Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth explains his past dealings with Wickham. This letter not only furthers the plot but also reveals Wickham’s real character. We learn that Wickham is the “son of a very respectable man” and that Darcy thinks “ill of him”. Austen avoids dialogue by using the letter instead to providing important information to the reader. Therefore, the letter plays an important role in furthering the plot.
The letters also serve as a tool to disclose character, as seen by Mr Collins two letters, both addressed to Mr Bennet. The first letter is a great example of his pompous arrogance, logically worded, giving the reader a complacent, snobbish and conceited picture of him. The first letter announces his arrival at Longbourne. It also gives the reader a picture of the Law of Entailment, which stated that in the absence of male heirs, property would fall into the hands of the closest male relation; in this case this happened to be Mr. Collins. His constant reference to Lady Catherine De Bourgh shows his pomposity and his status earned by association with her; he is seen as a social climber. Therefore, the reader forms a picture of Mr. Collins character, through his letters, before they are formally introduced to him in the novel. It is also important to note Mr Bennet’s response to the letter; he says that Mr. Collins “seems to be a most conscientious and polite young man”. However, we learn later in the book, through Mr Collins’s letters, that he is the exact opposite indolent, rude and pompous.
The second letter of Mr. Collins comes towards the end of the novel. This letter is an apology to Mr. Bennet for losing his daughter Lydia, who has eloped with Wickham. He states in his letter “the death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison to this”. Although he is a man of religion, he still advices Mr. Bennet to “close the doors” on her. He also retails the gossip that Elizabeth will shortly become engaged to Darcy, even before Elizabeth herself conveys this to her father. He comes across as pompous and high-minded. Mr. Collins is important to the theme of ‘pride’ in the novel. His letters are a perfect example of his pride and arrogance and he is wonderfully caricatured through all his letters. This shows that Austen uses letters to reveal character and advance plot.
Another example of Austen using letters to further plot and reveal charter is when Jane writes to Elizabeth telling her about her stay in London. The letter tells the reader about the closeness of the two sisters’ relationship. All of Jane’s experiences of London are conveyed through this letter. Jane finally admits that she was right about the insincerity of Caroline Bingley’s friendship, although, as usual, she makes excuses for her carelessness saying that “anxiety for her brother was the cause of it”. Here, instead of giving us a long narrative about Jane’s stay in London, Austen condenses her entire stay into a brief letter giving the reader an understandable picture.
The letter from Elizabeth to her aunt, Mrs Gardiner, illustrates the close relationship between aunt and niece, as do many other letters in the rest of the novel. She relates that Mr Wickham’s affections for her have subsided and have been transferred to another young lady, Miss. King, who had recently acquired 10,000 pounds. This also provides an important insight to his character. Elizabeth tells her aunt that she has “never been much in love” with Wickham and neither had he as he was hoping to marry Miss King. The reader gets the picture that Mrs Gardiner fills in the gap of a ‘mother’ for the Elizabeth, as she has an unintelligent mother. Austen conveys much of the plot in these two letters, enabling her to keep the reader informed of what both Elizabeth and Jane are doing even though they are in different places.
Perhaps the most important of all from the point of view of character, plot and theme is Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, which she reads “with a strong prejudice against everything he might say”. He begins the letter in a very polite manner by saying, “be not alarmed madam”. In his “faithful narrative” he tells Elizabeth about “two offences”. The first being that it was him who separated Mr. Bingley from Elizabeth’s sister, Jane because he thought Jane was not attached to him. He then explains his past dealings with Wickham. At first, Elizabeth does not believe Darcy, however, after much thought she begins to see the truth of Darcy’s nature. Darcy’s letter shows his true character, which is different from what the reader previously felt about him. His emotions in the letter are conveyed as heart felt and strong. This letter can be considered the turning point of the novel and expresses the theme.
When Elizabeth visits Pemberley with her aunt and uncle she receives two letters from Jane. These two letters inform Elizabeth about Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. During the crisis over , at This tells us that letters was the only mode of communication in the nineteenth century and that everyone was eager to hear of Lydia’s situation.
Jane asks Elizabeth and the Gardeners’ to return home as soon as possible and requests that
Mr Gardiner helps her father search for Lydia and Wickham in London. In the early nineteenth century, a young lady’s elopement was cause for great scandal to the entire family. Thus, the shock and dismay of the family is understandable. This letter gives the reader an insight of Lydia’s frivolous character. After Elizabeth receives this letter, she fears that such an action on her sister’s part will make a renewal of Darcy’s proposal impossible. Feeling this loss, she realizes she loves him. Hence, this letter is ironic as when she finds all hope is gone of being married to him, she realizes she actually loves him. Hence, once again we see that Jane Austen conveys an event through the use of the letter and thus is able to further the plot.
Mrs Gardiner’s letter towards the end of the novel, explains the details with regard to Darcy’s involvement in the wedding of Lydia and Wickham. Mr Darcy was responsible for finding the whereabouts of Wickham as he thought it “his duty to step forward”. When Darcy found the couple he tried to convince Lydia to “quit her present disgraceful situation, and return to her friends” but when she refused, he tried to “secure and expedite a marriage” between Lydia and Wickham to marry her, which “had never been his [Wickham’s] design”. However, when he offered Wickham money to persuade him, he agreed. Mrs Gardiner concludes the letter stating that she is sure Darcy’s actions are motivated by his love for Elizabeth, and relates to Elizabeth how much she thinks he would be a good match. It is now that Elizabeth realizes her true feelings for Darcy. She is sure however, that he would never marry her now and suffer through being Wickham’s sister-in-law.
Just through letters the reader is able to make clear judgements of the main characters. Letter writing is a serious business for characters like Darcy, Jane and Mr and Mrs Gardiner. Mr Bennet is a lethargic letter-writer; his letters are infrequent and short. Letters provide a way of distinguishing character. Mr Collins is recognised as a wild man from his first letter and his letters after Lydia’s elopement show his self-centredness. Lydia’s letters show the irresponsibility and selfishness of her character.
The letters in 'Pride and Prejudice' show the feelings of characters as they are individual and the letters are directly talking to the reader. Without the letters a great deal of the plot would be lost because the reader would not get an insight of the characters feelings. The reader is able to make a personal judgement on each character without the authors intervening. Using letters is also an easy way of advancing plot, as the author does not have to go into excessive detail. Letters allow other places to come into the novel as they are not focused in one place.
