Our interest in the parallels between Pride and Prejudice and Letters to Alice is further enhanced by the consideration of their marked differences in textual forms. Evaluate this statement in light of your comparative study.
The study of Fay Weldon's Letters to Alice enhances the understanding of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by increasing the appreciation through the reshaped perspectives on the original text. The modification of values and attitudes concerning education, the importance of literature, marriage and the position of women in their respective societies is conveyed through the differences in textual forms. Austen uses a traditional linear structure to communicate and ridicule the flaws of her society whereas Weldon's uses didactic tone, a postmodern structure, epistolary form to reveal the importance of literature, the empowerment of women and allows the reader to further understand Austen's contexts. The difference in textual forms engages and interests the reader through the parallels of the importance of education, literature and the empowerment of women in society.
English: Back View of Jane Austen, Watercolor
English: Français : Une gravure de 1833 illustran...
Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on...Fay Weldon uses Pride and Prejudice as a medium in order to address the purpose of writing and the power of language through the use of didacticism and the epistolary form used throughout Letters to Alice. The epistolary framework of Letters to Alice attempts to differentiate between literature and the nature of writing itself. Fay's didactic tone is reinforced by the absence of Alice's side correspondence, which forces the reader to accept Fay's judgments. This is conveyed the through "You must know how to read a novel, for example, before setting out to write one" through the imperative and didactic tone of Aunt Fay and the constant appeals she places of her fictional niece. Weldon emphasizes the importance on reading. Letters to Alice is postmodern in its self-reflective discussion of writing and the verisimilitude created...