Satire Essay On Pride And Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice-Satirical Essay: The Limitation of the Choices of Women in Marriage, Property, and Independence Over the years the role women have occupied in society has drastically changed. In present times women are at the liberty to accomplish virtually any ambitions they have for themselves. However in prior time periods women were not allowed such freedom in their aspirations of the future. Nineteenth Century England, known as the Regency Era, is an example of one these time periods in which the choices of women were restricted. In response to this restriction of rights, many nineteenth century novels dealt with the criticism of the limited choices women were offered with regard to marriage, property and independence. In her novel
Collin, or any man for that matter, outweigh the clear and apparent flaws he (or they) possess. This shows a women’s limitation in marriage as they are simply to dive into it and hope for the best. Property inheritance is another subject which Austen satirizes by using the situation of the Bennet family. In Regency England property was entailed, meaning it was passed down through a family, usually following the patrilineal line. “Mr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heir’s male” (Page77). Here it is shown how a family estate was passed down, here in the Bennet’s case, as is it with most families, the estate was passed down to the next male in the family. This would mean that after Mr.Bennet died his daughters would have to leave their home and hand it over to the next male relative (Mr. Collins). This is the motivation behind Mrs.Bennet’s need to marry off her children before the death of her husband. This paradigm created by entailment limits both property and independence of women as it robs them of their immediate family inheritance and also causes them to hasten in finding a suitor. Both circumstances impose