Pride and Prejudice

                Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen. The setting of the novel is rural England, around the turn of the 19^th century.

Elizabeth-  The protagonist. The most quick witted and sensible of the Bennet daughters.

Fitzwilliam Darcy- Elizabeth’s eventual lover. Initially cast in a negative light, but his goodness shines through.

Jane- The oldest and prettiest daughter. Scoops up Bingley.

Charles Bingley- Owner of Netherfield and the hottest bachelor in town.

Mr. Bennet- The father of all the daughters. Smart.

Mrs. Bennet- The mother of the all the daughters. Stupid.

George Wickham- Bad guy who tries to get Elizabeth, fails miserably, runs off with Lydia

Lydia- The aforementioned daughter. Young and foolish.

                The novel is narrated in third person, with an omniscient narrator. The narrator uses a great deal of eloquent language, never delving into any type of slang, in order to convey, or possibly satirize the prim and proper English countryside lifestyle of the time. Imagery is used in the novel to describe the countryside. Pride and Prejudice is notably low on symbols, due to its reliance on dialogue.

                A new man moves into the neighborhood, and the girlies in town want to get with him, in the most proper English fashion that is. At the next social function the new man, Bingley, goes over splendidly. But his friend, Darcy, is deemed a jerk because he refuses to dance with Elizabeth. But as time passes and they see each other more frequently they become attracted to each other. Jane and Bingley start to hit it off as well. Jane gets ill and has to stay at Bingley’s house, and Elizabeth and darcy get the chance to flirt more. Then Mr. Collins, a man who stands to inherit the Bennet house, comes into the picture and proposes to Elizabeth. She denies. Shortly after she meets Wickham, who convinces her Darcy is a no good rotten bum. Then Bingley and Darcy leave and Mr. Collins marries Elizabeth’s best friend, which is a shocker.

                The next spring Darcy visits Charlotte in London is happened upon by Darcy, who swiftly proposes marriage. Elizabeth swiftly rejects him, telling him she doesn’t like him one bit. He writes a letter which outlines the real cause of Wickham’s contempt for him and Elizabeth realizes that he is a good guy after all. Wickham than elopes with Lydia. The family is fearful of the social backlash such scandalous action would cause, but they soon marry due to payments from none other than Mr. Darcy. Bingley proposes to Jane, Darcy to Elizabeth. Woohoo.

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

This quote is used to describe Bingley. It is important because it helps establish the social climate of Rural London for the reader. It’s the backdrop for all the events in the play, and it sounds like something Mrs. Bennet would say.

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment.”

This quote also helps establish the norm, which Elizabeth deviates from. Without this as the standard template of a young woman of this era, Elizabeth cannot be fully appreciated. It describes Lydia perfectly though.

Theme: True love, or whatever you would like to call it, is built by a mutual respect, caring, and adoration as well as common interests, and often follows a very treacherous path..

Elizabeth and Darcy show the signs of a modern romance. They encounter all the stumbling blocks, in Elizabethan(right era?) form that those build love based off of mutual respect and adoration, among other things. The author confirms this by juxtaposing there romance to almost every other conceivable type, and allowing the reader to decide which one  they prefer, but the clear bias is in the way of Elizabeth’s. She is, after all, the author’s name sake. The tone of pomp and circumstance is used to contrast the courtship of Elizabeth and Darcy, to show that it truly is genuine.