EXHIBITS

Jane Austen

Jane Austen responds to Wollstonecraft in her novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) and continues the reputation discussion while exploring marriage.  The famous first line of Pride and Prejudice states: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”[1] The novel explores what women need to get good marriages, and a good reputation is one of those requirements.  In order to get a good reputation, women during the era needed to be accomplished, but Austen, like Wollstonecraft, argues that rationality will help a woman get a good reputation more than accomplishments because rationality focuses on character while accomplishments focus on appearance.  

Throughout Pride and Prejudice, accomplishment is a prerequisite for reputation which creates interesting discussions and problems.  Wollstonecraft explains that people believed it was necessary for women to have a “smattering of accomplishments” to get a good reputation. [2] Austen explores this predicament as Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Miss Bingley, and Mr. Bingley discuss what it means to be accomplished.  Mr. Bingley is told he applies the term “accomplished” to too many women, while Miss Bingley states that a woman must have “a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.” [1] To this long list of requirements, Mr. Darcy adds that “she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.” [1] This list seems highly unobtainable, but Miss Bingley and Mr. Darcy insist that all these skills are necessary to be accomplished which, in this case, leads to a good reputation. 

Image of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy

Austen refutes the idea that a person must be accomplished to get a good reputation and upholds Wollstonecraft’s view that rationality can help a woman more than accomplishment can.  Austen does this by having Mr. Darcy fall in love with Elizabeth even though she cannot be considered accomplished. Elizabeth does read which Mr. Darcy says is a good thing, but she cannot sing, she does not draw, and she only kind of plays the piano. Although “culture creates desire,” as Catherine England states, Darcy goes against the culture of the era by falling in love with a woman who lacks the accomplishments he seems to desire. [3] However, Elizabeth is rational which makes up for not being accomplished. Anne K. Mellor explains that “Austen endorses Wollstonecraft’s belief that the best woman is a rational woman, a woman of sense as well as sensibility.”[4] Because Elizabeth possesses rationality, she marries the most desirable character in the novel which shows that Austen believes that rationality and character are more important than appearing to be accomplished.