Download Jane Austen and the Parody of Masculinity in Pride and Prejudice

Stacey Donald
DeVry University
Silly Men: Jane Austen and the Parody of Masculinity in Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen’s novels of manners exemplify the notion of perpetually fluctuating
masculinity in at the turn of the century. While many scholars have focused primarily on her
main characters, it is the peripheral characters of her novels that interest me. In particular, Mr.
Bennet, Mr. Collins, and Sir William Lucas of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, her “silly men,” so
to speak, are examples of the ways Austen challenged established notions of rural English
masculinity. Austen’s silly men exist as “third-space” characters; they fall outside the
gentleman/Other binary construction of hegemonic masculinity. In this paper, I wish to explore
this position that Austen opens up for men, a third space for male characters existing within the
patriarchy without embodying the ideals of its most vaunted representatives, particularly in terms
of whether or not this third space is a place where men can find more individual fulfillment as a
result of less direct social pressure.
By rejecting many social norms while somehow maintaining their respective positions
within the local hierarchy, Austen’s parodied representations of masculinity, these three silly
men subjugate idealized masculinity in a manner that is not taboo in their village communities.
Moreover, no one attempts to reform or instruct these characters to make them more closely
conform to the idealized masculinity represented in her male lead characters. Mr. Bennet, Mr.
Collins, and Sir William all occupy a third space that allows them individual freedom, less social
pressure, and many fewer consequences than their hero or villain counterparts (Darcy and
Wickham). Ultimately, Austen’s silly men benefit from remaining slightly distant from more
socially revered forms of masculinity.