Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, initially, seems to be a shallow, boring novel recounting the lives of people during the Regency Era in Great Britain through fictitious characters. On the surface, the book looks to be a dull narration of the middle class and their struggles to achieve higher status in society. However, there is a deeper meaning: those thoughtless narration holds important criticisms and opinions by Austen through the actions and speeches of the characters on critical subjects that defined the Regency Era during her lifetime. The critical themes that Austen focuses heavily on are the institution of marriages, how marriages were based largely upon wealth and status instead of love; Austen criticizes the rich on their treatment …show more content…
From this quote, we see a glimpse of Austen’s world: wealth, not love, is the primary factor that people look for in marriages. Austen reinforces her claim by establishing the statement as “universally acknowledged” and provide examples through the characters in the novel. A prominent example that is introduced straight away is the conversation between Mr and Mrs. Bennet in Chapter 1. Mrs. Bennet tells her husband about about a gentleman named Mr. Bingley who has moved into Netherfield Park. When Mr. Bennet enquires in further details, his wife emphasizes that the person is a single man with a fortune of four or five thousand a year. She continues to states “what a fine thing for our girls!” (Austen 2). Austen reveals the flawed thinking that many people have concerning marriages during the Regency Era. Mrs. Bennet represents the systemic problem: she does not care who her daughters marry just as long as they are rich. The author criticizes the institution of marriages as a sham used by people to gain monetary and social …show more content…
The Regency Era had many social expectations that men and women were expected to follow: Austen portray these expectations through the interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth. Initially, both characters despised each other: Darcy is prideful and reluctant to marry Elizabeth due to her status and Elizabeth holds prejudice against the upper class. However, both fall in love as they realize how compatible they are. When Lady Catherine hears of this, she immediately tries to end it by pressuring Elizabeth to give up on Darcy, stating that “From their infancy, they have been intended for each other” (Austen 320). Lady Catherine is the epitome of the social chains that restrict people. She is a hardliner who wants to maintain the status quo, preventing anyone from straying away from social norms. Austin depicts this in order to show us how people conform to societal
A statement that remains true to this very day. Austen's first statement sets up the beginning of the novel. She states that a man, financially well off, but with no mate to accompany him. to share in his wealth, is undoubtedly in search of a wife. In Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy play the role of the rich men.
...ews of these ideologies. While Elizabeth does accept many of the norms of the period she also challenges the purpose for marriage and has an outspoken mind. Her confident personality doesn’t allow the fact that she has less wealth than many others and is constantly being scorned at to interfere with her happiness. She doesn’t permit the social expectations of her times to hinder her strong beliefs and fate in life. Pride and Prejudice is so vastly different to most other novels during the early 19th century that Jane Austen must have held some very alternative views. The heroine Elizabeth challenges the most social expectations of that time and she ends up the happiest of all the characters. This theme must have opened Romantic readers minds, perhaps to the way society should be and this I believe is why this novel is one of the great classics of English literature.
In Austen’s time, the inability to see past wealth when considering marriage is a cultural tie to the era and its norms. It’s a pitiable and vain cultural upbringing that is frowned upon in this century. One does not simply marry for the sake of wealth and reputation. Without love, marriage cannot last. It ends in a deadlock, or with two people living together but leading separate lives behind closed doors.
Charlotte, serving as a basis for time’s views, allows the reader a glimpse into the institution of marriage in the Regency Era. Charlotte more than emphasizes just how radical Elizabeth was for her time, since she was willing to wait for the perfect man rather than settle. As a contrast, she helps Austen create a unique relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth. Austen disproves Charlotte’s and the general society’s pragmatic belief in a likely unhappy marriage. Through Charlotte’s marriage, Austen gains a more cynical and realist voice; she shows that the heart does not always have to be consulted with for a comfortable union.
... Darcy and Elizabeth. Additionally, Austen sculpts the theme of social expectations and mores using the self-promoting ideology and behaviors of Lady Catherine as fodder for comic relief. Austen does not simply leave the image of the gilded aristocracy upon a pedestal; she effectively uses the unconventional character of Elizabeth to defy aristocratic authority and tradition. In fact, Austen's proposed counter view of the aristocracy by satirizing their social rank. Lady Catherine is effectively used as a satirical representation of the aristocracy through her paradoxical breach of true social decorum and her overblown immodesty. Evidently, Lady Catherine is nothing short of the critical bond that holds the structure of Pride and Prejudice together.
Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a female centric novel. The contrast between Austen’s strong female protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, and the theme of marriage as a driving force throughout the novel suggests that, for an author whose own life was independent from a man, Austen was providing social commentary on women in society and could thus be seen to challenge traditional female roles. This is particularly important when taken into account the time period the novel was produced in. Austen was writing during a time where feminism was not a developed idea. As a female writer she was viewed as highly unusual for not marrying and having a career, something which ran contrary to the middle-upper class view for women as the domesticated, subservient housewife.
Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice portrays varying attitudes to marriage. "The intricate social network that pervades the novel is one that revolves around the business of marriage". Through her female characters the reader sees the different attitudes to marriage and the reasons that these women have for marrying. These depend on their social status and their personal values. The reader is shown the most prevalent and common view of marriage held by society in Austen's time, and through the heroine, a differing opinion of marriage is explored. We are shown how marriage is viewed by the very wealthy and the values they emphasise in marriage. Through the characterisation of these women and use of irony, Austen has influenced the reader's opinions on the characters attitude about marriage and that of their contemporaries.
Literary Analysis of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The novel Pride and Prejudice, is a romantic comedy, by Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice is a story about an unlikely pair who go through many obstacles before finally coming together. Pride is the opinion of oneself, and prejudice is how one person feels others perceive them. The novel, Pride and Prejudice, uses plot, the characters of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet, and the status of women and social standing, to portray the theme of the novel - pride and prejudice.
Pride and Prejudice is the most enduringly popular novel written by Jane Austen. It talks about trivial matters of love, marriage and family life between country squires and fair ladies in Britain in the 18th century. The plot is very simple. That is how the young ladies choose their husbands. Someone said that "Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the novel, flatly rejected William Collins' proposal, who is the heir of her father's property and manor, and refused the first proposal from the extremely wealthy nobleman Fitzwilliam Darcy later,"(1) all this makes it clear that Elizabeth "seeks no fame nor fortune, but self-improvement and high mental outlook."(1) It's right. From the view point of Austen, Elizabeth's marriage, who finally marries Darcy, as well as Jane-Bingley's, composing money and love, is the ideal marriage people should after. But in other marriage cases in this novel, we can see that if money and love can't be held together in one marriage, love would always make a concession to money because of the special social background. After reading through the whole book, we will find that money acts as the cause of each plot and the clue of its development. It affects everybody's words and deeds, even Elizabeth Bennet. Tony Tanner once said, "Jane Austen, as well as other authors, is very clear that no feeling could be extremely pure and no motive could be definitely single. But as long as it is possible, we should make it clear that which feeling or motive plays the leading role." (2)
In order to uncover this irony, one must examine the quote within the frame of the common English family at the time; the “truth” is only “universally acknowledged” among the Bennet family and among the other English families with daughters at the time and not among the gentlemen themselves (Austen 1). Austen herself states in the very next sentence that “however little known the feelings of such a man may be...this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters” (1). The Bennet daughters and other girls like them, who come from a modest upbringing and who have no prospects other than a financially beneficial marriage, do not care about the wants of wealthy gentlemen. As Nunberg states, only one truth, the parallel to the opening quote of the novel, matters to families like the Bennet family: “that a daughter who has no fortune must be found a well-to-do husband to look after her.” By stating that what follows is a “truth universally acknowledged,” Austen simply underlines the fact that young English women were obsessed, and rightfully so, with finding a suitable husband
Jane Austen’s famous novel Pride and Prejudice promotes change in the way the English society during the 19th century viewed marriage. Through the use of conservative characters that were socially accepted in England during this time, Austen provides the reader with necessary details that show how insane these people were. On the other hand, Austen gives her dissentient characters more credit for their rebellious deeds. Austen’s campaign against social prejudice seems to succeed when Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy for love rather than money.
It is important to mention that Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Bennet only conceived five daughters, and if they were to have a son, their property would not be in the hands of their relative, Mr. Collins. It is absurd for women to gain power, it harms the hierarchy that men built with their fragile masculinity. Therefore, Austen brings attention to this unfairness through the setting of her novel, purposely in a more closed-minded
Her viewpoints and reasons for marriage are similar with other women in the fact that marriage is the only way a woman can escape a danger of becoming a burden on her family or destitution, in which that is her only way in advancing in society and life. Austen stresses the value society places on making a good marriage in the novel in which a good marriage is a prerequisite for a wealthy life in which that is the main reason for happiness. For example, Austen satirizes the public’s opinions about Mr. Darcy at the Meryton ball stating, “ … but his [Bingley] friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in a general circulation within five minutes after his entrance of his having ten thousand a year. … the ladies declared that he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley” (Ch. 3, Pg. 8). The reason that Mr. Darcy was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley was because of his wealth and income. Mr. Bingley and his family is new money where they made their fortune through their occupations, however, Mr. Darcy is part of the aristocracy and is made of old money, making himself more prestigious, powerful, wealthy, and more attractive than Bingley. Austen satirizes how society is through their opinion and perception on someone showing how society is so
The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice are contrasted between a father who cares about what’s inside of people and a mother who only worries about vanity and appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s parental guidance is unique to their personalities. Because of their two opposing personas, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s ideas of marriage are contradictory for their daughters; Mr. Bennet believes in a loving respectful marriage whereas Mrs. Bennet values a marriage which concerns wealth and social status. Their aspirations for Lydia, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Elizabeth mirror their conflicting ideologies. Mr. Bennet seems to have a quiet deep love for his daughters while, on the contrary, Mrs. Bennet’s love is over-acted and conditional. Both parents help to shape their daughters’ characteristics and beliefs: Lydia reflecting Mrs. Bennet’s flighty and excessive behavior while Elizabeth inherits Mr. Bennet’s pensive and reflective temperament. Looking past their dissimilar personality traits and contradicting convictions, both parents hold the family together and play an integral role in the household structure.
The balance of power is a highly problematic social issue within the early 19th century Britain. Affecting the entirety of its population by categorizing people in terms of their money, status, achievements, race, and specifically gender, Jane Austen within Pride and Prejudice is able to display such normality’s through complex characters, settings, and the language used; and all without ignoring or diminishing the inglorious and raw oppression which societal division causes. A love story by nature, the conflicts existing within the structure of the British Regency Era shapes this work into an exciting, intriguing, and breathtaking adventure. The effects of a social hierarchy upon the reputation of women is one issue which is showcased exceptionally