User:JosebaAbaitua/sandbox/References/DHum2021/ARAKAMA BARRENA, Ainhoa

AUSTEN´S HEROINES

Jane Austen, one of the most well-known authors in English literature and her works are recognized all over the globe, lived between the late 18th and early 19th in a Regency epoch. Austen was daughter of an Anglican rector and assisted to school until she turned 18 and unlike her brothers, she did not attend university. This is the reason why she started to write at such an early age. At that time, women were expected to behave in a certain manner such as being careful when giving their opinion, as well as pursuing certain goals, such as matrimony. This last idea is Austen's most appealed topic along with educated independent female main characters who will have to fight against the society they live in in order to maintain their principles. Elizabeth Bennet and Emma Woodhouse are two of Austen's heroines.

Pride and Prejudice and Emma are not love stories. Both Elizabeth and Emma marry men who love, admire and respect them which is a sine qua non to Austen since “No Austen heroine marries for money: affection is always part of the equation” (Hazel, as cited in Blom, 2015, p.3). She reflects her opinions on the main characters being married her a positive added aspect of a woman who, as Blom notes, should be a respected and affectionate friendship. The idea of marriage as a free choice may remind of Mary Wollstonecraft's idea of marriage as “equality, free choice, reason, mutual esteem and profound concern” (Abbey, as cited in Bloom, 2015, p.4) If Austen was aware of Wollstonecraft's ideas or there were ideas of her own it cannot be said but she depicted on Elizabeth the idea of rejecting any convenience marriage.