Conclusion after analysing the gender roles in Pride and Prejudice
After finishing this paper, I established that Pride and Prejudice gives you a very clear image of the gender roles in Regency England. Jane Austen describes so many subjects that are related to the gender roles of her time, that there were simply too many quotes in this book to discuss in one single paper. Therefore, I only examined the first few chapters because otherwise, this paper would have been way too long for a paper.
It was very interesting to use Pride and Prejudice for this study, as this book is written by a lady who actually lived in this period. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice, of course, and it wasn’t until I began analysing it that I fully understood the whole story. When I started looking into the separate spheres, the accomplishments, the inheritance laws, the strict etiquette at balls and marriage, the story became that much more interesting. I also noticed that Jane Austen used her own experiences as inspiration for Pride and Prejudice, which makes it an excellent source for studies like this. However, even though she mentioned a lot about the gender roles of her time, further research was necessary to fully understand these subjects. So, coming back to my research question: I do think that Pride and Prejudice is a very good resource for studies like this, as it gives you an idea of what daily life was like as someone in Regency England. However, you do need some background information to completely understand the multiple aspects of Regency England’s gender roles as they were back then.
Writing this paper has been quite a journey. At the start, I didn’t work efficiently at all. First, I wanted to analyse multiple books in chronological order to see if we can establish a development in how women are portrayed in literature over time. This turned out to take too much time, definitely more than 80 hours. I decided to focus on one book: Pride and Prejudice. I was about to analyse all the sentences in her novel that were related to the gender roles of Regency England, but this was very inefficient as this book has got 61 chapters. However, these little, inefficient ‘mistakes’ weren’t a waste of time. I learned a lot from them, and I think the experience of writing this literary analysis has not only taught me a lot about the gender roles in Regency England, but also taught me how to use my time more efficiently in the future at university, for example.
Reference list
Pride and prejudice, by Jane Austen. Publication date: 28 January 1813.
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19Morning Calls and Formal Visits: Socializing in the Regency Era, by Maria Grace at https://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2013/08/morning-calls-and-formal-visits.html. Accessed on Tuesday, 07 January 2020
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21The 10 do’s and don’ts of etiquette to become a lady in Regency England, by D.G. Hewitt at https://historycollection.co/the-10-dos-and-donts-of-etiquette-to-become-a-lady-in-regency-england/. Accessed on Tuesday, 07 January 2020
22The ball in the novels of Jane Austen, by John Mullan at https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-ball-in-the-novels-of-jane-austen. Accessed on Tuesday, 07 January 2020
23Fordyce’s Sermons and Jane Austen’s, by Jane Lark at https://thebeaumonde.com/fordyces-sermons-and-jane-austens-joke-by-jane-lark/ . Accessed on Tuesday, 07 January 2020
24Pride and Prejudice and the Napoleonic Wars, at https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/pride/context/historical/pride-and-prejudice-and-the-napoleonic-wars/. Accessed on Wednesday, 05 February 2020
