Ferghana state university faculty of foreign languages department of philology and teaching languages

Gender reversal

There are numerous parallels between the main characters and plots of Pride and Prejudice and Emma: Both novels feature a proud central character, respectively, Darcy and Emma; a critical future spouse, Elizabeth and Mr. Knightly; an easily swayed friend, Bingley and Harriet; an almost-thwarted marital ambition, Jane and Martin; a dependent relative, Georgiana and Mr. Woodhouse; and a potential object of matrimony who is a wrong choice for the central character, Anne de Bourgh and Frank Churchill. These pairs suggest that Emma may have been a gendered reversal of the earlier novel.Such reversals were familiar to Austen through the works of favored authors like Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and William Shakespeare.
Austen is thought to have switched gender in some of her earlier work as well. Her cousin Eliza Hancock may have been her inspiration for the character Edward Stanley in "Catharine, or the Bower," one of her youthful pieces, showing her the "trick of changing the gender of her prototype.”102  In Pride and Prejudice, Thomas Lefroy, a charming and witty Irishman, may have been the basis for Elizabeth's personality, while Austen may have used herself as the model for Darcy's reserve and self-consciousness when among company, but open and loving demeanor when among close friends and familyAusten's selection of Pride and Prejudice as the basis for reversing gender in Emma may have been motivated by these earlier experiences and insights.
Reversing the genders of Pride and Prejudice in Emmaallowed Austen to disturb paradigms and examine the different expectations society had of men and women; the elements she chose to include in Emmaand how she chose to revise them yield a powerful but ultimately conventional commentary on the status of women. The novel's central concern with gender is often noted in the literature as themes like gendered space, wealth, romance, female empowerment, parenting, and masculinity.