HELP me find sub-questions!

[QueenSara]

“To what extent do Elizabeth Bennet and Charlotte Lucas in Austen’s Pride and Prejudice live up to the responsibilities and duties put upon them as women, by society?”

That above is my question (if anyone have a suggestion of how to re-write it into something less complex, feel free to tell me!
Well, so to the problem: my first draft is due FRIDAY, and everything SUCKS. Therefore, I need to find a bunch of sub-questions which I can discuss in relation to the topic. The only one I have came up with yet is; Why dares Elizabeth risk saying no to Mr Collins when Charlotte does not? And a bunch of others on how Austen uses these characters to make a standpoint.. But, you see my problem, ANYTHING would help me!

So,

- SUB-QUESTIONS suitable to my research question
- Plus, HOW can I Justify my question?

Edited September 24, 2008 by QueenSara

[Vvi]

I'm doing my EE on Pride and Prejudice too, but mine is also about Jane Eyre. Our questions are kind of similar, mine has to do with societal values in those books as well.

Unfortunately, my EE rough draft was awful. I haven't finished reading Jane Eyre and I have to reread P&P completely.

I would suggest looking up exactly what society's expectations of women were at that time (Georgian time period) so that you have a complete picture of what you are up against. I don't think your question is too complex, mine is quite long too. Also, there are primary sources online available, written by Jane Austen herself. It would be worth looking to see if you can find anything about why she chose to use Charlotte Lucas in her book, what was her intention in writing the novel, etc.

Charlotte Lucas is quite a minor character to discuss, if you wanted something broader you could try "To what extent do the female characters in Pride and Prejudice live up to the responsibilities and duties placed upon them as women, by society?" Then you could also discuss the Bingleys', Lady Catherine, Elizabeth's sisters and mother as well as their aunt. That might be too broad though, talk to your advisor.

If you are going to stick with this one, then you could talk about the differences in personality between Charlotte and Elizabeth, about their different expectations of marriage (love vs. practicality), whether or not they are considered to be "accomplished" ladies, their physical appearance and how it differs form the norm, etc.

Just from a grammatical point of view, the word "placed" instead of "put" in your EE question might sound a bit better.

Sorry I couldn't help more, my draft is quite bad right now (only 1000 words and those were done the night before the draft was due). As I progress, maybe I can help you a bit more.

[QueenSara]

[quote name='Vvi' post='25252' date='Sep 24 2008, 09:00 PM']I'm doing my EE on Pride and Prejudice too, but mine is also about Jane Eyre. Our questions are kind of similar, mine has to do with societal values in those books as well.

Unfortunately, my EE rough draft was awful. I haven't finished reading Jane Eyre and I have to reread P&P completely.

I would suggest looking up exactly what society's expectations of women were at that time (Georgian time period) so that you have a complete picture of what you are up against. I don't think your question is too complex, mine is quite long too. Also, there are primary sources online available, written by Jane Austen herself. It would be worth looking to see if you can find anything about why she chose to use Charlotte Lucas in her book, what was her intention in writing the novel, etc.

Charlotte Lucas is quite a minor character to discuss, if you wanted something broader you could try "To what extent do the female characters in Pride and Prejudice live up to the responsibilities and duties placed upon them as women, by society?" Then you could also discuss the Bingleys', Lady Catherine, Elizabeth's sisters and mother as well as their aunt. That might be too broad though, talk to your advisor.

If you are going to stick with this one, then you could talk about the differences in personality between Charlotte and Elizabeth, about their different expectations of marriage (love vs. practicality), whether or not they are considered to be "accomplished" ladies, their physical appearance and how it differs form the norm, etc.

Just from a grammatical point of view, the word "placed" instead of "put" in your EE question might sound a bit better.

Sorry I couldn't help more, my draft is quite bad right now (only 1000 words and those were done the night before the draft was due). As I progress, maybe I can help you a bit more.[/quote]

Really, this what was I was in need of, someone's objective view on the matter, thanks a bunch! However, I still don't know what I could say to justify my question, why is it worthy of investigation? Most certainly, I do not know. Furthermore, I couldn't find the primary sources on the Internet you wrote about.. Do you have any specific web addresses?

Edited September 24, 2008 by QueenSara

[Vvi]

When thinking about what to write for justifying your question, think about why you chose Jane Austen for your EE instead of another author. What is so special about the Georgian era, and what about the customs of society interested you in the first place? Hopefully you will have some answers to those questions.

This is the website that I found, haven't used it yet but it looks very relevant. [url="http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pridprej.html"]http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pridprej.html[/url]

[url="http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html"]http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html[/url] This is from the same website and has links to other academic articles on Jane Austen.

Lastly, this is a collection of letters that Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra, both during and after she was writing/had written Pride and Prejudice. [url="http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablets.html"]http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/brablets.html[/url]

I hope all that helps you.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

[quote]If you are going to stick with this one, then you could talk about the differences in personality between Charlotte and Elizabeth, about their different expectations of marriage (love vs. practicality), whether or not they are considered to be "accomplished" ladies, their physical appearance and how it differs form the norm, etc.[/quote]
You forgot their ages! That's a huge huge huge factor! Charlotte was 27, practically a spinster and she had little prospect of ever getting married if she didn't marry Collns. Elizabeth was much younger, at 20. Remember Lydia was calling Jane 'practically an old maid' even though she was only nearly 23.

Pemberley.com is a great source. I considered doing my EE on P&P too so I raided that place. It's got a lot of notes on society at the time.

[Vvi]

[quote name='HMSChocolate' post='25291' date='Sep 25 2008, 06:01 AM']You forgot their ages! That's a huge huge huge factor! Charlotte was 27, practically a spinster and she had little prospect of ever getting married if she didn't marry Collns. Elizabeth was much younger, at 20. Remember Lydia was calling Jane 'practically an old maid' even though she was only nearly 23.

Pemberley.com is a great source. I considered doing my EE on P&P too so I raided that place. It's got a lot of notes on society at the time.[/quote]

Do you have any other websites for Pride and Prejudice, or Jane Austen in general? I'm finding it a lot easier to find stuff on Jane Eyre and the pre-Victorian era...maybe coz the Georgian era was so short.