Question: The challenge of living your own life is an idea that connects Pride and Prejudice and Letter to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen. How is this idea shaped and reshaped in these texts from different contexts?"In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal."
In a society bound by the constraints of class and gender restrictions, what chance did Elizabeth, the daughter of a struggling middle-class family, have in marrying, let alone achieving equality with the aristocratic Mr. Darcy?
Though great for a speech, you need to go back to a more traditional Thesis here, a basic statement and amplification. The challenge of living within a society that suppresses your freedoms is key within Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, and Fay Weldon’s epistolary non-fiction work Letter’s to Alice.
This is better, you've slipped back into the appropriate style. Despite their different contexts, both challenge the status quo in regards to marriage, and how it impacts upon individual freedoms, through shaping and reshaping the key themes of class, gender and the rebellious character. Austen challenges her society through the actions and attitudes of her characters, particularly Elizabeth Bennet, while Weldon re-contextualises Austen’s critique in order to validate their desire for social change, and implore the reader to strive for the same.
The rest of the intro is great!! I'd like to see a greater emphasis on comparison to suit the Module though 
Both Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice are connected through their critique of the role of class within society, and the challenges it creates within the lives of individuals.
Be more specific; do they agree completely with each other or are there differences? Austen was writing during the Regency period, a time of strict social codes and structures, whereby an individual’s class – lower, middle or upper - greatly affected their ability to live their own life, creating boundaries in terms of occupation and income. “Lady Catherine … likes the distinction of rank preserved.”
Try not to just place quotes into your essay without justification or explanation, link it specifically to one of your ideas! This is demonstrated within Pride and Prejudice through the lifestyles of the various classes; the simplicity of the gentry class such as the Bennets’ in comparison with the extravagance of aristocratic Lady Catherine De Bough’s.
Marriage was crucial within society, as through marriage the strict social hierarchy was maintained. However, through marriage these structures could also be subverted, as marriage provided the opportunity for social mobility and the betterment of one’s situation, particularly for women. Status and wealth were overwhelmingly the key concerns of marriage within Regency England.
We are spending a little too long on contextual information and not enough time on analysis! In Letters to Alice, Weldon re-contextualises Austen’s perception of her society’s social stratification, giving her contemporary readers a more enlightened understanding of the text.
How did Weldon do this? Through Weldon, it is clear that Austen was critical of her society’s views on marriage. According to Weldon, Mr. Darcy “Marry[ing] where he loved, not where he ought,” and the fact Elizabeth has nothing to offer Mr. Darcy but her “intelligence, vigour and honesty” demonstrates Austen seditiousness, going against the social conventions of her time by suggesting the superiority of a marriage based in love and personal connections rather than societal and economic necessity, as it allows for more individual happiness and freedom.
We now have a quote, but still no techniques! Fiction, according to Weldon, enables readers with insight into the freedoms and rights they deserve, but are not afforded to them in reality. The reality for a woman within Elizabeth’s situation would have been Mr. Collins, however through Literature Austen suggests to the reader they deserve more.
Good link to audience. Through Weldon’s reshaping of key themes within Pride and Prejudice, the reader is able to better recognise Austen’s aims, to expose the superficial and flawed nature of class divisions, and the triumph of personal traits such as intelligence over established class conventions, solidifying Austen as a subversive writer.
While you do a lot with context here, which is great, you aren't analysing your text!Both Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice are connected through their discussion of the role of women, and how that creates challenges within the lives of individuals. In order to understand the over-the-top attitude of Mrs. Bennet, one “must understand... the world in which Jane Austen was born.” Austen was writing within a patriarchal society, with her books “studded with [examples of] male whims taking priority … over female happiness.” This is demonstrated within Pride and Prejudice through the fragility of the Bennets’ situation.
Can you give me an example from the text?During Austen’s time it was almost impossible for women to lead independent lives, with them at the mercy of male relatives for financial and social stability. For many families, marriage was increasingly important, as it enabled a family to maintain social security that may have been in jeopardy due to misogynistic inheritance laws. Austen represents this through the desperation of the Bennets’ situation, demonstrated by Mrs. Bennet making it “the business of her life to get her daughters married” before Mr. Bennet died, and her anger towards Elizabeth when she rejects Mr. Collins’ proposal, as their union would save their family from destitution.
Can you give me quotes and techniques that support your argument?Through the re-contextualisation of Austen though Letters to Alice, Weldon enables her contemporary audience to better understand the plight of women at the time. Weldon was writing within a society experiencing the impact of second-wave feminism. Women could now vote and take up work previously reserved for men, and though the “get in the kitchen” attitude was still prevalent, it was facing major opposition.
Good contextual info Her society was not perfect, but it would be impossible to deny the significant progress made since Austen’s time, and the changes in the abilities of women to live independently. For her post-feminism audience to better understand the plight of women in Pride and Prejudice, Weldon utilises contextual detail and statistics to clarify the characters’ motives.
How? When, according to Weldon, only 30% of women were married, and one of the most popular alternatives was prostitution, Mrs. Bennet’s desperation definitely appears justified.
Through “linking the past of that society with its future,” and bridging the generational gap between the two contexts, Weldon instils empathy within her contemporary audience, and substantiates Austen’s writings as a subversive text, maintaining the role of Literature with a capital L as key in challenging the values and attitudes of society.
Both Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice are connected through their use of rebellious characters, challenging the beliefs of those around them in order to teach their readership of the importance of independence. Within Pride and Prejudice, this takes the form of Elizabeth Bennet, whom Austen utilises as her authorial mouthpiece to challenge her society’s values. Elizabeth does not accept the established conventions of her period, desiring for herself the freedom to decide her own life-path. This is evident through her rejection of Mr. Collins, whom she did not love despite their marriage being favourable by society’s standards.
Are there any techniques that are used in the text that makes this evident, rather than just a plot element? “Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.” In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth’s subversiveness and intelligence is praised rather than discouraged, those qualities leading her to find freedom within a marriage that traditionally would not have been possible for someone of her situation.
Retell (remember your marker has read your text!). Through Elizabeth’s action, attitudes and triumphs, Austen implores her readership to rebel also, as it will lead them to greater happiness.
Good audience link. Weldon utilises the rebellious character Alice to teach her readership the importance of individual freedom. Despite Aunt Fay’s often inflexible advice on how to achieve success as a writer, Alice rebels against her Aunt’s guidance, and achieves overwhelming success on her own. To be a subversive writer, one must also be a subversive reader, and through Alice’s success, Weldon informs her readers that though they have just read her beliefs, it is critical that they form their own. Therefore, it is evident that through the use of subversive and rebellious characters, both Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice implore their readership to form their own values and attitudes independent from societal influence, and thus live their lives according to their own rules.
Through their critiques of the role of class and women in regards to marriage and use of rebellious character, it is clear that both Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Weldon’s Letters to Alice, despite their socio-historical differences, are connected through their exploration of the challenges of living your own life within a society that continually suppresses your freedom. So, to answer my initial question: In a society bound by the constraints of class and gender restrictions, what chance did Elizabeth, the daughter of a struggling middle-class family, have in achieving equality with the aristocratic Mr. Darcy?
Speech feature: Rhetorical questions don't suit in an essay. The truth is that at the time, she didn’t. However, through the subversiveness of Austen and Weldon’s writings, her chances today would be much greater.
Slipping a little too far back into the speech style of expression in the latter half of this conclusion: Keep it formal!
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Topic: English Advanced Essay Marking (Modules Only) (Read 688990 times)