Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0124/01247.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob01247}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of Jane Austen
Essay Questions and Bibliography}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Austen, Jane}
$Affiliation{Instructor Of English, Rutgers University}
$Subject{elizabeth
pride
darcy
social
marriage
prejudice
family
characters
bennet
elizabeth's}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       Works of Jane Austen
Book:        Study Guide
Author:      Austen, Jane
Critic:      Fitzpatrick, William J.
Affiliation: Instructor Of English, Rutgers University

Essay Questions and Bibliography

Essay Questions And Answers

     1. Discuss the significance of the title.

     Pride and prejudice are the traits that help determine the actions of the
two main characters and thereby the course of the plot. In this sense, the
story is about pride and prejudice, about the effects of these vices on
persons and events. The "pride" consists in an unrealistic exaggeration of
one's importance, and it manifests itself socially in discourtesy and
generally unjust and offensive treatment of others. Pride may well be the
occasion of prejudice, which consists in judging before the evidence is at
hand. Others are not considered on their real merits (or demerits). Both are
moral distortions of the personality and prevent the individuals from
establishing reality.

     Darcy is undoubtedly a superior person; but he so exaggerates the sense
in which he is "above his company" (III) that he is unable to treat Elizabeth
(whom he loves) with the respect she deserves. In the very act of proposing
marriage to her, he insults her by describing the great humiliation it is for
him to marry someone socially so far beneath him. Although he sees Elizabeth's
merit well enough to propose, he cannot treat her as his social equal (XXXIV).
Elizabeth's pride has been offended by Darcy's insult at the ball in Meryton
(III, V). She is then ready to believe the worst of him (XVIII), and is happy
to credit Wickham's account of his almost criminal behavior. Her attraction
to Wickham also disposes her to suspend her splendid critical faculty and
accept whatever he says. She is thus prejudiced against Darcy (because of his
slight to her) and prejudiced in favor of Wickham (because of his
attractiveness). Her prejudice prevents her seeing Darcy's growing interest in
her, at Netherfield and at Rosings, so that she is totally unprepared for his
proposal. As his pride has blinded him to the impossibility of Elizabeth's
tolerating his insults, so her prejudice has prevented her appreciating
Darcy's real worth. The action of the novel is largely the story of how these
two overcome their pride and prejudice.

     As the various characters are united in a common plot and by an analogy
of action, so do most of them exhibit variations of the same moral failings.
Lady Catherine's pride is ridiculous in a way that Darcy's is not, because of
her ignorance and terrible bad manners. Her prejudice against Elizabeth
reveals a blind hysteria. Mr. Collins, for all his obsequious groveling at
Rosings, is so egotistical that he turns a letter of condolence into an
announcement of self-congratulation (XLVIII). Mrs. Bennet is enormously
prejudiced against Darcy and against anyone else who appears in any way not to
cooperate in her schemes to get her daughters married. And so on.

     It is necessary to distinguish the pride of egotism and snobbery from the
pride of self-esteem, independence, and dignity. The latter is a virtue, and
we admire it in Elizabeth when she answers Darcy's insulting proposal and when
she stands up to Lady Catherine. It is in this meaning of a sense of one's own
identity that Elizabeth says, "There is no improper pride in him" (LIX).

     2. Discuss the social context as the medium of the action of the story.

     Marriage is the social act par excellence. In it, society conserves and
revivifies itself (or disintegrates); in it families and fortunes and
traditions are joined. There is much more at stake than the pitter-patter of
hearts locked in romantic embrace. The richness of Pride and Prejudice derives
in part from the author's exploration of the conflicts, the problems, that
attend marriage among the middle class of English society at the beginning of
the nineteenth century.

     All society is hierarchical. There are ranks, or orders, or estates, or
classes. In the time of Elizabeth and Darcy, these were acknowledged with
greater formality than now, and the crossing of class lines was a dramatic
social event. In the romance of Darcy and Elizabeth (and in the other marriage
business) the social facts of life appear as: income ("fortune"); aristocratic
ideals; snobbery; breeding ("manners").

     For people in general (the four and twenty families of Meryton) the most
interesting fact about a person is his income. For Mrs. Bennet, the Lucases,
Charlotte, marriage is a "preservative from want" (XXII). For them, marriage
is a market place where they must strive to make the best bargain they can in
order to conserve or improve their status in life. "A single man of large
fortune" is a piece of "property" (I). This attitude is only a perversion of
common sense. Even Elizabeth and Mrs. Gardiner speak of a marriage to Wickham
as "imprudent as to fortune" (XXVI, XXXIX). It is irrational and impulsive to
ignore the economic facts of life, to think that the level of living and
leisure to which one has been accustomed is not important enough to prevent a
marriage. What Elizabeth and Jane maintain ("Do anything rather than marry
without affection" [LIX] is that economic considerations alone are
insufficient to cause a marriage. (Recall Mr. Bennet's remarks to Elizabeth
[LIX].) It may sometimes be difficult to distinguish between "the mercenary
and the prudent motives" (XXVII), but if one is to retain an integrity of
thought and feeling one must stand ready to sacrifice "worldly advantage"
(XXII). Charlotte, though "prudent" (XXXIII) has "disgraced" herself. Wickham
is much worse, for (as a man) he has had the chance to make his way in the
world and women have become for him entirely a source of material advantage.
Fitzwilliam is chided by Elizabeth (XXXIIII), but it might be expected that
his choice will be motivated by both affection and "some attention to money."
Thus, Jane Austin treats the economics of marriage with discrimination and
common sense.

     Looked at from the point of view of the "sellers" - the Mrs.
Bennets-marriage is an economic affair that elicits greed. But from the point
of view of the "buyers," the main concerns are those of rank, social duty and
status, level of culture, family tradition, and the like, with snobbery as the
corresponding excess. It is perfectly just that care be taken to build a
family that will maintain a level of achievement. It is only common sense to
consider the influence that one family might have on another. (It cannot be
denied that Wickham, Lydia, Mrs. Bennet, the Philipses are undesirable
in-laws.) Darcy is the heir to old feudal estates that he must administer with
justice and wisdom (XLIII, XLIV). He is a man of immense fortune - of social
power - which carries correlative social duties. He has been educated in the
subtle skills of his civilization, accustomed to a certain level of social
intercourse. That he should be wary of allying himself with "inferior
connections" is not mere snobbery, but an intelligent and normal concern with
conserving his way of life. (The example of Mr. Bennet and the family he
produced is there to attest to what can happen when a man marries beneath
him.)

     Because education and refinement of manners require a certain leisure
(therefore, a certain wealth), the coincidence of good breeding and class
lines is readily (too readily) assumed. A businessman working all day for
money or profit is inferior to a gentleman who spends his time cultivating
the mental and social arts. This is the basis for all that Darcy says about
"the inferiority of your connections . . . relations whose condition in life
is so decidedly beneath my own" (XXXIV). No doubt he is excessively conscious
of his own importance. He is something of a snob and deserves to be humbled.
But there is a real risk in allying one's family with "an attorney in
Meryton" and persons who live "near Cheapside" (VIII). It is the risk of
introducing vulgarity and (what is worse) indiscipline into a family which has
striven self-consciously to maintain standards of disciplined conduct. What
Darcy learns (or decides) in the course of the story is that Elizabeth is
worth the risk, that, furthermore, he must be less rigid in his judgments of
the probable talents of the working middle class. (Here, no doubt, the
Gardiners instruct him, and, partly, redeem the vulgarity of Elizabeth's
family.)

     When Elizabeth rebukes Darcy for his bad manners, she reminds him that he
falls short of his own standards of behavior (XXXIV, LVIII). Further, Darcy's
aunt is, in her own way, as ill-bred as Mrs. Bennet (XXI, LVI). Georgiana, as
well as Elizabeth, has been taken in by Wickham. Bingley's sisters are
pretentious, proud, and, even vulgar (X). Mr. Collins is a bigger snob than
anyone. Sir William Lucas competes with him in servility. Mr. Hurst is a lazy
nonentity. The people of Meryton are petty, malicious, hypocritical, vulgar,
superficial (XXIX, LVIII, LV). By overcoming his pride and marrying
Elizabeth, Darcy acknowledges the lack of symmetry between good breeding and
"good family." But it should be noted that the "code of civilized
conduct" - good manners - to which everyone aspires is the same for the whole
range of gentlemen, of the whole middle or "leisure" class. What is good
behavior in Darcy's household is (or should be) good behavior in Elizabeth's.
Everyone accepts the common standards of social intercourse, as they accept a
common morality based on a Christian culture. The marriage of Elizabeth and
Darcy, then, is the resolution of a social conflict that has proved
superficial because a common recognition and achievement of civilized
standards of intelligence, taste and manners are at the base of their mutual
love.

     Although society has considerably changed since the early nineteenth
century, we find small difficulty in comprehending the social context of Pride
and Prejudice. This is partly because our education has made us aware of the
nature of the society of one hundred fifty years ago, but mainly because
social distinctions will never pass away. Society continues to provide the
opportunity for human beings to display snobbery, pride, greed, and prejudice.
Because her observation of human nature was so true, Jane Austen's characters
and their problems remain recognizably human.

     3. How does the author emphasize the characters' misapprehension of
themselves and their experiences?

     Pride and Prejudice is a complex study of human deception and
self-deception. Throughout the book, characters are deceived by appearances,
fool themselves and others, pretend to be what they are not. Their
expectations are mistaken; their actions grounded in false premises. The
author reveals the motives and consequences of these failures in perception by
having their false understanding culminate in actions whose effects are the
opposite of what is intended. This sharp contrast between knowledge and truth,
between what the characters understand and what the reader understands,
between intention or expectation and fulfillment is called dramatic irony.

     Dramatic irony may have an objective or a subjective foundation, or both.
Appearances may lie, may suggest the opposite of what actually is. Thus,
Wickham's "appearance was greatly in his favor" (XV) and Darcy's proud bearing
seems to imply a thoroughly bad character. But appearances are misleading:
"One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it" (XL).
Jane's modesty belies her ardent love for Bingley (VI, XXXVI). Georgiana's
shy demeanor conceals a surprising capacity for passionate impulse (XLIII).
Charlotte's attentions to Collins seem to be only common courtesy (XVIII, XX,
XXI) for which Elizabeth is grateful, but she is actually stalking a husband
(XXII). Because of what she has said of him in the past, Elizabeth is thought
to despise Darcy (LVII, LXIX), when actually she is in love with him. In each
of these situations things are not as they would seem. Reality wears a mask
that solicits mistaken judgments.

     But although there are objective occasions for superficial (and
erroneous) opinion, a more cautious scrutiny of the facts would sometimes
avoid this discrepancy between estimation and actuality. For example, Mr.
Bennet is ignorant of Elizabeth's true feelings about Darcy. What he takes for
the truth (that he will amuse Elizabeth with the absurdity of Collins's
suggestion that she is engaged to a man she dislikes) is directly contrary to
the truth (LVII). The source of her father's ironic error, however, lies in
the circumstances rather than in himself. On the other hand, Elizabeth is
wrong about Wickham and Darcy because she has disposed herself to be deceived.
Her offended pride (V) has blinded her judgment (VI). Things are the opposite
of what she supposes (not only does she misread their characters, but Darcy
admires rather than dislikes her). The irony here is compounded because
Elizabeth prides herself on her intelligence and perception. When ignorance
thus pretends to knowledge, it is evidence of a moral failure. When Mr.
Collins understands Elizabeth's refusal of his proposal as an encouragement of
his pursuit - a convert acceptance (XIX) - his blindness to the plain reality
is a comment on his egotism, his snobbish exaggeration of his social
importance. In these last two cases, the irony is more emphatic because
deception is self-deception.

     In order to dramatize comically the sham and pretense of many of the
persons in her book, the author juxtaposes their interpretations of
themselves and their actual behavior. Lady Catherine's pride in her social
status is repeatedly shown by her petty mind and "ill-breeding" to be without
foundation. Caroline Bingley implies that she is socially superior to the
Bennet family, but her crude pursuit of Darcy exposes the flimsiness of her
pretension to refinement. Mr. Collins continually announces his importance,
and simultaneously betrays his moral, social, and intellectual unimportance.
The pretensions of these characters are the inverse of what their behavior
shows them really to be. Because characters take appearances for reality,
deceive themselves or are deceived, they act on wrong premises, look forward
in error. Things turn out contrary to their anticipations. Their actions
produce effects opposite to those intended. Thus, Darcy seeks to prevent a
connection with the Bennet family (he has misjudged the power of the girls'
attractions), and he ends up marrying a Bennet himself. Lady Catherine acts to
prevent a marriage and she becomes the cause of it (LX). Mr. Bennet permits
his daughter to go to Brighton in order to keep peace in a family that he
regards with ironical detachment. But this results in his greater involvement
and in a disruption of the family peace. Caroline acts to arouse Darcy against
Elizabeth, but succeeds only in reminding him of the intimacy they share
(XLV). Misled by appearances to believe that Darcy dislikes her, prevented by
her prejudice against him from seeing the truth, Elizabeth tries verbally to
rebuke him; but in doing so she actually makes herself more attractive to him
(VI, IX, X, XI, XVIII, XXXI, LX.) By allowing events directly to contradict
the judgments, expectations, and intentions of her characters, the author
clarifies their limitations. The reader (aware of the actual situation) is
made to see reality mock and punish pride, vanity, and failures in awareness.
Dramatic irony thus becomes a way of dealing out a kind of natural retribution
and revealing the surprise and complexity of experience.

     4. What does a study of the vocabulary of Pride and Prejudice reveal
about its moral structure?

     Critics have suggested that the frequent occurrence of certain
words - whatever their original or basic meaning - has an "economic" meaning,
which tends to characterize the persons, their actions, and the social
milieu. Establishment, settled, charge, worth, dear, prosperous, paid,
mercenary, business, debt, interest, and other words covering meanings in
trade, business, calculation, goods, and the like - all these tend in their
cumulative effect to emphasize the materialistic venture that much of society
has made out of marriage. Even when not used in an "economic" sense, the words
might seem to hint at the economic motivations and facts of life that underlie
social relations (e.g., "the business of love-making" [XXIII]). In order,
however, to avoid hasty generalizations about "the materialistic values of the
society," it is necessary also to note another prominent set of terms, the
abstract nouns indicative of moral standards, of spiritual and ethical
concerns: rational, pride, prejudice, principle, prudence, sense, truth,
folly, falsehood, civility, propriety, conduct, reason, ignorance, shame,
judgment, decorum, temptation, integrity, merit. These abstract terms recur
frequently and can become charged with excitement because of the emotional
contexts in which they appear. We thus have two sets of vocabularies that
indicate the two sets of values that oppose each other in the book: that
symbolized by Charlotte'se marriage to Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet's obscene
talk about the income of her two sons-in-laws; the other steadfastly affirmed
by Elizabeth.

     If the student should remark that, after all, one would expect the words
to accord with the subject of the book and the basic concerns of the
characters who speak them, and that this is nothing to be very surprised at,
then he should quite properly forget about this question in favor of number
two.

     5. Collect several examples of rhetorical irony and distinguish the real
and apparent meanings.

     6. Make a list of the various obstacles to the union of Darcy and
Elizabeth and show how they are resolved.

     7. Discuss the mechanical (plot) and thematic functions of the three
other young men in Elizabeth's life.

     8. Make a list of every marriage in Pride and Prejudice and explain the
thematic function of each.

     9. Discuss Elizabeth's reply when asked how long she has loved Darcy: "I
believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at
Pemberley" (LIX, XLIII).

     10. The term prudence is used very often throughout the book. Discuss the
many meanings it takes on according to the contexts in which it is used.
(Sometimes it means "cautious," or "mercenary," or "rational," or "shrewd," or
"sensible," etc.) Be sure to note when it is used ironically (i.e., to mean
"imprudent," or "designing," and the like).

     11. Write a Comment for every chapter that does not have one.