Plot-Construction of Pride and Prejudice

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             JANE AUSTEN’S PLOT-CONSTRUCTION

     In contrast to the simplicity of her style, Jane Austen’s plots are unexpectedly complex. She is not content to simply draw two or three characters in isolation. She prefers a family, with their many friends and acquaintances and she tries within her limited range to make things as difficult as possible.

                       SETTINGS OF HER NOVELS

    Jane Austen’s field of study is man. She is, therefore, more preoccupied with human nature than nature in the nineteenth century usage of the word. The background and the scenery of the provincial town is rich in its beauty and grandeur. But there is no attempt to look into the spirit of this country. Thus although, she has some sense of locality yet she does not paint an English community like the other writers of her time. She rather avoids those very elements of the population in which the local flavour, the breath of the soil is most pronounced. She is further incapable of evoking a scene or a landscape and cannot conjure up the spirit of Bath as Emile Bronte could conjure up the spirit of the Moorlands or Hardy that of Wessex. All this, one may say, would be fatal to her dramatic quality of construction.

     In all her novels, we see only a limited range of human society. Most of her characters are the kind of people she knew intimately, the landed gentry, the upper class, the lower edge of the nobility, the lower clergy, the officer corps of the military. Her novels exclude the lower classes—both the industrial masses of the big cities and the agricultural labourers in the countryside. Three or four families in the country village is the very thing to work on. She does not show any of the great agonies or darker side of human experience. There is no hunger, poverty, misery or terrible vices and very little of the spiritual sphere of experience. Nor do we see any political dimension or even discussions regarding major political happenings in any of her novels. Nature too, is rarely described and her characters are usually presented indoors with an occasional expedition or picnic thrown in.

     According to Andrew H. Wright, the novels of Jane Austen can be considered on three levels of meaning: first, the purely local—illustrative of country life among the upper middle-classes at the end of eighteenth century in Southern England. Second, they can be taken as broad allegories in which Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and a number of other virtues and defects are set forth in narrative form and commented on in this way. Third is the ironic level whereby the incidents, situations and characters in a novel imply something more than what they seem.

                 PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN

                  SENSE AND SENSIBILITY

     It is one of Austen’s simplest novels. The story deals with two sisters Elinor –the heroine represents a woman of sense, while Marianne, her foolish foil represents a woman of sensibility. The first volume of the book has a symmetrical pattern and a clear parallel is drawn between the two romances—Edward Ferrars and Elinor, John Willoughby and Marianne. True to Elinor’s cool, sensible nature the relationship between Edward Farrar’s is conducted on the level of the mind, with both displaying hardly an emotion. The theme of sense is thus exemplified through their relationship. On the other hand Willoughby who enters Marianne’s life as a true romantic hero having carried her home when she sprained her ankle, exemplifies the theme of sensibility in his relationship with Marianne. While the moral seems to illustrate the superiority of sense over sensibility there is an ironic twist in the plot whereby Elinor and Marianne virtually interchange their positions

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            PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN EMMA

     The plot of Emma can be said to have an ‘inward’ and an ‘outward’ movement. The inward deal with Emma’s self-deception- with what she thinks is happening while the outward deals with what actually is happening and this brings to light her mistakes. It is through a series of humiliations and self reproach that Emma finally awakens to self-knowledge. The reader’s enjoyment stems from an awareness that Emma is wrong. From chapter 1 to 15, Emma thinks that Mr. Elton is in love with Harriet only to ...

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**** 4 STARS This is a perceptive piece of writing which shows knowledge and understanding of Austen's novels. At times there are lapses in expression and some ideas could be expressed more simply. Critical voices are included and discussed but should not be anonymous. Well selected quotes support comments and prevent mere descriptions of plot development.