Social Construction of Gender in Austen's Mansfield Park

Abstract

The research deals with Austen's Mansfield Parkin which the study focuses on how gender is constructed by society and contemporary ideology. The research explores a social issue in which it differentiates gender values in two different time frames: Victorian and Industrial period. It compares and contrasts two different time periods in which gender treatment is also different. The novel presents the Victorian period in which gender treatment is comparatively strict and confined, but, the industrial period empowers women. The research employs new historicism as a theoretical insight to analyze the text. The Victorian period confines women who do not have freedom, whereas industrial period comparatively liberates women. In this respect, the gender concept is social construction which differs in every period, because the contemporary social ideology influences gender roles in society. Fancy Price represents a major female character of political transitional period who feels more freedom and empowered roles in society when industrial period began. Unlike Victorian period, the new social changes redefine and reinterpret women roles in society.