I’m choosing to focus on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice for my research paper. Pride and Prejudice was a movie that my mother showed me a few years ago and we would rewatch it all the time. It’s one of my favorite movies and (after reading the book) is one of the reasons why I became an English major. I would love to be able to talk about one of my favorite pieces of literature that meant so much to my mom.
In my paper I want to compare Jane and Elizabeth as the “ideal woman” in society in the 1800s. Jane very much conforms to what society wants from her, while Elizabeth rejects it and doesn’t care what people think of her. I want to talk about how she’s a strong heroine who doesn’t let society dictate her life. I want to look at how everything women learn or hobbies they are interested in is just preparation for marriage- how even their own choices and interests are in favor of their future husband.
I will be using The Oswald Review as my target for my paper. I think that my idea will be best suited for this journal because a lot of the other papers have similar topics, specifically feminism and female authors.
I want to find out more about how the women who read this novel at that time perceived it. Did they view it as a cute romance book? Or as a criticism of society and even when you reject society you still conform to it? I also want to know how the men perceived it- was it a tool to convince women they should get married or to conform to societal standards?
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