The Women of Jane Austen Jane Austen has attracted a great deal of critical attention in recent years. Many have spoken out about the strengths and weaknesses of her characters, particularly her heroines. Austen has been cast as both a friend and foe to the rights of women. According to Morrison, “most feminist studies have represented Austen as a conscious or unconscious subversive voicing a woman’s frustration at the rigid and sexist social order …showed first 75 words of 4381 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4381 total…matchmaking and remaining single). When she realizes that she loves Knightley, she finds a place to start an internal reformation. Whether or not Austen was trying to be an early writer for women’s rights is really unimportant. Austen’s works are about women discovering who they are and that discovery must take place for a woman to truly live and love, regardless of her social position or the century in which she was born.