Jane_Austen_&_Fay_Weldon

Dear Fay Weldon, Might I just say that it feels so invigorating to pen your name upon this letter, your both concise and witty demonstration of the evolution of women has inspired myself among many, I am certain. As you may have already guessed, I have recently concluded my study of your non-fiction, post-modern pastiche, Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen in conjunction with Austen’s own Pride and Prejudice. In my opinion, Austen’s canonical text reflects values of marriage and the lives of women in an eighteenth century context whereas your didactic tone has provided me with a modernist view of the value of education and independence of women in a consumerist society. As such I have been poignantly enlightened on the evolving nature of the human race especially in regards to the lives of women and the pertaining importance of education in both contexts. The contextual elements you exercise in Letters To Alice and the strong didacticism in your written tone, demonstrate to me that the gender prone issues such as marriage and relationships remain relevant across the span of centuries. I thank you for centralising such issues in your text, for upon reading Pride and Prejudice I was wary not to dismiss Elizabeth Bennet as a character that belongs solely to the past. Nor did I jump to the conclusion that the issues she faced in her male-dictated society would never be encountered by my own generation. Despite the fact that Austen and yourself wrote in entirely different contexts, in the pre-feminism and second wave feminism eras respectively, your boundaries are similarly determined by men. Through the opening quote of Pride and Prejudice “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” Austen assembles the conventions of her society and places the power into the men’s hands – they hold the fortune, they want a wife (neither the aforementioned wife nor her desires are further discussed) and they will be satisfied accordingly. It is “universally” accepted, at which point her ironic humour is introduced. The subtle, satirical humour of Austen is carried on throughout the novel whereas you, Fay, approach the persisting power of men with a certain brutality that was not seen, especially in women, of Austen’s time. Your use of irony runs at a parallel with Austen, however society’s acceptance of texts has become easier to obtain and thus you are able to exercise your humour crudely. This peaks in the following quote, “I know a young woman who travelled the world fomenting revolution and when she got home... complained tearfully of having been raped by five policemen on the Afghanistan border, and was met by ‘well, what do you expect'’” I must ask, is your frankness intentional' I do interpret it as having been so. Because whilst the concept of yours and Austen’s arguments bear similarities, the difference in your writing styles alone exemplify the dramatic changes in the social conduct of women, especially as writers. In Pride and Prejudice Austen’s observations on the lives of women are represented through the construction of characters that display values of their context. The characterisation of Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte Lucas highlights the priority of marriage alone for women and the suffering of their other outlets such as happiness or education. Charlotte states that “[her] chance of happiness with [Collins] is fair, as most people can boast on entering the marriage state”. Thus through authorial intrusion Austen injects her personal opinion in a subtle and relatively uncontroversial manner, her words are poetic and her characterisation of each individual is ingeniously calculated to adhere to that purpose. The vast contrast between your respective writing styles has resulted in a sophistication of my understanding that while the issues and values our gender carries remain relatively similar, the backdrop on which these beliefs exist has evolved dramatically over time. I thoroughly enjoyed your encouragement of a perseverance of intellect and that in doing so not only have you constructed a parallel with Austen’s values, enlightening me on the character of Elizabeth Bennet, but you have also instructed that one should persist to do so for pleasure. Ironic, is it not, that I am analytically studying the two texts for the English Department in my own school when in Letters To Alice you ask “Are these the joys of literature' – making your mind work where your feelings don’t'” Not only did the rhetorical question stimulate my mind but epistolary form in which Aunt Fay wrote to Alice created the illusion that you were directly addressing me. Therefore I am pleased to inform you that I approached the reading of Pride and Prejudice in several different manners, one of which was purely for the purpose of insinuating an emotional response and found that doing so was most enjoyable. It created a deeper appreciation of Austen’s poetic language and her intelligence for pursuing women’s literacy in a society where it was rare. In conjunction with this, your concept of the “City of Invention” was absolutely fantastic, I found myself completely engrossed in the values you injected into the “houses”. The extended metaphor effectively placed literary visions such as Austen herself and the consumerism of our society into perspective. You write of Jane Austen as an inspiration, who although chose a “safer site" to build her “houses” for the sake of her position in society, “breathed in... and breathed out a hundred different lives”. The imagery you used evoked a reflection of saintliness and immortality in Austen which stuck with me through the reading of Pride & Prejudice. Yet to represent the consumerism in society you produce a contrast to this allusion where the glorified reign of the “Pre-Fabs” are built upon houses whose “blinds are pulled down, and on the blinds are painted what you might reasonably see”. Highlighting the lack of substance in the novels produced today through your use of an extended metaphor has led to a deeper appreciation of Austen’s literature and the pertaining relevance of the issues she addresses in Pride and Prejudice. I have noted upon reading the two texts that you mirror Austen by portraying the rewards of a pursuit of intellect and the underlying importance of wealth directly in Alice just as she did so in Elizabeth. Your character Alice, although not quite as versed in literature as Aunt Fay, pursues success in her English Literature course and strives to have her novel published. “You must read Alice, before it’s too late.” The didactic tone of Aunt Fay enhances the urgency of this matter and in this quote by Darcy, “All this she must possess, and to all this she must yet add something more substantial in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading” echoes his repetition of the word ‘must’. Mr Darcy’s partiality to intellectual women is the key to ‘success’ in Pride and Prejudice, or rather the happiness Elizabeth will find in marrying for love, just as the broadening of the mind through extensive reading is in Letters to Alice. And yet, once again through your parody of Pride and Prejudice you have demonstrated to me that issues remain pertinent across the span of centuries, in this case wealth persists as the underlying motive in both Alice and Elizabeth’s pursuits; the publishing of Alice’s novel does grant her selling of “more copies of ‘The Wife’s Revenge’ in three months” than all of Aunt Fay’s novels put together. Similarly Elizabeth’s marrying of Mr Darcy provides her with “ten thousand a year!” as exclaimed by Mrs Bennet. Thus by establishing a connection between Elizabeth Bennet and Alice, the significance of higher intellect in society and its general return of wealth, has opened my eyes to the fact that it is as much relevant in Austen’s context as it is in ours. I truly thank you for adding a sophisticated understanding of two contexts to my knowledge and aiding me in steering away from the judgement that the values of society is as fluidly changing as time itself. The women of today, yesterday and two hundred years ago have been brought together by your epistolary text and with the advantage of retrospection I am now able to deduce that the morals held by Elizabeth Bennet and Jane Austen as well as the obstacles they were ordered to face do not differ greatly from yours, or from mine. Austen feels infinitely closer somehow with every thanks to you, Fay Weldon. Yours Truly, Emmah Tumeth