One of the most notable aspects of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, is the use of satire as a way to comment on English society in the 19th century. Austen’s satirical approach to analyzing societal norms gives the novel a comedic and lighthearted tone, while also educating the reader on faults in the social class in which she was raised. Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins serve as satirical objects of the society Pride and Prejudice depicts and are crucial in portraying Austen’s view on conventional attitudes towards marriage and women. Austen establishes her satirical view of these characters in the first line of the novel. The narrator states, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (p.1). The plot of the novel surrounds this societal assumption and provides a medium for author Jane Austen to critique society. In the classic novel of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen uses satire as a way to critique the role of women and marriage. Jane Austen chooses to satirize Mr. Collins in order to comment on the misguided purpose of marriage. Mr. Collins exemplifies this in his proposal to Elizabeth Bennet. In his proposal, Mr. Collins says haughtily, “‘My situation in life, my connections with the family of de Bourgh, and my relationship to your own, are circumstances highly in my favour; and you should take it into further consideration, that in spite of your manifold attractions, it is by no means certain
Austen’s character, Mr.Collins, mainly focusses on himself when he is proposing, which causes him to come across as selfish and unemotional. Mr. Collins thinks that “It is the right thing” for him to get married to “set the example”(2). This suggests that Mr. Collins wants to be married because he feels he needs to set the example for his parish
As his ultimate reason for wanting to marry Elizabeth, Mr. Collins says “thirdly—which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness.” Here, Mr. Collins reveals that he did not even come up with the idea to marry, it was actually his patronesses idea. During Austen’s time, a patron was akin to an employer, and Mr. Collins proposal of marriage, and entire purpose for finding a wife, was because his boss told him to. Mr. Collins treated marriage as though it were a task that can be assigned by an employer, as opposed to the serious commitment between two people in love. His actions are of those on a business venture, and he feels nothing and all for Elizabeth. Austen further portrays her disdain for such marriages by reflecting the absurdity of such a request in Mr. Collins’s horrifyingly tactless
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is among one of the timeless classics of the 19th century. Austen is championed with expert characterization and satire. The main plot revolves around the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, so they would be considered the main, most dynamic characters. However, Charlotte Lucas is just as important when it comes to conveying satire in the novel. Her character chooses to marry Mr. Collins who proposed to Elizabeth first creating an extremely dynamic message. The Freudian theory of the id, superego, and ego is eloquently displayed through Charlotte Lucas by her interactions and choices throughout the novel.
The romantic era in literature was characterized by many different authors, male and female. Jane Austen was only one of many authors in that era, and one of the longest lasting; through her many novels, she shows various views on love and marriage. In Jane Austen’s critically acclaimed novel, Pride and Prejudice, Austen spares no character, male or female, in her criticism of the understood custom that the only route to happiness was marriage.
In the 1800s, Jane Austen, who is an accomplished author wrote the satirical novel Pride and Prejudice. One of the main character,Elizabeth Bennet, is a 20 year old girl who has five unmarried sisters, a crazy mother and a very unique look on marriage.During this novel, two of Elizabeth’s sisters: Lydia and Jane get married after they both faced an abundance of drama, which makes their eager mother every happy. After an awkward proposal, Elizabeth finds an extremely wealthy man, Mr. Darcy, who she shows hatred for, but then falls in love with him in the end. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen creates a satirical novel by exaggerating the qualities of some of her stereotypical characters to welcome the reader’s ridicule of them thereby exposing
Mrs Bennet is the perfect example of how Austen uses satire and mockery to make a social comment on the connection between marriage and social structure. The readers are lead to find the character of Mrs Bennet to be irritating and ridiculous. Mrs Bennet is put into the scene in order to further display how ludicrous the nature of Mrs Bennet’s actions together with her language. Mrs Bennet gives Elizabeth the alternative of marriage or disownment. Charlotte Lucas is also a great example of society’s expectations were in terms of marriage for women. The same as Mrs Bennet was doing for Elizabeth, if she didn’t marry she would be subject to disownment by her mother. Charlotte was on a whole another level. If she were not to marry Mr Collins she would also be subject to disownment by the whole of society and become labelled as an “old maid”. This led her to the marriage without love in order for her to be secure within society and not disowned. Charlotte’s choices, to marry without love and as well as Mrs Bennet’s desire to see one of her “daughters happily settled at Neitherfields” appears more realistic and sensible to the responder. Because of the way society was structured in terms of the class system at the time. Satire with this perfectly displays Mrs Bennet sheer determination and persistence in marriage for her daughter. This further reflects the importance of social mobility of the
Jane Austen shows the readers within the first sentence what the plot and main theme of Pride and Prejudice is and what social ideas she plans on presenting through this novel. The first sentence of Pride and Prejudice stands as one of the most famous introductory lines in literature. It states, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 5). This statement puts the novel in motion by showing that the novel will deal with the pursuit of single wealthy men by various female characters. By stating this, Austen reveals that the reverse is also true in the nineteenth century English society, which is that single women of
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”(Austen 1). Austen gives us the insight of what it was like back in the 1800s when marrying was not done for solely love but more for money and that only a man of good class and fairly good amount wealth can have a wife. Elizabeth Bennet, A character brought to life by Austen in Pride and Prejudice, fights against the norms of her time and marries for love, even though there was a lot of money that along with it love was the main reason. Jane Austen novels
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice examines and critiques a society built upon gender roles. Austen does this by examining the obstacles women experienced in the Regency Period. Austen expresses how women were controlled, and objectified by men through their need to get married to a man. Additionally, the novel ridicules how women who could not afford to live without men were shadowed by their partner. This commentary is seen through the portrayal of the Bennet sisters. The females of the family are forced to marry because they do not inherit any wealth. The family is forced to comply with the same boundaries Austen was governed by. Therefore, Austen focuses on how the Bennet sisters overcome a society that suppresses them. This allows the reader to comprehend the strength, perseverance, determination, and assertiveness of the women in this time. Overall, Jane Austen addresses gender issues throughout the story. This is seen in the progressive image of Elizabeth, as she combats the inequality women experience. Although it was not common for women to criticize the patriarchy, the overall depiction of females is progressive. Elizabeth represents Austen’s feminist views, and the depiction of women in the novel is seen through her feminist image as she deals with Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.
Pride and Prejudice tells a story of a young girl in the midst of a very materialistic society. Jane Austen uses the setting to dramatize the restraints women had to endure in society. As the novel develops, we see how women have to act in a way according to their gender, social class, and family lineage. Elizabeth Bennet’s sisters represent the proper societal lady while Lizzy is the rebel. Through her characters Austen shows how a women’s happiness came second to the comfort of wealth. As the plot develops, events are laid out to illustrate how true love is unattainable when women marry for intentions of wealth. Women have very specific and limited roles in a society where men are the superior. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice is a novel with a romantic yet ironic story. This completes Jane Austen’s masterpiece. The novel is about women in society and marriage. Austen uses sarcasm as the tone of the novel to make the story ironic. The tone is sarcastic because of the way Elizabeth Bennet is portrayed, the relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, and the situations her characters are in.
Humor serves as a universal medicine. A good laugh is surely to cure any case of sadness. In literature, even though many times authors incorporate satire just for humor, other authors like Jane Austen include satire to comment on specific practices of society. So called “good” satire consists of dry humor with weaved in criticism that addresses social norms and common practices of a specific era. In Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen successfully satirizes society’s view of marriage and the pressures society puts upon women to marry a man not for love but for a “business” relation.
Jane Austen’s novel is commanded by women; Pride and Prejudice explores the expectations of women in a society that is set at the turn of the 19th century. Throughout the plot, Austen’s female characters are all influenced by their peers, pressures from their family, and their own desires. The social struggle of men and women is seen throughout the novel. Characters, like Elizabeth, are examples of females not acting as proper as women were supposed to, while other women like Mrs. Bennett allow themselves to be controlled by men and society. Mr. Collins is a representation of the struggles males deal with in a novel dominated by women. The theme of marriage is prominent during Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Marriage can be examined in
Through the use of literary devices, Pride and Prejudice reveals Jane Austen’s attitude towards the novel’s theme of true love through the actions of the suitors; the process of courtship in the 1800s articulates characterization, foreshadowing, and irony. The novel opens with the line, “it is a truth acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of wife,” (Austen 1) which foreshadows the conflict of finding a significant other . During the Victorian age, men and women courted others of the same education, wealth, and social status; it was considered uncommon for someone to marry beneath them or to marry for love. Jane Austen uses Elizabeth Bennett’s encounters with different characters of varying
Jane Austen’s well-known novel, Pride and Prejudice, discussed multiple social themes in the 19th century. Austen mainly criticized marriage during her era, when she says that, “it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). As she explains that it was valuable to women since it provided them with security and a social title. The author explored the diverse motives behind matrimony in her time period by using a humorous and romantic plot to discuss the social issues. For instance, Charlotte Lucas’s unreasonable marriage to Mr. Collins is a vital example of how women needed to secure a future and attain social status. To conclude, Lydia Bennet’s meaningless marriage to George Wickham shows that entering the marriage estate could have also been for mainly financial purposes. Contrastingly, Jane Bennet, the heroine’s older sister, marries Charles Bingley for love, security, and a social ranking. On the other hand, Elizabeth Bennet marries Fitzwilliam Darcy after months of misunderstandings and romantic drama for none other than true love. Thus, Austen uses her leading characters’ marriages in Pride and Prejudice to exhibit the various attitudes and reasons for marrying in the 19th century. (Lane 2015)