Austen’s Male Subordinates: Equality by Imbalance

Austen’s Male Subordinates: Equality by Imbalance

In Jane Austen’s novels, the female characters are often the focus of critical study. This essay instead examines several minor male characters in her novels, such as Henry Crawford, Mr. Woodhouse, and Sir Walter Elliot, who deviate from conventional ideas of men in early eighteenth-century English society. The male characters studied lack independence or personal strength, and even lack dominance over female characters. However, they are still significant characters because they serve integral roles in the plot, and serve as vehicles for Austen’s ideas. The imbalances of power between Austen’s characters, even to the point of bringing male characters into subordinate and subservient roles, is a key factor in her reputation as a champion for women’s equality.

The texts of Austen’s novels constitute the entirety of the sources. At least one male character in each novel has been identified so that a theme of equality by imbalance can be established as a continuity in Austen’s work. Comparisons are made between the characters primarily addressed and other characters, male and female, to illustrate the nuances that make those secondary characters as intriguing and as significant as any of Austen’s protagonists. She did not merely waste textual space by inserting the characters studied in this essay, but used them because she believed equality between the sexes existed in the potential for a woman to hold equal, or even greater power than a man, as fluctuations in character and situation may allow