Response paper to pride and prejudice by jane austen Essay

Response paper to pride and prejudice by jane austen - Essay Example r breaking up with Jane based on information brought to him by these same society friends because she does not come from their ‘set’ was surprising as was the idea that Jane would take him back anyway. However, I can understand that she would have done anything for him because she really did love him and the times were much different then. During the Victorian period, women were very limited in what they could do as a means of supporting themselves. Basically, if they wanted to have any chance at mingling with ‘polite’ society, they had to be aware of the more rigid rules of manners in high society and they had to try to find a husband early. That was pretty much everything they were born and educated to do. Outside of taking care of the house and the family, there weren’t many acceptable ways that girls could take care of themselves. They were usually considered the responsibility of a male relative, who was given the right to choose their husbands for them and had control over their money and activities. Girls who did not have male relatives to take care of them, like Charlotte Lucas, had to resort to the only field in which women could retain some degree of respectability, which was taking a position in someone’s home as a governess. The idea that even this was relatively horrible is expr essed when Charlotte would rather marry Mr. Collins, who she is not overly fond of, rather than become a governess somewhere. I really hated the idea that women were so limited in what they could do given all that they have accomplished in the past 100 years. Imagine what society would be like today if the whole population, rather than just half of it, was involved in it. Charlotte’s marriage to Mr. Collins is not seen to be the kind of happy love affair that eventually develops between Jane and Charles and Elizabeth and Darcy. Although Mr. Collins continues to call her by endearing names, he does so with such lack of feeling that one gets the