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  • Essay / Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice Through an Early Renaissance Lens

    Interpretations of literature will always fluctuate between authors, critics, and readers. Literature is a mirror that reflects many different images, thoughts, and messages to the reader. The beauty of looking in that mirror is that each viewer sees a different image, a different interpretation of what was initially there. Pride and Prejudice is no exception to this observation. Jane Austen's novel has appealed to many literary audiences over several centuries because this book, in many ways, is a social commentary on morals. His work is officially classified as a realistic novel made popular during the Romantic period. Although the novel was successful in the early 1800s, the work should be examined in the early Renaissance period that began around the 1400s. Viewing the novel in a different time period can be helpful to see if the original content of the novel will still be in place. If Jane Austen's novel had been written during the early Renaissance, her work would have undergone many changes in style and content. These changes would be influenced by notable early Renaissance texts and authors such as Baldassare Castiglione, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Thomas More. There is no concrete evidence to support the claims made in this article. Speculations and deductions will be drawn from deductions from the Romantic and early Renaissance eras. While Pride and Prejudice was originally written and published during the Romantic period, Jane Austen's tale would have been written very differently in the early Renaissance in terms of style and content. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayThe transformation of Pride and Prejudice into an early Renaissance text means that change is inevitable. Many aspects of the novel will take effect once Jane Austen's novel is seen through the eyes of an early Renaissance man/woman. Character and authorship will inevitably be affected. Education and religion will have been influenced to change in the novel. Dress and wealth will be things that are rethought once the novel is seen in a new light. Gender and language will also have major differences. These new changes that await Pride and Prejudice are based on interpretation, perspective, point of view, influence and imagination, all of which happen to be elements of the mirror of literature. To begin this interpretation of Austen's work, the gender roles of the authorship and characters would be reversed if Pride and Prejudice were an early Renaissance text. For example, the narrator of Pride and Prejudice would be different in the early Renaissance. The Romantic period was an exciting time, especially for women, as a large number of literary works began to be written by women and read by women (Lynch and Stillinger 13). This surge of women in literature increased female literacy across the world. Female success began to rival that of men for the first time in literary history. However, the early Renaissance period was dominated by men. This meant that the majority of famous authors were men. Therefore, Pride and Prejudice would most likely have been written by a male author. This male author would have the opportunity to transform the novel to create more room to focus on male characters (like Mr. Bennet or Mr. Darcy). This inference is drawn from the fact that theFamous stories from the early Renaissance focused on male characters trying to climb the social ladder (Cleland). For example, The Prince was written by Machiavelli with the aim of teaching male audiences how to achieve and maintain political power (which was a major theme of early Renaissance works). The theme of political power of the early Renaissance would then discredit the theme of love present in Pride and Prejudice. All in all, these deductions show that the feminine visions of Elizabeth and Darcy would become a masculine vision with a masculine emphasis of superiority. Having the story told from an early Renaissance male perspective thus catalyzes further literary changes in Pride and Prejudice. If today's audiences assume that early Renaissance authors decided not to accept the idea that the main character is male, then the possibilities for the narrative of Elizabeth's character to change are the most definite. On the one hand, it is well known that Elizabeth is an inherently intelligent character, just like her sister Jane (Knapp). That being said, since Elizabeth is an intelligent and active character from the Romantic period, she would also be if the text were an early Renaissance play. In fact, Elizabeth and her sister Jane are said to be humanists. Definitely, a humanist believed in the idea of ​​a well-rounded education that made one an active person in society, thereby benefiting society (Cleland). This statement could then justify Elizabeth's (and Jane's) inherent intelligence. Having this love of education as a pillar of their interests would explain how they make their decisions in the novel. Another aspect of society that would have affected Elizabeth's character would have been religion. Since there is an absence of religious characters in Jane Austen's novel. Early Renaissance authors would have inserted religion into the novel since their time was experiencing the Protestant Reformation. Elizabeth would have married a clergyman (not Darcy) because that was normal in the early Renaissance (Cleland). This difference in Elizabeth's development as a character in Pride and Prejudice would appeal to early Renaissance audiences. Although Elizabeth would have transformed according to early Renaissance conventions, there are many other conventions that could impact other characters in Pride and Prejudice. To conclude the stylistic interpretations of Pride and Prejudice, one final element to examine is the suggestion that Austen's characters would have different views of wealth and clothing in an early Renaissance setting. Jane Austen's Romantic-era novel depicts women and men seeking marriage and wealth as a means to success. Primarily, this depiction of women appealed to Romantic audiences, but the same cannot be said for early Renaissance audiences. The female and male characters in the early Renaissance depiction of Pride and Prejudice would have focused more on the art of performing sprezzatura. This term comes directly from the Early Renaissance text The Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione. The art of sprezzatura consisted of making difficult human actions easy and was a quality sought by men. By possessing the nonchalance of sprezzatura, she (generally) gave men a balanced, successful and desired appearance (“Castiglione on Sprezzatura”). In the original Pride and Prejudice, Darcy explained that he wanted a woman to possess many human talents and traits when he said the following: A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dance and languagesmodern, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must have a certain something in her manner and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, otherwise the word will only be half deserved. (Austen 76) Darcy's wishes are very similar to the sprezzatura of the early Renaissance, as he wants someone, a woman, to have many qualities that seem to manifest seamlessly. The early Renaissance era valued social rank based on positions held and authority, rather than the idea of ​​wealth and property that Romantic audiences valued. Therefore, the early Renaissance depiction of Pride and Prejudice would include male and female characters vying for sprezzatura to gain and maintain power in society rather than characters seeking marriage and property. Also stylistically, the characters' clothing would have been different if Pride and Prejudice had been written in the early Renaissance. The original novel and various adaptations (such as the cinema for example) feature characters from this era in very elaborate outfits. Fancy dresses, corsets, complicated hairstyles, pretty suits, and sparkling jewelry are just some of the clothing choices made for the characters in Austen's novel. However, if the novel were set in the early Renaissance period, there is a chance that the characters could be dressed in a very simple and subtle manner. This inference is drawn from the direct plot of Thomas More's Utopia. In this work there is a statement which states: “Fine clothes were not respected in this country, silk was despised and gold a badge of contempt; this is why the utopians always came in the simplest clothes. (More information, Lynch and Stillinger 612). While this may not be an entirely accurate representation of what Austen's original characters might have been like, speculation from More's narrative fuels this imaginative concept. Early Renaissance audiences valued their image based on power, not the material things money could buy (Cleland). These possible early Renaissance stylistic choices that could be implemented in Pride and Prejudice come from a combination of inferences and guesses from famously era authors that would persuade a change in the Romantic era novel . Pride and Prejudice would lead to major changes in the appearance of the story. from its original form if placed in the hands of an early Renaissance author. Early on, the Romantic era was known for its newfound interest in poetry. Romantic-era audiences were “just crazy for poetry” (Lynch and Stillinger 11). Although Jane Austen's story is not a poem, the audience should understand when Austen's work challenged the Romantic norm and became popular. Novels of this period were not as popular as poems. The Romantic period, “centered on works of imagination, non-fictional forms of prose” (Lynch and Stillinger 22). These Romantic era beliefs would not be maintained in early Renaissance views. Early Renaissance works were generally intellectual exercises and came in the form of guidebooks, manuals, and short stories. Additionally, works from this period would tend to be more abstract than those from the Romantic period (Cleland). All the differences mean that Pride and Prejudice might have been envisioned as a more abstract textbook. Austen's original work could also be reimagined to speak about family life since it. 2016.