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Comparative Analysis of Pride And

Prejudice By Jane Austen And
Unmarriageable By Soniah Kamal:
By

Muhammad Afzaal
Yasir Nawaz
Bisma Imtiaz
Sana Nazar
Wajeeha Arshad
ABSTRACT
The research is to analyze themes in the famous novel Pride and prejudice written by Jane

Austen and to compare it with a modern novel. So it was a little attempt to to better understand

two literary works in a comparative manner. Pride and Prejudice is the main point of attention

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and working as a lens to view Unmarriageable. Unmarriageable is a Pakistani novel which

portrays the flaws of modern Pakistani society realistically. By comparing these. We have

analyzed 18th century England society with modern day Pakistani society. The main themes that

are discussed in research are Pride, Prejudice, Love, Marriage, Class, Family, Gender, The

method used in this research is a study of comparative literature to analyze novel's themes that

are universal and make it relevant .The comparison shows that there are some themes of novel

that are universal and are still applicable. Furthermore, study also revealed the hidden

characteristics and conflict present in the characters of both novels. But the main point of

concern was to simplify the underlying themes of both the works.

INTRODUCTION
Before comparing these two texts-“Pride And Prejudice” and “Unmarriageable”, let us

see what is Comparative Literature? First of all compare it means to examine people, things or

texts to see how they are similar and how they are different. Now, if we talk about “Comparative

Literature, It began as “Literature Compare” in 1860. Matthew Arnold had used this term first

in English in 1848. But Comparative Literature got recognition as a study in 1897.

Talking about the writers of these novels firstly Jane Austen as a young woman lived

presumably insular life in Regency England, Jane Austen produced an impressive body of works

that has continued to grow in popularity. She was born in 1775 in Hampshire, England to a

parson’s family, and she left home only for five years to attend boarding school and for

occasional visits to siblings. Surrounded by books all of her life, she found an eager audience for

her writing among her close-knit family. Although she never married and had only one serious

romance, her novels of courtship and marriage have remained favorites. And our very own writer

Soniah Kamal was born in Karachi, Pakistan and attended an English-medium school. She

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subsequently lived in England and Saudi Arabia, and then attended St. John's College in

Annapolis, Maryland as an undergraduate, studying philosophy. She is now resident in Georgia.

Her two most famous are An Isolated Incident (2014) and Unmarriageable (2019) the later one

is under our discussion.

Background Of Our Study

Between 1797, when a young Jane Austen began work on what would become Pride

and Prejudice, and 1813, when the novel was published, the French Revolution was fought,

Marie Antoinette was guillotined and Napoleon rose to power and conquered most of Western

Europe. Closer to Austen’s home, Great Britain combined with Ireland to become the United

Kingdom, the slave trade was abolished by Parliament throughout the British Empire. This era

saw the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the shift from Enlightenment to Romantic trends in

arts and letters, and the first whispers of feminist and abolitionist concerns in Western Europe.

While in Soniah’s Unmarriageable typical Pakistani society is portrayed in need of

potential match for marriages. And there is jingle of marriage, gender and sexuality in a heavily

norm-ridden upper class Pakistani society. Unmarriageable is an indication of how class

structures and gender roles have remained the same over time and space. Kamal’s Pakistani

upper-class society and its gender roles are like Austen’s one.

Create opportunities around to learn about their different perspectives and ways of life

to build open-mindedness and appreciation. Focus on the strengths that each culture brings to the

mix and discuss how these strengths can be integrated in the way your society work together,

handles challenges and tackles projects.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
As our work is thoroughly based on comparison. So there is use of specific methodology

which is very familiarly called as Comparative Research Methodology. As every comparative

study has its own agenda and specific goals, and responsible scholars reveal and explain these

goals in the introduction to their studies. Our goal is solemnly is to better understand the

underlying aspects of these two novels which will further help the reader to get better insight to

hidden facets of these two great works. Comparing that item with other items can serve a

heuristic purpose by identifying aspects and facets that would otherwise be missed or neglected.

It can produce insights by de-familiarizing the familiar. Comparative Literature remains an

embattled approach and discipline of the study of literature. Yet, it produces the meaningful

dialogue between cultures and literatures that is its mark theoretically, in application, and in

basic as well as higher level education. It will continue to have supporters, students, and disciples

who value Comparative Literature's insistence on the knowledge about as well as the inclusion

of the other in the widest definition of the concept and its realities, its global and international

nature. Comparative method is an attempt to understand human literary behavior by examining

both texts. The writer sorts, analyses, compares the literary works in various contexts to create

meanings, convey their emotions, feelings, and ideas towards the reader. Moreover Comparative

Literature focuses on the study of literature from different cultures, nations, and genres, and

explores relationships between literature and other forms of cultural expression which in our case

will be Class System, Potential Match For Marriage, Discrimination Related To Gender

and the other interrelated issues to these.

LIERATURE REVIEW

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This section comprises of different comparative analysis of Pride And Prejudice with its

contemporary works.

1) A Comparative Study of Plato’s and Jane Austen’s Concept of Love in Pride and

Prejudice is done by Maryam Sha’bäni, Hossein Aliakbari Harehdasht, Fahimeh

Naseri. They concluded that pride and prejudice focuses more on social context of

courtship than on love itself. By comparing it to the Plato’s concept of love they have

found many similarities For example, both consider physical beauty as an obstacle to see

the true nature of the person who is to be loved. Moreover another similarity which they

found is that both consider virtue as an essential feature that promotes the true love

between the lovers. Their conclusions also display that however Jane’s approach towards

love is platonic, her attention to decorum under the veil of social relationship indicates

that she acted according to the society.

2) A comparative corpus based analysis of discourse markers for gender description in the

alchemist and pride and prejudice has been done by Faisal Irfan, Mahmoona Shahzadi,

Nasim Talib, Tajammal Hussain Awan. Their study concludes that females use the

discourse markers more frequently as the linguistic fillers that are usually meaningless in

the communications than the males. In their conclusion it was found that "and" was the

most frequent elaborative DM used by the female writer.

3) Another comparative study As Mother Behavior to their daughters as seen in "Pride and

Prejudice" and "Little Women" has been done by Fitri Arniati, Muhammad Darwis,

Nurhayati Rahman, Fathu Rahman (ELS Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies on

Humanities Volume 2 Issue 4, 2019).Their basic goal of their study was to analyze the

behavior of mother to their daughters as seen in "Pride and Prejudice" and "Little Women

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"The conclusion shows that both Pride and Prejudice and Little Women shows caring

and loving to their daughter but there ways are different according to the goals. For Mrs.

Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, their efforts to find suitable mate for their

daughters shows their Love. For the Marches and The Hummel's values loves as the most

important things in this earth, the united companions and togetherness among family

member should be preferable.

DISCUSSION
Now we will see the similarities and dissimilarities from these two texts which will further lead

to extensive discussion, so some points are given under headings below: Similarities could be

found in the themes of both novels

 Pride

Pride is a key theme in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice and Sonia Kamal's Novel

Unmarriageable. Pride is always present in the characters' attitudes and treatment of each other in

both novels, as evidenced primarily by the characters in Fitzwilliam Darcy in Pride and Prejudice

and Valentine Darcy in Unmarriageable. Because of their pride in their social status, they tend to

look down on people outside their class. He shows this most clearly during her proposal to

Elizabeth: Jane Austen uses Darcy to show how pride can hurt even love. The same is true of

Valentine Darcy, who initially hides his feelings for Alysba due to Alysba's low status. The idea

of love and marriage is presented in various ways throughout the novel by Jane Austen.

Elizabeth's goal is to marry for love, not for wealth. Throughout the book, Austin demonstrates

the value of falling in love over money. This is seen in Elizabeth's rejection of Mr. Collins and

her marriage to Mr. Darcy. Austen contrasts this with the character of Charlotte Lucas, who

decides to marry Mr. Collins for financial security rather than love.Elizabeth prides herself on

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her ability to judge others. He refuses to change his mind in the face of hard evidence. In

Unmarriageable, the same character is portrayed by Alysba. These characters are able to

overcome their pride by making each other aware of their own faults.

 Prejudice

Prejudice refers to characters' tendency to judge each other based on assumptions. In Pride and

Prejudice, the theme is primarily expressed through the character of Elizabeth. Elizabeth makes

quick judgments when she meets others. These judgments, though often wrong, turn into

prejudices. This is especially noticeable in Wickham and Darcy. Elizabeth's early judgments

about each character are wrong. She finds Wickham attractive and handsome. Over time, she

realizes that he is mean and not what he looks like. Elizabeth sees Darcy as rude and superior.

He's proud, but he's more caring than he looks. He usually has the best intentions for his actions.

Darcy doesn't try to be rude when you first meet him. He's just a shy guy who sees no value in

dealing with strangers. The same prejudices can be seen in the character of Alysba in the novel

Unmarriageable. Alysba initially misunderstands Wickham and Darcy because of her prejudices,

but then she realizes that both characters are not what she looks like. She realized that while

Darcy was a nice person, Wickham was a crook and the wrong person.

 Class

Class distinction is the maximum essential subject matter of pleasure and prejudice and

additionally proven through Sonia Kamal in her novel unmarriageable .Kamal`s display

Pakistani higher-elegance society like Austen`s, and but she writes her characters in a way that

makes the reader aware about those parallels. Mr. Darcy is the number one instance of Austen`s

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perfect excessive-elegance gentleman. And in addition Mr. Bingley, Lady Catherine belongs to

higher elegance society and Mr.and Mrs. Bennet and their own circle of relatives belongs to

Lower elegance society. And how Mrs. Bennets desired ability suits for her daughters to

alternate the rank. Similarly, Sonia Kamaal portrayed a few characters like Valentine Darsee,

Mr. Bangals and so on that belongs to excessive elegance and Alys and their Family belongs to

Low elegance. Unmarriageable is a sign of the way elegance systems and gender roles have

remained the identical over the years and space .The energy of happiness and love to conquer the

bounds of sophistication and prejudice is obvious withinside the marriages of Darcy and

Elizabeth, and Jane and Bingley in Pride and Prejudice at the same time as of Mr Darcee and

Alysba , and Janezba and Mr Bangles in Unmarriageable.

 Love and Marriage

The idea of love and marriage is presented in various ways throughout the novel by Jane

Austen.Elizabeth's goal is to marry for love, not for wealth. Throughout the book, Austen

demonstrates the value of falling in love over money. This is seen in Elizabeth's rejection of Mr.

Collins and her marriage to Mr. Darcy. Austen contrasts this with the character of Charlotte

Lucas, who decides to marry Mr. Collins for financial security rather than for her love. Similar to

Jane Austen's novel, Kamal's book presents marriage as a woman's fluidity, and the same theme

is presented in Sonia Kamal's novel. She focuses on her thoughts on love and marriage in her

novel Unmarriageable. In her novel, Alysba's goal is to marry for love, not for wealth, so she

rejects Mr. Khaleen and marries Mr. Darcy, but her friend Sherry is married not for that love. ,

chose Mr. Khaleen as a life partner only for financial stability.

 Family

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The family is the most important unit of social life in Pride and Prejudice and forms the

emotional center of the novel. Jane Austen portrayed Jane and Elizabeth as mature and

intelligent adults and Lydia as an unhappy person. , reveals how individual characters are formed

within the family. The conflict between Elizabeth and her mother on the one hand and the

sympathy Elizabeth shares with her father on the other point to the overall character of the

family. The influence of Elizabeth's aunt and her uncle shows how the family functions in a

broader sense, with the Gardiners acting as surrogate parents and providing much-needed

emotional support during critical moments of stress. Sonia Kamal expresses the same thing in

her Unmarriageable.For example, when we see Alysba worrying about her sister Jena while she

is in dire straits.In it, Jane Austen can also be seen in her novels, explaining how characters'

mindsets can change even within the same family. but Lady is portrayed as an immature and

unhappy person.

 Interdependence

Examples of the interdependence of pride and prejudice abound. For one, Mrs. Bennett and her

neighbours are interdependent on rumours and gossip. The same can be seen in her novel

Unmarriageable by Mrs. Binat and her neighbors. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Jane are

interdependent, share their problems with each other, and have a bond between them, whereas in

Unmarriageable, Alysba and her sister Janezba express the same thing. Another example of

interdependence in pride and prejudice is between Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins

depends on them for work. Without her, he would have been poor and probably worked in a

factory. Mrs. Catherine counts on Mr. Collins to attend and lead her congregation. Just like

Katherine and Mr. Kareen depend on each other in Unmarriageable.

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 Gender

Gender is a central theme in Pride and Prejudice. The story takes place in a time when gender

roles were fairly rigid, with men and women having very different choices and influences.For

female characters like Charlotte Lucas and the Bennet sisters, marriage is a pressing issue. am.

Because only through marriage can women achieve financial stability and independence. On the

other hand, gender is also an important theme in Sanaia Kamal's novels. She said sexism existed

even at this age. Women have family pressure to marry. Also, it is now believed that a woman

can gain stability only after marriage. In Jane Austen's novel and Kamal's novel, we find that

although there is a temporary gap in both novels, the general role remains the same.

Further conflicts present in the characters of both novels are quite same which are given under

headings below:

The social conflict happens between one person and another.

 Conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth,and Darcee and Alysba:

In Pride and Prejudice conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth is marked by two events.The first event is

when Darcy refuses to dance with Elizabeth at the Merython Ball. The second event is when Elizabeth

refuses to dance with Darcy at the Mr. Lucas house.The conflict increases when she heard the story about

Darcy from Wickham and Fitz William .Same type of conflict occur between Alysba and Darcee in

Unmarriageable. Conflict get increase when Alysba heard about Darcee from Wickaam and she thought

that if Darcee is a wrong person. Through conversation with Miss Looclus, Alysba states her prejudice

that Mr. Darcee is proud. And she will not forgive his pride. Mr Darcee offends her. Mr. Darcee makes

her ashamed indirectly by refitting to dance with her upon Mr. Bangle request. Mr. Darcee's report

strengthened her prejudice. Both of them have misunderstanding. When they are at Mr. Looclus house,

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Alysba refuses to dance with Mr. Darcee upon Sir William request. She tries to do the same thing as

Darcee had done to her. She supposes Darcee is not serious to dance with her.

 Conflict of Elizabeth and Alysba with their Families:

Conflict between Elizabeth and her family is marked by one event. That is when her family tries

to expose themselves as much as they can at another ball and makes Elizabeth embarrassed. The

cause of this conflict is her family's behavior, as Mr. Bennet offends Mr.Darcy by talking about

him directly without considering Mr. Darcy's feeling. Mary (Elizabeth's sister) sings too long,

but peoples don't like it. According to Elizabeth, her family tries to expose themselves as much

as they can. They want to get attention from the people at the assembly. It is impossible for them

to do that successfully, because they actually don't like Elizabeth family's behavior. All of them

seem destroys her chance to renew her relationship with Mr. Darcy, because Mr. Darcy has

known how her family's attitude is. We can see the same problem in Kamal's novel

Unmarriageable, Alysba has a conflict with her family and reason of it are same as expressed in

novel Pride and Prejudice. She felt ashamed on behavior of her family.

 Conflict between Elizabeth and Miss Bingley, and Alysba and Miss Bangel:

There is conflict between Alysba and Miss Bangel in novel Unmarriageable, same conflict exist

in Pride and Prejudice between Elizabeth and Miss Bingley. Miss Bangel show unwelcome

appearance to Alysba at Lahore, in same way Miss Bingley show unwelcome appearance to

Elizabeth at Pamberely.

Miss Bangel don't like Alysba and feel jealousy from her because she want to win Darcee for

herself but Darcee attracts Alysba and he doesn't pay attention to Miss Bangel. Same thing occur

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in Pride and Prejudice and conflict between Elizabeth and Miss Bingley is mainly because of Mr

Darcy. Miss Bingley underestimate Elizabeth in front of Darcee in the hope that Darcy will stop

his interest to Elizabeth. She criticizes every part of Elizabeth's appearance and says that

Elizabeth doesn't have any beauty but Darcy considers Elizabeth as the most beautiful creature of

all of his acquaintances. In the same way Miss Bangel criticizes Alysba and portray her as if she

has no any beauty in front of Darcee in Unmarriageable.

 Conflict between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine and Alysba and Lady

Katherine:

In Pride and Prejudice there is conflict between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine, and reason of it is

Mr Darcy. Lady Catherine comes to Longbourn to force Elizabeth to leave and to stop the

relationship with Darcy. The main cause of this conflict is jealousy, too. Darcy's aunt doesn't

agree if Elizabeth has close relationship with her nephew, Mr. Darcy, because she wants to unify

two estates by marrying her daughter and her nephew. She has planned it when they were in

cradles. So when she knows that Darcy is falling in love with Elizabeth, she tries to fail their

plan. She comes to Longbourn and asks Elizabeth to stop her relationship with Darcy .In

Unmarriageable there is conflict between Alysba and Lady Katherine, Lady Katherine wants to

marry her daughter with Mr.Darcee , that's why she wants to stop Alysba to have close

relationship with Mr Darcee but Alysba refused to do so.

REFERENCES

 Faisal Irfan, Mahmoona Shahzadi, Nasim Talib, Tajammal Hussain Awan. (2020). A
COMPARATIVE CORPUS BASED ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE MARKERS FOR
GENDER DESCRIPTION IN THE ALCHEMIST AND PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.

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PalArch’s Journal of Archaeology of Egypt / Egyptology, 17(11), 358-376. Retrieved

from https://archives.palarch.nl/index.php/jae/article/view/5352
 Sha’bäni, M., Harehdasht, H. A., & Naseri, F. (2019). A comparative study of
plato’s and Jane Austen’s concept of Love in pride and prejudice. International Journal of
Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 8(3), 37.
https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.8n.3p.37
 Arniati, F., Darwis, M., Rahman, N., & Rahman, F. (2019). Mother behavior to their
daughters as seen in ''Pride and prejudice" and "Little women". ELS Journal on
Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 2(4), 620–625. https://doi.org/10.34050/els-
jish.v2i4.8004
 Key themes (pride and prejudice) - english literature revision. (n.d.). Retrieved January
12, 2023, from https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-literature-gcse-
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