Pride And Prejudice-Situational Irony

However, Elizabeth’s active nature and her refusal to be passive, “You give your opinion very decidedly for a woman of your age” (Austen 159), overshadow the traditional qualities she possesses. Her personality makes her very disagreeable to Lady Catherine and Mr. Bingley's sisters. When Jane falls ill, Elizabeth walks miles through the mud to visit Netherfield. Upon arriving, Elizabeth shocks the Bingley sisters, “I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She looked almost wild.” (Austen 35). Lady Catherine also plays a role in contrasting Elizabeth with more traditional women of the time. The confrontation between the two at Longbourn shows Elizabeth’s willingness to stand up for herself against people of higher social standing, “`I have said no such thing. I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness, without reference to you, or to any person so wholly unconnected with me.''(Austen 332). Austen’s use of a limited social structure highlights the clear message about the expectations of women in Regency England and Elizabeth’s refusal to

While moral Jane remains an invalid, captive at the Bingleys, her satirical sister Elizabeth walks two miles along muddy roads to help nurse her…While Jane remains at home, lovesick but uncomplaining, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a walking tour of Derbyshire. Jane’s docility, gentleness, and benevolence are remarkable, for she suffers silently throughout the entire plot… (Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, 65)

His sense of her inferiority–of its being a degradation of–the family obstacles which judgment had always opposed to inclinations were dwelt on...” (Austen 12). These words reflect Mr. Darcy’s excessive pride and heightened awareness of social status, while inducing him to recount all the ways in which he and Elizabeth are an illogical union, rather than relaying anything complimentary. In response to this insult-ridden proposal, Elizabeth proclaims that if he had acted in a more “gentlemanlike manner,” she would have been more inclined to express sympathy following her rejection of his advances. Despite Elizabeth’s clear message that she will not observe his insensitive words in submission, Mr. Darcy endures in the conviction that his prideful manners toward Elizabeth are well-justified and merely detail the truthful, adverse nature of her inferior social standing with the utmost sincerity.

Continuing her uncertainty of her sister’s judgement, Elizabeth concurs with Jane’s perception of Bingley while questioning “And so, you like this man’s sisters too, do you? Their manners are not equal to his” (11). Austen included this statement to show Elizabeth’s obsession with people’s manners and acknowledge society’s rules about manners, which Elizabeth has plentiful thoughts about. Simultaneously, Elizabeth ridicules the Bingley sisters’ manners and compliments Mr. Bingley’s. By asking if Jane likes the sisters, Elizabeth’s skeptical and scornful attitude towards people with poor manners is captured. Similarly, Austen demonstrates Elizabeth’s rejection of society’s idea about wealth and being a good person. While she acknowledges that this circumstance is true for Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth uses the Bingley sisters to prove this standard wrong. Without Elizabeth’s pessimism towards the Bingley sisters, the novel would lose

Even though, Elizabeth is very smart she is too quick to let her opinions stop her from understanding the people around her. She also lets her emotions cloud her judgment, especially when her friend Charlotte Lucas decides to marry Mr. Collins. She states, “And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen”(87). About halfway through the book, Elizabeth realizes ‘“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. “I, who have prided myself on my discernment... Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment, I never knew myself”’. She sees that her clouded judgment has misled her in seeing the true nature of Darcy and Wickham. Towards the end Elizabeth and Darcy are finally together and she reveals to him that she was being rude towards him at the beginning and he tells her that he was attracted to her because of her ‘liveliness ’, she tells him “You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less”. In observing this evolution Austen shows us that we need to put our pride

Through the writing, Austen makes each character unique and different. This technique is clearly shown in her novel, Pride and Prejudice. Therefore, Austen identifies the voices of characters, such as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, through the dialogue. Both characters use a complex structure in dialogue. For Mr. Darcy, this shows his intelligence and high class. Whereas for Elizabeth, this shows her insecurity within her social class. Elizabeth competes with Mr. Darcy by using the same structure to showcase her intelligence and wit. Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Darcy’s first proposal demonstrates this concept. She says, “From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that the groundwork of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike” (Austen 131).

    "Like all true literary classics, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is still capable of engaging us, both emotionally and intellectually" (Twayne back flap) through its characters and themes. This essay illustrates how Jane Austen uses the characterization of the major characters and irony to portray the theme of societal frailties and vices because of a flawed humanity. Austen writes about the appearance vs. the reality of the characters, the disinclination to believe other characters, the desire to judge others, and the tendency to take people on first impressions.

Although Darcy's words revealed a large metamorphism in his disposition, his actions are more evident and show his true ability to change. At Mr. Darcy's introduction to the novel he is immediately described as "…haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners, though well bred, were not inviting" (Austen 12). Austen introduces Darcy with all of his pretentious nature. Following the Meryton ball, Austen continues to display that unattractive nature of Darcy by comparing him to Bingley. "Darcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt the smallest interest, and from none received either attention or pleasure" (Austen 12). This statement reinforces the idea that Mr. Darcy is only concerned with talented women of great importance. It is Elizabeth, however, who wins his heart with her liveliness and witty remarks.

The progress between Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s relationship, in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) illustrates and explores several the key themes in the novel. Their relationship highlights class expectations, pride and prejudice, and marriage, and how they play a major role in determining the course of their association. These are outlined through their first prejudiced dislike of each other when they first meet, the stronger feelings for Elizabeth that develop on Darcy’s side, her rejection in Darcy’s first proposal, then her change of opinion and lastly the mutual love they form for one another. Pride and Prejudice is set up as a satire, commenting on human idiocy, and Jane Austen

As Elizabeth speaks with Mr. Darcy, Miss Bingley gives her input concerning the idea of an accomplished woman. At this time, Miss Bingley claims that an accomplished woman is one who has “thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages” as well as possession of “a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions” (Austen 30). As emphasized by Miss Bingley, society expects an educated woman to have the ability to soften her intelligence in a feminine and graceful manner. After hearing such demanding expectations, Elizabeth claims that it must be difficult to find any woman to fit such particular characteristics. Additionally, society’s expectations toward women is later displayed as Elizabeth declines Mr. Collin’s marriage proposal.

Having nothing to contribute to the conversation, Mrs. Allen is left resulting to the only things that gives her life meaning: gowns, dresses and fashion. Though relationships and appearance are big issues for women in Austen’s eyes, perhaps the thing she despises the most is the expected education level of women, which she addresses through her main character,

Elizabeth thinks of Darcy as being “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world” (15). After Darcy discomfits Elizabeth, “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me” (13), she herself becomes prideful and prejudiced against him. Prejudice also is an issue for Darcy because he dislikes Elizabeth in the beginning for her low social status, for being impecunious and socially inept family: “Their struggle is as much as against each other as it is against the pressure of society or family. The novel presents a balance of power not only between two characters but between two conflicting modes of judgment” (Bloom 50), but Darcy is forced to deal with his pride and prejudice when he falls in love with Elizabeth. Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first proposal based mostly on his pride and condescension.

She uses this unspecified person, who is outside of all the novel's action and gives explanations, as a medium of communication to present her own opinion in an allusively open way. This narrator is the first means of making ironic remarks. Through the narrator a certain mood is created that prevails throughout the novel. The very first sentence of the novel shows this with the following sentence, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife (Pride and Prejudice, p. 3). The irony of this statement is the universal validity with which assumptions are made in that upper-class society. It is assumed that there is nothing else for a man of high rank to want but a wife to complete his possessions. Along with his money, land, riches etc. she acts as nothing more but another piece of property, which was a common attitude in those days. Austen manages to make the attitude towards matrimony upheld by this upper class look rather ridiculous and incredible. Another ironic description is given, for instance, when Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst take care of the sick Jane, who stays at their house. They present themselves as very affectionate and caring friends to Jane. However, that does not stop them from talking very bad about Jane's relations. The real ironic comment is that the

Elizabeth’s snobbish pride hinders her from understanding her friend Charlotte Lucas’s best interests in regard to her desire to marry Mr. Collins. Elizabeth “prides herself on being a perceptive “studier of character,” as Mr. Bingley calls her, but how well does she really know her very good friend Charlotte…” when she “responds with amazement and horror” upon hearing that Charlotte wants to marry a man who is “dull”, “pompous” and “physically unattractive”. Elizabeth’s excessive pride blinds her from recognizing that Charlotte is “not much interested in men and very much interested in marriage” (Moler, 26). Elizabeth could have ruined the prospects of Charlotte’s marriage because of her self-importance in the way she

In the Regency Era, women were oppressed by society’s roles and they have a totally different life with men because of the gender inequality. “Why must she be scampering all about the country, because her sister had a cold? Her hair so untidy, so blousy!” is said by Miss Bingley to Elizabeth. Austen uses rhetorical question to exposes Elizabeth walk across the country is how unexpected to Miss Bingley because women usually have domestic lives and she objects that Elizabeth’s behaviour is too wild and independent for a woman. Also, Austen uses repetition to highlights the negative adjective that describes Elizabeth’s appearance is not ‘like’ a woman and end up with exclamatory mark to emphasises the tone of Miss Bingley to Elizabeth’s behaviour. The repetition of “...your arrogance, your conceit and your selfish disdain for the feelings of others.” argues how Elizabeth challenges this value in that period, she is not a quiet and agreeable woman like normal, she gives her opinions on Mr Darcy when Mr Darcy “debases” her family and because of her prejudice about Mr Darcy that the repetition better trans