Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice: Overview

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Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice

By: Belinda Romans

Jane Austin was and English writer who wrote during the early 1800’s.  She was born and brought up in Seventon, Hampshire, Southern England.  She was born the fifth child to a family of seven and began writing for family amusement as a child.  Of her “six great novels”, four were published anonymously and two were published under her signature after her death.  Her anonymous novels were “Sense and Sensibility”, “Pride and Prejudice”, Mansfield Park” and “Emma”.  “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” were the two novels that were published after her death.

“Pride and Prejudice” reflects the way society was in Jane Austin’s day.  It uses the way the characters are introduced, the way she uses settings and many other details to describe the was the social classes lie and also when she introduces dialogue to her characters she allows for their social standings to affect the way they address the people in their conversation in a way that reflects on their social standing.

In “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austin tells about how one girl, Elizabeth Bennett (the heroine of the book), helps her oldest sister find love, she also helps her youngest sister and family through a rough time when Lydia, the youngest sister, runs off with the intentions of eloping; and then falls in love herself with a rich man who at first she thought most disagreeable.  She thinks that Mr Darcy is disagreeable because of the way, in her prejudice, he seems proud.  The book is described by Margaret Drabble as being ‘In a wide range of settings, love, vanity and recklessness are shown in this sparkling novel…’

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When Jane Austin first describes to you a character, she gives you an idea of their temperament and the way they act towards others in public and in privacy.  Two examples of this are the first descriptions of Elizabeth and her eldest sister Jane.  Elizabeth is described as having ‘something more of a quickness than her sisters’ and then Jane is described by Elizabeth as being “A great deal too apt to like people in general.  You can see no fault in anybody.  All the world are good and agreeable in your eyes.”

Then there is the comparison ...

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