Minor Characters In Pride and Prejudice: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes ~ The Wise Notes- C.U. English Honours Notes & Tutorials

Minor Characters In Pride and Prejudice: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes

Posted by Allan on 02:34

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

In Jane Austen’s novels it is not only the protagonists that engross interest, the minor characters are as perfectly studied, in their due perspective.

Austenian social comedy is patterned in a calculated mixture of serious and comic characters. The leading figures like Elizabeth and Darcy are serious and some of the supporting characters like Jane, Bingley and Charlotte. But minor characters are there to provide the amusement and hearty laughter and on them the popularity of the Pride and Prejudice depends considerably. It should also be noted that these comic characters are not all comic in the same way, they are individualized and belongs to certain type.

The most famous and dramatically significant among these comic figures is Mr. Collins. Some critics like J.B. Preistley have called him the greatest humorous character in English fiction. He comes to life the moment we meet him or rather even before we meet him; the letter which Mr. Bennet reads out in Chapter Thirteen. His pompousness of style mingles with his insensibility to rational human feelings makes him an object of laughter. His apologising for ‘being next in the entail’ is ridiculous. He does not exist simply for the sake of the story but exists in his own right and compels his creator to indulge him all over the place.

Most probably Jane Austen intended Mr. Collins to be a satirical portrait. All the intelligent characters in Pride and Prejudice are either bored or annoyed by him; but for readers it is a rare treat to hear him talk. To call him simply a flatterer is to make a gross mistake; his speeches about Lady Catherine have devotional fervour. Jane Austen was no friend of romance, yet the fact remains that ridiculous Mr. Collins of her’s is a child of romance with all his oddities. He is ecstatic to introduce himself to Darcy at a party. Collin’s proposal to Elizabeth is the best comic proposal in literature. Mr. Collins being obsessed with the thought of his patroness has not sufficient interest and imagination to become a lover. His remark that being an heir to Mr. Bennet’s estate, he felt it almost his duty to choose one of his cousins. This is extraordinarily tactless, for no girl wishes to be pitied or condescended to. And Elizabeth hardly has relished it. Being refused he acts like a small boy imitating the elder and hints that refusal is a mere show of coyness.

The second comic character is Collin’s patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh. There is a lot of satire mixed with humour in Jane Austen’s portrait of this dowager. She appears only twice in the story, but her name recurs infinitely in Collin’s speeches and letters. In the first she is seen seated on her throne as it were like a goddess at Rosings. Elizabeth is intelligent and self possessed girl, to her-she is an object of amusement rather than of respectful awe. She talks loudly almost non-stop to exert her personality but actually she has no personality and is vulgar in her tastes. She interferes into everybody’d affairs, poke her nose into their secrets and offers uncalled-for advice. She esquires of Elizabeth in details about her family, age, activities and education of her sister’s in an objectionable manner. But Elizabeth stands her ground without feeling ashamed or afraid and plainly refuses to answer some of her crass questions. She becomes an object of laughter by her unabashed praise of herself and shameless habit of listening to her flatterers like Collins and Sir Williams. Lady Catherine is a foolish, headstrong woman who lacks both tact and manners like when she tries to intimidate Elizabeth to give up the plan of marrying Darcy.

Mrs. Bennet is another comic character who lacks education, intelligence, tact and manners. She cannot understand her husband nor other characters like Darcy and Lady Catherine. Her tastes are shallow and her mind is silly and immature like Lydia. She is childishly fond of rich people and fashionable dress and adores Bingley’s sisters for their elegant dresses and calls Lady Catherine ‘prodigiously civil’. It is Mrs. Bennet’s passion for talking about the marriage of her daughter and habit of proclaiming her joy loudly that costs Jane’s happiness. The over zealousness about marrying her daughter makes Mrs. Bennet to compel Elizabeth in listening to Collin’s proposal. We are repeatedly shown how Mrs. Bennet makes herself an object of laughter by sometimes admiring her spoilt child Lydia and even sharing her immature enthusiasm.

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