The Social Environment of Women’s Reputation in Prideand Prejudice by Jane Austen
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Abstract
This study focuses on the social acceptance and sense of identity of women in nineteenth-century English society, dependent on their reputation. The article takes an exploratory approach to major female characters like Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Bennet, Lydia Bennet and Charlotte Lucas, through qualitative secondary sources and textual analysis. According to the mode of research, the reputation can be considered as a social device that is used to regulate the behavior and moral of women in the realm of patriarchy (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979). In Austen's world, men and women are evaluated on different sets of social criteria: moderation, submission and purity for women; and freedom for men (Poovey, 1984). The article also examines the link between the role of marriage, social class, and the status of reputation, as Austen ridicules the inequalities between the sexes and the social hypocrisy (Butler, 1987). Austen demonstrates the constraints placed on women by the limiting nature of the male patronizing society and class structure through irony, characterization, and realistic social observation (Mudrick, 1952). The study finds that Pride and Prejudice still makes for a highly effective literary reflection on women's quest for dignity, individuality and social respect in a highly confining society.
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