Pride and Prejudice...6

To us Elizabeth and Darcy seem the most sensible characters in the novel. However, in Austen's day they were very unconventional. Elizabeth will only marry for love no matter what the consequences. Darcy, the single man in possession of a good fortune, seems to have very specific qualifications when it comes to an "accomplished" woman.

In a discussion of the subject in Chapter VIII (on one page Austen uses "accomplished" six times),  Bingley says, "They all paint tables, cover skreens and net purses. I scarcely know any one who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished." To that his sister adds, "A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved." Darcy says, "All this she must possess and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

What kind of woman have Bingley and his sister described? Darcy on the other hand is not buying the advice of the conduct books which claim that a woman should not appear to be intelligent even if she is.

That customed changed gradually. In 1871, Newnham College was founded in Cambridge. It was a woman's college. The students, however, could not receive a degree only a certificate. The college did not gain full membership in the university until 1948 and it wasn't until the 1970s that some of the men's colleges admitted women. What would Austen think of our progress?