Both Austen herself and her audience, be it her sister or the readers of her novels, are entertained by her comments on the discrepancy between what people pretend to be and what they really are.
Does this mean that Austen was solely a comic artist, whose only intention it was to make her readers laugh? This question could only be answered positively if we lived in a world where the aforementioned incongruities served exclusively as material for comedies without having any consequences on the society. Pride and Prejudice is, at first glance, simply an amusing depiction of England's social conventions of the late eighteenth- and the beginning of the nineteenth-century, particularly those of the gentry.
A second look reveals the deeper meaning of the novel. By employing a subtle ironic style, Austen indirectly criticises certain political, economical and sociological circumstances of her time.
They perform the role society has given them and are thus colourless figures. Characters in Pride and Prejudice that belong to this category are, for example, Mrs. Bennet or Elizabeth's sister Lydia. For distinguishing these plain characters from those who have their own will and an outstanding personality, those who actually make decisions instead of being led, Austen uses irony as an instrument.
While the clever and multifaceted protagonist, Elizabeth, is often ironic in her statements and thoughts, flat characters, such as Mrs. Bennet, neither understand nor are able to use irony. Ironically, according to D. The ironic tone of Pride and Prejudice is set with the very beginning of the novel. It is ironic in different ways and serves as a prime example for Austen's wit and skilfulness.
First of all, the statement is ironic in the respect that, in the late 18th century, women were much more dependent on their husbands than vice versa.
Especially women who had no families who could provide for them were hardly able to earn their own living in the prevailing patriarchal society. Secondly, calling the latter half of the sentence a universal truth is obviously a massive exaggeration which attributes an improper magnitude to a rather trivial subject. Reading on, the reader learns that the narrator is by no means concerned with the wider world; he is concerned with a neighbourhood:.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
This rather bathetic opening draws the attentive reader's attention to the ironic treatment that the narrator will give to his subject matter. After the first two sentences which not only determine the tone of the novel but also subtly criticise the view of marriage as a business, a conversation between Mr.
Bennet follows. They are the first married couple the reader is confronted with in a novel in which marriage is one of the major topics. Bennet, loud, loquacious and dominant, tells her husband, Mr. Bennet, who is calm, reserved and often cynical, about Mr. Bingley and Mr. While her only intentions in life are finding a husband for her daughters and gossiping, Mr. Bennet's personality is much more complex. This sets the tone appropriately for the rest of the novel, as all Austen's core plots centre around marriage.
It was an institute of paramount importance to people of Austen's time. As a young lady, marriage was not only for love, but also for fortune, convenience, stature and respect. He became engaged to her and her money, and Elizabeth on hearing about the engagement thought Darcy and Mr.
In the end Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy both get married together and live 'at Pemberley'. Overall Mr. Wickham's attitude towards marriage differs from Elizabeth's because Mr. Wickham is superficial and not serious at all, since he just wants to marry somebody preferable a woman with a lot of money as he is a mercenary man. But Elizabeth on the other-hand is profound and quite serious about her marriage as she wants it to be perfect al most.
She is also very disinterested as in she does not go for the rich and powerful but for someone who she can respect, for example, when she turned Mr. Darcy down when he offered her in marriage. She also finds that her new husband Mr. Darcy, to which she once thought to be detestable, is most agreeable and a great person.
The development of Elizabeth Bennet in this novel is tremendous, a once prejudice and judgmental girl is now a changed and happy woman. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Jane Austen combines the theme of irony with satire and drama in Pride and Prejudice to emphasize the overall basic plot of the story. Essentially, the positions and stances the characters hold on the issues on family, marriage, and love, change throughout the book, differing from the previous expectations seen at the beginning of the novel for each individual character.
A great example of this is the position that Mr. Bennet holds on the idea of a happy marriage at the beginning of the novel, and then at the end, after many relationships developed, how everything ironically turns out. Throughout the first half of the book, most of the characters are only beginning to be explored and the Pride and Prejudice part of the novel is revealed through two opposing characters who ironically start falling in love as the story progresses.
But before this, a significant passage is to be acknowledged because it reinforces the idea of what an ideal marriage should be and demonstrates the ideology of wealth and class. There is much verbal irony in the witty utterances of Mrs.
He tells Elizabeth:. Bennet, for Wickham is destined to make a considerable dent in Mr. Jane Austen did not show any cynicism or bitterness in using her irony to draw satirical portraits of whims and follies.
Rather her irony can be termed comic. It implies on her side an acknowledgement of what is wrong with people and society. It is interesting to note that ironically, in Pride and Prejudice , it is the villainous character Wickham and lady Catherine — who are responsible for uniting Elizabeth and Darcy. Austen uses irony to shake her major figures of their self-deception and to expose the hypocrisy and pretentiousness, absurdity and insanity of some of her minor figures.
It is definitely possible to deduce from her works a scheme of moral values. Andrew H. Wright rightly points out that irony in her hands is. Hello,I'm Esha Moni. I read in Honours Forth year in Department of English. That's why, I want to Your help my dear sir. So, can you help me,to give some important hand Note's?
0コメント