Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin Essay

In the 1995 BBC adaptation of Austens impertinent, screenwriter Andrew Davies draws a feel and prepossession which upholds and celebrates the paternal institution of jointure. Davies pares down the multiple sub-plots which are representative of realistic wo piecely gos and chooses, instead, to ignore Austens womens liberationist intent. To the entirely young-bearing(prenominal) perspective of the refreshful, Davies adds a male narrative point of view as substantially as a male esteem and overt versed urge effectively to deny female subjectivity in the film.The paper also argues that popular culture has betrayed Austens intent by suppressing her subtle rottenness of the marriage plot. plume and Prejudice, which chronicles the courtship and eventual marriage of Elizabeth white avens to Fitzwilliam Darcy, involves the education of both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, who moldiness switch their false impressions before they can respect and love one an otherwise. The novels open ing line, It is a truth universally ac familiarityd, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife (51 ch.1), alerts the reader from the give awayset that the plot centres around marriage. In the next sentence, Austen sets the stage for her ingenious disruption of the marriage plot by establishing the male rather than the female as the object of exchange However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well frosty in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters (51 ch. 1).Austen creates an intensely personal environment where the plot focuses on the relationships between the female characters within the domestic field of study as well as on the developing romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Major differences exist between Austens novel and the 1995 BBC adaptation of pride and Prejudice in regard to point of view, the male paying attention and overt sexuality. In this womens picture, aimed at a predominantly female audience, the look of the tv camera much frequently follows the narrative from the heroines perspective so that the peach sees what the heroine sees.Although much of the BBC adaptation of is filmed from Elizabeth viewpoint, the cameras gaze frequently switches to bring a male point of view and male experience to the forefront. turn on that point are significant differences between Austens novel and the BBC adaptation in harm of its narrative point of view, the novel and the film employ the looks exchanged between characters in a mistakable fashion to accentuate Darcys attraction to Elizabeth. In both versions Elizabeth first falls under Darcys scrutiny at the Meryton assembly when he insults her by declaring that she is not attractive enough to render her refreshing as a dance partner.Upon overhearing his disdain, Elizabeth promptly gets up from her chair and removes herself from his critical notice. After this initial encounter, Austens narrative describes how Elizabeth quickly becomes an object of great interest to Mr. Darcy Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be more or less he had looked at her without admiration at the ball and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. . . . though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect dimension in her form he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing. (70 ch. 6)As the novel progresses, Elizabeth becomes increasingly cognizant of Mr. Darcys gaze. While visiting the Collins at Hunsford, Elizabeth once again encounters Mr. Darcy. While Elizabeth is seated at the piano conversing with Colonel Fitzwilliam during an evening spent at Rosings Park, Darcy stationed himself so as to command a full view of the fair performers countenance (206 ch. 31). Charlotte Collins suspects that Mr. Darcy is in love with Elizabeth and sets o ut to prove that her intuition is correct She watched him whenever they were at Rosings, and whenever he came to Hunsford but without much success.He certainly looked at her friend a great deal, but the expression of that look was disputable. It was an earnest, steadfast gaze, but she often doubted whether there were much admiration in it, and sometimes it come outed nothing but absence of mind. (214 ch. 32) In the BBC adaptation, however, Darcys gaze is far less ambiguous than it appears in Austens novel. The film has the advantage of being able to create a visual representation of the narrative, making it much more explicit to the spectator that Darcys unbroken observation of Elizabeth results from his desire rather than from his disdain of her.The screenplay offers the spectator a privileged position which allows him/her more knowledge than Elizabeth for, mend Elizabeth naively suspects that there must be something horribly wrong with her to attract Mr. Darcys attention, the s pectator understands that Darcys smouldering glances are the result of frustrated desire which he cannot conquer. In scene subsequently scene, Darcy continues to fix his gaze on Elizabeth, watching from the window as Jane and Elizabeth depart in the carriage from Netherfield and scrutinising Elizabeth as she dances with Mr. Collins at the Netherfield ball.At times, Elizabeth seems completely unaware that she is being watched by Mr. Darcy while at others her sensation of his gaze makes her exceedingly uncomfortable. In the film adaptation of vainglory and Prejudice, the interaction and conversations between Darcy and Elizabeth are nigh often filmed from such perspective that Darcy and Elizabeth rarely appear together in the same frame in until the very end of the film. Although Elizabeth occasionally steals glances at Darcy when he is unaware, she does not return his regard until almost the keeping of the film during a scene in which she and the Gardiners dine at Pemberly and Mr.Darcy smiles benevolently on her as she stands by his sister Georgiana at the piano. After his company has left, Darcy recollects with pleasure the eye contact he enjoyed sharing with Elizabeth precedent in the evening. Even when Elizabeth and Darcy are left alone to walk together, Elizabeth continues to avert her eyes from Darcys countenance. disrespect the fact that she initiates the conversation which results in Darcy renewing his earlier proposal of marriage, she cannot meet his gaze.The film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice ends as soon as Elizabeth and Darcy are united in marriage and it is not until the closing scene when Elizabeth and Darcy are leaving the church that Elizabeth can finally look into his eyes as they take a kiss to seal their union. The sexuality evident in the most recent incarnation of Pride and Prejudice on film represents a distinct departure from Austens novel. Unlike Austen, Andrew Davies introduces sexuality into Pride and Prejudice in his rece nt television adaptation, contending, There is a lot of pent-up sexuality in Austens work and I have let it out (quoted in Amis 34).In the film, male sexuality and desire are evident as the heroine falls under scrutiny of the male gaze. Several additions to Austens novel have been made in the section of the screenplay which recounts Elizabeth and Janes stay at Netherfield while Jane is recuperating from her illness. In one scene, Elizabeth, unfamiliar with the house at Netherfield, accidentally enters the wrong room and encounters Darcy playing billiards. As she turns to cast off the room, he shoots her a brooding look and indeed, in a symbolic gesture, forcefully knocks a billiard ball into the pocket.A short time deepr, the spectator observes Mr. Darcy finishing a bath and then motion to look down from his window at Elizabeth romping in the yard with a dog. These cinematic images, instead of furthering the narrative, seem to have been included in the film adaptation primarily to establish Darcy as a sexual subject and set up Elizabeth as the object of his desire. Darcy vents his frustration in the physical activity of a fencing match during another portion of the filmic text invented for the screenplay.This scene demonstrates Darcys virility, and closes with a close-up of Darcy, glistening with travail from his masculine exertion, presumably referring to his love for Elizabeth as he proclaims to himself, I shall conquer this. Similarly, when Darcy makes an early return to Pemberly while Elizabeth is there on a tour, the camera focuses on Darcy striding back to his estate on horseback and then dismounting, undressing and diving into a pond on his property. Although in the novel Mr.Darcy does arrive unexpectedly at Pemberly to find Elizabeth there with the Gardiners, the film enhances the sexual tension between the two characters by embellishing an astonished and embarrassed Elizabeths encounter with a wet, partially clad Darcy. Although the screenplay p ositions Darcy as a sexual subject, female sexuality is virtually non-existent in the film except for a passive female desire characterised by waiting, frustration and misunderstanding. scorn the many differences between Austens novel and the screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, both versions portray female desire as essentially passive.The BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice reflects this feminist backlash characteristic of late twentieth century culture. By employing male point of view and the male gaze to transform Elizabeth Bennet into an object of Darcys sexual desire, the filmmakers have created a traditional Hollywood picture. Although the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is. indeed, a womens picture, it strays from Austens feminist intent. Although Austen ends her novel with the marriage of Elizabeth Bennet, she, nevertheless, skilfully empowers her heroine within the confines of the marriage plot.Despite the constraints imposed on her gender by the society of the late eighteenth and early 19th centuries, Jane Austen manages to some degree subvert the patriarchal ideology of the time period in which she lived. In addition, through and through her portrayals of unsatisfactory marriages and her references to the economic necessities which often left women with no options other than marriage, Austen creates distance between the reader and the heroine to proceed over-identification.By successfully inverting the male/subject and female/object roles at the conclusion of the novel, Austen convinces the reader that Mr. Darcy was in reality the object of her choice (385 ch. 59). Conclusively, a comparison of Austens Pride and Prejudice to the television dramatization of her novel illustrates how popular culture has betrayed Austens intent by suppressing her subtle subversion of the marriage plot.Although Austen never openly challenges the institution of marriage itself, she manages to be subversive by focusing the readers attention on the heroi nes personal growth and autonomy within marriage. Works Cited Amis, Martin. Janes World. The New Yorker 8 (Jan. 1996) 31-35. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Tony Tanner. New YorkPenguin, 1985. Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Simon Langton. Screenplay by Andrew Davies. Perf. Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. BBC/A&E, 1995.