitude seems, however, the woman was still subordinate to her husband legally and
economically, and now as Rogers emphasizes, the woman was further bound to her husband by
love as well”9. During Austen's time, there was a growing desire for comfort and love to be a
component of a marriage relationship, but it was still not the primary component of a marriage.
Though the concept of marriage was changing by the turn of the nineteenth century, Austen
depicted a wide range of positive and negative partnerships among husbands and wives. Each of
Austen's novels is centred on a courtship plot, in which her main female protagonist is conflicted
about who to marry or what expectations to follow for her upcoming spouse, and at the end of
each novel, that main character makes a decision about her matrimony. Her readers do not
witness the outcomes of her protagonists' marriages, but Austen gives insight into these various
marriage relationships. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice are examples of how many
marriage relationships looked before Austen's time. Throughout the novel, Elizabeth is obviously
aware of the issues in her parents' marriage. Mr. Bennet keeps making fun of his wife, making it
clear that he has little regard for her. Similarly, “Mrs. Bennet is constantly looking for
companions for her daughters and is unconcerned about her daughters' feelings toward the men
she attempts to couple people with”10. Their relationship is not portrayed as one in which love
and respect coexist and thrive. This may explain why, when Elizabeth is looking for a man to
spend her life with, she is less concerned with the man's economic status and more concerned as
whether she respects, regards, and is challenged by him. This meant Elizabeth was willing to go
against her mother's wishes by rejecting Mr. Collins' proposal, hoping to find a man worthy of

9
Swords, Barbara W. “Woman’s Place’ in Jane Austen’s England 1770-1820”, page
80. 10 Austen, Jane, “Pride and Prejudice”, Wordsworth Classics, 1993, 5-7.
her respect. Rather than conforming to the norms imposed by her society, Elizabeth was more
concerned with finding a man she respected and loved.
CONCLUSION
Jane Austen shows the power that she appears to believe novels can have on her culture by
reflecting and challenging the many expectations that she reflects and challenges. She
emphasizes that even fiction writers can use their protagonists to interrupt and question the
norms of their social circle. After a thorough reading of this paper, we can conclude that Jane
Austen’s novels played an important role in the development of women's in the 18th and 19th
centuries, and almost all of the Jane’s novels feature a woman who defies one or more of
society's cold norms, influencing women's thinking. Austen’s female characters face expectations
for a “lady” in each of the three components of belief and obligation, in the family, in education,
and in marriage. Though she was not a radical, Austen recognized that women were much more
than the traditional positions that they were assigned. They were far more than “completed”.
They are much more than just “rational creatures”. She saw in them the potential to become
intelligent, powerful, and equal. Her novels' true impact cannot be quantified. Austen wrote in a
style that did more than just entertain her readers. She produced novels that would influence
people, push them, and drive them to realize the change that their society required, while also
making them wonder how that progress would occur. Austen did not choose to write bizarre or
otherworldly stories; instead, she saw the potential significance of a story with a female
protagonist who dared to defy society.
REFERENCES
1. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Wordsworth Classics, 1993.
2. Swords, Barbara W. "'Woman's Place' in Jane Austen's England 1770-1820." 3. More Than
a Lady: How Jane Austen’s Works Impacted the Role of Women in English Society in the
Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries by Chloe E. Rojas Ms., Eastern Kentucky
University,chloe_rojas@mymail.eku.edu
4. Social Stratification related at Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Novel (1813): A
sociological approach by Mei Hariyanti.