Letters and Letter Writing as Seen in Pride and Prejudice
Quite frequently in her novels, Jane Austen uses letter writing between characters to explain past events and the exact nature of people's roles in them. It is these letters that always offer great insight into a character's true nature; which, often times, is not what it appears to be. It is this tactic that is consistently prevalent in her 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice.
Throughout the course of the novel, Mr. Darcy, Mrs. Gardiner, and even Mr. Collins all write letters, and each reveal their personalities and sincere thoughts through them. It is in fact the letter writing that initially contributes, and ultimately results, in the union of hero and heroine at the end of the story. For each enlightens the reader to the truth about confused circumstances as well as hidden feelings toward other characters that would otherwise be left unsaid.
The first significant example of letter writing that allows for some conclusions to be made about a specific character's persona occurs when Mr. Bennet receives a foolish letter from the Reverend Mr. Collins, who will inherit Longbourn after Mr. Bennet's death because he is the nearest male relative. In his letter, Mr. Collins proposes a visit to Longbourn and hints at a further proposal of marriage to one of the Bennet daughters. The reader quickly learns of this man's nature because of the contents of his letter as well as Mr. Bennet's reasoning behind his acceptance of the proposal. Mr. Bennet makes fun of his unusual writing style and pomposity, and also makes snide remarks to his family about him. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet agrees to the visit because he wants to laugh at Mr. Bennet's expectations.
Austen's strategy of presenting the qualities of a person by way of indirection is clearly seen here. The odious letter from Mr. Collins prepares the reader to dislike him even before he arrives. Without even meeting this man, his personality is learned by the excessive verbiage, pompous flattery, and self-pride evident in his letter. It is Elizabeth who is extremely perceptive about Mr. Collins' letter because (after hearing it ) she immediately wonders if he can be a sensible man. And as the story unfolds, it is Mr. Collins' every action that will prove her belief to be true.
Although the letter written by Mr. Collins allows f...
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...acking she is in morality or social consciousness. Elizabeth's realization emphasizes the importance of Mrs. Gardiner's letter because it proves that the letter not only reveals her aunt's own endearing qualities, all the while enlightening Elizabeth to the truth, but also because it offers insight into the flighty personalities of some of the other members of the family.
In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses letters to reveal the innermost thought of her characters as well as to express their personalities. These letters communicated style, intelligence (or lack there of), and insights into character development. Mr. Collins' foolish letter revealed the blatant ridiculousness of his nature, while the letter of Mr. Darcy offered the sincere qualities of his persona that had never before been seen. And Mrs. Gardiner's letter did illustrate traits we had seen before, but also helped Elizabeth to figure out how she felt about Mr. Darcy. Whatever each letter accomplished, they are all critical to the structure of the novel. For without them, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth would have never gotten together, and neither character's pride nor prejudice would ever have been realized.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He was raised in Birmingham, England in a poor Roman Catholic family. Tolkien had fought in World War l (1916). After the war, he became a professor of English at Oxford (1925-1959). When his children were young, he would tell them tales about an imaginary place called “Middle-Earth”. Oxford urged him to write these tales down and he did. He published the first ones in 1954-1955 and made a very successful series.
Darcy, the illusion that Mr. Wickham had built surrounding himself was now shattered: “How different did everything appear in which he was concerned.” Elizabeth now realizes her mistakes, which her prejudice was built and hopefully will never fall for such deceit again. Mr. Darcy is not the only one who is haughty, Elizabeth’s pride takes a massive blow after reading the letter, “she grew absolutely ashamed.” Realizing her mistakes will make Elizabeth grow as a person as she realizes how despicable she was, and has learned from her mistakes. Elizabeth had always thought she had the perfect judgement, but in fact she was horribly blind: “Till this moment I never knew myself.” Elizabeth now sees that she has flaws and it got in the way of her judgement rendering it blind. It is in maturity that people see their flaws; now Elizabeth has to make sure the same mistakes does not happen again. It was only after her prejudice of Mr. Darcy was finally gone that Elizabeth realized her true feelings towards him: “She explained what it’s [the letter] effect on her had been, and how gradually all her former prejudice has been removed.” After reading the letter, Elizabeth was able to realize her flaws as a character and grow into maturity and because of that she was able to see her true feelings about Mr.
It was enough for her that he appeared to be amiable, that he loved her daughter, and that Elinor returned the partiality" (13). As generous as thi... ... middle of paper ... ... line of thinking makes perfect sense when we consider Jane Austen's tendency, particularly in Sense and Sensibility, to use her writing as a vehicle for not only entertainment but also instruction. We may view the varying representations of mothers then, not only as examples for Elinor to learn from, but for us as readers as well.
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
Each of Jane Austen’s characters in her novel, Pride and Prejudice, experiences a significant character development. Whether the change occurs by self-realization or through the assistance of another character varies from each individual character. For Austen’s leading man, Mr. Darcy, his character improvement is documented through his two marriage proposals to Elizabeth Bennet and her subsequent first rejection of his proposal. His first proposal demonstrates his extreme arrogance, elitism, and blindness to his many flaws. While his latter proposal shows not only the recognition of his deficiencies, but the overall improvement in his mentality. Mr. Darcy’s two proposals, though having the same intended end result, are completely different
William Blake focused on biblical images in the majority of his poetry and prose. Much of his well-known work comes from the two compilations Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems in these compilations reflect Blake's metamorphosis in thought as he grew from innocent to experienced. An example of this metamorphosis is the two poems The Divine Image and A Divine Image. The former preceded the latter by one year.
... had been told of his faults by someone he did not care for, it is doubtful whether he would have ever made an attempt at changing himself. Elizabeth also might not have done so. Austen might also be trying to say that it is important to see when you are wrong. Many people would deny their shortcomings in the face of an accusation, but if Darcy and Elizabeth had done so they never would have been able to come together. Both of these are good messages to take out of the story, and no doubt there are many more to be found in Pride and Prejudice.
Collins is interested in Elizabeth as well, and wants to marry her for several reasons which he deems proper and just. Mr. Collins is certain that he is worthy of Elizabeth’s acceptance because of his connection to the family of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and his position as a clergyman, but also because he will inherit her family’s estate when her father dies. He has no notion of love or lifelong happiness, which Elizabeth finds ideal in a marriage. He tries to understand her refusal, crediting it to her “wish of increasing [his] love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females.” Elizabeth, for the sake of his understanding fully, says, “Do not consider me now as an elegant female intending to plague you, but as a rational creature speaking the truth from her heart” (108). Austen demonstrates how Mr. Collins considers marriage to him a perfect solution to the problem of the entailed estate, while Elizabeth knows marriage to him would make her miserable. He later finds an acceptable match with the practical Charlotte
The characters, in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, come to life through dialogue. Some characters have an inability to stop talking, while others remain quite and save their words for times when they need to convey their feelings. The dialogue in Pride and Prejudice is unlike that of Shakespeare's play where characters have lengthy monologues, the dialogue is more conversational, very witty and clever. Rarely is there a character embarking on a extensive speech, and there are not any chapters solely devoted to describing each and every physical characteristic of each person. Jane Austen uses dialogue to portray the personality of her characters, to allow the reader to see the underlying feelings and meanings behind the characters words.
Within the novel, Jane Austen’s exploits of irony are shown linked throughout Emma’s notions of love and the real within her own society. Emma’s lack of education on the concepts of love is quite evident within her apathy towards Frank Churchill as her opinions are deeply rooted within her own affections, as she states, “Emma continued to entertain no doubt of her being in love. Her ideas only varied as to the how much. At first, she thought it was a good deal; and afterwards, but little. She had great pleasure in hearing Frank Churchill talked of; and for his sake, greater pleasure than ever in seeing Mr. and Mrs. Weston; she was very often thinking of him. But, on the other hand, she could not admit herself to be unhappy, nor, after the first morning, to be less disposed for employment than usual; she was still busy and cheerful; and, pleasing as he was, she could yet imagine him to have faults,” (Austen 264). Emma’s sketch of Harriet is another illustration of irony surrounded by Emma’s arrogance as it does not portray an accurate depiction of Harriet as Emma has altered ...
Blake, William. “Infant Sorrow.” Songs of Experience. The Literature Network. The Literature Network, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.
The letter is the significant turning point in the novel. That is when Elizabeth changes, after reading Darcy's letter. By writing the letter, Darcy looks inward and tries to figure out the mistakes that were made. The letter serves as
William Blake uses his two compilations of poems, The Songs of Innocence (1789) and The Songs of Experience (1794) to present two opposing pictures of human divinity and human corruption in his two poems “The Divine Image” and “A Divine Image.” In these two poems Blake uses several techniques and literary devices to transmit his thoughts on the ideal and more realistic views of human nature.
William Blake was one of England’s greatest writers (Tejvan) in the nineteenth century, but his brilliancy was not noticed until after he was deceased. Blake was very much a free spirit who often spoke his mind and was very sensitive to cruelty. At the age of twenty five he married a woman named Catherine Boucher. They created a book of all Blake’s poems called Songs on Innocence, which was not very popular while he was alive. On the other hand Blake’s other book of poems, Songs of Experience, were much more popular. These two collections are so magnificent because it is two different forms of writing successfully written by one man. Two major poems written by William Blake were “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”. The Lamb is from Songs of Innocence while The Tyger is from Songs of Experience, they may share different perspectives on the world yet they both complement one another very well. Blake believed that life could be viewed from two different perspectives, those being innocence and experience. To Blake, innocence is not better than experience. Both states have their good and bad sides. The positive side of innocence is joy and optimism, while the bad side is naivety. The negative side of experience is cynicism, but the good side is wisdom (Shmoop Editorial Team). The Tyger and The Lamb are two completely different styles of poems yet it wouldn’t have the same affect on a reader if one poem didn’t exist.
Jane Austen's writing style is a mix of neoclassicism and romanticism. Austen created a transition into Romanticism which encourages passion and imagination in writing instead of a strict and stale writing style. It is very emotional and follows a flowing not structured form. Mixing these two styles was one of Austen's strongest talents, which gave her an edge in the literary world. No other author in her time was able to create such a strong transition between writing styles. Austen used her sharp and sarcastic wit in all of her writing including in one of her most famous works; Pride and Prejudice. She could create a powerful and dramatic scene and immediately lead it into a satirical cathartic scene. We see these in various locations in Pride and Prejudice. She was able to use her experiences as well as her intense knowledge to create meaningful insights into her words, regardless of what topic she would be discussing. She often talks about marriage, or breaking the roles of what a person should be. She made controversial works that praised imperfections which praised the...