Social world of Pride and Prejudice: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

This C.U. English Notes Would Be Helpful For Part-II Students.

Would you agree with the view that the social world of Pride and Prejudice shows a concern with wealth, property and marriage? Give reasons for your answers.

“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. No one before or even after her has so perfectly combined all the relevant elements and aspects of the social novel of manners to achieve such as effective end as Jane Austen. In her novels true wit and good manners serve to define the character’s worth in the world they inhabit. The elaborate description of dress and manners serves to record a particular social milieu. Austen uses ‘Social behaviour’ as the ‘external manifestations’ of a character’s internal moral and psychological conditions.

Pride and Prejudice presents a society in which mothers hunt after suitable young man for their marriageable daughters, and neighbourly jealously is assiduously cultivated. Mrs. Bennet cannot forgive Miss Lucas for being thr first partner of Bingley at the Maryton ball, and Miss Lucas cannot forget that it was Jane who danced twice with Mr. Bingley. Collins, Charlotte and Lady Lucas equally calculates how long Mr. Bennet will live, since at the event of the death, her daughter would be the mistress of the Longbourne Estate, entailed to the nearest male heir of Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet on hearing of Mr. Collins, feels disbelieve, then think Collins being ‘taken in’, thirdly trusts that they would never be happy. With all its amusing satire, it is a faithful picture of the rural society Jane Austen saw.

Elizabeth violates the social code by walking un-escorted from Longbourn to Bingley’s house to see indisposed Jane. Bingley’s sisters stamp her, as unmannerly and ridicule her ‘almost wild’ look have the list of accomplishments expected of an eighteenth century society lady. A thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing and the modern languages along with a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of the voice and the improvement of her mind by extensive reading. Despite exaggeration, it is based on actual rigorous standards set by eighteenth century thinkers.

One of the unforgettable scenes in the novel is that in which Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth. The solemn yet ludicrous way in which he proceeds systematically first to pay compliments to her beauty and virtues, then enumerates the points in favour of his marriage with her is superbly artistic in its careful elaboration. An old mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility, Mr. Collins is the product of imperfect bringing up and defective patronage in an undesirable social set up. Collins’s patroness Lady Catherine is blind in her pride of rank and wealth. In the contrast to Darcy, she is setting a bad example of manners to her parish and is more vulgar than Mrs. Bennet whose conduct often puts Elizabeth to shame. Lady Catherine was shocked on hearing that Bennet sisters were brought up without a governess. A governess is like a treasure, an essential ingredient to social prestige.

The only sensational incident is the Lydia’s elopement with Wikham. The silly fascination of teenagers like Lydia and Kitty for military officers is shown as a social problem, which peace loving guardians like Mr. Bennet cannot tackle. The elopement is a social scandal. The Bennets are almost shattered, Mr. Bennet is devastated. But the Gardiner’s prove a great help and consolation. Jane Austen uses the incident ironically as a blessing in disguise. It rouses the lover Darcy to prove in every way how much he care for Elizabeth and he family. In the process he becomes a better man and a true hero. Darcy would never have thought of marrying into such a family, and indeed, as soon as the event took place during Elizabeth’s stay near Pemberley, she thought that now it was all over with budding love-affair between Darcy and herself.

In a discussion of manners, minor characters also serve as remarkable illustrations. Sir William is a perfect snob and hypocrite. He is awestruck at the very sight of Rosings, though ‘St. James’ is always on his lips. The whole business of his life is to store his memory with anecdotes and noble names, so that he can pass them off at suitable opportunities for his personal acquaintances.

Jane Austen is often called superficial, enamored of the costumes of life. But her novel Pride and Prejudice is by no means a didactic novel. It is primarily a social novel of entertainment in the realistic background of rural life. Her constant and powerful irony gives an extra dimension to her record of social life.

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Minor Characters

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