Pride and Prejudice

Assignment - Paper 103

Name: Insiyafatema Alvani 

Batch: M.A Sem:1

Roll no: 12

Paper Name: Literature of the Romantics

Subject Code: 22394

E-mail: insiyafatemaalvani@gmail.com

Submitted to: Smt S.B Gardi Department of English MKBU

1) Thematic Study of 'Pride and Prejudice'

Born date - 16 December 1775

Death date - 18 July 1817 

Resting place - Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire

Notable works:

• Emma
• Lady Susan
• Mansfield Park 
•  Persuasion
• Pride and Prejudice
• Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author. Jane Austen's comic novels of love among the landed gentry gained popularity after 1869, and her reputation skyrocketed in the 20th century. Her novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, are considered literary classics, bridging the gap between romance and realism. 

Early Life:

She is the seventh child and second daughter of Cassandra and George Austen. She was born in Steventon, Hampshire, England. Austen's parents were well-respected community members. Her father served as the Oxford-educated rector for a nearby Anglican parish. The family was close and the children grew up in an environment that stressed learning and creative thinking. When Austen was young, she and her siblings were encouraged to read from their father's extensive library. It was for the family circle that Austen first wrote high-spirited satires, some of which later became novels after numerous and careful rewriting.

George Austen was rector of the Anglican parishes of Steventon and Deane.He came from an extended and prosperous family of wool merchants. The wealth was divided as each generation of eldest sons received inheritances, and George's branch of the family fell into poverty. Austen and her sister Cassandra went to Oxford to be educated in 1783, and later went to Southampton. Austen was homeschooled until she began attending boarding school in Reading with her sister in early 1785 at the Reading Abbey Girls' School, which was run by Mrs. La Tournelle who had a cork leg and a passion for theater. The school curriculum most likely included French, spelling, needlework, dancing and music, and possibly drama. The sisters returned home before December 1786 because the Austen family couldn't afford the two girls' school fees. Her father and brothers James and Henry guided her through the rest of her education through reading.

The private theater was an essential part of Austen's education. The prologues and epilogues were written by Austen's eldest brother James, and she most likely participated in these activities, first as a spectator and then as a participant. The majority of the plays were comedies, indicating how Austen's satirical talents were developed. She began writing plays when she was 12 years old, and she wrote three short plays during her adolescence. 

She is very ill at the end of her life. When her condition worsened, Austen wrote her will in April 1817. She was taken to Winchester for treatment where she died at the age of 41. Jane Austen’s grave is in Winchester Cathedral. 

Literary works:

Austen began to write in bound notebooks. In the 1790s, during her adolescence, she started to craft her own novels and wrote 'Love and Friendship', a parody of romantic fiction organized as a series of love letters. Using that framework, she unveiled her wit and dislike of sensibility, or romantic hysteria, a distinct perspective that would eventually characterize much of her later writing. 

Austen's reputation grew significantly after her death, and her six full-length novels are rarely out of print. Her posthumous reputation changed dramatically in 1833, when her novels were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series, illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering, and sold as a set. They gradually gained wider recognition and a large readership. Austen was an established novelist by the time. Her new and fresh style of writing was welcomed by readers and her upcoming novels were awaited. The readers loved her intelligent character sketching and homely settings. Although her health started to deteriorate in early 1816, Austen remained a busy writer even towards the end of her life. Austen’s identity as an author was revealed only after her death when her sister Cassandra and brother Henry arranged the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.

Pride and Prejudice:

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is a social comedy set in the provincial society of Hertfordshire, England, around the 18th century. Austen begins the novel with this sentence,

"A single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife". 

Marriage is a constant pursuit in Austen's comic world. In 1796, when Austen was twenty-one years old, she wrote the novel First Impressions. The work was rewritten and published under the title Pride and Prejudice in 1813. It is her most popular and perhaps her greatest novel. It achieves this distinction by virtue of its perfection of form, which exactly balances and expresses its human content. As in Sense and Sensibility. The resolution of the main plot with the marriage of the two opposites represents a reconciliation of conflicting moral extremes. The value of pride is affirmed when humanized by the wife's warm personality, and the value of prejudice is affirmed when associated with the husband's standards of traditional honor.

In Austen's England, the social hierarchy can be likened to a pyramid, with the following classes listed in descending order, from the top tier to the bottom Royalty,Aristocracy or nobility, Upper-class gentry, including landed gentry with large. estates, high-level clergy and government officials, bankers, merchants, and barristers, Middle-class gentry, including landed gentry with smaller estates, various professionals, military officers, and lower level clergyLower and working classes. 'Pride and Prejudice' represents the interactions of characters from the middle of the pyramid. Austen, like the Bennet family portrayed in Pride and Prejudice,belonged to the educated upper-middle-class gentry. In that time of England Only the eldest son inherited land. These themes are specifically represented in 'Pride and Prejudice'.

Themes in 'Pride And Prejudice':

The novel Pride and Prejudice represents two major themes. There are other ideas which are also represented by the writer. Let's discuss other important themes also.

Class:

Class is the target of much of the novel's criticism of society in general. Austen makes it clear that people like Lady Catherine, who are overly invested in their social position, are guilty of mistreating other people. Due to the setting of the novel,within the upper and the upper middle class, it is safe to assume that one of the major themes is class and class difference. He claims that

"some people that belong to the upper class can be arrogant and callous. They can use you, but when they have no further use of you, they will ‘throw you off".

There are some instances in the novel where class plays an important role. The First example is Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth. It is an example of his inner struggle between his individuality and his position inherited through birth. The second example will take a closer look at Mr.Darcy’s social background and family in order to understand his improper conduct. 

Marriage:

Jane Austen discusses five marriages and five couples in the novel,

1. Mr and Mrs Bennet
2. Bingley and Jane
3. Wickham and Lydia
4. Mr Collins and Charlotte Lucas
5. Darcy and Elizabeth

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune,must be in want of a wife."

The opening lines of the novel indicate the main theme of Pride and Prejudice. It is mainly about the difficulties a couple has to overcome before they can marry. Elizabeth is attractive and intelligent, Darcy is rich and handsome. But both have to gain self-knowledge. This is because Darcy is proud and will not humble himself while Elizabeth is hasty in her judgment and angered at Darcy's haughty exterior. Darcy's upbringing makes him hesitate in proposing to Elizabeth because of her lower social status but he does so in spite of himself, because he is attracted by her lively mind, affectionate nature and attractive appearance. He believes that Elizabeth will accept him because he is so superior. But she feels insulted by his patronizing behavior and rejects him. 

The event which occurred towards the end eventually helps Darcy and Elizabeth to resolve their mistakes and accept each other for what they are. Thus their marriage is founded on affection and understanding and not on blind impulse. Austen contrasts other marriages against the story of Elizabeth and Darcy. Charlotte's marriage to Collins is a compromise she makes because she is twenty-seven, plain, and has no prospects of making a good marriage. So she marries Collins who is inferior in intelligence,only for the position he offers. Lydia and Wickham have married on the basis of momentary attraction on her part and mercenary aim on his.

There appears to be little attachment between them and the future does not seem to be a very happy one for them. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet obviously have an incompatible marriage. They have nothing in common because Mrs. Bennet is a selfish, vain, and unprincipled woman who attracted Mr. Bennet because of her good looks. He married her though she was inferior to him in intelligence, and now regards her with contempt which he does not try to hide. The only another marriage which is likely to be a happy one is that of Jane and Bingley because they are both essentially good-natured and have genuine affection for each other. But they are both too passive and gentle and lack the liveliness that is seen in the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. 

Love:

'Pride and Prejudice' is one of the most cherished work of literature in regard to the love, relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. For instance, Elizabeth was proud, leading her to misjudge Darcy as being unfriendly while the later misjudged her because of poor background. Austen, makes the readers understand and be aware that for people to realize and capture love, there is a great need for both of the individuals to come out of their social class. Through this, the author shows us that marriage without love will never lead to financial security for the woman but not happiness. Parental love is also presented in the novel. Through Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, we see parents who always want the best for their kids, they want their girls to marry rich men. For instance, when Bingley come to live near them, Mr. Bennet pays him a visit and even invites him for dinner so that he can secure a chance for her girls before anyone else could. When Lydia eloped with Mr.Wickham and went to London. Because of love, Mr. Bennet is forced to go out and look for in an effort to take her back home to save the family's name. Through the Bennet sisters, the writer presented the love between sisters.

Appearance and reality:

The theme of appearance and reality is integrated into the total moral perspective of the novel, and people are often far from being what they appear to be. Outwardly, Mr. Collins is a Christian clergyman, but he is by nature a sycophant and a hypocrite; Mr. Hurst is outwardly a gentleman but actually a greedy mercenary. The fashionable Bingley sisters can hardly wait for the door to close on Elizabeth before criticizing her; and above all, Darcy and Wickham, one who is actually good and one who only appears to be good. A failure in self-knowledge also belongs to the theme of appearance and reality. Both Darcy and Elizabeth have to discover their own genuine selves, and this discovery comes along with their discovery of one another. They learn to rid themselves of the illusions and misunderstandings created by their pride and prejudice. 

Women's Role:

In England in the eighteenth century, women had one primary function, which was to marry and marry well. The Bennet girls have a temporarily comfortable life, for in the absence of sons, when their father dies, his property will be inherited by their cousin, Mr. Collins. Therefore, for Mrs. Bennet, the most important thing was to marry their daughters, especially to wealthy young men, 

"A single man of large fortune; five thousand pounds a year. What a fine thing for our girls".

Because of patriarchy, society could not accept women to enter professions like medicine or law. Hence, limited formal education. If unmarried, they would remain dependent upon their relatives, living with or receiving a small income from their fathers, brothers. In Elizabeth’s case,she is dependent upon her father while he is living, but because of the entail and the fact that she has no brothers, her situation could become quite worse when Mr. Bennet dies. She and her mother and sisters would be forced to rely upon the help and good will of their relatives.  Unmarried women were not supposed to live alone. If a single woman who had never been married was not living with her family, she was to stay with her relatives. Therefore, when the Bennet daughters travel in Pride and Prejudice, they always stay in the company of a relative or a respectable married woman. Therefore, it is only marriage that can save her from being disowned. The role of the woman is not only to enjoy special privileges of a high social status. Her feelings play an important role in society. When Elizabeth and Darcy finally get engaged, they both learn the wisdom of humility and tolerance.  

Conclusion:

'Pride and Prejudice' is full of character-driven themes that revolve around the literary concept of comedy of manners. A comedy of manners is a literary work that deals with young lovers attempting to unite in marriage, and usually includes several incidences of witty commentary from the main characters. 'Pride and Prejudice' is mainly concerned with the pairing of several couples and the issues surrounding each of those couples.

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