Feminism and Female Identity in Adaptations of Pride and Prejudice Throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries

Author

Emily SuhFollow
Emily Suh, University of MississippiFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

English

First Advisor

Jason Solinger

Second Advisor

Jaime Harker

Third Advisor

Timothy Yenter

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

To many of her fans in the world, Austen is undeniably a feminist author, especially for her time in the nineteenth century. In a time where women were dependent upon male family members for their livelihoods, most of Austen’s heroines exhibit a sort of independence and strong will with a mind of their own, including in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is the model for what an independent woman is, a woman who is not so concerned with the monetary value of matrimony and only falls in love because she wants to. Furthermore, female audiences tend to like Elizabeth more than any other character in the story. What is it that makes her character, who was written in the nineteenth century, so inspiring to a girl born and raised in the twenty-first century? In this thesis, by examining the film adaptations made in 1940 and 2005, the television series in 1995, and a young adult retelling from 2016, I would like to engage in what Wai Chee Dimock dubs diachronic historicism. Each adaptation of Austen’s novel serves a different purpose, shows a different aesthetic, and imposes different reactions based on the culture of the time in which the adaptation was created.

Recommended Citation

Suh, Emily and Suh, Emily, "Feminism and Female Identity in Adaptations of Pride and Prejudice Throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries" (2024). Honors Theses. 3126.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/3126

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.