Pride and Prejudice. Where shall we begin? This most famous work is known to almost everyone. Moreover, the story appeals to almost everyone. That is, I believe, Jane Austin’s most powerful tool; to write a story that may seem shallow at first, due to the amount of attention spent on gossips and love letters, but will unravel its true treasures once one is better acquainted with the characters and hidden meanings of the story. It is true that eventually every sentence will be of significance in the end, for only when we understand the characters’ thoughts and feelings in the beginning of the novel, we will be able to see the remarkable change of them at the end.
Title Analysis
Jane Austin’s original plan to call her novel ‘First Impressions’ didn’t appeal enough to the publisher’s opinion. Her first manuscript was rejected. But Jane, headstrong as she was, continued and perfected her work and named it ‘Pride and Prejudice’ when it was published in 1813. Those two nouns are of great importance to the novel, as both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy possessed these rather negative traits in the beginning of the novel. Mr. Darcy may be called prideful when he refused to dance with any women at the Netherfield ball. He claimed Elizabeth too be ‘tolerable’, but not handsome enough to tempt him. He treats most strangers uncivilized, looking down on them, which results in the entire neighborhood judging him an ill-humoured, most disagreeable man, notwithstanding his unspeakable wealth. Elizabeth can only think of him with the greatest disgust, because all the bad things she has heard of Darcy. These gossips formed the foundations of Elizabeth’s hatred against Darcy. Eventually, Elizabeth seemed to be deceived by all the gossips, into a prejudice against Darcy. Darcy, on the other hand, was deluded by his strong belief to be superior to Elizabeth, as a result of his prideful education and spoiled childhood.
Main Characters
Elizabeth Bennet is a 20 year old, joyful and lively-minded woman, living in the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, England. She is the second eldest of five daughters; Jane being the eldest and loveliest of them all, Mary being a conceited though studious girl, and Kitty and Lydia being both primarily occupied with making romantic advances to soldiers of the military regiments. Her silly, theatrical mother’s foremost concern is finding a wealthy man for her daughters to marry, since the Longbourn estate is actually entailed to the nearest male relative, which means that if Mr. Bennet dies, his daughters and wife won’t be able to inherit the property and will thus live in poverty. Mr.Bennet is, in strong contrast to his wife, rather ignorant towards the girls’ future engagements.
A Brief Summary & Eileen’s perspective
Pride and Prejudice starts when the new owner of the Netherfield estate, Mr. Bingley, arrives in Hertfordshire. The latter is very well acquainted with Mr. Darcy, and he too, comes to live there. The gentlemen’s sisters come along. Beautiful Jane falls in love with Mr. Bingley during a ball. To Elizabeth, it is obvious that Mr.Bingley is totally and irrevocably in love with her sister.
Lively Elizabeth hears herself being described ‘tolerable’ by Mr. Darcy. Luckily, it’s no burden to her, for she feels a strong dislike against the proud and reserved man anyways. A few days later, Mrs. Bennet, having seen Jane and Mr. Bennet so intimate, sends her eldest daughter to Netherfield on horseback during a heavy rain fall. Jane falls ill and is forced to stay there. Elizabeth visits her frequently during the period of her illness, and that way gets to know Mr. Darcy a little better, which only worsened her negative opinion of him. Mr. Darcy, on the other hand, begins to feel a growing admiration for Elizabeth’s lively spirit. Jane Austin doesn’t tell us much about Mr. Darcy’s feelings, nor about his thoughts. The only way I suspected Darcy’s regard for her, was because of the writer’s hidden hints, both in conversation as in scene, that Darcy was paying more and more attention to Elizabeth. Some time later, Mr. Collins, the distant cousin of Mr. Bennet and male heir of the Longbourn estate, comes to visit the Bennet family in want of a wife. After understanding that Jane was soon to be married to Mr. Bingley, he proposed to Elizabeth.
But the latter dislikes the narrow-minded clergyman for his conceit and self-importance, and so she refuses. After several attempts, Mr. Collins gives up on marrying Elizabeth and instead marries her best friend.
Some time later, Elizabeth meets a young officer named Mr. Wickham at a ball in Meryton. Wickham tells Elizabeth that he was the godson of Darcy’s father and that he and Darcy where thus raised together. He claims that Darcy denied him the inheritance, legally offered to him by Darcy’s father, because Darcy was jealous of his father’s partiality to Wickham. Wickham refuses to talk about the matter, because he doesn’t want to put his childhood friend in a bad light, for which Elizabeth admires him. Later on, we find out Wickham lied, to make Elisabeth admire him and hate Darcy.
Elizabeth does not know that all the gossips and Wickham’s declarations are false, and so she continues to preserve a strong hatred against Darcy. The latter persuades Bingley in leaving Netherfield, for he told him that Jane was indifferent for his affection. And so the fellows don’t return to Netherfield for a long time. A period in which Jane feels miserable because she believed Bingley didn’t like her back.
Some time later, Elizabeth visits Mr. Collins and her best friend, now Mrs. Collins, near Rosings. This is when our lively protagonist meets Mr. Darcy again, during a visit at his extremely rich aunt’s house. Darcy’s regard for her grows stronger day by day and eventually, he proposes to her. Elizabeth, being utterly astonished, refuses him, naming the two reasons for doing so. The first being the fact that Darcy separated her sister Jane from her eternal lover Bingley when he told Bingley Jane was indifferent. The second being Darcy’s coldness and incivility towards Mr. Wickham, and his denial of the man’s rightful inheritance. The next day, Darcy could not help but writing her a letter, having no intentions for a repetition of the sentiments which abhorred Elizabeth. Instead, he addressed these offences, so cruelly given by Elizabeth the night before. He tells her that he believed Jane was uninterested in his friend, and that he merely wanted to protect him. Furthermore, he explains in his letter, the matter concerning Mr. Wickham. Wickham refused to be a clergyman and continually asked Darcy for more money because he lost his in gambling. He wanted to elope with Mr. Darcy’s sister, knowing that she was to inherit thirty thousand pounds. When Mr. Darcy found out, he confronted Wickham with the elopement plans and the latter ran away, leaving Mrs. Darcy in despair.
Only now did Elizabeth know the truth, and gradually, her opinion of Darcy began to change. All she could think about was Darcy’s letter, and Darcy himself. She decides she could use some time out of Rosings and Longbourn, and decides to join her aunt and uncle in a trip to the Lakes. Eventually, they end up at the Pemberley mansion in Derbyshire, Mr. Darcy’s house. They once again meet there and her adoration of him seems as great as it has ever been.
Having spend almost a month at Pemberley, Elizabeth one day receives a letter from Jane, containing the horrible news that Lydia has eloped... with Mr. Wickham! We can only imagine what guilt she felt for not telling her sisters the truth about that arrogant Wickham! Elisabeth informs Mr. Darcy about the unfortunate event and she, her aunt and uncle immediately take leave for Longbourn. Once arrived, she find her family sunken in grieve. Mr. Bennet goes to London to trace the foolish children, but in the end, it is Mr. Gardiner ( Elizabeth’s uncle) who
returns with the news of them being found and marrying soon, if Mr. Bennet consents to a one hundred pound fee a year. The whole family was astonished by this small amount, and so they were convinced that they were in debt of Mr. Gardiner for paying at least ten thousand pounds for Lydia’s settlement.
Soon afterwards, the married couple visited the Bennet family as proud and, in Lydia’s case, as foolishly happy as ever.
This is were my personal dislike towards Lydia and Mrs. Bennet begins. Elizabeth is accused of being selfish for refusing Mr. Collins wedding proposal. Mrs. Bennet claims she is neglecting her family’s needs, because, if Elizabeth would have married Mr. Collins, they would have no worries in losing their possession of the property when Mr. Bennet dies. Mrs. Bennet even threatened Elizabeth with not speak to her again if she did not comply to her wishes. Elizabeth has been condemned because she chose not to marry a horrible man. And now, while Lydia did want to marry a horrible man, she doesn’t get condemned. Instead, Mrs. Bennet warmly invites Lydia into the house and tells her she is proud of her daughter’s engagement. But Lydia’s elopement caused so many uproar a few days before the marriage?
During Lydia’s stay, she accidentally reveals that Mr. Darcy attended her wedding, to which Elizabeth writes to Mrs. Gardiner in astonishment of his presence at the wedding, asking for an explanation. Mrs. Gardiner soon afterwards replies, telling her it was Mr. Darcy who found Lydia and Wickham and who paid the debts and the settlement costs, not Mr. Gardiner.
Elizabeth feels a strong need to meet Mr. Darcy again. He and Mr. Bingley, return to Netherfield some time later. Darcy has in the meanwhile confessed to Bingley that he was blind and even ignorant in Jane’s regard for him, and that he misjudged her. Bingley proposes to Jane, and the latter, having always kept her good judgement and strong appraise for the young man, accepted with exceeding happiness.
Only a week after the merry engagement was settled, Lady Catherine de Bourgh visits Longbourn to confront Elizabeth with her hearing of her nephew’s (Mr. Darcy) wedding proposal to Elizabeth. She tells her that Mr. Darcy is to be married to her own daughter, not to a foolish, poor girl from the working class. She mocks with Elizabeth in disdain for the young girl’s family and insults her in every possible way. Lady Catherine tries to force her into promising that she never received such resolutions, nor that she will ever accept it, but the strong-willed Elizabeth didn’t consent and this was a sign for Darcy that Elizabeth might have changed her opinion about him. When the two see each other the following day, Darcy once more proclaims his intense, passionate love for Elizabeth. She tells him how her prejudices have made her blind for the man Mr. Darcy really is, an admirable, civilized and most loving man. All are content when Elizabeth marries Mr. Darcy and Jane marries Mr. Bingley. One may say a happy ending is too much of a cliché these days, but I think it fits perfectly well in the story.
Time & Period ‘Pride and Prejudice’ takes place during the Regency, a period partly in the eighteenth and partly in the nineteenth century, in which the rigid class system categorrized the citizens in certain groups, from the seventh to the upper class, based on their wealth and social status. The inferior praised the superiors, and the latter often looked down on the working class, such of which Lady Catherine De Bourgh is a fine example.
Book Review
I personally believe one should be able to give a noteworthy review of as great a novel as this, before one may address it with any favourable or critical opinions. I want my own review to be based on facts and my own observations, instead of on my personal feelings towards the story. I would like to write this review in resemblance with the essence of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, which I believe to be the following:
One may feel one’s senses and acknowledge one’s feelings, but one can’t be carried away by upwellings of sentiments. It is all about the balance in the conflicting claims of the head and of the heart. If one is too obeyful to one’s feelings, one becomes like Lydia, foolish and unsteady, unreliable and overemotional. But on the other hand, if one defies ones sentiments, and if one is ignorant to ones feelings, like Jane, who believed she ought not expose her true feelings for Bingley at first, one will be regarded as indifferent.
So that is why, I won’t let myself be carried away at my reading experiences, though I might say it was in general an utmost pleasant perusal. Behind Jane Austin’s writing style, which expanded my vocabulary to a great amount, were the treasures of hidden meanings. I will unravel some of these in the ‘Quotes & Eileen’s interpretation’- part, but I can assure you, there are many more.
Even though Pride and Prejudice may seem to display only everyday events and some occasional struggles in engagements, there is more to the story as one might think. The recognizable (at least for those living during the 18th and 19th century) situations are presented in such a way as though they found place in reality, which makes Elizabeth’s story infinitely more believable than most romances. And though Jane Austen is often described as a serious writer who only critiques and comments upon the British Regency and the lack of women’s right, there’s more to her then that. The irony with which she operates, can be found almost everywhere in her novel, even in the very first sentence.
“It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” This statement does the reader assume what Mrs. Bennet’s attentions are as soon as one gets to know the situation: an empty-minded mother of five daughters in Regency England. There is even more irony in Mrs. Bennet; the very fact of her, an utmost stressful madam, continually in want of men for her daughters, marrying Mr. Bennet, who is calm and not very interested in his daughters’ whereabouts. But there’s even irony in Mr. Darcy, as reserved as he may seem. He describes Elizabeth as “tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt (him)” at the beginning of the novel and ends up saying “... it is many months since I have considered [Elizabeth] as one of the handsomest women of my acquaintance” Elizabeth herself once said “To be mistress of Pemberley might be something!”, upon on seeing Mr. Darcy’s Pemberley estate. But does she see Pemberley as a metaphor for Mr. Darcy or Mr. Darcy as a metaphor for Pemberley?’
Quotes & Eileen’s interpretation
“But we are all liable to error” • Mr. Collins offers his apologies for repeating his marriage proposal to Elizabeth several times.
“What delight! What felicity! You give me fresh life and vigour! Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?” • Even an 18th century young woman knew that travelling is the most delightful leisure in the
world.
“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.” • Mr. Bennet defends Elizabeth in her choice of refusing to marry Mr. Collins. Once again, the significant contrast between Mr. And Mrs. Bennet, as well as the irony in their connection, becomes clear.
“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others” • Elisabeth explains to Mr. Darcy that her vigorous adamant averts her from being shocked
when others want her to be. She tells him her courage rises whenever one tries to daunt her.
“ In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I love admire and love you.” • Darcy’s first sentence of what I call ‘the Darcy approach’, which unfortunately ends up in them feeling a strong disregard for each other.
“I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine” • Mr. Darcy knows that Elizabeth’s family has a general lack of propriety and wealth, compared to his own. After Elizabeth refused his marriage proposal, he clarifies this by adding; “Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is ao decidedly beneath my own?”
“Her feelings as she read where scarcely to be defined” • Elizabeth is speechless, even bewildered while reading the rebuttals in Darcy’s letter against
her strong accusations of the night before. She is very much confused in her thoughts. (This is exactly what she told Darcy not to be, in the earlier quote. IRONY)
‘“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” • Darcy is trying to recount his first amorous feelings towards Elizabeth.
“Till this moment I never knew myself” • Elizabeth exclaims that until the moment she got to know the true Mr. Darcy, the one she
admires and passionately loves, she didn’t know herself. Before, her opinion, thoughts and behaviour were constantly guided by her prejudices. But now, she sees that life is all about the balance between those sentiments, prejudiced or not, and rational thinking.
Thanks for reading, the next one is on its way! :-)