Pride And Prejudice And The Romantic Ages English Literature Essay

Despite its name, Romantic, the Romantic age had only a few things that was related to the real meaning of romance known now, however, love had been the main subject of most of the age’s art. The age was actually a great achievement of art and philosophy that resulted in the western societies to change the way they thought about themselves and their surroundings as mentioned in the article “Romanticism” Adapted from A Guide to the Study of Literature. Differing from the classical age the romantic age has given artists of that period more freedom and creation. Music for instance was of great value in terms of the way it expresses. Composers of the age used music along with freedom in expression to express nationalism and hence proving their cultural identity also as mentioned in the article “Romantic Literature”. And as mentioned in the article “The Romantic Era” it is stated that composers experimented length of compositions, new harmonies, and tonal relationships.  Furthermore, all strict ideas in the structure of the society were breaking down. The romantic aged has marked a great power of more artistic energy and creativity.

Romanticism is featured by many characteristics that influenced art and literature of that age. Starting with love of nature in which the romantics valued the beauty of nature because if the industrial revolution that has happened during that age forcing people to live in cities and loosing the peaceful country side livings.

Romantics also valued nature because they believed it helped in realizing the real identity of one’s self as mentioned in the article “Romantic Literature”. A clear romantic feature also appeared in the difference between rationality and emotions.

The romantic age writers trusted their emotions in composing and writing unlike the classical ages. Romanticism created trust in human emotions and feelings and has reflected in the creativity of art. Romanticism also showed the belief in artists as the creators of the art. Unlike older ages where an artist was bond to reflect the surroundings in his art, Romanticism gave artists of its age the ability to express their inner feelings and emotions in their work. In older ages, literature and art were for high educated people of certain classes only but Romanticism gave chances for more common the ability to compose and create art under the concept of Nationalism. Exoticism has also reflected along with other features as people became fonder of exotic ideas and the idea of mystery. According to the article “Romantic Literature” supernatural ideas were also an approach that showed on artist’s work as they became more attracted to ideas of horror and mystery. Romantic age creativity also gave chances to normal people to be hero’s of an art unlike older classics where a hero is a noble man of high value.

Most novels in the romantic age were written by females. One of the most important artists that appeared was the great “Jane Austen” an English novelist of romance based fiction. One of Jane Austen’s great writings was the novel “Pride and Prejudice”. The novel was based on the idea of marriage and how it was affected by the society. austen.jpg

She believed that marriage should not be affected by the way people think or family issues and wealth and that it should be based more on ones need and feelings. She tried to convince readers that one should be married for the sake of love.

Jane Austen showed how different ideas of her age’s society affected the idea of marriage. Different classes of society during that age had certain ways of thinking when the idea of marriage from another class appears. Such ideas included the differences in reputation, pride, identity and family wealth. pride_and_prejudice-movie-picture.jpg

In the novel the middle class family, The Bennets get to socialize with the higher class family the Bingleys and the Darcys but the idea that they are lower than them keeps on appearing in the way the novel events go by. Mrs. Bennet’s hope was to get her five daughters married to men whose class will provide good financial aid to her daughters as at that time a woman’s only way to possess good financials was getting married to good fortunes as mentioned in the article “Marriage in Pride and Prejudice”. The first sentence in the novel appears to provide a clear thought of the idea of classes. It stated that, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” This also shows the opposite, that even a woman is in need of a wealthy man with good fortune.

It is stated in the article “Pride and Prejudice – Marriage” that marriage for a woman in the author’s age is a status for her strive and achieve. Jane Austen reflects that the idea of prejudice between Darcy and Elizabeth when they first met and shows how love can break the boundary of class differences and pride.

A major idea that was shown in Jane’s novel was the idea behind how certain physical appearances really hid how a person’s real character is. It is clearly shown in the way Elizabeth was misguided with Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Wickham’s appearance on how their internal character really is as mentioned in the article “Pride and Prejudice: Appearance vs. Reality”. By the time most of the novel’s events are over Elizabeth comes to a decision that her primary impact on both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham were incorrect. Jane Austen clearly concludes on her novel that appearance often tricks how people judge one’s real character.

The idea of hypocrisy appears several times in the novel mostly in positions where one of the novel’s characters has a sarcastic view on some point where he/she neglects that it might be in him/her self. For instance hypocrisy appears when the Bingley’s make fun of the Gardners and the Lucas that they have gained their fortunes through trade which reflects low identity when they actually ignore the fact that their fortune has even been gained through trade. Caroline from the Bingleys, is also an example of hypocrisy where she supports her friend Elizabeth as long as it would not harm her plans and then at the closest stop gives her away with a low value letter intentionally.

Finally, Pride and Prejudice, is a subject of how marriage acts in a demanding society, a society that demands pride, dignity, wealth and well-being. The novel clearly illustrates the writer’s feelings of how marriage should not be in the control of society pressures, wealth and appearances but for the sake of one’s love. The novel also clearly shows how women had prejudice towards their low class when getting indulged with families of higher class levels.

Pride and Prejudice shows not only the idea of love in marriage but represents all kind of relationships and how that the perfect couple with the perfect circumstances and reasons was hard to be found. The writer illustrates this by showing all kinds of thoughts that appear in marriages according to her view of her age’s society.

Works Cited Page

“Romanticism”. 15 Feb. 2009. 10 May 2010.

< http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html>

“The Romantic Era”. 10 May. 2010.

< http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-rom.htm>

“Romantic Literature”. 10 May. 2010.

< http://www.shoshone.k12.id.us/romantic/lit.htm>

“Marriage in Pride and Prejudice”. 10 May.2010

<http://www.freeessays.cc/db/10/bgt212.shtml>

“Pride and Prejudice – Marriage”. 5 July 2010. 10 May. 2010

<http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=25382>