Pride and Prejudice: Handout

1. Jane Austen: biography and background

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in the Hampshire village of Steventon, where her father, the Reverend George Austen, was rector.
She was the seventh child in a family of eight: six boys and two girls. Her closest companion was her elder sister, Cassandra, who also
remained unmarried. Their father encouraged the love of learning in his children. His wife, Cassandra, was a woman of ready wit,
famed for her impromptu verses and stories. The great family amusement was acting. Her affectionate family circle provided a
stimulating context for her writing. Moreover, her experience was carried far beyond Steventon rectory by an extensive network of
relationships by blood and friendship. It was this world--of the minor landed gentry and the country clergy, in the village, the
neighbourhood, and the country town, with occasional visits to Bath and to London--that she was to use in the settings, characters,
and subject matter of her novels. The stable environment of Steventon rectory ended in 1801 when George Austen retired to Bath
with his wife and daughters. For eight years Jane had to put up with a succession of temporary lodgings or visits to relatives, in Bath,
London, Clifton, Warwickshire, and, finally, Southampton, where the three women lived after the father’s death. Eventually, in 1809,
Jane's brother Edward was able to provide his mother and sisters with a large cottage within his Hampshire estate, not far from
Steventon.

She wrote six novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey (which satirises the Gothic
novel) and Persuasion (both published posthumously, 1817).

All of her novels focus on heroines at the outset of maturity, who are taught lessons of self-discovery, before drifting into love and
marriage.

2. Close reading of Chapter One:

• “in medias res” opening

• the famous first sentence: tone, style, theme(s) introduced
• character drawing (here and elsewhere in the novel): showing and telling (self-revelation and narration), role of
letters in character drawing, pairs and contrasts (foils), flat and round characters, the use of satire, irony and
caricature
• narration (here and elsewhere in the novel: role of narrator; tone of narration)

3. The significance of the title(s)

First published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice is considered Jane Austen’s finest work (significantly, it was also the author’s own
favourite: in a letter to her sister Cassandra, she referred to it as ‘my own darling child’). Originally it was entitled First Impressions,
but when a different novel with the same title was published, Austen had to change the title of her manuscript. The new title, Pride
and Prejudice, is a phrase used in Fanny Burney’s Cecilia (the phrase must have seemed very fitting, but also provided a chance to
honour a novelist whom Austen admired).

• How are the two titles connected?

• How do they capture the themes of the novel?
• How do they reflect the development of the relationship between Elisabeth and Darcy?

4. Marriage as a theme in Pride and Prejudice

• Think about the different married couples in the novel (Mr and Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins and Charlotte Lucas, Lydia
and Wickham, Jane and Bingley, Elizabeth and Darcy). What drives the characters into marriage? What makes a
marriage successful, according the novel?

5. Pride and Prejudice as a novel of manners

• Check the definition of “the novel of manners.” What makes Pride and Prejudice a novel of manners? What social
class is presented (hint: it is NOT the middle class)? Why is the class criticised? Which characters are satirised the
most and why? What is the situation of women presented in the novel?

6. Pride and Prejudice as a Bildungsroman

• What is the Bildungsroman? Why could Pride and Prejudice be seen as a Bildungsroman?

7. Pride and Prejudice as “a neo-classical work in a Romantic Age”

• Pride and Prejudice was published during the Romantic Age, but it seems to belong more to the 18 th century, known as the
Age of Reason, associated with the values of the Enlightenment and neoclassical aesthetics.
• Think about the style of the novel (choice of words, syntax, etc), its structure (plot construction), the tone of narration, but
also about the themes it touches upon and the values it supports. What makes Pride and Prejudice “a neo-classical work”?
Are there any Romantic aspects of the novel (“Romantic” is understood here as related to the Romantic Age, not related to
love)?