Discussing Jane Austen in the Twenty-First Century: Joe Wright's Film Adaptation of Pride and Prejuice.

Abstract

Since the 1940s many Pride and Prejudice film and TV series adaptations have been made—but it is Joe Wright’s which intensifies the difference between appearance and reality and offers a less romantic view of marriage during the Regency period. My aims in this paper are twofold: first, to show what we gain by rereading Austen’s novels and watching film adaptations of them and second, to demonstrate how Wright refashions Pride and Prejudice and gives it a more timeless, practical and universal appeal by exploring the politics of dating, social differences, the body, the new protofeminist mentality and Jane Austen’s idea of marriage. The article explains how Austen’s characters are expanded into today’s common people and how we are powerfully attracted to her because of the way she explores the emotional lives of women in a changing world.