The novel has often been described as a simple story of love between a wealthy, proud aristocrat and an intelligent, beautiful young woman born into a family of five sisters with little financial security. Elizabeth, the second of five daughters in the Bennet family, is bright, attractive, witty, and of good moral character, in short our heroine. She is the contrast to her loud mother who had little education and intelligence. Chapter 1, page 5. ‘Her mind was less difficult to develop, she was a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper’. Elizabeth’s father, Mr. Bennet, is a gentleman, a term used in Austen's time to indicate a man who has sufficient income from the property he owns. He has inherited a small estate that supplies enough money to provide for his family during his lifetime; however, since he has no son, the estate will pass, after his death, to his cousin, Mr. Collins. As a result, his wife and daughters will not have sufficient income to support themselves comfortably after Mr. Bennet dies. As a result Mrs Bennet, is always looking for the ideal rich husbands to marry her five daughters. Chapter 1, page 5. ‘The business of her life was to get her daughters married’. Mrs. Bennet is so set upon living a comfortable and easy life, like many women of reasonable income since they are not usually aloud to work, that she makes her daughters marriages her life’s ambition. Elizabeth is firstly set up with Mr. Collins, her cousin. He is given the choice out of all the girls and is quite taken by Elizabeth’s older sister but quickly focus his attention on Elizabeth when he is told she is taken. Elizabeth however, does not believe in marriage for a gain in wealth, but for genuine love and affection.
The structure and style that Jane Austen used was very detailed and she could construct a plot well. The story shows the different stages of two young people (Elizabeth and Darcy) falling in love when they really don’t want to, whilst the other characters events are shown at the same time. In the first part of the book Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth hate each other, then Mr. Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth and asks her to marry him, but she rejects his offer. In the second part Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy overcome both of their pride and prejudice’s, develop a better understanding of each other and eventually get married. The main plot of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s love story is centred around Mr. Bingly and Jane’s love story along with Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins marrying for their status (this is necessary because it ensures that Elizabeth goes to Kent, where she meets Mr. Darcy and their love story develops further.) and the interchangeable story of Mr. Wickham; this changes the way Elizabeth feels about Mr. Darcy dramatically, from loathing him in the beginning to falling in love with him by the end.
The other characters have their own places within the plot and help the main story to flow. Jane Austen’s great skill in constructing and developing a story is made obvious as she manages to make everything seem in place. As a result the story’s events seem to happen reasonably logically.
Jane Austen uses language and conversation by making her characters gradually reveal themselves to the reader though what they say and do, rather than telling the reader directly.
The language that she uses is typical of her time and general social status as the book contains a large majority of old fashioned words and phrases i.e.;‘particularly incumbent’, which we would not generally use today. Other examples include: ‘May I ask to what these questions tend?’ and “I can readily believe that report may vary greatly with respect to me.’
This old fashioned language reflects the period and it is also graceful and sophisticated, typical of the upper social class and relevant to the characters in the novel and Jane Austen herself.
Mrs Bennett is the most talkative of the characters in Pride and Prejudice because she is an incurable gossip. Austen showed this character to be repetitive in her speech, talk about the same thing longer than necessary and say un-intelligent things to reflect that she was indeed poorly educated. ‘For my part, Mr. Bingley, I always keep servants that can do their own work…’ This is a foolish comment as servants are employed to do their own work and there would be no point in employing them if you did their job. It also shows Mrs. Bennett is not used to having servants and was brought up in a common way.
In reflection, Elizabeth always speaks with thought and is not overly talkative. We can assume that Jane Austen thought herself to be an intelligent observer of her society as she speaks through the character of Elizabeth, who is intelligent and is the character who mainly observes her society. ‘…it would be wise in me to refrain from that.’ Here Elizabeth shows that she understands when to keep quiet or not to do something.
Through what the characters say and do, Jane Austen shows irony by making many of them seem polite, such as Elizabeth, but in reality they are laughing at the things going on around them. Mr. Bennett is an excellent example of this, as his wife thinks he is agreeing with her, when actually he is just mocking her.
In conclusion, Elizabeth manages to overcome her mother's objections to the pomposity and deign of her long-time adversary, Mr Darcy, and find true love. The book is full of minor characters who mostly marry for the wrong reasons. Charlotte married for status, Lydia married for physical attraction and Mrs Hirst married for money. But the Bennett sisters are manipulated by Jane Austen to marry for the only thing worth marrying for true love.
