Elizabeth Bennet, Modern Feminist
Introduction
In this document, I present information relevant to the research question:
How does Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice (2005) present Elizabeth as a modernized feminist?
I make the claim that Elizabeth’s feminism in the film reflects the direction of Joe Wright and the acting choices of the actress, Keira Knightley. In conducting an annotated bibliography, I will present research sources that benefit a close-reading and cultural materialist analysis of the film. While I am by no means an expert in this methodology, I do claim myself as a fan of the film, and my interest in this topic hails from a pre-existing interest in feminist texts. I have authority on this topic because I have closely analyzed the film. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the novel the film is based on, follows the life of Elizabeth Bennet and her family. Originally published in 1813, the text is set in Regency England and focuses on the relationships between people of distinct social classes. The novel’s plot follows Elizabeth’s journey into womanhood, but it is her fiery spirit and resistance of societal ideologies that claim her as a feminist of the era.
Indeed, girls and women of the time were expected to be polite, pretty, well-educated, and useful to their families through dowry and inheritance. The domestic sphere limited women to the household, servicing their husbands while being soft-spoken and well-behaved. The five Bennet sisters do not have prospects in the Regency world unless they are married to rich men, and it is Elizabeth’s engagement to the wealthy Fitzwilliam Darcy that provides the novel’s happy ending. However, Elizabeth exhibits independence, sharp wit, strong will, as well as vanity and prejudice in Mr. Darcy’s pursuit of her, causing miscommunication and page-turning tension. While indifferent to the man at first meeting, a series of events causes Elizabeth to realize her own mistaken prejudice, and while she continues to resist the expectations young women are subject to, she chooses to marry Darcy out of attraction and love, rather than convenience, which is why I propose that Keira Knightley’s version of Elizabeth is a familiar construction of feminism that modern audiences can relate to.
Cultural Materialism and New Historicism
If I were to produce a completed research text, I would conduct an analysis on the 2005 film through a lens or method. The course I write this for requires me to conduct either a cultural materialist or new historicist analysis, or a blend of both. The distinction between these two methods is this: Cultural materialism is a study of human behavior heavily inspired by Marxism. This methodology considers cultural evolution and ecology, as well as the material discourses humans are subject to. Cultural materialists believe human behavior is natural and that the structures of society impact and construct behavior. Societal ideology acts as discourses a human or human character responds to, particularly in regards to class and economy. Meanwhile, new historicism is a literary theory applied to texts in order to historicize and contextualize the text itself. New historicists hope to understand intellectual history through literature, placing the text in history and analyzing the cultural and historical elements impacting the author and thus, the work. New historicism is better applied to historical literature, wherein discourses will arise through the language used and the anachronisms an analyst might impose, such as modern representations of race and gender. Cultural materialism, then, might be better applied to a film released in recent years, such as Wright’s 2005 film.
In conducting my research, I navigate the conversation in motion about Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, and this film version, specifically. I understand that Austen framed Elizabeth Bennet as a feminist of her era, and many scholars have commented on her resistance to domesticity and a marriage of convenience, but Knightley’s version comes alive on-screen and her Elizabeth is brave, independent, smart, proud, vain, and stubborn. I claim this character as a “modern” feminist because I am familiar with 21st-century womanhood and recognize a “fearsome woman” when I see one. Modern feminism is sharp and unafraid, opinionated, vain, and focused on desire. Elizabeth is a feminist even as she is confused about her own desires, but it is the behavior she exhibits and the autonomy she has over her body that reveal she is an independent woman. The sources I collected were found using keywords including the character name and feminis*, as well the keywords Darcy, domesticity, marriage, and Regency ideology.
Annotated Bibliography
“Pride and Prejudice” Dir. Joe Wright. Perf. Keira Knightley, Matthew McFadyen, Rosemund Pike, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench. Focus Films. 2005. DVD.
This production is the first feature-length version of the story in over 60 years. Joe Wright is ambitious to direct such a feature and admits to feeling fearful in his attempt at conveying the story. In an interview with The Guardian, Wright states he cast Knightley as Elizabeth because she is a fierce tomboy who isn’t afraid of questioning people, and while on set, the two would consult the text in regards to Elizabeth’s character, with Knightley inevitably doing her own thing. Culturally, this film gained a massive fan-following, attracting both old and new “Janeites,” fans of Jane Austen. Elizabeth explicitly resists domestic, marriage-centered discourse by rejecting a proposal, criticizing men, and speaking frankly to them without submission. Knightley is bubbly and elegant on film and brings a recognizable sense of female superiority in her acting choices, such as glancing to her father or laughing with her sisters.
Brown, Lloyd W. “Jane Austen and the Feminist Tradition.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction. University of California press. Vol. 28. No. 3. pp. 321-338. 1973.
This excerpt explores Jane Austen’s place in culture as an author of feminist texts, detailing the tradition of love and marriage from one text to another, as well as Austen’s commentary on social conditioning and the construction of womanhood. Using the characters Anne from Persuasion, Emma Woodhouse from Emma, Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, and the Bertram sisters from Mansfield Park, Brown navigates distinctions between characters and identifies a feminist tradition across multiple works. Brown explores Austen’s sexual subtexts as well as her focus on the intellectual accomplishments of her characters. Austen’s novels examine society and identity, and her influence can be considered, in literature and culture, as a progression of women’s liberation.
Chang, Hui-Chun. “The Impact of the Feminist Heroine: Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature. Vol. 3. No. 3. 2014.
This student paper examines Elizabeth Bennet as a feminist character namely in regards to her literary foils, Caroline, Charlotte, and her sister, Jane. Chang argues that Elizabeth is only a feminist in contrast to these literary foils, which represent societal expectations of women. Caroline, Jane, and Charlotte conform to the gender ideals of Regency England, and Elizabeth is only a feminist in that she resists what they embrace. Elizabeth counters these three foils in her deep intellectual education, self-assertiveness and strong opinions, and independence in the face of marriage. If I were to write a full paper, this paper is a paragon example of a well-structured work using clear textual evidence.
Christie, William. “Interpreting the Politics of Pride and Prejudice.” The Two Romanticisms and Other Essays: Mystery and Interpretation in Romantic Literature. Sydney University Press. 2016.
This chapter specifically considers Pride and Prejudice as a novel focused on individual sensibility that impacted the social construction of the self in the 18th century. Christie explores the relationship in Jane Austen’s works between realism and the romantic, explaining that the novelist was indifferent to the fierce historical and social crises that surrounded her when writing but is marked in literary history as a novelist commenting on the cultural discourses of the day. Relevant to ENGL422, this source explores authority in both Austen and her characters, using Lady Catherine de Bourgh and her misplaced authority on the matter of Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship as one example.
Dooley, D. J. “Pride, Prejudice, and Vanity of Elizabeth Bennet.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction. University of California Press. Vol. 20. No. 2. pp. 185-188. 1965.
This excerpt explores the distinction between pride and vanity. Dooley is responding to the beliefs of Robert C. Fox in a previous chapter of Nineteenth-Century Fiction, who claims that Elizabeth is vain because she is obsessively concerned with what Darcy thinks of her. Dooley cites Austen’s text and uses Mary Bennet’s definitions of pride and vanity in Chapter 5 to make this distinction: pride relates to our opinions of ourselves, and vanity to what others think of us. Elizabeth’s vanity is localized by her relationship to Darcy, as is her pride. Both Darcy and Elizabeth are proud and vain in relation to each other and because of each other, and in the 2005 film, Elizabeth calls them both “stubborn.”
Fraiman, Susan. “The Liberation of Elizabeth Bennet in Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice.” Jane Austen Society. Vol. 31. No. 1. 2010.
This article is the very first source I found when conducting research. It explores Elizabeth’s liberation in regards to defying tradition and walking outside the edges of society. Fraiman comments on the cinematic techniques of the film version and contrasts the 2005 film to the 1940 film. This source exhibits the use of the outdoors as a feminist metaphor and includes still images of the film. Fraiman analyzes specific scenes of the film, including the veiled statue at Pemberley as a representation of Elizabeth’s virginity.
Grandi, Roberta. “The Passions Translated: Literary and Cinematic Rhetoric in Pride and Prejudice (2005).” Literature Film Quarterly. 2008.
This film analysis considers the visual representations of passion in the 2005 film. This source includes still images from the film and considers cinematic and rhetorical choices. Grandi explores sexuality in multiple versions of the story, including the original text and the 1995 BBC version. The sexual attraction between Darcy and Elizabeth is passionate and represented in lingering gazes across the room, hand touches, and innocent interactions, such as dancing together at the ball. Grandi includes cinematic and rhetorical techniques such as the movement of the camera and the focus of a character’s point of view, as well as the romantic subtexts revealed in the film’s dialogue.
Hoggard, Liz. “Joe Wright: ‘Fear Drives Me.’” The Guardian. Interview. Online. 2005.
An interview with director Joe Wright that details his fears about recreating the famous Austen story. He explains his reasons for casting Knightley, McFayden, Pike, and Judi Dench, commenting on the tenderness McFayden brought to the role of Darcy. He believes Knightley is more of a tomboy who isn’t afraid of bringing her own qualities to the role and trusts in her representation of Elizabeth.
Moe, Melina. “Charlotte and Elizabeth: Multiple Modernities in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.” John Hopkins University Press. Vol. 83. No. 4. pp. 1075-1103.
This article explores the character Charlotte Lucas and compares Charlotte and Elizabeth’s views on marriage. Elizabeth judges Charlotte for settling for Mr. Collins and finds her views on marriage laughable, but Charlotte understands what prospects she lacks and that a marriage, even to someone as irksome as Collins, is a marriage and a union that will benefit her. Moe, like other scholars, considers Charlotte a literary foil to Elizabeth, and explores Charlotte’s function as a representation of societal ideals against which Elizabeth can be analyzed.
Conclusion
In conducting this research, I found upwards of 20 relevant sources. Not including the 2005 film, I chose 8 sources to annotate that explore ideologies such as the institution of marriage and the construction of Elizabeth’s identity. In summation, the conversation about Elizabeth Bennet’s feminism and Jane Austen’s function as a novelist in culture reveals that Elizabeth is considered a modern feminist in regards to societal discourses and her foils.