Pride and predjudice
Pride and predjudicePride and Prejudice
Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, set in Nineteenth century England, is a novel about marriage. Austen's feminine writing and weaved storyline creates a novel which can be interesting to read and which women especially enjoy. The novel has a strong theme of marriage as a mother (Mrs. Bennet) desperately trying to marry her daughters off. She didn't care about the quality of the men her daughters were marrying, but was satisfied just as long as they found a man. When her sixteen-year-old daughter Lydia marries Wickham, she is thrilled and proceeds to make plans for visiting her neighbors with her, despite the fact that they had lived togetherfor over a year without being married, and that Wickham was forced into marrying her. Mrs. Bennet's strong desire to marry off her children and her unsatisfactory attempts at matchmaking show that in her society, marriage is held in high regard. It is a person's personal worth and the transfer of family fortunes that occurs during a marriage in this time that is probably the most important factor, not how the couple gets along or likes each other. Austen plays on this social behavior and seems to be making a statement. Therefore, I believe that Pride and Prejudice is a social satire. The language of Pride and Prejudice is astonishingly simple and the verbiage frugal, especially for the period in which it is written. There is no drastic action or heroic characters; however, Austen convincingly 1 develops character with it, and her characters, each with their own dialogue and languistical nuances, stand apart very well. Another interesting note about her characters is that at the end of the novel, all of her characters are punished or rewarded according to their actions throughout the course of the book. This shows her moralistic side. This quote, a typical Mr. Bennet speech, occurs when the issue of Kitty going to Brighton is brought up: "This is a parade which does one good; it gives such an elegance to misfortune! Another day I will do the same; I will sit in my library, in my night-cap and powdering gown, and give as much trouble as I can - or, perhaps, I may defer it til Kitty runs away." Contrasting this to someone like Mrs. Gardiner, as she is quoted here speaking to Elizabeth about Darcy's estate, one can see a completely different tone and manner of speaking: "My love, should you not like to see a place of which you have heard so much? A place, too, with which so many of your acquaintance are connected. Wickham passed all his youth there, you know." It must also be noted that her male characters are not nearly as developed and refined as her female ones. Men never gathered alone to discuss, or have parties - this is...
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