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The Deeper Meaning of Pride and Prejudice
While Pride And Prejudice is demonstrably concerned with the subject of love, from Lydia's physical passion for Wickham, through Jane's slightly too patient and undemanding feelings for Bingley, to Elizabeth's final "perfect" match with Darcy, it would be doing the novel and its author a great injustice to assume that it is merely a love story, and has no other purpose or design. The scope of the novel is indeed much wider than a serious interest in who will marry who and who will have the manor that is worth the most money, or even the less shallow subject of women trying, failing, and succeeding at finding their perfect mates on a romantic level. While the investigation of love in its many forms is by no means a completely trivial exercise in and of itself, Pride And Prejudice does not confine itself to that one topic, but while presenting a story that details several love affairs and the variously intelligent, mistaken, and idiotic views of diverse characters towards the subject, Jane Austen also gives the reader insight into issues that range from moral questions of pride and lack thereof, to individual and class prejudice, to the expected roles of women eighteenth and nineteenth century society.
"Whether we like it or not, she [Jane Austen] was... a moralist," writes Gilbert Ryle. "...she wrote what and as she wrote partly from a deep interest in some perfectly general, even theoretical questions about human nature and human conduct," (Ryle 106). This concept of Austen as moralist, but "not, however, to say that she was a moralizer," (Ryle 106), is not one of the more common views, especially concerning Pride And Prejudice. The title itself, however, is a direct st...
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... examination of social and moral issues, the deft touch of satire and sincerity used in portraying not only Elizabeth, but her time and place, the attitudes toward her and toward people like her, make it a larger work. It may be overall a love story even when taking these into account, if one were to view it as Jane Austen's love affair with the examination of human nature- but on no account can Pride And Prejudice be described as merely a love story; given its scope, it isn't merely anything.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride And Prejudice. London: Penguin, 1972. First published 1813.
Ryle, Gilbert. "Jane Austen And The Moralists." Critical Essays On Jane Austen. Ed. B.C. Southam. London:Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968.
Wright, Andrew H. "Feeling and Complexity in Pride and Prejudice." Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1966. 410-420.
Pride and Prejudice exists to show the world that first impressions are not always correct. In fact, they are hardly ever correct. Jane Austen wrote this novel to show that the circumstances in which one was born cannot be changed, but through self-knowledge and exposure to correct ideals one could improve themselves. Austen criticized the influence others, such as family and friends, had on one’s decisions. She also criticized the way the people in her time were caught up with reputation and appearances instead of character. The themes in this book are marriage, family, prejudice, pride, and class.
Southam, B.C., (ed.), Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Landon, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul - Barres & Nobel Inc., 1968.
Beneath the love story in Pride and Prejudice is a cast of evolving characters who change before the reader’s eyes in a way that is both realistic and applicable to the world in any century. Jane Austen manages to get across some points about love and being able to see our own shortcomings without preaching it to the reader.
Austen, Jane. A. Emma. Norton Critical 3rd edition, ed. Donald Gray. New York and London: Norton, 2001.
Southam, B.C., (ed.), Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Landon, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul - Barres & Nobel Inc., 1968.
Scott, Walter. "Scott on Jane Austen." 1826. Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Ed. B. C.
The romantic era in literature was characterized by many different authors, male and female. Jane Austen was only one of many authors in that era, and one of the longest lasting; through her many novels, she shows various views on love and marriage. In Jane Austen’s critically acclaimed novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen spares no character, male or female, in her criticism of the understood custom that the only route to happiness was marriage.
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is well-noted for its ability to question social norms. Most importantly, Austen explores the institution of marriage, as it was in her time, a time where many married for security rather than love. Her characters Elizabeth and Charlotte are renowned even more for their outspoken nature and different views on marriage. Though both Elizabeth and Charlotte yearn for a happy marriage, Charlotte has a more pragmatic and mundane approach while Elizabeth is more romantic and daring with her actions. Through the romantic involvements of both Elizabeth and Charlotte, Austen shows that happiness in marriage is not entirely a matter of chance, but is instead contingent on an accurate evaluation of self and others Elizabeth’s view on Jane and Bingely’s relationship is more hopeful, while Charlotte possesses a more aggressive view.
Throughout Jane Austen’s, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennett faces many challenges to realize that she was in the wrong and her prejudice against Mr. Darcy was misguided. Austen emphasizes the importance of wisdom through Elizabeth who faces the challenge of overcoming her prejudiced judgement to reach maturity and recognize the man she loves.
England, under James 1st rule was a vastly altered period compared to our now modern society. So many of the values held during this time, have now been discarded and forgotten. Jane Austen grew up in the Romantic period and experienced a world which was divided, whether through education, class, status, fashion, abilities, gender and etiquette. Her novel, Pride and Prejudice is counted as one of the great classics of English Literature. Austen engrosses readers to live in her world for a time and experience a society filled with matchmaking, romance, marriage and gossip. Every one of her characters is so distinctive and has a clearly outlined caricature. Each of their diverse values conveys a different thinking of the time. Pride and Prejudice is preoccupied with the gentry and most of the social aspects which consumed these people’s lives. There were so many expectations of how you would behave in public, but of course not all of these were upheld. Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Mrs Bennet and Charlotte Lucas are four characters which keep such strong beliefs about the social norms. These characters are expressed so descriptively and through their personalities readers can learn just how the numerous social standards were received.
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.
Ed. Donald Gray. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. Jane Austen Info Page. Henry Churchyard.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York: WW Norton &. Company, 1996.
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)
2 Feb. 2010. Moore, Catherine E. “Pride and Prejudice.” Master Revised Second Edition (1996): Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. The Web.