The focus of the document is the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It contains a summary of the plot, a brief description of the two main characters (Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy) and a more complex analysis of the main themes of the novel: marriage, love, role of the woman... It also cont...
LITERATURE: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY JANE AUSTEN - STUDY MATERIAL AND
NOVEL’S ANALYSIS OF PLOT, THEMES, CHARACTERS AND MAIN CHAPTERS (2021)
JANE AUSTEN
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
The plot → Mrs and Mr Bennet live with their 5 unmarried daughters and the family belongs to the country
gentry. Mrs Bennets wants her daughters to settle down and make a good marriage since the lack of male
heir would make them lose their property house at their father’s death. Women were not allowed to work or
to inherit their family’s money, so their mother only worries about finding them a wealthy husband.
The arrival of a wealthy young unmarried neighbour gentleman, Charles Bingley, creates a lot of excitement
in the family, as Mrs Bennet plans to get him married to one of her daughters. Mr Bingley falls in love with
the eldest of the Bennet sisters, Jane who is considered to be the most beautiful one. In the meantime, his
aristocratic close friend Mr Darcy is attracted to Jane’s sister, Elizabeth Bennet, because of her cleverness
and charm; however he despises her socially inferior family. So, he deters his friend Bingley from marrying
Jane. Mr Darcy then proceeds to propose to Elizabeth who rejects him because of his prejudice against her
poorer family. She then accuses him of having caused the separation of her sister from Mr Bingley and of
having disowned Wickham, a man who she fancied. She accuses him of “pride” and Darcy accuses Elizabeth
of “prejudice” that didn’t make her see his true reasons.
Sometime later, Darcy wrote a letter to her where he explained he stopped the wedding in her sister’s best
interest since he was not convinced of his friend’s real commitment. He also explained to her Wickham’s
true intentions, that revealed himself to be a scoundrel and a liar. Wickham elopes with Lydia, Elizabeth’s
sister but Darcy obliges Wickham to marry Lydia, who has become a woman of bad reputation and paid for
their marriage. Doing so, he restores Bennet’s family reputation. He proposes again to Elizabeth who has
grown to respect and love him, so she accepted his proposal. Mr Bingley proposes to Jane. The novel ends
with the marriage of the two couples.
Setting → Pride and Prejudice is set in England at some point in the late 1700s-early 1800s. We know the
action takes place sometime during the Napoleonic Wars (1797-1815) because Austen references soldiers
and regiments. The action moves between a few different locations in England, including Brighton, London,
but there is little description of the geographic settings. It takes place mostly in Longbourn, a small country
village in Hertfordshire. In confining the action to these settings, Austen implies that intense drama can still
unfold even within a small world.
CHARACTERS
Elizabeth → Elizabeth is the novel's heroine and the second oldest of the five Bennet sisters. She is smart,
lively, and attractive. She prides herself on her ability to analyze other people, but she is often mistaken in
her conclusions about their motivations. She is eventually able to overcome her own prejudice. Elizabeth
places little value on money and social position. Instead she prizes a person's independence and personal
virtue. Although she is drawn to Darcy, she resists him based on her own mistaken preconceptions about
him.
Darcy → Mr. Darcy is Bingley's closest friend and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Darcy is very
wealthy and a person of great integrity, but his extreme prejudice over lower classes makes him appear vain
and proud. He’s unsociable and self-centred, he finds Elizabeth attractive because of her lively and clever
mind, but he’s clumsy in expressing his feelings and disdains her poorer family. Elizabeth's harsh judgment
of him forces him to reassess his behavior. Her intelligence and her disregard for social rank teaches him to
see people more for who they are, rather than the status into which they were born.
, THEMES
Marriage → Pride and Prejudice is a love story, but the author also wants to point out the inequality that
regards the relationships between men and women and how it affects women's choices and marriage. Austen
portrays a world in which choices for individuals are based exclusively on family's social rank. To be born a
woman means having even less choice about who to marry or how to live. The way that society controls
women explain Mrs. Bennet's hysteria about marrying off her daughters, and why such marriages must
always involve practical, financial considerations. As members of the upper class, the Bennet sisters are not
expected to work or make a career for themselves; yet as women, they are not allowed to inherit anything.
As a result, marriage is basically their only option for obtaining wealth and social standing. The ideal for the
author is represented by Elizabeth, who refuses to trade her independence for financial comfort and in the
end marries for love. Elizabeth and Darcy represent the perfect love match as they got married on the basis
of mutual affection, independence and personal will. They were not influenced by any social convention nor
by convenience. Their feelings are based on the understanding of each other and mutual respect. They put
aside their pride and prejudice, their feelings grow and they fully love each other.
Love vs Passion → Elizabeth and Darcy’s love is not based on physical attraction or temporary sexual
passion as Lydia and Wickham’s and Bingley and Jane’s marriages suggest. Elizabeth and Darcy are
grounded characters, who follow their common sense, they are capable of understanding their inner feelings
and each other’s personalities and needs. They develop and get to terms with their own mistakes,
appreciating the best of their partner. Passion is seen as something negative if not controlled by common
sense: it leads to self-destruction or ruin of reputation. As demonstrated initially by Elizabeth and Darcy,
love must not be based on the first impression but on a deeper understanding of the character.
Pride → Pride is a constant presence in the characters' attitudes, that blind their judgments and lead them to
mistakes. Pride blinds Elizabeth and Darcy to their feelings for each other. Darcy's pride in his social rank
makes him look down on anyone outside of his circle. Elizabeth, on the other hand, takes so much pride in
her ability to judge others that she refuses to change her opinion even in the face of evidence. This is why
she despises Darcy for so long but initially admires Wickham. Yet while Pride and Prejudice implies that no
one is ever completely free of pride, it makes clear that with the proper moral you can overcome it. In the
end, the two lovers are able to overcome their pride by helping each other see their perspectives. Darcy let
go of his snobbery and Elizabeth learns not to blindly trust her judgments.
Prejudice → Prejudice in the novel refers to the tendency of the characters to judge one another based on
opinions, rather than on who they really are and what they actually do. Prejudice goes hand in hand with
pride, leading the main characters into wrong assumptions. Faulting someone else for prejudice is easy while
recognizing it in yourself is hard. Prejudice in the novel is presented as a stage in a person's moral
development, something to overcome through reason and compassion. Austen only condemns those people
who refuse to set aside their prejudices, like Lady Catherine and Caroline. The novel is an illustration of the
damaging effects that prejudice can inflict to people.
Irony → One of the most prominent features of Austen’s style is her frequent use of irony. The opening
sentence of the novel is one of the finest examples of verbal irony: “It is truth universally acknowledged that
a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. The statement in fact contains the
ambitions of Mrs. Bennet, and her desire to find a good match for each of her five daughters, but since this
goal is only seeked by Mrs Bennet the reader immediately knows that the truth is the complete opposite of
what she thinks. Irony is the key element that makes the reader understand the topic of the novel and shows
the fault and mistakes of the characters.
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