The lines:
‘However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be
on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the
minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful
property of some one or other of their daughters.’
Are ironic in that, people assume a single man who is wealthy entering their neighbourhood is in search of a wife, their daughters. This might not be the case for the man, and he might be completely uninterested in their daughters. This piece of irony serves to introduce us to the story in the book in a captivating and thought provoking manner. Mr Bennet says, “I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying whichever he chooses of the girls…”. Though this may be considered a sarcastic remark, it is an ironic statement because he says the opposite of what he means for the sake of emphasis. Due to this statement we see that his wife is ‘ over-scrupulous’ and that he is not much concerned about the marriage of his daughters. Mrs Bennet brings out irony in her statement, “ Mr Bennet, how can abuse your children in such a way!”. This is irony because, though this is true of her husband, she too is guilty of the same thing when she passes comments about Lizzy.
Mr and Mrs Bennet are sarcastic towards each other. This is shown by the fact that they refer to each other as Mr Bennet, and Mrs Bennet, which is quite unusual.
“My dear, you flatter me. I certainly have had my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be anything extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown-up daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”
“In such cases, a woman has not often beauty to think of.”
These and other sarcastic remarks exchanged by the Bennets, are used by Austen depict how contrasting the characters of Mr and Mrs Bennet are, but how at the same time their opposite traits compliment each other.
Mrs Bennet is a gossip, a talkative lady, and is also very enthusiastic. This is shown when she tells her husband about Mr Bingley. She seems to know the latest news in the neighbourhood concerning wealthy single young men, and is too excited about introducing her daughters to Mr Bingley. On the other hand, her husband is uninterested and tiresome, according to his wife. He does not particularly cate for marrying of his daughters and sees his wife as a nuisance for bothering him about it. Acocording to her husband, Mrs Bennet is over-scrupulous which contrasts with his uninterested manner. She is a very serious woman who is focused on her sole purpose in life, which is to marry of her daughters, as opposed to her husband who is sarcastic and humorous. Austen describes Mrs Bennet as a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper, which contrasts with her husband who is a mixture of reserve and caprice. Compared to his overly enthusiastic wife, Mr Bennet is bland.
Austen manages to build tension by the use of sarcasm, humour and showing the contrasting character traits of Mr and Mrs Bennet. This has the effect of having the reader wondering whether Mr Bennet will get tired of his wife’s pestering, and whether he will be able to keep her in check before she becomes a nuisance to society. near the end of the chapter, the couple have a little argument over Lizzy. This draws attention towards her and makes reader wonder of her importance as the novel continues. Austen also creates tension in the first chapter by not introducing Mr Bingley. We are simply made aware of his existence. This makes the curious about his character. Many aspects of the book, for example any ideas that the reader might have about how the story will unfold, are not confirmed by Austen, thus creating tension and leaving the reader curious if the story unfolds the way they thought it would.
Austen manages to captivate the reader in the first chapter. She mainly uses humour and sarcasm to achieve this effect. In this chapter we are shown the importance of Mr and Mrs Bennet to each other. Mrs Bennet needs her husband to keep her from going out of hand, and he needs his wife to add humour to his life through her being ridiculous. The firs chapter of Pride and Prejudice is extremely well written and makes the reader not want to put down the book.
