In response to Charlotte Bronte upon Pride and Prejudice(actually college work)

Why do you like Miss Austen so very much? I am puzzled on that point... I had not seen "Pride and Prejudice," till I read that sentence of yours, and then I got the book. And what did I find? An accurate daguerreotyped portrait of a common-place face; a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but no glance of a bright, vivid physiognomy, no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck. I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses. - Charlotte Bronte

When I was first confronted with this quote, I had to agree with Charlotte Bronte's quote seeing as I would hardly call myself the biggest fan of Pride and
Prejudice. Charlotte Bronte's comment upon how she would "hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses", struck a chord with me. I believe it was commenting on perhaps on the surface about the shallowness of the society of which Jane Austen wrote about but also the context of the book itself, which is centred upon one certain type of society, but with absolutely nothing to say about that society itself, merely the persistent and almost idiotic view of the mother and sisters who so eagerly await to be married off like cattle so as to remain socially acceptable and not to be ostracised from their society because an unmarried daughter was seen to be unacceptable.
Austen according to some has created a character that is still a feminist, I however disagree while to a certain extent she does refuse the marriage of Mr Collins, she obsesses over Mr Darcy. Austen also portrays the male and female characters to fit into a certain stereotype of how men and woman should behave, rather than commenting upon this she merely bows down to the patriarchal view of society, idealising the roles of women which were held up back in her time. Women playing the role of housekeeper, who should stay at home and be seen and not heard. Although Elizabeth does slightly challenge this, it is not enough to outweigh the anti-feminists message of the book Austen writes, instead leaving the men to make the decisions such as when her uncle is forced to travel all the way down to London to "fix" the situation of Lydia and Wickham.
 As Bronte also suggests, Austen has merely taken a photography of what her society was like, it doesn't show thought beyond that photo. It shows the neatness and supposed civility of the a society focused around men, and marrying women off for money. I found the book itself has nothing to truly say neither historically nor socially with the characters focused more upon men, marriage and money and how they seemed to be the most important things in their lives, also another anti-feminist portrayal of women. Just as Bronte says they live "in their elegant but confined houses." Confined both in the way that they feel they have to act to be accepted but also in their views and beliefs of the way in which people should be treated, especially women.
The characters themselves have no sustenance to them and instead are fickle characters, swaying one way to the next. We cannot learn to become attaached to them because none have appealing characteristics nor do we learn an awful lot about them in order to become closer to them. Just as Bronte uses the word neat, it could almost be interepreted as while a neat accurate picture perhaps of what middle class was like, it is a cold, emtionless one. Darcy and Elizabeth's love for eachother is only ignited at the end, and you can hardly used the word ignited. It is almost as if it simply exists for the end of the book rather than because it is true love.  As we know Jane Austen was never married and believe her books to be a creation of her imagination, of the loves she never could of had and an escape from her own dreary and lonely existence.
 Mark Twain is quoted as saying "Classic' - a book which people praise and don't read." I believe this was the case with Austen's book that 300 years or so later it is merely celebrated because it has been deemed a classic and was written at a time when women were not allowed write.