This blog is Assignment writing on paper no-103( Literature of the Romantics) assigned by Professor Dr. Dilip Barad sir, Head of the English Department of Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Name: Gayatri Nimavat
Paper: 103 (Literature of the Romantics)
Roll no: 09
Enrollment no: 4069206420220019
Email ID: gayatrinimavat128@gmail.com
Batch: 2022-24 (MA Semester - 1)
Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English,Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Plot construction and Character analysis of 'Pride and Prejudice'
Introduction:
Pride and Prejudice, probably the most popular of Austen's finished novels, was also, in a sense, the first to be composed. The original version, First Impressions, was completed by 1797, but was rejected for publication; no copy of the original has survived. The work was rewritten around 1812 and published in 1813 as Pride and Prejudice. The final form must have been a thorough rewriting of the original effort, for it is representative of the mature Austen. Moreover, the story clearly takes place in the early nineteenth century rather than in the late eighteenth century. This is the inevitable consequence of the fact that Jane Austen carefully places her characters in just the proper symbol of their economic, social or intellectual condition.
Jane Austen put great care and thought into the construction of the plots of her novels and as a result of her industry, her plots are well knit. There is nothing superfluous or irrelevant in her novels. These plots are marked with simplicity, symmetry and precision. The story is not encumbered with religious, moral or philosophical abstractions and speculations. There are no superfluous or obtrusive characters, no episodes which obstruct the progress or movement and also no loose ends left dangling at the end. Her art of plot construction compels us to admire her. There is a complete interdependence between main plot and subplots. There is perfect organic unity of interplay between characters and events.
About Author:
Jane Austen, (born December 16, 1775, Steventon, Hampshire, England—died July 18, 1817, Winchester, Hampshire), English writer who first gave the novel its distinctly modern character through her treatment of ordinary people in everyday life. She published four novels during her lifetime: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815). In these and in Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (published together posthumously, 1817), she vividly depicted English middle-class life during the early 19th century. Her novels defined the era’s novel of manners, but they also became timeless classics that remained critical and popular successes for over two centuries after her death.
Plot construction:
Jane Austen had a considerable skill in constructing her plots which were simple plans of novels and the plans for telling her story the way she would like too. The plot of the novel Pride and Prejudice turns on the development of love between Darcy and Elizabeth and its final culmination in marriage Jane Austen has shown a remarkable dramatic scene in exhibiting the different stages of growth of pride and prejudice of the hero and the heroine and their final self knowledge which cure their feelings.
The novel has neat and coherent dramatic structure. At the Meryton Ball where Darcy meets Elizabeth, there is the first sowing of the seeds of pride and Prejudice. The prejudice of Elizabeth is strengthened by Wickham’s disclosure of Darcy’s unfair treatment of him. Darcy is however attracted by the liveliness of her mind. His feelings grow steadily warmer towards Elizabeth.
The subplot with Jane and Bingley is quite naturally woven into the main plot and the contrast is significant. Both Elizabeth and Jane begin their relationship with Darcy and Bingley at Meryton Ball, but then Jane and Bingley are attracted to each other. Bingley is made to mistake Jane’s modesty for indifference. Once this mistake is realized, nothing can keep Bingley away from Jane. Both these lovers serve a foil to Elizabeth and Darcy. This subplot is quite inseparable from the main plot as it develops the complex pattern.
The novel imitates drama in its structural neatness and unity. The novel is told from the point of view of Elizabeth who at first appears to be a sort of mirror character. We see other characters and the situations created by them as they impinge upon Elizabeth, the marriage of Miss Lucas, the distress of Jane, the elopement of Lydia, the activities of Gardiner etc. The dominant position of Darcy and Elizabeth is secured by the fact that they have a complete self awareness. It is this dominant position that gives unity in diversity in the novel.
Different characters are variations on the theme of pride. Pride here is a social grace or a social failing. In Darcy, pride is essentially self respect, virtue shared by Jane and Elizabeth, to which Miss Bingley and Lady Katherine suffer from social snobbery, Marry in her conceited bookishness, the Lucas’s in their perpetual bowing and Collins in his servility suffers from a perpetual pride. Others suffer from an accent of pride. Thus it is pride which is seen in different perspectives. Austen’s ironic tone unifies her materials. Therefore, the plot is so skillfully constructed that they can not be separated from one another nor can they be considered unnatural.
Character analysis:
1 Elizabeth Bennet:
"Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. All the world is good and agreeable in your eyes. I never heard you speak ill of a human being in your life."
Elizabeth Bennet, the second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous. She is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, she converses as brilliantly as anyone. Her honesty, virtue, and lively wit enable her to rise above the nonsense and bad behavior that pervade her class-bound and often spiteful society.
"That is very true, and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine"
Nevertheless, her sharp tongue and tendency to make hasty judgments often lead her astray; Pride and Prejudice is essentially the story of how she (and her true love, Darcy) overcome all obstacles,including their own personal failings to find romantic happiness. Elizabeth must not only cope with a hopeless mother, a distant father, two badly behaved younger siblings, and several snobbish, antagonizing females, she must also overcome her own mistaken impressions of Darcy, which initially lead her to reject his proposals of marriage. Her charms are sufficient to keep him interested, fortunately, while she navigates familial and social turmoil. As she gradually comes to recognize the nobility of Darcy’s character, she realizes the error of her initial prejudice against him.
2 Fitzwilliam Darcy:
Bingley's closest friend, the brother of Georgiana, and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Darcy is very wealthy and a person of great integrity, but his extreme class-consciousness makes him appear vain and proud. He finds Elizabeth attractive, even ideal, but is clumsy in expressing his feelings and disdains her sometimes crass family. Elizabeth's harsh appraisal of him compels him to reassess his behavior and attitudes. Her intelligence and her disregard for mere social rank teaches him to see people more for who they are, rather than the status into which they were born.
The narrator relates Elizabeth’s point of view of events more often than Darcy’s, so Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. The reader eventually realizes, however, that Darcy is her ideal match.
Elizabeth's rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in Darcy. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to Elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues Lydia and the entire Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue Elizabeth. Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.
3 Jane Bennet:
The oldest of the Bennet sisters, Jane seems almost too good to be true: beautiful, sweet-tempered, and modest. Her sole fault is that she refuses to think badly of anyone. She always looks on the bright side and is quick to defend someone when Elizabeth suspects them of having shortcomings.
The easy pleasantness with which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the mutual distaste that marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane and Bingley engage in a courtship that occupies a central place in the novel. They first meet at the ball in Meryton and enjoy an immediate mutual attraction. They are spoken of as a potential couple throughout the book, long before anyone imagines that Darcy and Elizabeth might marry.
Despite their centrality to the narrative, Jane and Bingley are vague characters, sketched by Austen rather than carefully drawn. Indeed, they are so similar in nature and behavior that they can be described together: both are cheerful, friendly, and good-natured, always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy. Jane’s gentle spirit serves as a foil for her sister’s fiery, contentious nature, while Bingley’s eager friendliness contrasts with Darcy’s stiff pride. Their principal characteristics are goodwill and compatibility, and the contrast of their romance with that of Darcy and Elizabeth is remarkable. Jane and Bingley exhibit to the reader true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice, though in their simple goodness, they also demonstrate that such a love is mildly dull.
4 Charles Bingley:
Darcy’s considerably wealthy best friend. Bingley’s purchase of Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets, serves as the impetus for the novel. He is a genial, well-intentioned gentleman, whose easygoing nature contrasts with Darcy’s initially discourteous demeanor. He is blissfully uncaring about class differences.
5 Mr. Bennet:
Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household, the husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary. He is a man driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult daughters. He reacts by withdrawing from his family and assuming a detached attitude punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to Elizabeth because they are the two most intelligent Bennets.
Initially, his dry wit and self-possession in the face of his wife’s hysteria make Mr. Bennet a sympathetic figure, but, though he remains likable throughout, the reader gradually loses respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his detachment is considerable. He is in fact a weak father who, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish indulgence of Lydia’s immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she elopes with Wickham. Further, upon her disappearance, he proves largely ineffective. It is left to Mr. Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and rectify the situation. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from the world than cope with it.
6 Mrs. Bennet:
Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her single-minded pursuit of this goal tends to backfire, as her lack of social graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries desperately to attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity of marriage for young women. Mrs. Bennet also serves as a middle-class counterpoint to such upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, demonstrating that foolishness can be found at every level of society. In the end, however, Mrs. Bennet proves such an unattractive figure, lacking redeeming characteristics of any kind, that some readers have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying her—as if Austen, like Mr. Bennet, took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned as a result of her ill-breeding.
7 George Wickham:
A handsome, fortune-hunting militia officer. Wickham’s good looks and charm attract Elizabeth initially, but Darcy’s revelation about Wickham’s disreputable past clues her in to his true nature and simultaneously draws her closer to Darcy.
8 Lydia Bennet:
Lydia is the youngest and wildest Bennet daughter. She is her mother’s favorite because like Mrs. Bennet, she is preoccupied with gossip, socializing, and men. Lydia is described as having “high animal spirits and a sort of natural self-consequence.” She is attractive and charismatic, but she is also reckless and impulsive. Lydia’s behavior frequently embarrasses her older sisters, and when Lydia receives the invitation to go to Brighton, Lizzy makes an impassioned speech about her sister’s character. She explains that “our respectability in the world must be affected by the wild volatility, the assurance and disdain of all restraint which mark Lydia’s character” Lizzy also articulates her fear that Lydia is on the road to becoming “a flirt in the worst and meanest degree of flirtation.” Lydia has an innate tendency toward wild and selfish behavior, but as a character she also sheds light on the failings of her parents, and father in particular. Because of her young age and lack of education, Lydia is presented as not entirely culpable for her behavior because she lacks parental guidance and discipline.
Although Lydia seems initially a harmless and entertaining character, her elopement with Wickham shows that her selfish actions can cause real damage. In the note explaining that she has run off with Wickham, Lydia writes “What a good joke it will be!” From Lizzy’s point of view, however, the focus is “the humiliation, the misery, she was bringing on them all.” Lydia does not think about the repercussions of her actions for herself or for her sisters. She does not learn any responsibility or sense of propriety over the course of the plot. Although Lydia’s reputation is barely salvaged through a hasty marriage, she focuses on her own importance, declaring, “Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a married woman.” She spends her married life relying on the generosity of her sisters and “moving from place to place in quest of a cheap situation.” In a novel where many other characters experience psychological development and growth, Lydia remains foolish and headstrong throughout.
9 Mr. Collins:
A pompous, generally idiotic clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr. Collins’s own social status is nothing to brag about, but he takes great pains to let everyone and anyone know that Lady Catherine de Bourgh serves as his patroness. He is the worst combination of snobbish and obsequious.
10 Miss Bingley:
Bingley’s snobbish sister. Miss Bingley bears inordinate disdain for Elizabeth’s middle-class background. Her vain attempts to garner Darcy’s attention cause Darcy to admire Elizabeth’s self-possessed character even more.
11 Lady Catherine de Bourgh:
A rich, bossy noblewoman; Mr. Collins’s patron and Darcy’s aunt. Lady Catherine epitomizes class snobbery, especially in her attempts to order the middle-class Elizabeth away from her well-bred nephew.
12 Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner:
Mrs. Bennet’s brother and his wife. The Gardiners, caring, nurturing, and full of common sense, often prove to be better parents to the Bennet daughters than Mr. Bennet and his wife.
13 Charlotte Lucas:
Elizabeth’s dear friend. Pragmatically, where Elizabeth is romantic, and also six years older than Elizabeth, Charlotte does not view love as the most vital component of a marriage. She is more interested in having a comfortable home. Thus, when Mr. Collins proposes, she accepts.
14 Georgiana Darcy:
Darcy’s sister. She is immensely pretty and just as shy. She has great skill at playing the piano.
15 Mary Bennet:
The middle Bennet sister, bookish and pedantic.
16 Catherine Bennet:
The fourth Bennet sister. Like Lydia, she is girlishly enthralled with the soldiers.
17 Mr. and Mrs. Phillips:
A country attorney and his vulgar wife, who is Mrs. Bennet's sister.
18 Colonel Fitzwilliam:
Darcy's well-mannered and pleasant cousin, who is interested in Elizabeth, but who needs to marry someone with money.
19 Miss De Bourgh:
Lady Catherine's sickly, bland daughter.
20 Mr. and Mrs. Hurst:
Bingley's snobbish sister and brother-in-law. Mrs. Hurst spends most of her time gossiping with Caroline, while Mr. Hurst does little more than play cards and sleep.
Conclusion:
Pride and Prejudice is full of character-driven themes that revolve around the literary concept of comedy of manners. A comedy of manners is a literary work that deals with young lovers attempting to unite in marriage, and usually includes several incidences of witty commentary from the main characters, which can take form in terms of anything from clever flirting to open warfare, as in the case of Darcy and Elizabeth. Pride and Prejudice is mainly concerned with the pairing of several couples and the issues surrounding each of those couples.
References:
Anderson, Walter E. “Plot, Character, Speech, and Place in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 30, no. 3, 1975, pp. 367–82. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2933075. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.
McCann, Charles J. “Setting and Character in Pride and Prejudice.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 19, no. 1, 1964, pp. 65–75. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2932788. Accessed 4 Nov. 2022.
Southam, Brian C.. "Jane Austen". Encyclopedia Britannica, 29 Sep. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jane-Austen. Accessed 4 November 2022.
Word count: 3029
Images: 29
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