In Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Bennet, second daughter, is popular as a potential wife. Living in a house with a mother who is trying to marry off her daughters despite age or character, Elizabeth expresses less interest in the practicality of marriage. Although her likelihood of marrying into a high social status is low due to her own middle class status and a poor family reputation, she rejects her first two marriage offers, both by men in beneficial social standings. The first proposal is from a most distasteful cousin, Mr. Collins, while the second two are from Mr. Darcy, a wealthy man who develops from his arrogance into an acceptable fit for Elizabeth. Differing from her sisters and mother, Elizabeth values the character …show more content…
and romantic interest in a man and therefore sets a standard for herself and shows what sort of proposal is necessary in order to gain her acceptance. The three marriage proposals delivered to Elizabeth reveal the importance of appealing to pathos successfully in order to make an impact.
Mr. Collins is the first to be rejected by Elizabeth and with this rejection Austen proves that on the occasion of proposing, showing feeling is imperative. Though he does attempt it, Mr. Collins fails to pull at Elizabeth’s heartstrings in any way as he remarks, “But before I am run away with my feelings on the subject.” Austen later describes him with “solemn composure” (Austen 103). Being near the beginning of Mr. Collins’ proposal (as it is a long one), Austen uses irony to portray Mr. Collins as actually a very unemotional man. Mr. Collins’s order of importance discredits him being “run away with [his] feelings” when he says “But before” as his priority is stating the logical reasons for his proposal and …show more content…
why they should marry. Since this statement is something which makes Elizabeth “near laughing” in mockery, his attempt to engage in her emotions is a failure, proving that a more genuine heart-to-heart might have been more successful. Mr. Collins’ formal sentence structure in his proposal also lacks the emotion helpful in an argument of marriage. He executes his proposal with: “state my reasons for marrying” followed by: “First,” “Secondly,” and “Thirdly” as he lists why marriage should happen (Austen 103). This formal structure becomes awkward when on the subject of something as romantic and sensitive as marriage. Especially with Elizabeth as the audience, who searches for a romantic than practical connection, Mr. Collins logical formality does not support his argument for marriage. The list-like structure and diction such as he used lack spontaneity and in effect, personal attachment. Mr. Collins rigid practicality does not appeal to Elizabeth’s emotions in the slightest and establishes his failure accompanied by lack of pathos. Austen portrays Mr.
Darcy as a selfish, vain man at first and he is the second to propose to Elizabeth and swiftly denied. Mr. Darcy’s overbearing phrase “You must allow me to tell you,” has a dominant tone, implied by the demand: “you must” (Austen 185). Mr. Darcy’s superiority, even in confessing his love, cuts off the possibility of personal attachment by placing him and Elizabeth on two different levels and repels love for him by condescending her with dominance. Elizabeth being a character of independence and strong will, his superiority over her is an insult. Mr. Darcy’s high status gives him credibility as well as his brutal honesty: “In vain have I struggled” (Austen 185). He tells her outright that he has tried to resist his feelings for her, but he cannot, which tells one that he is not lying. Especially with his reputation of not associating outside his social group, the reader understands this must be outside his comfort zone to be “tempted” by one inferior to him. However, his credibility is trodden underfoot by his insulting language and lack of
sensitivity. Finally Mr. Darcy uses pathos and successfully gains the love and acceptance of Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy opposes his first proposal by saying, “You are too generous to trifle with me” (Austen 1). His word choice of “too generous” in comparison to interacting with himself inverses the superiority of the situation and compliments her instead of insulting her. This appeals to pathos and gives him a reformed quality of humility. His credibility has not strayed, but suddenly he is thinking beyond self to her feelings as well as his own. He exemplifies his care when he puts her feelings before his own: “If your feelings are still what they were…” followed by “My affections and wishes are unchanged.” His sentence order establishes his order of thought that he is more sentimental toward her than himself now and due to Elizabeth’s acceptance, the reader infers that this reformed sensitivity has made all the difference. The word “feelings” exemplifies his sensitivity toward her since it softens the situation compared to his previous proposal: a more strident confession: “allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you,” which came as a severe shock. Later in his proposal, Mr. Darcy exclaims, “dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you!” The syntax of his dialogue suggest his passion and heartfelt love for her. His word choice of “dearest” and “loveliest” are superlatives indicating she is the most dear and most lovely he has seen or met and the exclamations manifest the romantic honesty of the situation. As known to be a very stoic character, his composed shell breaks because of Elizabeth with an expressive confession of his love characterized by the short excited syntax in his dialogue. The short sentences indicate that these are not rehearsed lines because they are choppy and informal, and therefore come from the heart. Mr. Darcy’s expression of adoration and loving emotion was successful and therefore exemplifies the significance of appealing to pathos in particular. Elizabeth’s standards help the reader to see realistic necessities for a marriage proposal. Whimsical and desperate characters fill the Bennet family, apart from a special few including Elizabeth. Through her rejections of proposals that failed to appeal to her emotions, her suitors demonstrate the significance of pathos in the event of a marriage proposal. Emotion being naturally important in a relationship, it is understandable how one may accept only those with care for the others’ feelings.
In both the Pride and Prejudice excerpt written by Jane Austen and Dickens’ Our Mutual Friends passage, several rhetorical strategies, including assumption, tone, diction, and arguments, are strategically used in order to affect the women that the speakers are addressing in positive ways. However, the probable effects on the receiving end of these statements are not quite the same as the intended effects.
Elizabeth’s love towards Mr. Darcy does bring questions towards the idea of love. This is because Elizabeth’s love for Mr. Darcy grows without direct contact. When Elizabeth visits Darcy’s home she realizes she has feelings for Darcy, and learns about his character. The house is a mirror to Darcy’s character himself. It is well kept, clean, and “real”. These feelings of love arose from admiration. Elizabeth falls for Darcy through learning about his character. At the same time, the author allows the reader to see Darcy admiring and taking interest in Elizabeth and her wit. Darcy says, "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you (Austen 34)” Darcy shows the reader that he has been struck with admiration for some
The attitude used by Dickens is much more affectionate and personal than that of Austen. In the beginning of Dickens’ proposal he says “I love you” (Dickens 1). This start shows that he is truly admires this woman, Austen however, begins the proposal with, “my reasons for marrying are…” (Austen 1). The attitudes
Thinking that he truly has lost Elizabeth brings out a more sensitive and sympathetic side of Darcy, and he proposes a second time. This proposal however, marks the real release of his prideful ways, and as Austin put it “was as sensibly and as warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do"(Austin 157). This proposal marks Darcy giving up his pride about social class, and Elizabeth being hurt by him and his judgments. She accepts, and they finally allow themselves to be happy.
Furthermore, seen in the novel is Austen’s depiction of Mr. Collins as strange man who knows nothing more than to be unconventionally odd. Austen wrote, “Mr. Collins, to be sure, was neither sensible nor agreeable; his society was irksome, and his attachment to her must be imaginary” (Austen 120). Here she presents the thought that it is more reasonable for Elizabeth to marry a prideful man rather than a weird one. She goes on to describe him as a nuisance for those around him including his love interest, Elizabeth. The novel makes it clear that Elizabeth would not settle for the strange man who could only offer stability. Moreover, author Danielle Lucio from Chapman University, wrote in the Jane Austen Society of North America an article called Punctual to His Time: An
Austen disapproves of Mr. Collins and that is why she attacks and satirizes him. Mr. Collins is a "suck-up." His living with Lady Catherine has caused him to demoralize himself. He thinks and talks highly of people higher than himself, such as, Lady Catherine DeBourgh. An example of this is when they were invited to dine with Lady Catherine DeBourgh and Mr. Collins then tells Elizabeth,
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.
Elizabeth's lively, straightforward, daring character and her disregard for considerations of rank show through clearly in her reaction to Darcy's proposal. Her pride is also evident, for the lack of civility in her refusal is due primarily to injured pride resulting from Darcy's frank explanation of his reservations about proposing to her because of her inferior connections.
She emphasizes that marriages can only be successful if they are founded on mutual love. Elizabeth and Darcy 's relationship is really different from all the others in the novel. Elizabeth does not care about him being super rich and he does not find her the most beautiful. At the beginning, he thinks she is “tolerable”. They do not like each other at the beginning, they argue a lot and are really sassy towards each other. They are the opposite of amiable. Their relationship is far beyond just physical attraction. Darcy secretly helps out with Lydia 's situation. He does not want Elizabeth to be hurt nor does he want her family to ruin their repuation. He helps Elizabeth and does not bring it up, let alone brag about it. Love is not boastful. This shows the reader how contrasting Darcy and Collins ' characters are. “Elizabeth 's heart did whisper, that he had done it for her...” She has a feeling that Darcy is the one who helped out but she is not one hundred percent sure. Elizabethis wistful about saying so many bad things about him and she regrets her little speech when she rejected him. Unlike every other character in this novel, Darcy and Elizabeth took things slowly. Darcy purposes to her after a long time, when he was sure about his feelings for her. Even when she rejects him once he did not ask her over and over again, unlike
Throughout Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy is a grave symbol of pride. He notes on how his societal ranking is too high above Elizabeth’s for it to be rational to marry her, while proposing to her for the first time. In a letter to Elizabeth, Darcy also notes how the Bennet family’s improper manners and actions negatively influence the perception of their family and undermine the acceptable traits and actions of Elizabeth and Jane. He is easily looked down upon, most pertinently by Elizabeth until his past is revealed in a
During this time period, men are expected to marry accomplished women who are on the same intellectual level as them, but it is almost impossible for women to be on the same intellectual level as men because they do not receive the same level of education as the men do. Also, women are expected to marry man whose family has a high social status, whether he is accomplished or not. Darcy and Elizabeth disobey this social value at the end of Pride and Prejudice where they get married to each other. Darcy is looked down on for getting married to someone of a lower social status, while Elizabeth is seen as someone who has married up into a higher social standing. Their marriage is seen as an untraditional one because instead of getting married because of society’s social values, they were getting married because of their love for each other. This is an example of how Darcy’s horrible first impression on Elizabeth was turned around by his ability to change his manners because of his love for
The reader is first acquainted with Mr. Darcy's arrogance at the Meryton Ball. Speaking of Elizabeth Bennet, he so snobbishly says that she was, " tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me" (Austen 9). His feelings of superiority to the people of the town lend Mr. Darcy to be judged as a man with a repulsive and cruel personality. The women, who had found him dashingly attractive at first glance, deemed him a man unworthy of marriage because he offered no positive qualities other than wealth. Not only did Darcy refuse to dance with Elizabeth, but he makes it clear that no woman in the room was worthy or met his standards of a suitable partner stating that, " there is not another woman in this room, whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with" (Austen 8). In the beginning of the novel, Mr. Darcy is only concerned with the wealth and social standing of the people in the town. Because of their lesser social rank, he feels they are un-deserving of his presence and refuses to communicate with them. As the novel progressed, however, Darcy became more and more accepting of the Bennet family. Growing most fond of Elizabeth Bennet, the straightforward, clever daughter, he finally breaks and confesses his true feelings of love for her. "In vain...
While this is going on, Mr. Darcy realizes he has feelings for Elizabeth and proposes to her, this is the climax of the novel. She is astonished by his actions, and turns him flat. She explains that she feels he is arrogant, and feels he stood in the way of Jane and Mr. Bingley marrying, and also feels he is a cruel man, especially in his treating of Mr. Wickham, she is expressing her prejudice towards him. He leaves and they part very angry with each other. Mr. Darcy then writes Elizabeth a letter, explaining his feelings, defending his actions, and revealing the true nature of Mr. Wickham.
and Mrs. Bennet, Charlotte and Mr. Collins, Lydia and Mr. Wickham, Jane and Mr. Bingley, and Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Through these couples she explores the motivations of marriage as monetary advantage, social standing, physical attraction, and lastly love. She reveals her feelings that marriages for love are those that will be the strongest. This is seen clearly in Mr. Bennet 's remarks to Elizabeth in chapter 59. “ I know your disposition, Lizzy. I know that you could be neither happy nor respectable, unless you truly esteemed your husband; unless you looked up to him as a superior. Your lively talents would place you in the greatest danger in an unequal marriage. You could scarcely escape discredit and misery. My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life. You know not what you are about. '
She also hurts Mr. Collins pride in himself by refusing his proposal, “My dear madam' replied he, ‘let us be for ever silent on this point. Far be it from me,” he presently continued in a voice that marked his displeasure, ‘to resent the behavior, I am resigned.” (Austen 20. ) Collins is embarrassed and affronted by Elizabeth’s refusal, so much so, that he enters into an unhappy and loveless marriage with her best friend, that he had not originally planned. Finally, Darcy’s pride also gets in the way of Bingley, his best