Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen.
Pride and Prejudice
. Jane Austen's original title for the novel was First Impressions. What role do first impressions play in Pride and Prejudice?
Pride and Prejudice is, first and foremost, a
novel about surmounting obstacles and achieving
romantic happiness. For Elizabeth, the heroine, and
Darcy, her eventual husband, the chief obstacle resides
in the book's original title: First Impressions. Darcy,
the proud, prickly noblewoman's nephew, must break
free from his original dismissal of Elizabeth as "not
handsome enough to tempt me," and from his
class-based prejudice against her lack of wealth and
family connections. Elizabeth's first impressions,
meanwhile, catalogue Darcy as arrogant and
self-satisfied; as a result, she later accepts slanderous
accusations against him as true.
Both Elizabeth and Darcy are forced to come
to grips with their own initial mistakes. Structurally, the
first half of the novel traces Darcy's progression to the
point at which he is able to admit his love in spite of his
prejudice. In the second half, Elizabeth's mistaken
impressions are supplanted by informed realizations
about Darcy's true character. Darcy's two proposals to
Elizabeth chart the mature development of their
relationship. He delivers the first at the mid-point of the
novel, when he has realized his love for Elizabeth but
has not yet escaped his prejudices against her family,
and when she is still in the grip of her first, negative
impression of him. The second proposal-in which
Darcy humbly restates his love for her and Elizabeth,
now with full knowledge of Mr. Darcy's good
character, happily accepts-marks the arrival of the
two characters, each finally achieving the ability to
view the other through unprejudiced eyes.
2. Analyze how Austen depicts Mr. Bennet. Is he a positive or negative figure?
Mr. Bennet's chief characteristics are an ironic
detachment and a sharp, cutting wit. The distance that
he creates between himself and the absurdity around
him often endears him to the reader and parallels the
amused detachment with which Austen treats
ridiculous characters such as Mr. Collins and Lady
Catherine. To associate the author's point of view with
that of Mr. Bennet, however, is to ignore his ultimate
failure as a father and husband. He is endlessly witty,
but his distance from the events around him makes him
an ineffective parent. Detached humor may prove
useful for handling the Mr. Collinses of the world, but it
is helpless against the depredations of the villainous
(but likeable) Wickham. When the crisis of Lydia's
elopement strikes, Mr. Bennet proves unable to handle
the situation. Darcy, decent and energetic, and the
Gardiners, whose intelligence, perceptiveness, and
resourcefulness make them the strongest adult force in
the novel, must step in. He is a likable, entertaining
character, but he never manages to earn the respect of
the reader.
3. Discuss the importance of dialogue to character development in the novel.
ll of Austen's many characters come alive
through dialogue, as the narrative voice in Austen's
work is secondary to the voices of the characters.
Long, unwieldy speeches are rare, as are detailed
physical descriptions. In their place, the reader hears
the crackle of quick, witty conversation. True nature
reveals itself in the way the characters speak: Mr.
Bennet's emotional detachment comes across in his dry
wit, while Mrs. Bennet's hysterical excess drips from
every sentence she utters. Austen's dialogue often
serves to reveal the worst aspects of her
characters-Miss Bingley's spiteful, snobbish attitudes
are readily apparent in her words, and Mr. Collins's
long-winded speeches (and occasional letters, which
are a kind of secondary dialogue) carry with them a
tone-deaf pomposity that defines his character
perfectly. Dialogue can also conceal bad character
traits: Wickham, for instance, hides his rogue's heart
beneath the patter of pleasant, witty banter, and he
manages to take Elizabeth in with his smooth tongue
(although his good looks help as well). Ultimately,
though, good conversational ability and general
goodness of personality seem to go hand in hand. It is
no accident that Darcy and Elizabeth are the best
conversationalists in the book: Pride and Prejudice is
the story of their love, and for ...
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tone-deaf pomposity that defines his character
perfectly. Dialogue can also conceal bad character
traits: Wickham, for instance, hides his rogue's heart
beneath the patter of pleasant, witty banter, and he
manages to take Elizabeth in with his smooth tongue
(although his good looks help as well). Ultimately,
though, good conversational ability and general
goodness of personality seem to go hand in hand. It is
no accident that Darcy and Elizabeth are the best
conversationalists in the book: Pride and Prejudice is
the story of their love, and for the reader, that love
unfolds through the words they share.
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Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored
in a literary work.
Love - Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love
stories in English literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As
in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous
stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers' own
personal qualities. Elizabeth's pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis
of a poor first impression, while Darcy's prejudice against Elizabeth's poor
social standing blinds him, for a time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one
could also say that Elizabeth is guilty of prejudice and Darcy of
pride-the title cuts both ways.) Austen, meanwhile, poses countless
smaller obstacles to the realization of the love between Elizabeth and
Darcy, including Lady Catherine's attempt to control her nephew, Miss
Bingley's snobbery, Mrs. Bennet's idiocy, and Wickham's deceit. In each
case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social
connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth's
realization of a mutual and tender love seems to imply that Austen views
love as something independent of these social forces, as something that can
be captured if only an individual is able to escape the warping effects of
hierarchical society. Austen does sound some more realist (or, one could
say, cynical) notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who
marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart
does not always dictate marriage. Yet with her central characters, Austen
suggests that true love is a force separate from society and one that can
conquer even the most difficult of circumstances.
Reputation - Pride and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman's
reputation is of the utmost importance. A woman is expected to behave in
certain ways. Stepping outside the social norms makes her vulnerable to
ostracism. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to
Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the
reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her friends. At other points, the
ill-mannered, ridiculous behavior of Mrs. Bennet gives her a bad reputation
with the more refined (and snobbish) Darcys and Bingleys. Austen pokes
gentle fun at the snobs in these examples, but later in the novel, when Lydia
elopes with Wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats
reputation as a very serious matter. By becoming Wickham's lover without
benefit of marriage, Lydia clearly places herself outside the social pale, and
her disgrace threatens the entire Bennet family. The fact that Lydia's
judgment, however terrible, would likely have condemned the other Bennet
sisters to marriageless lives seems grossly unfair. Why should Elizabeth's
reputation suffer along with Lydia's? Darcy's intervention on the Bennet's
behalf thus becomes all the more generous, but some readers might resent
that such an intervention was necessary at all. If Darcy's money had failed
to convince Wickham to marry Lydia, would Darcy have still married
Elizabeth? Does his transcendence of prejudice extend that far? The
happy ending of Pride and Prejudice is certainly emotionally satisfying, but
in many ways it leaves the theme of reputation, and the importance placed
on reputation, unexplored. One can ask of Pride and Prejudice, to what
extent does it critique social structures, and to what extent does it simply
accept their inevitability?
Class - The theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the
strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in
Regency England. The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets,
who are middle class, may socialize with the upper class Bingleys and
Darcys, they are clearly their social inferiors and are treated as such.
Austen satirizes this kind of class-consciousness, particularly in the
character of Mr. Collins, who spends most of his time toadying to his upper
class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Mr. Collins offers an
extreme example, he is not the only one to hold such views. His conception
of the importance of class is shared, among others, by Mr. Darcy, who
believes in the dignity of his lineage; Miss Bingley, who dislikes anyone not
as socially accepted as she is; and Wickham, who will do anything he can to
get enough money to raise himself into a higher station. Mr. Collins's views
are merely the most extreme and obvious. The satire directed at Mr. Collins
is therefore also more subtly directed at the entire social hierarchy and the
conception of all those within it at its correctness, in complete disregard of
other, more worthy virtues. Through the Darcy-Elizabeth and Bingley-Jane
marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to overcome
class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices are
hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive. Of course, this whole discussion of
class must be made with the understanding that Austen herself is often
criticized as being a classist: she doesn't really represent anyone from the
lower classes; those servants she does portray are generally happy with
their lot. Austen does criticize class structure but only a limited slice of that
structure.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices
that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Courtship - In a sense, Pride and Prejudice is the story of two
courtships-those between Darcy and Elizabeth and between Bingley and
Jane. Within this broad structure appear other, smaller courtships: Mr.
Collins's aborted wooing of Elizabeth, followed by his successful wooing of
Charlotte Lucas; Miss Bingley's unsuccessful attempt to attract Darcy;
Wickham's pursuit first of Elizabeth, then of the never-seen Miss King, and
finally of Lydia. Courtship therefore takes on a profound, if often unspoken,
importance in the novel. Marriage is the ultimate goal, courtship constitutes
the real working-out of love. Courtship becomes a sort of forge of a
person's personality, and each courtship becomes a microcosm for different
sorts of love (or different ways to abuse love as a means to social
advancement).
Journeys - Nearly every scene in Pride and Prejudice takes place
indoors, and the action centers around the Bennet home in the small village
of Longbourn. Nevertheless, journeys-even short ones-function
repeatedly as catalysts for change in the novel. Elizabeth's first journey, by
which she intends simply to visit Charlotte and Mr. Collins, brings her into
contact with Mr. Darcy, and leads to his first proposal. Her second journey
takes her to Derby and Pemberley, where she fans the growing flame of
her affection for Darcy. The third journey, meanwhile, sends various people
in pursuit of Wickham and Lydia, and the journey ends with Darcy tracking
them down and saving the Bennet family honor, in the process
demonstrating his continued devotion to Elizabeth.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to
represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Pemberley - Pride and Prejudice is remarkably free of explicit
symbolism, which perhaps has something to do with the novel's reliance on
dialogue over description. Nevertheless, Pemberley, Darcy's estate, sits at
the center of the novel, literally and figuratively, as a geographic symbol of
the man who owns it. Elizabeth visits it at a time when her feelings toward
Darcy are beginning to warm; she is enchanted by its beauty and charm,
and by the picturesque countryside, just as she will be charmed,
increasingly, by the gifts of its owner. Austen makes the connection explicit
when she describes the stream that flows beside the mansion. "In front,"
she writes, "a stream of some natural importance was swelled into greater,
but without any artificial appearance." Darcy possesses a "natural
importance" that is "swelled" by his arrogance, but which coexists with a
genuine honesty and lack of "artificial appearance." Like the stream, he is
neither "formal, nor falsely adorned." Pemberley even offers a
symbol-within-a-symbol for their budding romance: when Elizabeth
encounters Darcy on the estate, she is crossing a small bridge, suggesting
the broad gulf of misunderstanding and class prejudice that lies between
them-and the bridge that their love will build across it.
Analysis of Major Characters
Elizabeth Bennet - The second daughter in the Bennet family, and the
most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and
Prejudice and one of the most well known female characters in English
literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous-she is lovely, clever, and,
in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her
honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad
behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society.
Nevertheless, her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments
often lead her astray; Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how
she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles-including their own
personal failings-to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth must not only cope
with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger
siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also
overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her
to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him
interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As
she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy's character, she
realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.
Fitzwilliam Darcy - The son of a wealthy, well-established family and the
master of the great estate of Pemberley, Darcy is Elizabeth's male
counterpart. The narrator relates Elizabeth's point of view of events more
often than Darcy's, so Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure.
The reader eventually realizes, however, that Darcy is her ideal match.
Intelligent and forthright, he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and
harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him overly proud and overly
conscious of his social status. Indeed, his haughtiness makes him initially
bungle his courtship. When he proposes to her, for instance, he dwells more
on how unsuitable a match she is than on her charms, beauty, or anything
else complimentary. Her rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility
in him. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to Elizabeth, in spite of
his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues Lydia and the entire
Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his
haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue Elizabeth.
Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her
earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.
Jane Bennet/Charles Bingley - Elizabeth's beautiful elder sister and
Darcy's wealthy best friend, Jane and Bingley engage in a courtship that
occupies a central place in the novel. They first meet at the ball in Meryton
and enjoy an immediate mutual attraction. They are spoken of as a potential
couple throughout the book, long before anyone imagines that Darcy and
Elizabeth might marry. Despite their centrality to the narrative, they are
vague characters, sketched by Austen rather than carefully drawn. Indeed,
they are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described
together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to
think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth
and Darcy. Jane's gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sister's fiery,
contentious nature, while Bingley's eager friendliness contrasts with Darcy's
stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are goodwill and compatibility,
and the contrast of their romance with that of Darcy and Elizabeth is
remarkable. Jane and Bingley exhibit to the reader true love unhampered by
either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also
demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.
Mr. Bennet - Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household-the
husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and
Mary. He is a man driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult
daughters. He reacts by withdrawing from his family and assuming a
detached attitude punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to
Elizabeth because they are the two most intelligent Bennets. Initially, his dry
wit and self- possession in the face of his wife's hysteria make him a
sympathetic figure, but, though he remains likable throughout, the reader
gradually loses respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his
detachment is considerable. Detached from his family, he is a weak father
and, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish indulgence
of Lydia's immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she
elopes with Wickham. Further, upon her disappearance, he proves largely
ineffective. It is left to Mr. Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and
rectify the situation. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from
the world than cope with it.
Mrs. Bennet - Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy
and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her daughters
married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her
single-minded pursuit of this goal tends to backfire, as her lack of social
graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries
desperately to attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity
of marriage for young women. Mrs. Bennet also serves as a middle-class
counterpoint to such upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss
Bingley, demonstrating that foolishness can be found at every level of
society. In the end, however, Mrs. Bennet proves such an unattractive
figure, lacking redeeming characteristics of any kind, that some readers
have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying her-as if Austen, like Mr.
Bennet, took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned
as a result of her ill breeding.
