Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

General points

This work was written in the period between the 18th and the 19th centuries; it reminds Fielding (the omniscient narrator) and Richardson (psychology of dramatic dialogues, characters). Jane Austen uses a technique to put her characters into existence through their dialogues: they exist because they talk to each other. Without their dialogues, they couldn’t exist; furthermore, this kind of dialogues is dramatic because characters condemn themselves through their silly dialogues. This work explains ordinary and extraordinary parts of life. In fact, it belongs to the Novel of Manners. It has no subtitle and was written between 1796 and 1813. This novel is situated in England, during the period of the Napoleonic Wars; the protagonist is Elizabeth Bennet.

There is a climax when Mr. Darcy makes his proposal to Elizabeth (Ch. 16). The setting is always England (Southampton, Northampton, Bath, the countryside), because she lived in those places and she knew them very well. Furthermore, she describes the Middle and Upper Class, because she lived in those conditions. The spaces are different and real and unreal at the same time. In P&P, the spaces represent the property of a family: Longbourn (imaginary place), where family Bennet lives; Netherfield (imaginary place), where Mr. Bingley lives; Meryton, where Mrs. lives; Rosings (imaginary place), where Lady Catherine de Bourgh lives; Pemberley (imaginary place), where Mr. Darcy lives. All these little towns are situated in particular regions (real and unreal): Hertfordshire (Longbourn, Meryton, Netherfield), Hunsford, and Derbyshire (Pemberley).

Austen doesn’t talk about only one place, but there is the Grand Tour to show mixed marriages and journeys. She talks about internal places, small but very intense: her characters’ emotions are born in internal places and the author shows limits and perceptions. In this novel there are four important points: Elizabeth Bennet, Middle and Upper Class, Golden Island into the Island, and Romantic and Antiromantic at the same.

Elizabeth Bennet

She doesn’t want to be a lady. She is different from her sisters and mother; she looks for equality and she refuses the marriage (she’s strange for this reason). She loves solitude because it reminds her of intimacy and she can refund herself (protection and safety). The house is the nest. In this novel she’s the Prejudice, on the contrary Mr. Darcy is the Pride.

Middle and Upper Class

J. Austen wrote what she knew, and she lived in the atmosphere of this social class; for this reason, she talked about it.

Golden Island into the Island

It was a magic world with people going to balls and parties, taking cups of tea, and talking about money and love affairs. The Golden Island are the rich and wealthy people, who didn’t know anything about the external world; the other island is, of course, Great Britain.

Romantic and Antiromantic at the same

She lived during this period, but she hated it. Nevertheless, she talked about marriages, love affairs, manners, good behaviors, and virtues. In her style, there’s a romantic tendency but an antiromantic one at the same: she was closer to the Augustan Age.

The Novel of Manners describes the behaviors and way of thinking of Middle and Upper Class society.