Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice - Context

1813; Georgian. Married women had no rights; after marriage, a woman's legal existence was "suspended" (William Blackstone, 1765); she becomes the property of her husband. Hence, marriage and a choice/finding of husband was a key issue and concern for women at the time.

Pride and Prejudice - Themes

Romantic love, familial love, comedy (mocks manners and facades), sensibility, class, marriage, gender, 'pride and prejudice'

Pride and Prejudice - Prose Links

Class: Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre; gender/domestic sphere: The House of Mirth

Pride and Prejudice - Drama Links

Comedy of manners/proposal ritual/courting rituals: Importance of Being Ernest, Fulgens and Lucrece, The Rivals, Much Ado About Nothing, The Way of the World; class: The Deep Blue Sea

Pride and Prejudice - Poetry Links

The Wife of Bath (comedic view of marriage and gender)

Comment on marriage, class, link between money and marriage (heirs, security), societal gender expectations

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"

Highlights how marriage is more a monetary contract than a declaration of love at this time

"happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance"

Woman as having more power emotionally than men; having the power to influence them; love/wooing as a game; unromantic concept

"In nine cases out of ten a woman had better show more affection than she feels...he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on"

What attracts Darcy to Elizabeth- eyes are often seen as linked to the soul, suggests he likes her both spiritually and physically, he likes that she has "expression", that she isn't brainless

"the beautiful expression of her dark eyes"

The idea that due to class boundaries and pride he is reluctant to acknowledge her appeal

"he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing"

Shows how she has the power as she isn't as attached as he is

"to her he was only the man who made himself agreeable nowhere"

Could suggest Mr Darcy likes the chase/challenge of Elizabeth, appreciates that she isn't wowed by him

"her resistance had not injured her with the gentleman"

A way of summarising the sisterly bond.

"the balm of sisterly consolation"

Social assumptions; 'gossiping women' trope

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

Familial love and fatherly protection

"If my children are silly I must hope to be always sensible of it"

Miss Bingley listing all the societal expectations required for female perfection; eternal love triangle- she is criticising Elizabeth in the hopes of turning Darcy against her and earning his favour

"she had no conversation, no style, no taste, no beauty"

Subversion of romantic poetry, highlighting its insincerity

"I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving away love!"

Expectations of women, female ideals ('accomplished')

"a women must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing"

Comedic, mocking elevated language and showing it to be unnecessary; importance of equality in love, the need for love to be reciprocated and mutual to be strong

"Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely"

Societal façades (Iago link)

"Nothing is more deceitful... than the appearance of humility"

Femme fatale; love and attraction out of your control, love like magic washing over you

"Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her"

Mocking undertones; suggests how ridiculous class hierarchies are as love and attraction will always transcend them, perhaps shows how powerful women really are

"she hardly knew how she could be an object of admiration to so great a man"

further link between fortune and security and marriage

"Having now a good house and very sufficient income, he intended to marry"

Familial love, siblings, brother-sister bond

"He has also brotherly pride, which with some brotherly affection, makes him a very kind and careful guardian of his sister"

Iago link (physiognomy) - don't judge a book by its cover

"Besides, there was truth in his looks"

The fine line between love and hate

"To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! Do not wish me such an evil!"

Marriage for love is the best kind

"all the felicity which marriage of true affection could bestow"

Exaggerated, hyperbolic proposal scene; untrue, as we know Mr Collins first chose Jane

"Almost as soon as I entered this house I singled you out as the companion of my future life"

Clinical, insincere, unromantic

"the design of selecting a wife"

Ironic; anything but passionately affectionate; perfunctory statement (comedy of manners)

"the violence of my affection"

Not passionate/romantic; oblivious to her sincere rejection of him

"my proposals will not fail of being acceptable"