Pride and Prejudice

• by Jane Austen

• First version written in 1796-97• First published in 1813• Original title: First Impressions

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Structure• The perspective is Third-Person Omniscient.

The narrator speaks for Jane Austen, making subtle (sometimes-not-so subtle) commentary on life in Regency England, particularly the restrictions faced by women. The majority of the narrator’s observations come from the mind of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet

• At several key moments in the novel, the narrative is epistolary—presented in the form of letters. This device was a fairly common for the early nineteenth century novel, and reflects the importance of letters to people of Jane Austen’s time and class.

• In the final chapter, Austen breaks into first person, briefly, to comment on Mrs. Bennet: “I wish I could say, for the sake of her family, that the accomplishment of her earnest desire in the establishment of so many of her children produced so happy an effect as to make her a sensible, amiable, well-informed woman for the rest of her life…”

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A Complex Point-of-View…

Structure, continued• 61 chapters, 281 pages in the Modern

Library version. Some versions contain 3 volumes, (ch. 1-23, 1-19, & 1- 19)

• Though the novel has endured as a romantic story, the novel is highly satirical. Austen, in all six of her novels, criticizes the limited choices offered to women of her era.

• Austen’s satire is Horatian in style: tongue-in-cheek in tone and good-humored.

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Famous First Line

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

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The Opening Line…• The opening line of the novel sets up

the preoccupation of many of the characters, as well as the axis on which the plot turns: the pursuit of marriage.

• Several marriages will take place throughout the course of the novel; Austen contrasts these relationships—those based on love with those based on more mercenary concerns.

• The opening line also sets the satirical tone.

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Elizabeth Bennet

Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice. Though she is very mature and intelligent, even at the outset of the novel, she must learn a valuable lesson in order to move forward and make a successful marriage.

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Elizabeth’s Ordinary World

• Elizabeth’s world is very small—she lives at home, at her father’s small estate called Longbourn.

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• Like Austen herself, the Bennet family are part of the landed gentry.

• Though they did not hold titles, and most were not part of the haute ton, the highest level of English society, the landed gentry owned large tracts of land, lived in fine houses, and kept servants.

• In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the term gentleman referred to a man of property.

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Elizabeth Says No Way

• Mr. Collins, Elizabeth’s cousin, proposes marriage to her. Her response is a resounding no…

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In Pride and Prejudice, Austen puts her female characters’ security in jeopardy due to system of primogeniture and the tradition of property entailment. A holdover from feudal days, this system kept property in the hands of a few, but at the expense of younger sons, and women. An entailment which will one day take away the family home plays a major role in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility as well. Through her novels, Austen commented on the practice of primogeniture, and its flaws.

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• Mr. Collins is a fool. Austen leaves no room for doubt on this point, providing direct characterization when the narrator introduces him, “Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society” (52).

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Tests, Allies, and Enemies

• Elizabeth, along with her sisters Jane, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, faces many tests as she navigates the social world and looks for a husband. Her sister Jane is her main ally; her tests include Wickham, Darcy, and Lydia’s behavior. She has several enemies.

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The Bingley sisters in particular

present a challenge.

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Mr. Wickham

Elizabeth met Wickham and found him charming and amiable. She did not notice that he confided a story he ought to have kept to himself, with no provocation. She saw what she wanted to see.

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Mr. Darcy

• On the occasion of their first meeting, Darcy offends Elizabeth’s pride.

• She saw him as a proud, disagreeable man.

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Epistolary Novel

• Pride and Prejudice is a romance novel, in that the plot revolves around the romantic concerns of its characters.

• Letters, or epistles, are central to the plot.• Austen uses a letters to reveal crucial plot

elements. • The letter Darcy sends to Elizabeth, explaining

the truth about Wickham, is a turning point in the novel.

• Elizabeth has an epiphany, realizing that the judgment she thought was infallible has failed her. 18

Subplots • Jane and Mr. Darcy’s friend Bingley fall

in love, but Darcy and his sisters help to keep them apart.

• Charlotte accepts Mr. Collins’s rebound proposal.

• Lady Catherine disapproves of Elizabeth and wishes for Darcy to marry her sickly daughter.

• Lydia runs away with Mr. Wickham, endangering the family’s honor.

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Jane Austen struggled with life as a dependent female. After the death of her father, Reverend Austen, Jane and her sister and mother had to move to Southampton to stay with her brother Frank. Jane and Cassandra, her sister, were sometimes able to visit their sister Henry in London. In every one of her novels, there are female characters who struggle to find their place in a world in which they cannot own or inherit property.

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Life Imitates Art

21 <-Elizabeth meets Darcy; Jane meets Bingley <-Elizabeth meets Darcy; Jane meets Bingley

The

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Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth

Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth

Mr. Bingley leaves Netherfield, abandoning Jane

Mr. Bingley leaves Netherfield, abandoning Jane

Wickham tells Elizabeth what Darcy did to him

Wickham tells Elizabeth what Darcy did to him

Darcy Proposes to Elizabeth & is rejected

Eliza

beth

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Darcy’s le

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Eliza

beth

reads

Darcy’s le

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Lady Catherine’s Visit to Longbourn->Lady Catherine’s Visit to Longbourn->

During the falling action, Elizabeth and Darcy come to terms with the mistakes their pride led them to make. Lydia runs away with Wickham, allowing Darcy a chance to make right his wrongs.

During the falling action, Elizabeth and Darcy come to terms with the mistakes their pride led them to make. Lydia runs away with Wickham, allowing Darcy a chance to make right his wrongs.

Novels by Jane Austen

• Sense and Sensibility• Pride and Prejudice• Mansfield Park• Emma• Persuasion• Northanger Abbey

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