Jane Austen was an author who lived through an extremely difficult time for women, especially those who liked to challenge the natural roles assigned by society. Austen's work was filled with satire, irony, parody, and feminist qualities that caused some controversy among her readers. With all of these qualities, and in the Regency era, Jane Austen must have been brave to make fun of the upper class and normal societal roles of the time. Austen was an experimental author and she paved the way for countless other artists, and she will always be remembered as one of the greatest known for her challenge to society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Little is known about Jane Austen herself. We know that she died relatively young, that she lived for a time with her siblings, that her father was a clergyman, and that she never married. His upbringing raises the question of where his satirical point of view comes from. Jane Austen was not very wealthy growing up and therefore suffered and witnessed abuse. His father was a clergyman and did not earn much money, while his mother did not come from a wealthy family either. Jane spent most of her time indoors, which is where her fascination with literature began. “Early in her reading experience, Jane Austen was obsessively interested in the form and language of the novel, as well as its relationship with its readers (Mary Waldron, Jane Austen and the Fiction of her Time, 16 ). With her new knowledge and interest in literature, Jane spent most of her time writing. She began writing at a very young age and was apparently very observant because "her early writings show a growing awareness of the economic realities of women's lives on the fringes of the nobility, realities that channeled money and land to men , bypassing women like her mother or herself.” It is clear from her writings that Austen must have been embarrassed by the circumstances in which she lived and by the struggles endured not only by women, but also by those who lived in poverty. Even from Austen's earliest writings, she "places a number of fashionable fictional stereotypes, often derived from the pomposities of conduct literature as well as fashionable progressive ideas, in a domestic setting which renders them ridiculous and, more importantly, shows them as being. repetitive and mind-numbing” (Mary Waldron, 16). Becoming a published author was not easy for Jane Austen. She took a lot of risks in publishing her novels simply because "publishing her own writing could threaten a woman's reputation as well as her social position." Austen could have ruined not only her reputation, but also that of her siblings and parents. Austen's difficult upbringing only fueled her desire to fight societal norms through one of the most easily accessible means: writing a novel. Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice was written during the Regency era. At that time, women were very limited in what they could and could not do. Women were expected to be “modest, retiring, essentially domestic and private.” Independent women were seen as a threat and would be treated as such. The main character of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet, stands out as an independent woman in her time. She is one of the women, if not the only one, in Austen's novel who would not conform to the typical role that had been given to her.assigned by his company. The novel revolves around the concept of marriage and how it was vitally important for men and women to enter into their financial alliance. It was “a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 3). This quote from Pride and Prejudice makes you assume that men need to find a wife to support themselves financially, when in the book it seemed much more important that women find a husband rather than the other way around. In the novel and film adaptations, it seemed that a woman's only job was to marry a man of higher social status than her own and acquire a certain set of achievements such as singing, mastering languages, playing an instrument, drawing or needlework. “Marriage, of course, was about the only acceptable role for a woman.” Women had to climb the social ladder through marriage, making love a commodity they could not afford. Many women had arranged marriages, arranged by their parents simply to no longer be a burden on their family. In addition to emphasizing the importance of marriage in her novel Pride and Prejudice, Austen caused her book's main character, Elizabeth Bennet, to rebel against the standard laws of marriage and courtship. Elizabeth's family was not very well off, so when a suitor arrived and Elizabeth rejected him outright, her mother was mortified and angry. She tried to force the marriage on Elizabeth, but she would not comply with her mother's wishes. Elizabeth wasn't going to marry for anything other than love, which in Austen's time frankly wouldn't fly. Austen also made a brave move by mocking Elizabeth Bennet's cousin, Mr. Collins, who happened to be a clergyman. Mr. Collins was a very awkward, boring and vain character who treated women as if they were objects. Mr. Collins didn't understand women and took rejection as a sign that he needed to try harder to win them over. As you can imagine, the portrayal of this particular character didn't sit well with some readers of the novel, while other readers loved it. Jane Austen took a chance and her courage paid off. The Critical Review published a review in March 1813 praising Austen's novel. “Elizabeth's sense and conduct are of a higher order than those of the common heroines of novels. For her independence of character, which remains within the limits of decorum, and her timely alertness, she teaches the man of Family-Pride to know himself. » Compared to other authors, Jane Austen was very popular. The Regency era lasted only ten years, and yet several works emerged from this short period. Regency authors focused primarily on romance and social class. Authors and poets like Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Blake focused on ideals of love and loss, while Austen focused on status and parody. The general public seemed intrigued by Austen's refreshing new writing style. She brought satire, parody and gender equality to her readers. Jane Austen, however, was not the only woman to express her opinion on gender equality. About twenty years before Austen wrote her very first novel, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. “It is commonly accepted that Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was greeted with shock, horror and derision when it appeared in early 1792, as the forces of reaction massed against this..