Response to "The Humiliation of Elizabeth Bennet" by Susan Fraiman

This article reminds me of the last one because I can not tell what the point really is. It generally is concerned with the sexism of the society that the story takes place in, but I don't see how that is new information. I feel like we grow up knowing about how sexist old European societies were and how much better things are in America in the present. I don't really need to read details about how things were sexist and unequal for women back then, everyone knows that and reading the book itself was enough of a reminder. Fraiman writes at the end "Why, as some critics have claimed, should Elizabeth alone be above the social decree?" (Fraiman 367) This is an example of how I don't really know what her point was. I never knew about what critics have claimed about Elizabeth, and never thought she was somehow outside the social decree in the story. I also disagree with her idea that Lydia and Wickham's story serves as a darker parallel for Elizabeth and Darcy's. I think there is not much of a reason to believe that, in my opinion it was just a dramatic device that fit the tone of the story because it's simple and all about relationships between men and women and a family. Basically a 'marriage gone wrong' is a perfect conflict for the theme of the story, rather than something like a death or something more dark and serious.

I guess I feel like since things were so sexist back then, in order to write an accurate story set place there it has to be kind of sexist. Pride and Prejudice does show that but also is a sweet story with interesting characters and romance and comedy. The only way around the sexism is to not show it which would be almost impossible, or never tell a story in that time and place. So I don't understand the debates and investigations to the underlying sexism in the story. To me it is necessary to show that part of the culture if you want to be genuine, but I never feel like the sexism takes over the story or is included in any way other than to accurately reflect that time and place.

1. Questions: I can't think of any questions so I want to give a special shout out to Mrs. Bennet, who is probably my favorite character. I thought Mr. Collins was the funniest, but Mrs. Bennet made me laugh out loud a few times while reading this book. Times like where she is so concerned her husband will die in a duel, then upset with him for coming home without Lydia. Or when Bingley is coming to propose to Jane at the end and she runs up to get Jane ready, and someone's like what about Kitty, and she's like "Oh, hang Kitty!" she's just really funny how she is so emotional and 180's her opinions all the time.