“he was lively and unreversed, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield.” (p12)
Bingley, who clearly does not seem as the conventional type of rich person, now falls in love with Jane Bennet, who is also not the normal type of middle class person. She is beautiful but doesn’t willing use her looks as a quality, and as Elizabeth points out to her “You never see a fault in anybody.” Austen expresses the character of Jane through her delightful qualities, and it is these qualities that help Jane transcend the social classes to find the love of her life in Bingley.
Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst are quite the opposite of their brother. Austen conveys the pair as snobbish and pretentious, but Austen also portrays this as the normal view of the times. It is more so Caroline that shows the qualities of the well-off lifestyle. There are really two such examples of the way Caroline Bingley fits the way Austen treats the higher way of life, the first being the way she treats Mrs Bennet on her arrival to Netherfield to check up on her daughter Jane. Caroline treats Mrs Bennet with much discontent and sarcasm at this point, simply because of her class. It is with much coldness that Caroline says to Mrs Bennet,
“You may depend upon it, Madam, that Miss Bennet shall receive every possible attention while she remains with us.” (p42)
It is at this point that Austen begins the development of Caroline as a very forthright woman, who believes strongly in the social class system, and prides herself on her situation in life. Further on in the novel comes the second example of how Austen portrays Caroline Bingley’s character. The second incident that really shows the cruelness of Caroline’s character is when she talks to Darcy behind Elizabeth’s back about her in such a snide and vicious manner, but also full of notable sarcasm. This takes place after Elizabeth dines at Pemberley, with her aunt and uncle Mr and Mrs Gardiner.
“I never in my life saw any one so much altered as she is since the winter. She is grown so brown and coarse! Louisa and I were agreeing that we should not have known her again.” (p258)
Through a direct manner, Austen shows through Mrs Hurst, and in particular Caroline Bingley that a character and person can largely be defined by their social rank, as these two women so frequently remind us.
Elizabeth Bennet, like her sister, also overcomes her lower position in life to find love, although at first she never actually really knew it. To begin with, the Bennet family hears of Darcy’s riches, and how he earns $10000 a year, making him twice as good as Bingley’s $5000 a year. But it is Elizabeth who first sees past Darcy’s wealth, and judges his character. She concludes that he is proud and snobbish, much like most of Bingley’s party. When she stays at Netherfield caring for his ill sister Jane, she sees further evidence of why she formed her opinion of him the way she did, as an elitist who was also arrogant. But it is when she discovers what he did to Wickham does she realise his power, and what he will do to obtain power. The most bizarre thing that developed out of all of this is Darcy’s first peculiar marriage proposal to Elizabeth. Not only did it show that Darcy was willing to forego his proud status and marry beneath him, it shows a lack of convention and another side to his usually conceited ways. However it is when Elizabeth visits Pemberley and sees the grandness of the place that she realises how Darcy is going beneath what is expected of him.
“At last it arrested her – and she beheld a striking resemblance of Mr Darcy, with such a smile over the face, as she remembered to have sometimes seen, when he looked at her.” (p240)
This is quite a typical comment from Elizabeth, but it is the realisation of what she has missed that really is resembled in this statement. But it is only natural for Elizabeth to be feeling regretful of his decision when she sees the place she will never have in her grasp because of her prejudices against Darcy. Upon meeting Darcy at Pemberley however it appears that Darcy’s proud qualities may have been lost, as he is both polite and welcoming to Elizabeth and her relatives. It is at this point that it seems that the social classes do no longer exist, and the two are free to love. Darcy is less proud, and Elizabeth is less prejudicial. Austen’s way of showing the characters in this way is quite contrary to the way she has built up the class gap between the two, but it is a gradual understanding between the two that social class does not matter that allows them to love each other. For Elizabeth Bennet, her class is initially a hindrance to her ability to fall in love with Darcy, but it is an eventual blessing as it is her class that Darcy sees through and allows him to fall in love with her. The couple are in the beginning clearly defined by their social classes, but over time defeat this class issue to find happiness with each other.
In conclusion, the role of class as a theme and characterisation technique for Austen is quite important in the novel Pride and Prejudice. In the case of Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst, Austen shows the rich and arrogant side of society. However she also conveys two exceptions to the rule, in the case of Elizabeth and Darcy, and Jane and Bingley. These two couples both overcome the problem of different classes to find love with each other, and portray the saying that love conquers all. Indeed love does conquer the issue of social class for the two couples, and thus is breakable. However it is the manner in which Austen develops her choice of characters that allows this to happen.
Word Count: 1369
