Project Abstract The portrayal of women between novels and other findings in reality. We found in Jane Austen's writings that single women were not being accepted into society when they chose to decline an offer of marriage from a man that they thought was less than wothy to marry. there was also dependency on being able to survive without a man. We found that in contrast that there were many women who were able to thrive as spinsters.

Project Context and Contribution Our topic for our capstone presentation is the portrayal of women in 19th century England. We chose this topic because we both feel that Jane Austen is a very important novelist to our contemporary world. Our argument was that society was extremely different, not only being a country that was a part of Europe, but they were also a country breaking through at the turn of the century. This was integral to our research paper.

Project Format We wrote a 45-page paper and included a multimedia piece which featured a clip to compliment our evidence on a website. We did this in order to help emphasize our setting for our audience. We focused on 4 novels and 3 secondary sources and 1 film. We feel that by showing this clip, along with our paper will help our reader to identify the environment and understand our work a little better.

Links of Interest 1. Information on the author: http://www.austen.com 2. Information about the new film based on Jane Austen's life: http://www.bvimovies.com/uk/becoming_jane/

Research Questions This is the most important question we want to answer. 1. What did marriage mean to women in 19th century England? 2. What did marriage mean to English society in 1811? 3. How were women portrayed in 19th century England? 4. How did social class affect women and marriage? 5. What was society like for the women within 19th century England?

Key Findings Our key findings answered the research questions by giving information that we knew from the novels and we found how the author lived and how she came to write the novels. The novels portrayed the female characters and their lifestyle of restriction and strict adherence to societal laws. They did not have many options in the way of being able to live comfortabley alone in 19th century England. We found that spinsters were not accepted until the laws in England began to change, however there were some women who did not allow the society to control how they viewed marriage and how they lived. They became popular and soon spinsterhood was acceptable in English society and was the transition to women's suffrage.

Evidence Our historical analysis were used through articles and books about the laws at the time. Our use of literary analysis was through Jane Austen's four novels and how they portrayed single women in 19th century English society. We used the novels: "Emma", "Mansfield Park", Pride & Prejudice" and "Sense & Sensibility". We did a cultural studies and researched how single women who chose to become spinsters in reality were praised as being "champions of uncompromising morality." Evidence of this in the novels is seen here, "Jane will be quite an old maid soon, I declare! She is almost three and twenty! Lord, how ashamed I should be of not being married before three and twenty! Lord! How should I like to be married before any of you; and then I would chaperone you about all the balls" (P.P. Austen 165).

Selected Bibliography 1. Book: Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. 3. Oxford NY: Oxford University Press, 1933. 2. Book: Austen, Jane. Emma. Modern Library Edition. New York NY: The Modern Library, 1992 3. Book: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Modern Library Edition. New York NY: The Modern Library, 2000. 4. Book: Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park. New York NY: Knopf Inc, 1906. 5. Film: Emma. Dir. Ian Wilson. Perf. Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Alan Cumming, Ewan McGregor. DVD. Miramax, 1996. 6. Article: Klaus, Patricia "Blessed or Not? The New Spinster in England and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th Century" 9:394-414. Journal of Family History Iliad. California State East Bay. 6. mar. 2007 7. Book: Rose, Sonya O. Limited Livelihood: Gender and Class in 19th Century England. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California P. 1992. 8. Film: Mansfield Park. Dir. Michael Coulter. Perf. Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Frances. DVD. Miramax, 1999. 9. Film: Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Joe Wright. Perf. Kiera Knightley,Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland. DVD. Miramax, 2005. O'Conner. DVD. Miramax, 1999. 11. Article: Segal, Lore. "Uses of Money: Jane Austen on Our Unwillingness to Part With Our Money." The Antioch Review 59(2001): 252. 12. Film: Sense and Sensibility. Dir. Ang Lee. Perf. Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant. DVD. Columbia Pictures, 1995.