In the mid-to-late 1700s, Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, often sowed and consolidated the seeds of her influence through the diplomatic marriage of her many children, sending them to serve as his political pawns. Such a concept, while dehumanizing and objectifying, was quite common, as it provided both royal and common families with a sort of stability, be it social or financial solidity. Even after the death of the Hungarian queen in 1780, the notion she exemplified of the idea of ​​marriage for profit, of marriage as a business did not disappear; the strategy was continued into the future, even managing to contaminate the apparently feminist text of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So while some choose to see the novel as the story of a woman who escapes her society's double standards and finds happiness with a man she truly loves, the most glaring fact that these romantically blind readers have a tendency to overlook is that marriage to Darcy gives her family a lot of money and status, which, through the lens of feminist theory, only perpetuates the idea that marriage is some kind of business. Rather than providing the England of her time with a covertly feminist chronicle, Austen's novel serves as a stark reminder that, during the 19th century, marriage was a business rife with double standards, as anti-feminist sentiments permeated even her characters apparently more feminist. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although most tend to see Elizabeth as a feminist character, some of her feelings toward a woman's relationship with marriage as opposed to a man's reveal her unavoidable susceptibility to fueling the double standard. First, under her society's double standard, lower-class women had to perform hard jobs to survive and were often abused because society deemed them unworthy of protection. Rather unfairly, “a woman whose racial or economic situation forced her to perform physical labor and made her the victim of sexual predators was deemed unfeminine and therefore unworthy of protection by those who exploited her” (Tyson 89). no choice but to go against the grain to survive are most of the time the ones that society punishes. Elizabeth serves to exemplify this notion, for example, when Wickham turns his heart away from her and persecutes Miss King for her connection to her wealthy family; despite what he has done, Elizabeth believes he is right in his actions. Elizabeth says of Wickham's pseudo-betrayal: “I should at present detest his very name, and wish him all sorts of harm. But my feelings are warm towards him” (Austen 147). In contrast, Charlotte does exactly the same by marrying Mr. Collins, but Elizabeth feels dissatisfied with her decision, even though it is the same decision that Wickham is making. moderation that kept them mutually silent on the subject; and Elizabeth felt convinced that true confidence could never exist between them again." In both the cases of Wickham and Charlotte, a person makes a sudden decision to turn his affections to a potentially financially valuable partner, thus participating in the business of marriage. The only difference between the two scenarios is that Wickham is male and Charlotte is female. Even so speaking of the double standards of the time, when Wickham shows his capricious behavior towards love for the sake of profit, Elizabeth still manages to feel "cordial towards him", while whenCharlotte does exactly the same, the relationship between the two is long. The friends of time quickly disintegrate. Elizabeth's support of the double standard that it is okay for men to behave ficklely in matters of the heart, but not for women, reveals that even in a character Austen had written to be feminist, the whiff of the social expectations of the period manages to penetrate the fabric of the story. Furthermore, Darcy, the culmination of Elizabeth's feminist efforts to challenge social norms, further portrays the ubiquity of the double standard within the institution of marriage through his disdain towards Elizabeth and her inferior status. When Darcy initially proposes to Elizabeth, he speaks of "the feeling of his inferiority and the fact that it is a degradation of the family obstacles which judgment has always opposed to inclination." To reiterate, he sees Elizabeth as something of a burden, expressing his hesitation in following through on his feelings for her due to her low social standing. At the same time, however, in most cases women are not able to inherit their own property. According to the Law of Primogeniture, “all land ownership still vests, by common law, in the eldest male descendant of the eldest line.” Therefore, when Darcy reveals his contempt, he also reveals his conformity to the double standard; women could not inherit property and therefore were completely dependent on their husbands to live a stable and secure life. If a woman wanted to live comfortably, she had to marry and find a man of status because the law left her without the means to live comfortably on her own. Yet, despite this lack of choice that society offers women, Darcy, along with most people of the period, sees women of lower status as burdens on their husbands; feeds the double standard by submissively accepting to see women in a negative light that they never had the option of not being included. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Overall, regardless of Austen's intentions for the novel, the influences of her society still managed to infiltrate her work, serving as a reminder of the inevitable double standard involving marriage as an affair during her time period. Even Elizabeth, a seemingly feminist character, cannot escape social norms, as she views Charlotte's wayward behavior with much more disdain than Wickhams, solely due to the fact that society expects only women not to act that way. Furthermore, Darcy upholds the double standard in his view of Elizabeth, despite her role as the happy outcome of his feminist efforts. All in all, what readers should take away from this piece becomes sadly apparent when looking at the fact that Darcy, Elizabeth, and Austen herself are all meant to be feminists, but still fall into the trap of the double standard, because it's simply like a contagion hidden under the floorboards. We can mask the smell all we want with Febreze and open windows, but only when we address the malaise at the source will the stench of the double standard truly dissipate. ReferencesWeinsheimer, J. (1972). Chance and the hierarchy of marriages in Pride and Prejudice. ELH, 39(3), 404-419. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2872192) Seeber, B. K. (2007). A Bennet utopia: adapting the father in Pride and Prejudice. Persuasions: The Jane Austen Journal On-Line, 27(2). (https://www.proquest.com/openview/d2ea680878bd4b95c3d4a275b37a8f1e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=4462234)Kica, E. (2017). Unmarried and Married in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.)