PRIDE AND PREJUDICE – JANE AUSTEN

The plot of the pride and prejudice summary is of rural England during the early
19th century. The Bennet family had five daughters. Mrs. Bennet is very keen to get her
daughters married so that their estate which is entailed does not pass on to William Collins
after the demise of Mr. Bennet in the absence of any legal male heir. William Collins was
Mr. Bennet’s cousin.

Thus, she convinces her husband to visit Mr. Bingley. He was a bachelor and was rich who
had recently shifted to a rented house in the neighborhood. Mr. Bennet went to visit him
and he gave them an invitation to attend a ball at the assembly rooms.

He was a friendly and cheerful man and showed interest in Jane Bennet. Jane was the
eldest among all the sisters and was beautiful and shy. However, Fitzwilliam Darcy,
Charles Bingley’s friend, refuses to dance with Elizabeth saying that she is not attractive
enough. Darcy was a very wealthy, arrogant, and reserved gentleman. Elizabeth was the
second eldest sister among the Bennet sisters and finds the reason for Darcy’s refusal
funny.

Caroline, Charles’s sister invites Jane to her house at Netherfield for dinner. But, on her
way to Bingley’s house, she gets drenched in rains and gets bad cold. She thus had to stay
there only and Elizabeth goes to see her. At this point in time, Darcy gets attracted to her
beautiful eyes.

Soon, Collins visits the Bennet family. On finding that Jane may soon get married, he eyes
on Elizabeth. However, Elizabeth refuses to marry him, and soon he gets engaged to her
friend Charlotte Lucas.

Meanwhile, the Bennet family meets George Wickham, an army officer, who likes
Elizabeth and she also likes him. He accuses Darcy of depriving him of a job that Darcy’s
late father had promised him. This information further increases the dislike towards Darcy
in Elizabeth’s heart.

Bingley organizes a ball at Netherfield, their residence. Darcy asks Elizabeth for a dance
that she could not refuse though she had vowed not to dance with him ever.
Soon afterward, Charles suddenly leaves for London. Elizabeth holds Darcy responsible for
this and her dislike for him becomes stronger. Jane on visiting her Aunt and Uncle
Gardiner in London realizes that Caroline Bingley has no interest in Jane and her brother’s
relationship. This makes Jane feel upset.

During the spring season, Elizabeth visits Kent to see her friend Charlotte and Collins.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the aunt of Collins and Darcy, invites them to her house. There
she meets Darcy also. Meanwhile, he grew fond of Elizabeth and proposed her. She refused
his proposal and condemned him for breaking the relationship between her sister Jane
and Bingley.

Later, he wrote a letter to her explaining that he feels that Jane was indifferent to Bingley
and also due to the indecent behavior of her family members. Thus, he advised his friend
to break up with Jane. He also explains that he gave Wickham money which he misspent.
Not only this, but he also tried to marry his 15 years old sister for money.

A few months later, when Elizabeth goes together with Gardiners on a tour of Derbyshire,
they also visit Pemberley. Pemberley was the Darcy estate where she comes to know that
Darcy is a kind-hearted and generous man. Darcy invites them home to meet her sister
Georgia.

Meanwhile, she gets the news of her sister Lydia eloping with Wickham. She rushes to
return home with a fear that now the family name will be ruined and Darcy would never
see her again. However, Wickham agrees to marry Lydia. Elizabeth comes to know that
Darcy gave him money and persuaded him to marry Lydia. Mrs. Gardiner believes that he
did so because he loves Elizabeth a lot.

Darcy also convinced Bingley to marry Jane. In the end, Darcy again proposes Elizabeth,
and this time she accepts his proposal. She tells her parents that she is marrying for she
loves Darcy and not because of his money or power.

THEMES

 LOVE

As one might expect from a romantic comedy, love (and marriage) is a central
theme to Pride and Prejudice. In particular, the novel focuses on the different
ways love may grow or disappear, and whether or not society has room for
romantic love and marriage to go together. We see love at first sight (Jane and
Bingley), love that grows (Elizabeth and Darcy), and infatuation that fades (Lydia
and Wickham) or has faded (Mr. and Mrs. Bennet). Throughout the story, it
becomes apparent that the novel is arguing that love based on genuine
compatibility is the ideal. Marriages of convenience are presented in a negative
light: Charlotte marries the obnoxious Mr. Collins out of economic pragmatism
and admits as much, while Lady Catherine’s imperious attempts at forcing her
nephew Darcy to marry her daughter to consolidate estates are presented as
outdated, unfair, and, ultimately, an unsuccessful power grab. The novel is a
strong recommendation of love as a basis for marriage, something that was not
always the case in its era.

 THE COST OF PRIDE

The title makes it pretty clear that pride is going to be an important theme, but
the message is more nuanced than just the concept itself. Pride is presented as
perfectly reasonable to some degree, but when it gets out of hand, it gets in the
way of the characters’ happiness. Thus, the novel suggests that an excess of pride
is costly.

In Pride and Prejudice, there are plenty of prideful characters, mostly among the
wealthy. Pride in social position is the most common failing: Caroline Bingley
and Lady Catherine both believe themselves superior because of their money and
social privilege; they also are vain because they are obsessed with maintaining
this image. Darcy, on the other hand, is intensely proud but not vain: he does
initially place too high a value on social station, but he is so proud and secure in
that pride that he doesn’t bother with even basic social niceties. This pride costs
him Elizabeth at first, and it is not until he learns to temper his pride with
compassion that he becomes a worthy partner.

PREJUDICE

In Pride and Prejudice, “prejudice” is not as socially charged as it is in

contemporary usage. Prejudice is a flaw of several characters, but first and
foremost it is the main flaw of our protagonist Elizabeth. She prides herself on
her ability to judge character, but her observations also lead her to form bias very
quickly and deeply. The most obvious example of this is her immediate prejudice
against Mr. Darcy because of his dismissal of her at the ball. Because she’s
already formed this opinion, she is predisposed to believe Wickham’s tales of woe
without stopping to think twice. This prejudice leads her to judge him unfairly
and to reject him based on partially inaccurate information. Prejudice is not
necessarily a bad thing, the novel seems to say, but like pride, it is only good so
long as it is reasonable.
SOCIAL STATUS

In general, Austen’s novels tend to focus on gentry—that is, non-titled people

with some land holdings, although of varying financial statuses. The gradations
between the rich gentry (like Darcy and Bingley) and those who aren’t so well off,
like the Bennet’s, become a way to distinguish sub-strata within the gentry.
Austen's depictions of hereditary nobility are often a little satirical. Here, for
instance, we have Lady Catherine, who at first seems powerful and intimidating.
When it really comes down to it (that is, when she tries to stop the match between
Elizabeth and Darcy), she is utterly powerless to do anything except yell and
sound ridiculous.

When Lady Catherine insults Elizabeth and claims that she would be an
unsuitable wife for Darcy, Elizabeth calmly replies, “He is a gentleman; I am a
gentleman’s daughter. So far, we are equal.” Austen does not upend the social
order in any radical way, but rather gently mocks people who obsess too much
about social and financial status.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

PART A

1. Describe the arrival of the new occupant at Netherfield Park.

Ans: Mrs. Bennet reveals to her husband that Netherfield Park is let at last to Mr.
Bingley, a young single man of large fortune from the north of England. She hopes that
he will marry one of her daughters and asks Mr. Bennet to call on him immediately.

2. What is the prime aim of Mrs.Bennet with regard to her daughters?

Ans: The woman has one abiding goal through the novel: to see all her daughters
married and thus financially secure.

3. The significance of dances.

Ans: Throughout Pride and Prejudice, dance underscores the theme of courtship and
marriage. Only after forming initial matches on the dance floor can Elizabeth and Darcy
and Jane and Bingley progress to the next stage—courtship—which may then culminate
in marriage.

4. Sir William Lucas

Ans: Sir William Lucas is a friend and neighbor of the Bennet family. He is pleasant but
not overly deep or intellectual. He is obsessed with having been granted knighthood. He
is father to Charlotte and Maria Lucas.

5. Charlotte and Elizabeth conversing on “happiness in marriage”.

Ans: in an early scene, Austen gives us a conversation between the protagonist Elizabeth
Bennet and her good friend, Charlotte Lucas. Charlotte states, “Happiness in marriage is
entirely a matter of chance…. It is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the
person with whom you are to pass your life.”