Pride and Prejudice and The Edible Woman: Negative Effects of the Society's
Throughout history, society has played an important role in forming
the value and attitudes of the population. Jane Austen's Pride and
Prejudice and Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman are two novels which
exemplify the negative effects of society's influence. Both Elizabeth
Bennet and Marian McAlpin are strong women who rebel against society's
influences in their lives. They refuse to accept the pre-set roles and
identities handed to them. Both women realize that the individual's needs
are not necessarily the same as what society imposes on them; they rebel
against this very society in order to gain the independence necessary to
Society in the early 19th century world of Pride and Prejudice is
represented through Mrs. Bennet and those like her, who are "of mean
understanding, little information, and uncertain temper" (Austen 53). From
the beginning of the novel, society prominently displays its views on
marriage. When Mr. Bingly moves to town, Mrs. Bennet immediately entreats
her husband to go introduce himself. Mrs. Bennet describes Bingly as "a
single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine
thing for our girls!" (51). Bingly is immediately acceptable due to his
money and connections, and Mrs. Bennet is already dreaming that one of her
children will marry him. In fact, "the business of her life was to get her
daughters married" (53). One of Elizabeth's close friends, Charlotte
Lucas, feels "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance" (69).
She feels that marriage is a vehicle to gain wealth and connections, a view
which has obviously been pushed upon her by society. Elizabeth refuses to
accept this view. She feels marriage is for love, not money, and finds it a
"fantastic nightmare" that "economic and social in...