Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was written in the Regency period, during which England witnessed a decisive change in its hierarchical set-up. At that time gender and class expectations controlled and restricted the lives of people abiding them, particularly the women and the middle class. Each class was governed by a separate and distinct set of values and expectations that were strictly adhered to.
The middle and the upper class were controlled by the expectations placed upon mannerism, social communication, conduct and courtship, whereas pride, honour, boastfulness were regarded a distinctive mannerism for the aristocrats, the superior individuals. In Pride and Prejudice, on one hand there was the traditional landed aristocracy, represented by Lady Catherine and the owner of Pemberley, Darcy, with their insular culture, hesistant to negotiate with the upwardly mobile middle class professionals. At the same time, a new class of gentry as emerging hich had acquired its fortune through trade.
Mr. Bingley belongs to this category. The Lucases, “formerly in trade”, had “made a tolerable fortune” and promptly quit the market town occupied by them earlier. The professionals like Mr. Phillips, an attorney, or Mr. Collins, a clergyman, supported themselves through acquired skills and regulated economy. The Gardiners in “a respectable line of trade” earned their respectability by merit. The army officers, with their flashy lifestyles represent another important social group in that period. Similarly there were distinct set of notions for men and women.
During the Regency period, woman was expected to remain passive throughout her life, marry early, have children and support her husband whenever need may be. Her education as intended only as a preparation for her social life and her marriage for financial security. In the novel, while men manage their estates, take up jobs in navy, become commissioned officers or choose business, law or church, women were not allowed numerous choices. They had no access to paid jobs apart from that of a governess which was neither pleasant nor respectable.
Even for a reasonably well endowed Miss Bingley, marriage is the only possibility for a respectable future. Lady Catherine, for all her wealth and title is paranoid about her daughter’s marriage prospects. Elizabeth’s fortune of “one thousand pounds in 4 per cents” offered her only limited genteel comforts. To find an establishment for themselves, to acquire a stable future, to preside over comfortable domesticity, women had to exercise their intelligence and all their resourcefulness.
The text creates an atmosphere of laid-back country life where women do the odd needle-work and long for balls or discuss the earlier one the men bask in their inherited wealth-visiting, dining, hunting, reading, listening to women play music, etc. Austen in Pride and Prejudice has used marriage as an institution for interaction between various classes and also to depict the values and notions of the Regency marriages.
The opening sentence of the novel- “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”, although ironic reveals the social standards and class and gender expectations of the time. This suggests that gentry women were expected to marry propertied men in order to become reasonably self-sufficient. This truth is also linked to a lager extent, with the anxiety of middle class parents to marry their daughters to eligible bachelors.
Given that marriage to a man of fortune was one of the very few respectable options available to women, their lives seem to be an anxious waiting for the arrival of men to rescue them from the indignities of poverty and dependence. The injustice of such social pressures and limits imposed on women is indicated by Charlotte’s acceptance of Mr. Collins’ proposal “from pure and disinterested desire of an establishment. ” While Charlotte Lucas marries for convenience, Elizabeth is adamant on marrying for love, and rejects the idea of marrying as a convenience.
If Jane and Elizabeth have escaped Charlotte’s fate it is because of their beauty which gives them somewhat wider choice in marriage market. If attractive masculinity is socially associated with the possession of fortune, attractive femininity capable of arousing romantic desire is conventionally associated with physical beauty. Darcy may grow to admire Elizabeth’s wit and liveliness but he is initially drawn to her by her fine eyes and brilliant complexion. Likewise, the romantic desire Elizabeth begins to feel for Darcy is shown as being linked to his social power.
Her regard for Darcy is initiated by her first visit to Pemberly where she realises the actual extent of his social power. There, his masculinity seems attractive to her. Thus, the romantic love and marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy despite challenging the demands of family authority and considerations of rank are ultimately confined within the conservative notions marriage in which the male partner’s desirability is premised on his social superiority. While that of female partner is beauty and attractiveness. The characters within the fixed social structure that Austen depicts are bounded as much by their class expectations as of their gender.
Darcy, a member of the landed gentry must be able to garner respect from his inferiors, such as the Bennet family, whilst Elizabeth, a member of a lower class must pay appropriate respect to her superiors, which she somewhat refuses to do. Elizabeth’s opinionated attitude never ceases to show, and she is not afraid to confront people wealthier than herself. Close to the conclusion of dining with Lady Catherine deBourgh, Elizabeth strongly asserts her opinion to the aristocratic character. Elizabeth observes that Lady Catherine is ‘quite astonished’ and supposes that she is the first who has ‘dared to trifle with so much impertinence. Lady Catherine has been portrayed as a typical aristocrat of the era. Although more of a caricature, she acts as the most superior of all. She enjoyed more rights than any of the female characters that Mr. Collins pays respect to. This depicts the expectations of classes according to superiority and inferiority. Pride and Prejudice is based solely within a fixed social structure that affected both Austen and her characters. The association of class and gender seems to have been a significance shaping influence on the society of her times.
Letter Of Lady Macbeth
My love, my husband is getting crazy, I not know what to do about this. Maybe it was the presion, because he had sent to kill Banquo and his son, but he the kid scape. Maybe it was the visit ere that abhor scene he made, I hate he is getting like that, my dearest love getting crazy for only an ambition of us getting him king. He said in the abhor scene, there was someone sitting in the throne of his. He reject from sitting there, because he had seen someone in the sit. His guest and I were so impact of this abhorring scene.
Maybe I, her wife, should call a doctor to revise my love, this is not possible, I think I’m also getting as crazy as him. Maybe if ere he came to the throne I not convince him to commit murder with Duncan, he should had not do this to himself. I feel so guilty, I feel I had done this to my love, the one that I love and will always love, I feel that I had done this, and I feel so bad. I can even say I had gone crazy. I not stop thinking of this, I made his head of the idea of him becoming king by murdering Duncan.
He had sent to kill Banquo because, he had thought that Banquo was being suspicious of my husband killing the ere king. I do not like this at all, I feel I had convert my husband into a horrible monster, even his mind is getting crazy stuff, he is lately thinking so bad, he only thinking on killing people that get in his way, and I don’t like this because I’m converting my husband into a monster, and I don’t know how to repair this, I feel, so nervous. While writing these words I’m shaking and I don’t know how to stop it.
I think I’m going crazy, I need him to tell me, with his mouth and his words that he would not commit murder anymore, and that he would not go to those horror witches he found in the forest those days he was there, because since then he had gone ambitious, and even thou it hurts, I had gone ambition also, I will never forgive myself for what I had done to my love, I don’t even believe I deserve of him, he deserves another woman, that guides him to the correct path, not like me, that convince him to commit murder, only because I wanted him to become more powerful.
I’m such a selfish woman, I’m selfish with everyone, even the ones I love the most, I’m a horror of person. It is so difficult to write this, thinking that I had done everything of this, that I had caused everything that is happening, it hurts because I had confess in this paper all the horror I had done. I wish I wasn’t in this world, actually why am I in this world, if I had only cause pain in people hat I love, the one that I had love the most. Ay, I do not deserve in this world, maybe if I go away from here, things will change and they will be much better. Ay, much better. My feelings feel that something bad will come, and it will be with Macbeth, if he dies I not want to see it, I must die first so things get fixed in him, I need to get a solution for what I had done to him, the only way, committing suicide.
French Fries And How They Are Made
The core reading is Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation: Why the Fries Taste Good”. Eric Schlosser was born in Manhattan, New York, he spent his childhood there and in Los Angeles, CA. Schlosser studied American History at Princeton University and earned a graduate degree in British Imperial History from Oxford. Schlosser is known for his bestselling book, “Fast Food Nation”. Schlosser helped make his book into a film directed by Richard Linklater. I find this reading is a combination of genres. A biography talking about John Richard Simplot’s life growing up and how he became to make French fries.
You can also say it is a research review, because the editor is writing about going to these different places and seeing how they go about producing French fries. I also see it as a personal essay, the editor’s personal experience by going through the different places and explaining in detail what he sees and smells. When reading this article I find the reading to be about John Richard Simplot. John Richard Simplot was born January 4, 1909 in Dubuque, Iowa. He was often called Jack. The way he grew up and how it came about him starting his own business and becoming successful.
John Richard Simplot left home at the age of 14 and started working at a potato farm and eventually became a potato farmer himself. In 1940 J. R. Simplot became the largest shipper of potatoes in the west, operating thirty-three warehouses in Organ and Idaho. John Richard Simplot was named the “America’s Great Potato Baron”. Later he got into selling onions; he also sold dehydrated onion powder where he recalled it was like “gold dust”. 30 miles west of Nampa, John Richard Simplot owns 85,000 acres of his own irrigated land. He grows beets, wheat, alfalfa, and onions.
John Richard Simplot loves onions just as much as potatoes. In 1941 he bought a prune dehydrating machine and started dehydrating onions. He would dehydrate 300,000 pounds of onion powder and 200,000 pounds of onion flakes for a company in Chicago. In return he made $600,000 in the first year. Eventually he would figure out how to flash freeze a French fry to last longer in order to sell major quantities to restaurants that came around 1953. According to Ray Kroc who wrote in his memoir, “The French fry [was]…almost sacrosanct for me, its’ preparation a ritual to be followed religiously. So with that said John Richard Simplot offered to build a factory strictly for McDonald’s fries. They agreed upon this and went to work. McDonald’s began to sell the French fries the following year. No one knew the difference. The French fry eventually became the most profitably item on the menu. John Richard Simplot became the 89th richest American in Forbes magazine’s 2007 list (3. 6 billion) by seizing opportunities. His business included fertilizer, oil, animal feed, seed, beef cattle, and ski resorts from Chile to China. I find this biography very interesting.
Even though I have eaten a lot of French fries from McDonald’s in my time, I never quit understood who made them and how they were made. Yes I knew they are made from potatoes, but never knew the process. It is always fascinating to hear about the people who make things and how they grew up and went about making them. It was very interesting to hear about how John Richard Simplot handles his company when going through WWII. They would eventually call it “the Golden Age of Food Processing”, in the words of historian Harvey Levenstein.
Eric Schlosser, as he is writing this and you are reading it, it feels as though you are there beside him and going through the whole experience with him. I would have to agree with everything he wrote here. For one, I would not know the difference and two, he wrote a lot in detail to make the reader understand where he was coming from. He explains that the factory where J. R. Simplot plant resides in Aberdeen, Idaho is a small plant according to industry standards but it processes about a million potatoes a day.
Can you imagine that many potatoes going through a factory, I can’t even fathom. I never realized how much Americans eat potatoes or eat French fries in their life time. That is a lot of potatoes. I find John Richard Simplot a very giving man. Over the years he has built 20 soccer fields, eight baseball diamonds, grass hockey fields and much more. For a man to give back to the community is absolutely great. He went from being a 14 year drop out to becoming a billionaire. That doesn’t happen that often. The Nation lost a very powerful man on May 25, 2008. He will never be forgotten.
Works Cited
Schlosser, Eric. “Why the Fries Taste Good. ” Fast Food Nation. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 26 March 2010. 4 pages. Web. PBS. 5 July 2010. Martin, Douglas. “Farmer Who Developed First Frozen French Fries, at 99”. The New York Times, 2008. 28 May. 1 page. Web. The New York Times Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia Hadley, C. J. “Mr. Spud. ” Range, Cowboy Spirit on America’s Outback. 1998. 1998-2005 Range Magazines. Web