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 between Mr Bingley, the man Jane fell in love with, Mr Darcy. Elizabeth in one of her thinking moments says this “Bingley was sure to be like wherever he went, but Mr Darcy was continually giving offence”. This could lead to the thinking that Mr Darcy was too proud to accept anyone into his company than those with whom he had a close relationship however, in contrast, Mr Bingley was the kind of man that could go anywhere and make friends with everyone.
In this book, Jane Austin relates to the themes of the way your place in society will affect the people you meet and how you will go through life. This is especially portrayed when Elizabeth is threatened by Lady Catherine de Bourgh that if she married Mr Darcy then she would have to face the wrath of someone who was higher up in the social order than she was. Lady Catherine also implies that Elizabeth is not good for Mr Darcy because she is lower down in the social order than he is. It is also implied earlier on in the book when Elizabeth is talking about having to marry below her status (e.g. Mr Collins her cousin who is a parson of humble belongings) would demean her more than she would want but that marrying a member of the social classes would bring on a wider and more prestigious circle of friends for her to associate with.
When Jane Austin describes, a place or setting she always uses certain amounts of detail to reflect the situation the description is supposed to reflect. For example when she describes a grand house she describes everything in the most accurate detail however, when she is describing a humble situation she gives a very vague description of the place but still gives you enough detail so that you could imagine the place for yourself.
This is reflected when she is describing the house of her cousin Mr Collins and Pemberley in all its grandeur. When describing the humble abode of Mr Collins she writes ‘The garden was sloping to the road, the house standing in it, the green pales…’. But in the case of Pemberley she writes ‘It was a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of high woody hills and in front of a stream of some natural importance was swelled into great…’.
The contrast between the two descriptions in the eye of first impressions is great. Pemberley is described in much greater detail than the Parsonage and this could be of the two buildings situations or importance to Elizabeth who is gaining the first impressions of the two places.
When Jane Austin uses dialogue, she always reflects on the mood and social standing of the character she is conversing. One good example of this is the conversations between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth. Elizabeth always talks to Lady Catherine with the greatest respect however Lady Catherine talks to Elizabeth as if she was a child, talking over her as of she wasn’t there. And when she was addressing her she was talking in simple terms as to ensure of the meaning of her words. Also in these conversations, Lady Catherine feels the need to be the main speaker rather than listening to what the person she is talking to has to say. Jane Austin portrays this when she writes, an the first conversation between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth where Lady Catherine starts the conversation;
“Your father’s estate is entailed on Mr Collins I think. For your sake I am glad of it; but otherwise I see no occasion for entailing estates form the female line. It was not thought necessary in Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s family. Do you play and sing, Miss Bennett?”
“A little”
“Oh! Then some time or other we should be happy to hear you. Our instrument is a capital one, probably superior to … You shall try it some day. Do your sisters play and sing?”
One of them does.”
The conversation carries on in much the same way as illustrated above with Lady Catherine lecturing, maybe even going as far as boasting, about the things that Elizabeth should and should not have in her life and then going on about the way she should concentrate on unimportant things and Lady Catherine also tries to convince Elizabeth to try and get a master or even someone to show her how to do things in life.
In this novel I think that Jane Austin makes you believe that you are in the story witnessing all of the events for yourself because she writes in such an amount of detail and emotion that you might be skipping from one character to the other. She also writes the novel in such a way that as you re-read it you come to aspects of the plot that you see differently or that you perhaps haven’t seen yet. I also think that Jane Austin has described the main issues and main plot of the story very well while intricately weaving other minor plots into the main one.