Women in Society Theme Analysis

Set in the late 1700s, Austen’s novel takes place in a world where there are limited roles and opportunities for women in society. Austen’s female characters do not inherit property and cannot have careers. Their futures and fortunes depend almost exclusively on the men they marry and they are expected to be dutiful, upstanding ladies of society. But, Austen depicts her female characters as thoughtful, clever, ambitious, and sometimes scheming women. Even while living within a male-dominated world, characters like Lucy, Fanny, and Mrs. Ferrars are able to exert some power and agency. Lucy persistently and tenaciously chases after what she wants, even speaking of “conquests” of men, and eventually does find herself with a suitably wealthy husband in Robert Ferrars. Fanny, meanwhile, practically controls her husband, persuading him not to give any money to his half-sisters at the beginning of the novel and not to invite them to stay with them in London. And Mrs. Ferrars holds power insofar as she determines whether her sons inherit their family fortune and tries (mostly unsuccessfully) to determine their courses of action. Admittedly, these are not the novel’s most admirable characters, but they do illustrate how women can find some power and agency even within a sexist society that boxes women into limited gender roles. Other female characters, like Mrs. Jennings, also find ways of attaining some power, through orchestrating important social interactions like dances, dinners, and parties.

But despite these examples, women of the novel are often at the mercy of the male-dominated society in which they live. Eliza and her daughter (also named Eliza), who is abandoned by Willoughby, exemplify this. Without husbands, they are left in desperate situations. Elinor and Marianne are constantly confronting the threat of this kind of fate, should they be unable to find a husband. As Elinor tells Marianne, she should be thankful that her time with Willoughby did not leave her like Eliza. Only by marrying eligible men can both sisters get a guarantee of a stable, comfortable life. Austen’s novel thus presents the dangers and limited possibilities for women in a rigidly patriarchal society, while also showing how some women in such a society can still find ways of exercising certain forms of power and influence.