Ángela Ucero Diego

English Studies

IRONY AND SOCIAL CRITICISM HIDDEN BEHIND THE ROMANTICISM

IN AUSTEN´S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Romanticism is not dead, a sentence that we are used to hear, and with novels as Pride
and Prejudice we have not doubt that people still believe it and look for it. But behind
all this romantic intention that has made this work one of the most important novels of
all times, there is an intense irony and a not-so hidden social critic. All this covered by
the author in amorous sentences, a big main romance, some drama and characters that
make the reader fall in love with them has passed almost unnoticed through the years
and generations.

The social differences that existed in the period are well known, specifically the ones
between male and female individuals. This is stated in the very first sentence of the
novel as Austen´s said, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in
possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife’ (5). It does not mean that a man
is in need of a wife but the contrary. Women could not be independent and without a
man they were nothing, but pariahs and they were desperately looking for a husband
with fortune, so that first sentence hides some of this irony that the author wanted to
express. But this in fact the entire idea of the novel, women looking for “love”, or as
stated, a decent life, and it was drawn as a very romantic narration, which gave Austen
kind of a disappointment. As Wolfson said in her work referring to this sentence and the
real idea on it “So appealing is this signature wit that Austen’s dissatisfaction with her
novel as ‘rather too light & bright & sparkling; —it wants shade’ seems perverse” (1)
stating again the fact that behind all the romanticism the idea was kind of a different
one. In Wolfson work is shown that Austen was not very pleased with the super
romantic conception of her work since she wanted to show also another situations.
One of the biggest criticism that Austen tries to add in the novel relies on the main
couple. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are seen as a proof of unconditional love that
grows through the entire novel since at the beginning, Elizabeth does not want anything
with relationships and Mr. Darcy even denies a dance to her. The couple is seen by the
reader as they have reached the most perfect marriage working together on their
differences and being so in love that they cannot live without each other. After that
impressions, all the false romanticism in the novel is hidden because of the fact that Mr.
Darcy is still a rich man and the idea of a great future influenced Elizabeth´s “feelings”
towards him. As Wolfson explained “This discourse may be general issue in sentimental
fiction, Austen’s angle of irony is hard to gauge, but the material is there”, stating that
as it is shown, the romanticism is present in the book covering everything else. All that
really mattered to Austen is eclipsed by love, but it still can be deciphered.

As shown, Pride and Prejudice is a masterpiece that has survived through the years
attracting readers of all kind and periods. It is a novel that covers numerous themes
including relationships, social criticism, selfishness, and irony. But the fixation of all
these readers of making this novel only about one of the greatest loves ever written
without taking in consideration all of the factors surrounding it has eclipsed one of the
main purposes of Austen in the novel, that was making history through a well-told story
with a bit of sarcasm and as a complaint of her society.

WORKS CITED LIST

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1st ed., 1813.

J. Wolfson, Susan. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: NOT ALTOGETHER ‘LIGHT and

BRIGHT & SPARKLING.’ 1st ed., Princeton University, 2021, pp. 1-18.