Male Hegemony in Jane Austen’s Persuasion

Abstract

Persuasion examines how Jane Austen is guided by the ideology of male hegemony. Her female characters, in one or the other way, manage to live under the umbrella of patriarchy without the resisting power. They never realize their confinement and humiliation in a male oriented society. They are attached to the traditional patriarchal stereotypes and internalize their submissiveness as patriarchal society demands them. Their absence in public affairs and property right,and their confinement within the narrow boundary of domesticity reflects Austen’s internalization of male oriented ideology.