Attempt a feminist reading of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

The ironic aphorism of the opening sentence of
Pride and Prejudice brings the issue of money and marriage at
the center of Austen's novel. That marriageable girls are driven to the young, solvent
bachelors for their security and identity must be an important feminist angle in the
last decade of the 18th century.

The whole book has been
written from Elizabeth Bennet's point of view, and Elizabeth's self-respecting
intelligence serves as a strong resistance to the offensively proud cynicism of the male
chauvinist in Darcy. Elizabeth's disapproval of Charlotte's marriage to the clownish
Collins is yet another aspect of seeing marriage from the feminist standpoint.Elizabeth
accepts Darcy's proposal only after the proud male is sufficiently humbled to make a
second proposal to her.

Elizabeth was Austen's fictional
counterpart, an exceptional woman who finds love and marriage  in her own terms. She
even successfully encounters Darcy's formidable aunt to become the mistress of
Pemberley.  Austen's ironic stance in respect of the new economy of love has marked her
book an early discourse in the politics man-woman relationship.