My honors thesis completed in Spring 2021.

Click here to view the full thesis.

Abstract:

In this thesis, I argue that Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice can be read as a fairy tale that participates in an important tradition of women in storytelling. Historically, fairy tales have been the means whereby women convey important messages to other women through narratives about specific female experiences in the social world. My work establishes Austen’s role in composing a modern fairy tale that has given women the opportunity to voice their concerns over centuries, specifically in regards to marriage, consent, and financial dependence and insecurity. Moreover, seeing Austen’s work as fairy tale allows for a way to speak about the novel’s significant afterlife. Like so many other fairy tales, such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Pride and Prejudice has cross-cultural mutability, evolving over time into various adaptations as it is passed down through generations. YouTube series such as The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013) have altered the story to convey their own messages and warnings on topics like consent, offering more modern feminist twists on the classic.