Assignment: thematic study of pride and prejudice
Paper No : 103 literature of the Romantics
Topic : thematic study of pride and prejudice
Name : Sangita Kantariya
Roll No : 20
Enrollment No : 4069206420210015
Semester : 01
Year :2021-22
Submitted by: S.B. Gardi
Department of English, MKBU
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY JANE AUSTEN
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security. Her works critique the novel's of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th century literary realism.
With the publication of sense and sensibility (1811), pride and prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814) and Emma (1816), she achieved success as a published writer. She wrote two other novels, Northanger Abbey and persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818. Her six full - length novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her moderate success and little fame during her lifetime.
Austen has inspired many critical essays and literary anthologies. Her novels have inspired many films, from 1940 pride and prejudice to more recent productions like sense and sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Mansfield Park (1999), pride &prejudice (2005), love &friendship (2016) , and Emma (2020). Her novels have also inspired many TV adaptations, including pride & prejudice (1995).
There is little biographical information about Jane Austen life except the few letters that survived and the biographical notes her family members wrote. During her lifetime, Austen may have written as many as 3,000 letters, but only 161 survived. The heirs of Jane's brother, Admiral Francis Austen, destroyed more letters; details were excised from the " Biographical Notice" her brother wrote in 1818; and family details continued to be omitted or embellishments in her nephew A Memoir of Jane Austen, published in 1869, and in William and Richard Arthur Austen Leigh's biography Jane Austen: Her life and letters, published in 1913.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Pride and prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners written by Jane Austen. Though it is mostly called a romantic novel, it is also a satire. The novel follows the character Development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgment and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
CHARACTERS
ELIZABETH BENNET
The second elders of the Bennet daughters, she is attractive , witty and intelligent- but with a tendency to form tenacious and prejudiced first impressions. As the story progresses, so does her relationship with Mr. Darcy. The course of Elizabeth and Darcy relationship is ultimately decided when Darcy overcomes his pride, and Elizabeth overcome her prejudice, leading them both to surrender to their love for each other.
Mr. Darcy
Mr Bingley friend and the wealthy owner of the family estate of Pemberton in Derbyshire. While he is handsome, tall , and intelligent, Darcy lacks ease and social graces, and so others frequently mistake his initially haughty reserve as proof of excessive pride.
Mr Bennet
A logical and reasonable late -middle- aged landed gentleman. Her five unmarried daughters. He is often described as 'indolent in the novel.
Mrs Bennet
The middle- aged wife of her social superior, Mr Bennet, and the mother of their five daughters. Mrs Bennet is a hypothetical who imagines herself susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations whenever things are not going her way. Her main ambition in life is to marry her daughters off to wealthy men.
THEME OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
MARRIAGE
The opening line of the novel famously announces; "it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." This sets marriage as a motif and a problem in the novel.
Marriage is a complex social activity that takes politics and financial economy into account. The Bennet marriage is an example that the younger Bennet, Lydia, re- enacts with Wickham and the results are far from felicity. Although the central character, Elizabeth and Darcy, begin the novel as hostile acquaintance and unlikely friends, they eventually work toward a better understanding of themselves and each other, which frees them to truly fall in love.
When Elizabeth rejected Darcy first proposal, the argument of marrying for love is introduced. Elizabeth only accepts Darcy proposal when she is certain she loves him and her feelings are reciprocated. Austen's complex sketching of different marriage ultimately allows readers to question what forms of alliance are desirable especially when it comes to privileging economic, sexual, companionable attraction.
WEALTH
Money plays a fundamental role in the marriage market, for the young Ladies seeking a well off husband and for men who wish to marry a woman of means. George Wickham tried to elope with Georgiana Darcy, and colonel Fitzwilliam started that he will marry someone with wealth. Mrs Bennet is frequently seen Encouraging her daughter to marry a wealthy man of high social class. In chapter 1, when Mr Bingley arrives, she declares "I am thinking of his marrying one of them."
In the case of the Bennet family, Mr Collins was to inherit the family estate upon Mr Bennet death and his proposal to Elizabeth would have ensured her security but she refuses his offer. Inheritance laws benefited males because married women did not have independent legal rights until the second half of the 19th century. For the upper - middle and aristocratic classes, marriage to a man with a reliable income was almost the only route to security for the woman and the children she was to have.
CLASS
Austen might be known now for her "romances" but the marriage in her novels engage with economic and class distinction. Pride and prejudice is hardly the exception. When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he cites their economic and social differences as an obstacle his excessive love has had social differences as an obstacle his excessive love has had to overcome, though he still anxiously harps on the problems it poses for him within his social circle. However, as the novel closes, " though curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself," Lady Catherine condescends to visit them at Pemberley.
The Bingley present a particular problem for navigation class. Though Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst behave and speak of others as if they have always belonged in the upper echelons of society, Austen makes it clear that the Bingley fortunes stem from trade. Bingley, unlike Darcy, does not own his property but has portable and growing wealth that makes him a good catch on the marriage market for poorer daughters of the gentry, like Jane Bennet, or of ambitious merchants. Class plays a central role in the evolution of the characters and Jane Austen radical approach to class is seen as the plot unfolds.
SELF - KNOWLEDGE
Through their interaction and their critiques of each other, Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognize their faults and work to correct them. Other characters rarely exhibit this depth of understanding or at least are not given the space within the novel for this sort of development. Mrs Bennet behaviour reflects the society in which she lives, as she knows that her daughter will not succeed if they do not get married. "The business of her life was to get her daughter married: it's solace was visiting and news." This show that Mrs Bennet is only aware of "material objects " and not of her feelings and emotions.
LOVE
pride and prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English literature : the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning with the tensions caused by the lovers own personal qualities. Elizabeth pride makes her misjudged Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while Darcy' s prejudice against Elizabeth poor social standing blinds him , for a time, to her many virtues.
Austen does sound some more realist notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart does not always dictate marriage. Austen suggests that true love is a force separate from society and one that can conquer even the most difficult of circumstances.
REPUTATION
Pride and prejudice depicts a society in which a woman's reputation is of the utmost importance A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. This theme appears in the novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to the shock of the reputation conscious Miss Bingley and her friends.
Austen pokes gentle fun at the snobs in these example, but later in the novel, when Lydia elope with Wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats reputation as a very serious matter. The happy ending of pride and prejudice is certainly emotionally satisfying , but in many ways it leaves the theme of reputation, unexpired. One can ask of pride and prejudice, to what extent does it critique social structures, and to what extent dose it simply accept their inevitability?
Thank you
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