A Challenge To The Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique Of Jane Austen's Novels

it is a truth universally ackno~vIcdgcd that Jane Austen ~vas a major woman novelist in English; but it is also a truth almost as univcrsallv ignored that Jane Austen was a feminist. There are so much pride and prejudice against Austen's feminism because of her excellent artistry and literary criticism influenced by patriarchal ideology, it might appear ungenerous to reprove some reviewers but many' of their misleading premises are still with us. By intensively' reading Austen's six main novels: (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, MansJielcl Park, Emma and Persuasion) and studying femninisni, I have found some significant and fresh things. I consider Jane Austen as a feminist writer, her works as a challenge to the patriarchy. My thesis will develop as follows:The thesis explores in the first part the feminist definition of the term "patriarchy". Anthropologists first used the term "patriarchy". Then Jacque Lacan defined the Name-of-the-Father in his psychoanalytical theory. The argumentation over the meaning of "patriarchy" among different feminists has been crucial for advancing feminist theory. Early feminists discussed the patriarchy's origin from biological, psychological and archaeological approaches and contemplated ~vhether the patriarchy was analytically separable from other forms of dominance. Black feminists aiid other women of color criticized the white-authored theories of patriarchy. By the late l98tYs affected by postcolonial theorists such as Gayatri Spivak, these critics reached agreement.Father, another ~vord for patriarch, ~vas the governing one in the patriarchy. The paper, iii its second part will analyze how Jane Austcn put father aside from authority. After revie~ving the father image in Austen's six main novels, it is clear to us that by laughing at father's authority, Austen subverted the patriarchs'. 11cr feminism appeared obviously in Man.sfield Park and Persuasion. In my thesis the father image, Sir Thomas Bertram in Mansfield Park will be emphatically discussed from three points: over-graveness to the alienation in the family, unsuccessful family education and patriarchal attitude to the marriage.in the third part the relationship between women and men is deliberated. In her novels Austen synipathized with the oppressed ~vom en, probed the cause of the fallen women andVproposed the emancipation of women. lii Austen's tiovels society was patriarchal in nature and women were considered inferior and dependent on men. Lady Bertram was an extreme example. She was exploited to an essential state of non-being. Maria and Julia Bertram were also the repressed women. The only justification for their existence was their good marriages. There were two revolts against the patriarchy in Mansfield Park: one ~vas unsuitable drama put on by the favored offspring of the patriarchalismn, another was the gentlest girl, Fanny Price's refusal to Sir Thomas's order on her marriage. I investigated the two revolts especially the second one in my thesis. Besides, the relationship between individual and society in Austen's novels is interpreted. Austen's heroines placed a higher value on their personal salvation than on their own social salvation.Man4ield Park exemplified Austen's ambitious and radical criticism of society. Fanny Price protected every human being's natural righl. to judge.It is very significant to research on Jane Austen's novels from feminist respect in the new century. To realize that Jane Austen was a feminist will help us to read her novels from a new angle amid get rid of sonie conventiotial timisunderstandings.