Anne Taylor Robertson Blog 10: Pride & Prejudice

This classic novel by Jane Austen is seemingly just a romance novel by an old author. While there is certainly romance in the plot, it is interesting to see the social commentary that is going on behind it. Austen, much like F. Scott Fitzgerald, wrote stories about the society of the day. Much of her writing was intended to be overly-dramatic or romantic, emphasizing what she thought was ridiculousness. Underneath it all, we can take a look at her novels such as Pride & Prejudice and draw conclusions about social norms and hegemonic masculinity and femininity of the day. The standards for behavior were obviously very different then than they are today, making it hard for some readers to relate to the story. I very much enjoyed this story because I genuinely enjoyed the plot, but I also thought that her process of characterization and the underlying implications on society provided a critical look into what was going on at the time. This can easily translate into our time. We don’t see it much in books anymore for two reasons: 1) there is almost no censorship, so there is no need for mythopoeia, and 2) the creation of the motion picture. In hundreds of movies today there are implications on our society, challenging us to take a second look and make some corrections.