Casamento, feminismo e crítica social no período regencial em Orgulho e Preconceito de Jane Austen

Abstract

This dissertation aims to analyze the novel Pride and Prejudice (1813), by English author Jane Austen (1775-1817), which especially raises the issue of marriage in England at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. Women of that period were practically obliged to marry if they wanted a peaceful financial future. Austen, through the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet, breaks with this paradigm and seeks to show that women can make choices and not be subject to the patriarchal standards of the time. The main character, in certain aspects lived in the novel, is very close to the author’s own life, raising the question whether Elizabeth would not be a fictional representation, an alter ego, of the writer. It will also deal with Austen’s position on the English sociopolitical situation from the details collected in the novels, focusing mainly on the Regency period (1811-1820). The writer’s work has always been accused of a probable alienation and silence in the face of serious situations such as the wars and conflicts faced by her country, especially against Napoleon Bonaparte’s France, and that her works would narrate nothing more than romances between virtuous maidens and gentlemen of the gentry. In addition, Austen is famous for her irony, which is present throughout the work, and again, the protagonist stands out, as she uses this artifice at various times, showing her own wit and intelligence. Women, in this Austenian novel, are realistic representations of women, who suffer the pressure of a sexist society, since they depended on a husband to guarantee their financial tranquility, however, there are also women who are at the service of these oppressive social standards and are also presented by Austen. The book also portrays in an ironic way and, at the same time, denounces the hypocrisy existing in English society at the time, which lived on appearances and always sought to please other people, often leaving their own desires to satisfy the opinion of others.