Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus

Narrative structure
The form of the novel is epistolary, and we can identify multiple narrators, for this reason the work presents different
points of view. Perhaps the writer wanted to disguise her own voice as a woman by hiding behind three male narrators.
Furthermore, the only female figure, Walton's sister, has a passive role, that is that of the receiver of the letters.
Regarding the structure of the novel:
-at first, Walton informs his sister, Margaret Saville, whose initials are the same as those of Mary Shelley;
-later, Frankenstein informs Walton, who informs his sister Margaret;
-finally, the monster informs Frankenstein, who informs Walton, who informs his sister.
Themes
The main themes of the novel are:
-the quest for forbidden knowledge, which is related to: the penetration of nature's secrets and to the figures of Walton
and Dr Frankenstein that we can define as overreachers;
-the double: Dr Frankenstein and the monster are two aspects of the same being;
-the usurpation of the female role, since the creation of human beings becomes possible without the participation of
women (as I said previously the only female figure, Walton's sister has a passive role);
-the work is also permeated by social prejudices that saw the figure of the monster as an outcast.
The creation of the monster – chapter 5
Firstly, the passage is narrated in first person, by Dr Victor Frankenstein, who is a scientist who is carrying out a new
experiment that has required hard work and its now coming to an end.
During a dreary night of November Dr Frankenstein finally completes his experiment. He was already very anxious,
almost in a state of agony, but as soon as the creature opens its ‘dull yellow eye' (line 5), Victor feels violently scared and
ill. In line 7 Dr Frankenstein describes the situation as a catastrophe and calls the creature he had endeavoured to form
with so much care, a ‘wretch’ (un miserabile). From line 8 to 14 the doctor describes this hideous creature, which had
some beautiful features, such as lustrous black hair, proportional limbs and pearly white teeth, that only created a horrid
contrast with the other characteristics. Such as:
• a yellow skin through which one can see its muscles and arteries,
• inhuman watery eyes,
• shrivelled complexion
• dun-white sockets
• and thin black lips.
In lines 16, 17 and 18 we can read how hard the doctor had worked in the past 2 years, depriving himself of sleep and
health, to achieve his dream of infusing life into an unanimated body. Unfortunately, the beauty of Frankenstein's dream
disappears and the reality filles him with horror and disgust (as we can read in the lines 18-19).

Unable to endure the hideous look of the monster he had brought to life, Dr Frankenstein rushes out of the room and
reaches his bedroom. He walks back and forth and then he throws himself on the bed in his clothes trying to fall sleep.
From line 24 to line 28 there is the description of his nightmare. Victor dreams of meeting Elizabeth (his beloved one)
who was walking in the streets of Ingolstadt. But as soon as he kisses her, she appears to die and change into his mother's
corpse, whose body crawls with worms. He wakes up with a start, horrified, sweating and with chattering teeth, to find
his creature holding up the bed curtains. The creature tries to communicate with him, but Frankenstein escapes and
rushes downstairs into the courtyard. The Doctor spends the night walking up and down because of his great agitation.
He is listening attentively, fearing that each sound could derive from the demonic corpse to which he had given life.
In the final part of the text Frankenstein says that not even a mummy endowed with life could have been more horrible
than that wretch and that no mortal could bear his sight. From line 40 to line 43, we understand what made this
creature so monstrous and why Frankenstein was so scared of it. Victor is deeply disturbed by this creature in which the
organic and the artificial are mixed. The creature was ugly even when unfinished, but when the muscles and joints were
able to move and those dull yellow eyes opened, it became a creature that not even Dante could have conceived. Meaning
that since the worst creatures were placed in Hell by Dante, Frankenstein’s monster was more disturbing and frightening
than the creatures in hell.
Moving on to a more in-depth analysis, we must pay attention to the senses through which Frankenstein perceives the
creature, which are sight, hearing and touch. Firstly, the doctor sees the dull yellow eye of the creature open, then he
hears it breathing hard, next the perceives its limbs move and finally in the last part of the passage the monster tries to
touch the doctor.
The realization that his dream has vanished, and that the reality fills his heart with disgust, can also be seen in the terms
Frankenstein uses to define the monster. Initially the creature was called just a “lifeless thing”, but moving on, once it
came to life, the ‘thing’ became a “creature”, then a “wretch”, then a “miserable monster” and finally a “demoniacal
corpse”. In fact, the creature doesn’t have a name of its own, as it doesn’t appear to fit with reason and logic.
The Gothic elements that can be found in this chapter are:
-the grotesque: such as the description of the monster's features
-the eerie (spooky) environment: that is Victor's lab at 1 a.m. of a raining and dreary night of November
-some type of psychic communication: such as Victor's feeling of being followed
-finally, this chapter builds fear in the reader, which is another distinctive feature of Gothic writing

THE PLOT
Walton's ship
The explorer Robert Walton writes a series of letters to his sister Margaret Saville explaining how he got stuck in the ice
during his polar expedition and that he had seen a 'gigantic figure' in the distance. The next day he takes on board a
mysterious stranger, Victor Frankenstein, who takes over the narration. He tells Walton a complex tale about his life
history and how he came to be alone so near to the North Pole.
Young Victor
As a child, Victor Frankenstein's life in Switzerland is safe and secure with loving parents (Alphonse and Caroline) and
two younger brothers (Ernest and William). Victor's mother also gives a home to a young orphan girl, Elizabeth Lavenza,
and Victor grows particularly fond of her. He is fascinated by science and as soon as he leaves for university, his mother
falls ill and passes away. Her dying wish is that Victor and Elizabeth will get married one day.
University
Frankenstein attends the University of Ingolstadt in Germany where he gets obsessed with his science. For two years he
pursues his ambition to create a man and bring him to life, for this reason he neglects his family and friends. Victor hopes
to create a perfect being but in reality, the huge creature is made up from pieces of various corpses he had taken from
graveyards and mortuaries. Eventually Frankenstein succeeds in bringing this creature to life but when he realises how
monstrous it actually is, he abandons it, thinking it will die of a natural death from neglect.
Death strikes
Victor is by now very unwell but is nursed back to health by his closest friend, Henry Clerval. Together the two go
travelling to Italy. Just as they are about to return to Victor's home, they receive the news that Victor's youngest brother
William, has been tragically killed. The blame fell on Justine Moritz, a trusted servant of the Frankenstein family, but
Victor sees his creature near the scene of the crime lit up by lightning flashes. He realises the truth about William's death
but also knows that nobody will believe his fantastic story. The innocent Justine is tried and executed, so she and William
become the first to fall victim to Victor's ambition.
The Monster’s story
A guilty Victor goes alone into the Alps where, eventually, he meets up with the Monster. He is surprised to find that not
only it has survived, but that it also has learned to speak. The Monster tells a long story about how he has secretly lived in
an outbuilding next to the De Lacey family following their lessons as they teach a foreign visitor their language and also
learning about other subjects such as history, geography, religion and culture. He repays the family by secretly doing
many of their household chores. Rashly, he reveals himself to the family but they are so horrified by his appearance that
the Monster goes on the run again. He finds similar treatment from everyone he meets and becomes lonely and isolated.
The Monster asks Victor to accept that he is responsible for his loneliness and misery and to make him a female
companion to be his partner through life. Victor agrees in a desperate attempt to save the rest of his family from the
Monster’s revenge.
The female Monster
Frankenstein goes back to Britain with Henry as his companion. The two separate and Victor goes to the remote Orkney
Islands to carry out his promise of creating a companion for the Monster. Although he begins the work, he suddenly
realises the consequences of his actions and destroys his creation. The Monster, who has been following Victor all along,
is furious. He promises that he’ll return on the night of Victor’s wedding. Out of fury and revenge, the Monster murders
Henry.
More death
The doctor returns to Switzerland, marries Elizabeth and set out for their honeymoon. Remembering the Monster’s
threat, Victor assumes that this is the night that the Monster will kill him but instead the Monster murders Elizabeth.
When Victor’s father hears what has happened, he dies broken-hearted. Victor has a mental breakdown. When he
recovers, he tells a magistrate what has happened, but no action is taken.
Walton’s ship again
Victor accepts that he must deal with the problem himself and sets out in pursuit of the Monster. He chases it right across
Europe and eventually finds it in the Arctic, where Walton discovered him on the ice. Walton once again continues the
narration in the letters to his sister. He tells her how Victor eventually dies from a combination of exhaustion and
exposure to the cold and how he finds the Monster in Victor’s cabin full of sorrow for the death and destruction he has
caused. Telling Walton of the misery it has suffered, the Monster leaps back onto the ice and disappears into the Arctic
night, apparently intent on killing itself.
Life and works
Mary Shelley was born in (797, the dauahter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin (1756-1836), an anarchist and
philosopher. Both her parents had been heavily influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution (4.3) and were part of a
small radical group, which included other important men of letters of the time such as William Blake (-* 4.9). Ten days
after Mary's birth, her mother died. Four years later her father married Mary lane Clairmont and she and one of her
daughters, Claire, were to be the cause of Mary Shelley's sufferings and troubles for many years of her life.
If Mary's emotional life was troubled. intellectual stimulus was not wanting; in fact Godwin's house was visited by some
of the most famous writers of the day, like the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Percy Bysshe Shelley. In july
(814 the couple fled to France and later Shelley decided to rent a country house on the banks of Lake Geneva near
Byron's rented villa Villa Diodati. It was there that the writing of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus took place.
The initial inspiration of this novel burst into Mary's consciousness as a waking dream or
nightmare, as a result of the intellectual stimulation of Shelley and the Romantic poet George Gordon Byron, together
with her own deep anxieties and uncertainties. In 1816 Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein, which was published
anonymously in 1818. In 1822 the Shelleys moved to Lerici, where one day Percy set sail in a storm and was found
drowned ten days later. Mary returned to England in 1823, where she continued to publish and write. She died in 1851.
Plot and settings
The plot of the novel is very simple; Victor Frankenstein,a Swiss scientist, manages to create a human being by joining
parts selected from corpses. Despite careful preparation, the result of the experiment is ugly and revolting. The monster
becomes a murder and in the end he destroys his creator. The story is not told chronologically and is introduced to us
through a series of letters written by Walton, a young explorer on a voyage of expedition of the North Pole, to his sister
Margaret Walton Saville.
The event of the story happen all over Europe from Gineva to the Alps, to France, England and Scotland, as William as the
university at Ingolstadt. The most important setting is the North Pole where Walton and his shipmates are stuck by the
iceand where Frankenstein is found following his creation. This etting is used to show these two characters creatiôh Dirti
lace is next to Frankenstein's university; thus, this herolds the fact that Victor's creation has also the mind of a solar.
Origins
In the introduction to the novel, Mary Shelley gives her own account of Frankenstein's origin. It seems that a number of
things, like the reading of ghost stories, speculation about the re-animation of corpses or the creation of life, her personal
anxieties and the memories of her sense ofloss at the death of her own mother came together at that point in her life,
creating the waking dream or nightmare that so terrified her.
The influence of science
Mary Shelley dedicated Frankenstein to Godwin and used many of the ideas held by her parents, including social justice
and education. She clearly sympathises with the monster but is afraid of the consequences of his actions. In this, there is
tension between fear of revolution and interest in the revolutionary ideas, two attitudes which were characteristic of
English intellectuals in the years between 1789 and 1832. Even the influence of Percy Bysshe Shelley was important. He
and Mary were interested in science, and particularly chemistry, so that by the time she wrote Frankenstein, she was
aware of the latest scientific theories and experiments in the fields of chemistry, evolutionism and electricity. These
sources provided contrasting scientific attitudes important to Mary Shelley's conception of science in Frankenstein,
whose protagonist is the first embodiment of the theme of science and its responsibility to mankind. In fact Frankenstein
tries to create a human being through the use of electricity and chemistry without respecting the rules of nature as far as
creation and life are concerned.
Literary influences
The monster can be considered Rousseau's natural man, that is, a man in a primitive state, not influenced by civilisation;
he, however, rapidly discovers the limitations both of the state of nature and of civilisation. The influence of the
philosopher Locke can be seen in the description of the monster's self-awareness and his education by experience.
The ghost stories read at Villa Diodati provided an immediate stimulus, even if Frankenstein differs from the Gothic
tradition, since it is not set in a dark castle and does not deal with supernatural events.
Another important influence was the work of the Romantic poets in general; the most meaningful element Mary Shelley
derived from Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner O) is the fact that both Coleridae's ballad and Shelley's novel
are tales of a crime against nature: Frankenstein's creation of the monster and the Mariner's shooting of the Albatross.
The myth of Prometheus is also important. Prometheus, in Greek mythology, was a giant who stole the fire from the gods
in order to give it to men. In so doing, he challenged the divine authority and freed men from gods' power.
He is a clear example of an overreacher, just like Dr Frankenstein, who takes his place alongside
Marlowe's Faustus (-› and Milton's Satan.
The double
The three most important characters of the novel are all linked to the theme of the double. Walton is a double of
Frankenstein since he manifests the same ambition, the wish to overcome human limits (Prometheus's myth) in his
travelling towards the unknown, and the same wish for loneliness and pride of being different Frankenstein and his
creature are complementary:; they both suffer from a sense of alienation and isolation, both begin with a desire to be
good but become obsessed with hate and revenge. The creature stands for the scientist's negative self; Frankenstein
refers to him as a miserable monster', 'the wretch' (-› T44), a 'devil, fiend, monstrous image, detested form', neutral
terms, like "creature' and 'being, are rare.
One sure sign of the double is the creature's haunting presence: even if Frankenstein initially flees from his creature and
even if their direct confrontations are few, the monster is nevertheless constantly present in his life. Frankenstein's
rejection of his creature is crucial and this makes the monster an outcast, a murderer and a rebel against society.
Curiosities
The novel resulted from a competition between Mary, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and the writer John Polidori to se
who could write the best horror story.
In southwestern Germany there is a Castle Frankenstein which Mary Shelley may have visited and
where she may have found the inspiration for her novel.
In the early 18th century an alchemist named Johann Konrad Dippel is believed to have stolen corpses out of Castle
Frankenstein's burial grounds and to have performed dissection, in an attempt to discover the 14 secrets of life. It is also
said that he tried to re-animate bodies with magic potions.
Frankenstein has inspired several films, starting with the silent Frankenstein in 1910 up to the most recent versions, such
as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) directed by Kenneth Branagh, and Vietor Frankenstein (2015).
The earliest use of the term 'Frankenstein food' to refer to genetically modified food was in 1989. 'Frankenfood' followed
in 1992; it was used for revolutionary culinary creations that mix up original and unexpected food combinations and
ingredients.
Jane Austen- life
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, a small village in southern England where her father was rector
of the church. The seventh of 8 children, she spent her short, uneventful life within the circle of her very close affectionate
family.
Her lifelong, inseparable companion was her sister Cassandra, who, like Jane, never married.She was educated at home
by her father= and showed an interest in literature and writing very early.Her earliest writings in fact date from 1787
then she:
-produced a large output of prose
-between 1795-1797=she completed Elinor and Marianne, which would become the basis of Sense and Sensibility
published in 1811;
-and First Impressions=which, later revised, became Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813.
-In 1798 she wrote Northanger Abbey, which was published posthumously.
When her father died, lane, her sister and mother settled at Chawton= a small country-village a few miles from her
birthplace. There Jane produced her most-mature works:
-Mansfield Park=begun in 1811 and published in 1814;
-Emma= begun in 1814 and published in 1816;
-Persuasion=begun in 1815 and published in 1818, after her dead.
She died probably of Addison's disease in Winchester in 1817, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.
All her novels were published anonymously= her identity was later revealed by her brother Henry who supervised the
publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, adding a 'Biographical Notice of the Author. Jane's fame, however, was
already well-established among her contemporaries, Sir Walter Scott was one of the first to realize her greatness in his
review of Emma, where he pointed out her 'exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters
interesting. (il tocco squisito che rende interessanti cose e personaggi ordinari e comuni).
Austen and the novel of manners
Jane Austen is regarded as the master of the novel of manners. She derived the omniscient narrator and the technique of
bringing the character into existence through dialogue. Her style was also characterized by the use of verbal and
situational irony. She restricted her view to the world of the country gentry which she knew best: 'three or four families
in a country village," she said, 'is the very thing to work on'
Austen's analysis of character
Austen had no place for great passions; her real concern was with people, and the analysis of character and conduct.
Therefore her work is very amusing and, at the same time, deals with the serious matters of love, marriage and
parenthood. The happy ending is a common element to her novels= they all end in the marriage of the hero and
heroine. What makes them interesting is the concentration on the steps through which the protagonists successfully
reach this stage in their lives.
Romantic love gives Jane Austen a focus where individual values can achieve high definition, usually in conflict with the
social code that encourages marriages for money and social standing.
Her treatment of love and sexual attraction is in line with her general view that strong impulses and intensely
emotional states should be regulated, controlled and brought to order by private reflection. The heroine's reflection after
a crisis or climax is a usual feature of the novels because understanding and coming to terms with her private feelings
allows her personal judgment to establish itself and secures her own moral autonomy.
The theme of marriage
The traditional values of country families (such as property, decorum, money and marriage)= provided the basis of the
plots and settings of Jane Austen's novels. They take place in England; there isn't the industrial north of England. Jane
Austen writes about the oldest Eneland, based on the possession of land, parks and country houses; in her stories people
from different countries get married as a result of the growing social mobility.
The marriage market takes place in London, Bath and some seaside resorts where people used to gather and carry out
their business. And it is in these places that all the troubles of Austen's world occur: gossip, flirtations, seductions,
adulteries. This happens because the marriage market has also produced a range of villains: unscrupulous relatives,
seducers, gamblers and social climbers.
Pride and prejudice
Plot and settings
The plot of Pride and Prejudice is that of a romantic comedy: it deals with the fortunes of young lovers - their trials,
misunderstandings, reversals, triumphs - and ends in happy marriages.
It is set in Longbourn, a small country village in Hertfordshire, where Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters:
Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Lydia and Kitty. One day a rich bachelor, Charles Bingley, and his two sisters rent a large estate in
the neighborhood, called Netherfield Park. After a series of balls and parties that bring the members of this little society
together, Mr Bingley falls in love with Jane, and his best friend, the aristocratic Fitzwilliam Darcy, begins to feel attracted
to Elizabeth. But she dislikes him because of his snobbish behavior.
When Mr Darcy declares his love, he cannot help showing contempt for her inferior social position; so Elizabeth rejects
him and accuses him of separating her sister and Bingley, and of ill-treating George Wickham, a young officer who was
the son of Darcy's former steward. Darcy writes her a letter where he reveals that Wickham is an unscrupulous
adventurer. Meanwhile Wickham elopes with Lydia.
Darcy traces them and provides for their marriage. Elizabeth realizes that she was mistaken about Darcy and accepts his
renewed proposal, in spite of the opposition of Lady Catherine De Bourgh, Darcy's arrogant aunt.
Bingley comes back and becomes engaged to Jane, so the novel ends with the happy marriages of the two couples.
Characters
The main characters are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. They both have positive qualities, but also weaknesses in a kind
of critical antithesis to the conventional heroes and heroines of the sentimental novels of the period.
-Darcy= knows the principles of how to behave in his social world, but is self-centered and unsociable.
-Elizabeth= has a lively mind, one of the qualities that attracts Darcy to her. She is intelligent and capable of complex
impressions and ideas, has a strong spirit of independence and refuses to take on the roles which her
family or socially superior people try to impose on her.
Both Elizabeth and Darcy= show an imperfect understanding of themselves and each other.
She accuses him of pride and he accuses her of prejudice. These accusations are partly well-founded. But they also work
in reverse: she is proud, and her pride blinds her to his virtues; he is prejudiced by his upbringing and is disgusted by the
vulgar behavior of Elizabeth's mother and sisters.
Some of the minor characters in the novel are almost caricatures, like Lady Catherine and Mrs Bennet; others are rather
'flat' - like the sweet and attractive Jane, who is little more than a type - or objects of ridicule, like Mr Collins, the
pompous clergyman who, after Elizabeth's refusal, proposes the next day to her best friend, Charlotte Lucas.
Themes
The novel involves both hero and heroine in a journey towards self-awareness and self-knowledge and this provides its
central theme. Other themes are love, marriage, status and wealth, decorum and propriety. Marriage is presented from
several points of view: in terms of security and independence (Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins); arising out of physical
infatuation (Lydia and Wickham, and Mr and Mrs Bennet); containing elements of love and prudence (Jane and Bingley,
and Elizabeth and Darcy).
Style
Pride and Prejudice comes alive for the reader in the vividness of the characters and the brightness of dialogue often
quoted directly, without the mediation of the narrator. These two dramatic features have made the novel easily
adaptable for stage and screen. Jane Austen uses third-person narration; she positions herself close to the mind and
consciousness of one character - mainly Elizabeth - and presents the action from her point of view. The first-person
narrative also plays a part in the novel by means of the many letters. The epistolary technique is used more frequently in
the later chapters, when the characters have been fully outlined and the scope of the novel has expanded beyond the
small world of Longbourn. Irony is much employed as a technique in relation to the characters, who are trapped in a
double perspective: they do not know that things are not the way they seem, while the reader does.
In this part of the novel we can assist to the dialogue between Mrs and Mr Bennet about the new neighbour Mr Bingley,
that can be the possible future husband of one of their 5 daughters.
What kind of narrator? Omniscient exterior
The novel ends with some letters that explain to the reader how the life of the protagonists presents itself after the events
have finally ended. In the book Pride and Prejudice the narrator is omniscient external.
The first chapter consists almost entirely of dialogue, a typical example of Austen's technique of using the way characters
express themselves to reveal their traits and attitudes. His last paragraph, in which the narrator describes Mr. Bennet as
"a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice" and his wife as "a woman of little understanding, little
information and uncertain temper", simply confirms the assessments of the character the reader has already made based
on their conversation. There is little physical description of the characters in Pride and Prejudice, so the reader's
perception of them is shaped largely by their words.

Mrs. Bennet is a miraculously tiresome character. Noisy and foolish, she is a woman consumed by the desire to see her
daughters married and seems to care for nothing else in the world. Ironically, her single-minded pursuit of this goal
tends to backfire, as her lack of social graces alienates the very people (Darcy and Bingley) whom she tries desperately to
attract. Austen uses her continually to highlight the necessity of marriage for young women. Mrs. Bennet also serves as a
middle-class counterpoint to such upper-class snobs as Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, demonstrating that foolishness
can be found at every level of society. In the end, however, Mrs. Bennet proves such an unattractive figure, lacking
redeeming characteristics of any kind, that some readers have accused Austen of unfairness in portraying her—as if
Austen, like Mr. Bennet, took perverse pleasure in poking fun at a woman already scorned as a result of her ill-breeding.
Irony in Pride and Prejudice:
The novel's title contains a hidden streak of thematic irony. Jane Austen subtly introduces a reversal in thematic foibles,
'Pride' and 'Prejudice' and the characters to which they belong.
The oft-quoted opening sentence of the novel is one of the best examples of verbal irony: the statement encapsulates the
empty-headed Mrs. Bennet's ambitions and her desire to find a good match for each of her five daughters. Sometimes the
characters are unknowingly ironic.
Dramatic irony is at work when the audience knows something the character doesn't.
Irony in character is even more important than situational irony. It is ironic that Elizabeth, who takes pride in her
perception and scorns Jane's blindness to reality, is herself blinded by her own prejudice.
The focal point of the story's situational irony is Darcy's falling in love with Elizabeth.
Summary:
In the opening of the novel, Mrs. Bennet tells her husband that a young man, who is quite rich to be interesting, is going
to move to the small town they live in. she thinks he is the perfect would-be husband for one of their five daughters.
Mrs. Bennet believes that Mr. Bennet should pay a visit to the newcomer in order to understand whether he may be
suitable for one of their daughters. But in Mr. Bennet opinion, Mrs. Bennet and the girls should go; he says that Mr.
Bingley would be glad to meet them. He adds he will send Mr. Bingley a short note to grant him he’s allowed to marry
any of his daughters, for example Lizzy. Mrs. Bennet says Lizzy is not better than her sisters, Mr. Bennet declares they’re
all silly and ignorant.
Realizing that her husband is teasing her, Mrs. Bennet gets more and more angry.
In the final part of the extract the reader is given a precise description of the two characters. They both have their flaws
and weaknesses: Mr. Bennet has a complex personality which is a mixture of liveliness, sarcastic humor, self-control and
unpredictability; Mrs. Bennet is an ignorant, ambitious and very simple women.
From the very beginning of the novel, its main themes are apparent: the problem of finding rich men for single daughters,
sense of respectability, the importance of social status.
Incipit
One of the most important lines of literature, the most important opening is the search for marriage as a stage of the
most important in the English social world. Furthermore, the claim that a rich man must seek a wife shows how
desperately important it was for women to marry rich men. In Austen's time, they had no other means of support.
The famous opening of the book already clarifies the intentions of the writer. Courageous woman for the time, she takes
true truths and anecdotes of the time and that shouldn't leave us amazed in today's times.
Marriage was the basis of society, the only contract that could guarantee an order and a morality that in reality were
only a hypocritical face of time. In order to validate his position, man needs a woman to help him in public and domestic
affairs; the woman had the sole task of managing the house and guaranteeing an offspring to the lineage.
Chacarters
In terms of interest in their daughters' future, Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet are the polar opposite: she gets involved while
he stays distant and makes jokes.
Hypocrisy initially is also part of the main characters. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy are promoters of two vices
of society: the prejudice of the various classes and the pride of the aristocracy.
Mr. Bennet is the patriarch of the Bennet household—the husband of Mrs. Bennet and the father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia,
Kitty, and Mary. He is a man driven to exasperation by his ridiculous wife and difficult daughters. He reacts by
withdrawing from his family and assuming a detached attitude punctuated by bursts of sarcastic humor. He is closest to
Elizabeth because they are the two most intelligent Bennets.
Initially, his dry wit and self-possession in the face of his wife’s hysteria make Mr. Bennet a sympathetic figure, but,
though he remains likable throughout, the reader gradually loses respect for him as it becomes clear that the price of his
detachment is considerable. He is in fact a weak father who, at critical moments, fails his family. In particular, his foolish
indulgence of Lydia’s immature behavior nearly leads to general disgrace when she elopes with Wickham. Further, upon
her disappearance, he proves largely ineffective. It is left to Mr.
Gardiner and Darcy to track Lydia down and rectify the situation. Ultimately, Mr. Bennet would rather withdraw from
the world than cope with it.
In the text, reference is made to the figure of Bingley as a young man whose riches, which consist of 4 or 5 pounds a year,
make him a good match for any girl, identifying him as a perfect husband even though he does not know him
temperamentally.
Domanda numero 5
The Bennets are an example that marriages may not end in divorce after a few years because the two "are no longer
compatible". We can imagine that the two had loved each other in their youth and after five daughters, having built a life
together allows them to remain linked in mutual affection, even though the imperfect match constituted by their
personalities is evident. We live with neurosis, excess fat and other moles in the name of what we share with the other.
A family and a life.