Question

Answer the following question.
Distinguish between the themes of 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Jane Eyre' novels written by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte respectively.

Answer 1

The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of women in genteel rural society in early-nineteenth-century Britain. They make us think about a society that encouraged women to look for ‘good’ marriages and find wealthy or propertied husbands. The first sentence of Jane Austen’s 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.’ This observation allows us to see the behavior of the main characters, who are preoccupied with marriage and money, as typifying Austen’s society.

On the other hand, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, published in 1874, dealt with women who broke established norms of society before adjusting to them. Such stories allowed women readers to sympathize with rebellious actions. Young Jane is shown as independent and assertive. While girls of her time were expected to be quiet and well behaved, Jane at the age of ten protests against the hypocrisy of her elders with startling bluntness.