Terminale LELE Meeting the Other Text 1

Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice

I/ Social background
A) Jane Austens novels
Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817. Her novels portrayed in a
humorous manner the behaviour of middle-class and upper-middle-class families.
The novels often revolve around the importance for young women of finding a
suitable husband. The relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy in Pride and
Prejudice is particularly famous and the BBC produced a highly-acclaimed version
of the novel in 1995. There has also been a recent Hollywood film starring Keira
Knightley.
Jane Austens novels are comedies of manners* set in the country
gentry* that she knew. Her heroines are young women who gradually come to a
better understanding of themselves and obtain marriage and social status. The
absurdities and pretentions of society are denounced with wit and irony.
Jane Austen studied the confined world that she knew (the country gentry),
satirizing hypocrisy, stupidity and self-importance; she gave women such as
Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice, an independent voice. The
novel relates how women challenged the patriarchal system and their position
in society. Jane Austens heroines nevertheless ended up conforming since the
economic and legal systems made them entirely dependent on men, being little
better than objects. These social and material limitations made it difficult for a
woman to write, when she had to devote most of her time to family and household
tasks.

B) The world of Jane Austen

1. Social classes
Jane Austen was a close observer of her society, and one of the features
that distinguished English society at the time she was writing was the structure
of social classes. The importance of the class system is indeed presented by
Austen in Pride and Prejudice. The social order of England in the early nineteenth
century was one of rigid lines separating classes. In England, individuals were
traditionally defined by their class. Movement from one class to another, though
not impossible, was difficult. Interaction between individuals of different classes
was governed by unwritten rules requiring deference on the part of the lower class
towards the upper class. Pride and Prejudice explores the class system and how it
affected individuals and their relationships.
Most of the characters are deeply concerned about their 'reputation' ,
that is to say, how others see them and their standing in society. This is linked to
'class'.
Class - your social rank - was a dominating factor for those living in Austen's
world. Your class often determined how you were regarded by others - and how
you might treat people yourself. It was considered unusual, even improper, to
marry someone far removed from your own class.
-

The aristocracy was at the top of the tree. Put simply, these people
were royalty or relatives (sometimes distant) of royalty.

Terminale LELE Meeting the Other Text 1

The old gentry was composed of people who had had wealth and
property for generations. This changed in the 18th century because of
the Industrial Revolution.

'New gentry' were people who hadn't inherited wealth but made a lot
of money from business.

2. Manners and etiquette

'Manners*', or how you chose to interact with other people, were incredibly
important in Austen's time. Even if people were in a state of high emotion, they
had to maintain an air of dignity at all times.

II/ Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice: it is helpful to define these words in their context. In
this book, they mean:
Pride = having too high an opinion of one's own worth or importance.
Prejudice = making judgments about others which aren't based on facts or
experience.
A) The plot
The opening line of Pride and Prejudice is one of the most famous in
English literature: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in
possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. This is typical Austen,
who makes thought-provoking statements tinged with humour.
In the story, Mrs Bennet is determined to see her five daughters married
off. The more 'respectable' the match, the better. At the time, marriage was seen
as a social contract, often without the need for love. Mrs Bennet has taken her five
daughters to a dance in the hope of meeting Mr Bingley, a wealthy young man,
newly-arrived in the neighbourhood. They also meet his friend, Mr Darcy who is
very rich but appears to be proud and unpleasant.

B) Social classes in Pride and Prejudice

Darcy is old gentry.

Bingley is new gentry, because his father made his money in industry
somewhere in northern England.

The Bennets are much further down the social scale. They are considerably
better off than many, but a world away from Darcy -not just because he's far
richer, but they lack 'breeding'. Darcy comes from generations of wealth and
'respect'. It's much less of a social jump for Bingley to marry Jane than for Darcy
to marry Elizabeth. Elizabeth is once described as "a young woman of inferior
birth, of no importance in the world".

Darcy eventually sees beyond the class difference. However, even he

admits he struggled against his feelings for a long time because of the
inferior nature of the Bennet family.

C) Manners and etiquette in Pride and Prejudice

-

Mrs Bennet believes she has good manners. However, she's so stupid she fails
to see that she often embarrasses herself by acting improperly. She is too loud,

Terminale LELE Meeting the Other Text 1

too bold, and says things that are too direct. Lydia is a younger version of her.
This was a real character flaw in Austen's time.
-

Ironically, the person with the worst manners in Pride and Prejudice is the one
who should have the most impeccable: Lady Catherine. She's almost always rude,
and downright insulting to Elizabeth. Due to her upper class status, she feels
justified in being ill-mannered because everyone is 'below' her.