In this essay I will be exploring the ways in which Jane Austen uses different narrative voices in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, from pages 281 to 283.
‘A number of individual voices are employed in the telling of the tale but in the end these become indistinguishable’
In this essay I will be exploring the ways in which Jane Austen uses different narrative voices in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, from pages 281 to 283.
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice uses voices to reveal more about the personalities of the characters in her novel. A combination of third person narrative, dialogue and letters are used to convey information to the reader. Letters play a very important role in Pride and Prejudice, they help to reveal the character and personality of the character sending the letter, and convey information faster than dialogue or narration. Collins’ letter in Chapter 13 is not very different from his letter in chapter 48, he does not come across as being an agreeable man. Mr Collins offers some condolences, but mostly underlines how Lydia’s offense will ruin the chances of her sisters getting married, stating that Lady Catherine also agrees with him. A letter can be used as a way of saying things that characters would not normally say in person because of the impersonal means of communication. Mr Collins usually finds himself with too much to say in some situations however, I do not feel that he would have expressed his feeling in the same way had he been in Longbourn; When Mr Collins visits the Bennet household for the first time he is interrupted by Lydia whilst reading to the family, he does not have a word of objection about this although you can tell that he is offended.