Now that I have quit my job, I have all the time in world to
catch up on the reading that I have so grossly neglected in the last one year.
This break could not have come at a better time. Monsoons are here and it is
the perfect season to read some classics. And the first book I pick up : Pride
and Prejudice. I must have read this book 10 times at least but it gives me a
different insight on some character or the other every time. When I first read
the book it seemed like just a love story of two headstrong people. This was
back when I was a teenager. Further readings in the succeeding years gave me
insight on the prejudice against women and their status so wholly dependent on
the men in their family. Here, I digress a little a mention the beautifully
made movie ‘Mona Lisa Smile’. Though the movie was based in the 1950s-1960s, it
indicated at the same female dependence mentioned in Pride and Prejudice.
However, a recent reading of the book brought to light a similar if not equal prejudice against men in the era the book was based. It is surprising how I could have missed it as the first line of the book clearly indicates at it.
However, a recent reading of the book brought to light a similar if not equal prejudice against men in the era the book was based. It is surprising how I could have missed it as the first line of the book clearly indicates at it.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man
in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”
The pre-conceived notions about well-to-do men and their
almost trophy-like status in the eyes of parents with daughters eligible for
marriage is as irksome as the lack of individual identity of women in that era.
Something that Elizabeth Bennet/Darcy did manage to tweak to some extent. :)
Well, I hope when I read the book next it throws light on
some character that I ignored previously. Isn’t that what classics are for? :)
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