Masculinity in Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations - Essay Example

?Masculinity in Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations Introduction In Dickens' Great Expectations, the masculine is treated in ways that are different from society at large. Specifically, at first, the masculine characters are victimized by domineering women, which is different from the Victorian ethos of men dominating women. Then, the masculinity of Pip is defined by his striving to get to another class, and, in this period, Pip represents society at large, in that society at large is ruled by class and government and, in the Victorian age, men. In the end, Pip's masculinity is defined by his being mature enough to know that class does not matter – goodness and decency are what matters. This is a little of what the function of Elizabeth is in Pride and Prejudice, and represents a classless and governmentless “natural” society – where class doesn't matter, only the inner person does. This representation of society is decidedly female, in that the law and order is decidedly male during the time of Austen and Dickens. Therefore, in the end, Dickens' view of masculine is more in keeping with the feminine, “natural” society. On the other hand, Darcy, in Austen's Pride and Prejudice, represents masculinity in that class does matter in society, which is a view that is more in keeping with governments and class structures, therefore is more representative of masculinity as a whole in society. In Darcy's view, there are classes, and people should behave according to class, and his mindfulness of class is what initially keeps him from Elizabeth. He changes in the end, just as Elizabeth does, which means that each view – the feminine view of a natural society and the masculine view of the structured society – changes towards one another. In this way, Dickens' main character goes from more masculine to more feminine, in that Pip evolves from hungering for a higher societal class to realizing that class is essentially meaningless, and Darcy evolves in the same way. This is one way that the two novels treat masculinity. The other way is the way that the masculine is contrasted with the feminine in these two novels, as each novel treats this contrast differently. Discussion At the beginning of Great Expectations, Dickens presents masculinity as being virtually parallel with victimization, as every man in the first few chapters, and Pip, who is a young boy, are victims. Pip and Joe Gargery, both, are victims of Mrs. Joe's temper, as she harasses, screams at, and hits both. Poor Joe, who is the husband of Mrs. Joe, is a kind man who does not have a temper to match. Thus, in a way, Dickens turned the Victorian ethos on its head - after all, during the Victorian era, it was the man who was to be in charge, and was expected to be dominant, not the woman (Visweswaran, 1997). That the opposite was true in the Gargery household, where the wife clearly ruled the roost, shows that Dickens was interested in presenting a view of masculinity that was opposite of the current view of day. The view of masculinity being subjugated to femininity continues when Pip meets Estella. Just like when Mrs. Joe dominates and condescends to the male members of the household, Pip and Joe, so Estella dominates and condescends to Pip. Estella, who is upper class, as she is living with Miss Havisham, who is wealthy, feels that she is above Pip, and makes this fact known every chance she can. She not only makes fun of Pip, but condescendingly gives him bread, meat and beer, as if he were a dog. Estella makes Pip feel very common, as this was her intention. Just like Mrs. Joe, Estella's purpose is to bring the males low in this novel, which is also opposite to the prevailing ethos that the man must have the upper hand in society. And, Pip is a victim as well, in comparison to Estella – he is victimized, in his own mind, by his lack of standing in life, and realizes that he wants something better. However, at that moment, he doesn't have a way of making things better, so he is victimized by his own lack of social standing. Estella is always able to persuade Pip to act in ways that are against Pip's best interest, such as when she told Pip, in so many words, that he should not be seen with the likes of Joe, who was Pip's guardian. Because of Estella, Pip separates himself more and more from Joe and Biddy, thinking that Joe and Biddy might somehow make him seem less attractive in Estella's eyes. Thus, Estella was able to control Pip throughout the book, which is also opposite to how masculinity was seen in Victorian England. However, as the novel progresses, Pip becomes more of a man, and becomes less insecure about himself and his lot in life. He becomes a gentleman, with the help of money from Magwitch, a convict whom Pip helped, and this helps his self-image and self-esteem. He also tries to help Magwitch, who is on the run from the law, risking his life to do so. He also risks his life to help Miss Havisham, who caught fire when her garments were too close to an open fire. Furthermore, Pip has an epiphany when Magwitch almost drowns during an attempt to recapture the convict – that Magwitch had nothing but compassion for Pip, and that, through the contrast of Magwitch's treatment of Pip with Pip's treatment of Joe, Pip realizes how bad he had treated Joe. Pip further shows how mature he had become when he remained by Magwitch's side at his deathbed, despite the fact that Pip, at that point, knew that he could never inherit Magwitch's property, as the property would be confiscated by the state. The unsure and insecure boy had become a mature and selfless man. While Pip's character at this point still did not fit the stereotype of the domineering man in Victorian England, he, nonetheless, became more masculine, in that he became more sure of himself and more sure of who he was, and what was important to him. Morgentaler (1998), states that not only does Pip and Joe represent Dickensian views of masculinity in Great Expectations, but, also, Magwitch does as well, as Magwitch acts as Pip's surrogate father. This is because Pip is able to attain his social standing only because Magwitch was able to provide it to him. In Magwitch, Dickens presents a view of masculinity as being that of an individual who is low in society, yet is able to promote somebody else to a position that he, himself, had never been able to attain. Like Pip towards the end of the novel, doing things selflessly, so Magwitch's only regard in life is to help a boy that he really doesn't know. Thus, in the end, the masculine characters in Great Expectations – Joe, Pip and Magwitch – all show themselves to be selfless and good people. The view of the masculine in Great Expectations may also be viewed vis a vis how the feminine is treated. In this case, as Houston (1992) notes, the women are also portrayed as opposite of the Victorian feminine ideal. The Victorian feminine ideal, according to Houston (1992) is a nurturing woman who is domesticated, selfless, non-competitive, non-aggressive, and self-sacrificing. The women in Great Expectations, however, are the opposite of this. Mrs. Joe is seen as extremely aggressive, and, while she is domestic, she clearly resents this. Estella, far from being nurturing and selfless, is cold, aloof, and cruel. Miss Havisham also is in opposition to the Victorian ideal of the feminine, as she never married, showed no signs of domestication, and, far from being self-sacrificing, uses her adoptive daughter, Estella, to exact revenge upon the men of the world. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, there is a different view of masculinity than that which is portrayed in Great Expectations. In Great Expectations, the masculinity that is portrayed is that of men who really have no special attachment to women – Joe's wife is a harridan, and Joe really isn't close to her; Magwitch does not have any attachment whatsoever to a woman, although Molly, Jaggers' housemaid, did bear him a child, Estella; and Pip's only attachment is Estella, but Pip and Estella never grow very close and do not commence a romantic relationship. In contrast, the men in Pride and Prejudice are defined by their relationship to women, and, in fact, are defined by how the women see them. This could be a function of the point of view of each of these novels – Great Expectations is seen through the eyes of a boy, later a man, Pip; in Pride and Prejudice, the point of view is through Elizabeth, a high spirited and witty young woman. The main masculine characters in Pride and Prejudice are Darcy and Mr. Bingley. Of the two of these men, Darcy is clearly the focus of the novel. As a character, Darcy is somebody who appears to be somebody that he clearly is not – an aloof and prideful snob. In truth, he is merely reserved, and very taken with Elizabeth, who does not return the sentiments at first. However, by the end of the novel, Elizabeth comes to realize that she had misjudged Darcy, and she agrees to marry him. If one can compare and contrast the treatment of masculinity in the two novels, one of the main differences is that the women of each of the novels, Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice, are very different from one another. In Pride and Prejudice, it is clear that the world that the novel inhabits thinks a great deal more about women and their intelligence and mind than the world of Great Expectations. As Grey (1966) notes, in including a critical review of the novel, “Elizabeth's sense and conduct are of a superior order to those of the common heroines of novels” (p. 315). And it is exactly because Elizabeth is such a powerful character in Austen's novel that the men in the novel are, in essence, taught by her and her independence - “her well-timed sprightliness...teaches the man of Family-Pride to know himself” (p. 315). As Dickens' novel presents masculinity as an emblem of class, in that class, particularly the nihilism of the upper-class, is the focus of that novel, there is a similar ethos in presenting masculinity in Pride and Prejudice. Pip desires to live a rarefied life, and rejects people who would betray this rarefied life, and this is how his masculinity is initially defined. It is only later, when Pip realizes that masculinity, being a man, means showing love and respect for those who helped him, no matter what class. Class, too, is at the center of Pride and Prejudice's view on masculinity. As Kliger (1966) notes, Darcy and Elizabeth inhabit two different spheres that were created by Austen. Darcy, as the masculine character, represents the man-made civilization, in that he is mindful of class and “speaks in terms of a theory of class stratification” (p. 358). Kliger (1966) states that Darcy, as the masculine character, is the character who is called upon to represent Man after the fall, as government is needed to restrain evil and greed. He does this by embodying the reality of the world, which is that class constrains society, much like government does. Elizabeth, on the other hand, represents something different – as she does not have the same cognizance of class as Darcy does, other than the fact that she disdains Darcy at first because she mistakenly believed him to be a snob because of his class, Elizabeth represents a world that is “man in nature” (p. 358). This means that Elizabeth represents a world, according to Kliger (1966), where there is no class, government or property – similar to Man before the Fall. Further, Kliger (1966) posits that each viewpoint is what serves to obscure that which is important about the other – Elizabeth only deals with people by nature, regardless of class, therefore she cannot understand that Darcy's class is what precludes him from defending himself against the libel that is the reason why Elizabeth resents Darcy - “the fundamental principle of noblesse oblige is never to complain, never to explain” (p. 360). Darcy, on the other hand, ever restrained by class, at first cannot bring himself to court Elizabeth because of Elizabeth's lack of social standing. In the end, both characters overcome their prejudice and capitulate towards the other. Thus, according to Kliger (1966), the character of Darcy represents class, and the constraining force of both class and government, which is how masculinity is portrayed. And because masculinity during Austen's time, as during Dickens' time, was the epitome of government, in that the men literally ruled the governments and their women, Austen's representation of masculinity is much more in keeping with the mores of the time than was Dickens. And, Darcy, as the character who upholds the importance of class in Austen's novel, in contrast with Elizabeth, who is a class leveller, shows that the masculine in Austen's novel is the controller, as class is what controls in society during Austen's time, as it is now. It is up to Darcy to enforce the social mores of the time, just as Elizabeth is the one who attempts to break them down with her behavior towards people of all classes is the same (Moler, 1989). Conclusion Masculinity is treated differently in both of the novels written about in this essay, although each of the novels also have something in common. The differences between the novels is that they are told in different points of view, therefore the treatment of the women in each novel is different, therefore the corresponding masculinity of the male characters is also treated differently in each of the novels. The way that the novels converge, however, is that each of the male characters overcome the barriers of class and learn to love the person underneath, therefore, each of the male characters became more feminine in this way. Bibliography Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1945. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Penguin Books, 2010. Gray, Donald. Pride and Prejudice: An Authoritative Text. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 1966. Houston, Gail. “'Pip' and 'property:' The reproduction of the self in Great Expectations,” Studies in the Novel, 24.1 (1992): 13-25. Kliger, Samuel. “Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in the eighteenth century mode,” in Gray, Donald. Pride and Prejudice: An Authoritative Text. New York: WW Norton & Company, Inc., 1966, pp. 352-362. Moler, Kenneth. Pride and Prejudice: A Study in Artistic Economy. Boston, MA: GK Hall & Co., 1989. Morgenthaler, Goldie. “Meditating on the low: A Darwinian reading of Great Expectations,” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 38.4 (1998): 707-721. Read More