Jane Austen‟s plots are well knit and organic plot. This applies to Pride and Prejudice as well.

In Pride and Prejudice there are very little superfluous scene or characters. In this novel with the
possible exception of Kitty and Mary there is no other character or no event that may be called
superfluous or that does not contribute to the development of the story. Even the comic proposal
to Elizabeth of Mr. Collins has its own significance. It highlights the character of the heroine and
shows her in favourable light. The story opens at Longbourn. The arrival of Mr. Bingley at
Netherfield Park is an important event because of matrimonial intensions of the Bennet family
and also because it is with him that the hero Darcy, makes his appearance. There is a ball at
Netherfield which helps a step in the development of the plot. The plot develops through the
conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth, the pride of one and prejudice of other. Jane Austen
shows her skill in the handling of events which now follow in quick succession resulting in the
deepening of Elizabeth prejudice and the awakening of Darcy’s love for her. Gradually, the
conflict between Pride and Prejudice weakens as Darcy makes his proposal to Elizabeth at once
rejected. W.L. Cross praises the novelist and says that since Fielding no novelist “has been
master of structure”. He further says that the marriage of Elizabeth is not merely a possible
solution of the plot, it is as inevitable as the conclusion of a poetry constructed syllogism or
geometrical “demonstration for a parallel of workmanship of this high order, one can only goes
to Shakespeare.”
Baker divides the novel into five Acts. In the manner of “Much Ado about Nothing” the attitudes
of the hero and the heroine gradually undergo a complete reversal and marriage is the only
solution. The beginning of the story brings together the hero and the heroine. The story develops
through conflict between their respective Pride and Prejudice and ends with the reversal of their
attitude. In the manner of drama “The action is carried forward through short scenes and
dialogues” Walter Scott. Characters are also developed through dialogue instead of description
or analyses. Comedy deals with the conflict between illusion and reality and this is also the
theme of Jane Austen’s novels. Jane Austen’s novels are dramatic novels , the novels of
conversation rather than action. There are several pairs of lovers. The novel consists of sub-
plots, digressions and episodes in Pride and Prejudice. The sub-plot serves as a foil to the main
plot. Jane and Bingley are passionate lovers as constructed with the active love of Elizabeth and
Darcy. Bingley’s sudden departure for London from Netherfield heightens Elizabeth‟s prejudice
towards Darcy. For she consider him responsible for the misery of her sister. The sub- plot which
remains at the front in the beginning is pushed into the background when the main plot (story)
starts.. Lydia-Wickham episode adds the element of melodrama. It also highlights the essential
mobility of Darcy and helps to dispel the prejudice of Elizabeth. The comic proposal of Collins
imparts the dramatic relief. His marriage with Charlotte resolves in Elizabeth‟s visit to Hunsford
where she comes to know more about Darcy and prejudice weakens. Thus there are no loose
ends and all the part have been well fused into single compact whole. The complexity in the plot
is also provided by the undercurrent of emotions running through it. The entire plot is suffused
not only by emotion but also by thought- the thinking process of Elizabeth. It is said that the
novel like all the other novels of Jane Austen is a novel of conversation and little action.
Whatever action there is, it is trivial and common place. It consists merely of little visits
shopping expedition, wedding dinners, tea-parties, dances, card-playing and the like. Although
these actions are trivial and insignificant yet with her exquisite touch it is transformed into the
uncommon and significant. The novel is the novel of common, everyday situations. It is the
apotheosis of the common place. To conclude the plot of the novel has an exactness and
symmetry of form and structure. W.L. CROSS writes, she is a “pure novelist” with emphasis on,
“the formal peculiarities of compositions, and the sub-ordinations of parts to the whole”

Pride and Prejudice is social comedy. It is a social because it is a study in the social life of two
or three middle class families‟ in a provincial town. Jane Austen has studied the actions and
reactions of the people within these narrow limits. It is a comedy because Jane Austen has
exposed the foibles, the follies and the absurdities inherent in the life and character of these
people. Hence the remark of David Daiche that in Pride and Prejudice the novelist “has exposed
the economic basis of sound relationships with an ironic smile.” The Novel deals with the social
life of the Bennet’s, the Lucas’ and the Bingley’s. They are all leisured middle class people who
have not to bother about earning their livelihood. The Bennet’s may be said to belong to the
lower Middle class with only two thousand a year, and the Bingley to the upper middle class
with a much higher income. Their life is a round of visiting, playing cards, singing, going to
dinners and inviting people to dinner. Occasionally, they go out of the Longbourn neighborhood.
The petty jealousy, rivalries, doubts and suspicious with beset this narrow and confined life have
been skillfully exposed by the novelist. Novelist has not failed to provide us with glimpses of the
life of aristocracy. Lady De-Bourgh is an aristocrat, proud, arrogant and insolent. The life of the
country clergy has also been glanced at through Mr. Collins. They have nothing much to do and
depend for their living in the patronage of the great whom they flatter in season and out of
season. Similarly through the flirtation of Lydia and Catherine with the military officers, we can
form an idea of their social life. It seems to be a corrupt lot which finds it’s diversion in having
love- - affairs with the girls in the towns where there is regiment is stationed. Mr. Wickham is a
typical specimen of the class, dishonest and profligate. Such is the social life depicted in the
novel. It will be noticed that the life of the lower classes, and of those who earn their living by
the sweat of their brow, has been rigidly excluded. As has been well said, no footman ever
crosses the stage of Jane Austen. Similarly, city life is beyond the range of novelist. Even though
Jane Bennet
goes to London and stays with Gardiner for a pretty long time nothing is told to us of
metropolitan life.