Questions related to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Why do you think Pride and Prejudice has such moving force for so many
readers?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone at least once in their lifetime has come
across a copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It might be in your school library, or maybe
you found a friend reading it on their way to college – or perhaps you had to read it as a part of
your syllabus. It’s been over two centuries since Pride and Prejudice were published – and it still
remains not only one of the most widely prescribed novels of academic curriculums, but also one
of the reader’s favorites. What comes to mind when we think about Pride and Prejudice? Is it just
the story of a mother trying to get her daughters married into wealth? Or is it the story of
Elizabeth’s resolution to marry for love and not for money that makes the novel stand out against
many others of her time? In this article – I will try to answer why Pride and Prejudice is still one
of the most popular novels ever written.

1. It is a novel about reading

One of the biggest focuses of the novel is how reading can impact someone tremendously. The
protagonist, Elizabeth, is a reader. She rejects a card game to abandon herself to reading – which
is a very extraordinary thing to do in a society where women were not really encouraged to read.
She stands out against Caroline Bingley, whose only intention in reading is to attract Mr. Darcy,
as she ironically exclaims: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much
sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable
if I have not an excellent library.” Note that she casts aside the book the moment Mr. Darcy is
not looking. However, Elizabeth is not fake – and she does not go out of her way to prove she is
a reader. Instead of engaging with Mr. Darcy when he wishes to converse with her about
literature when they are at a ball, she says: “No—I cannot talk of books in a ball-room; my head
is always full of something else.” Recommended Reading: 5 Best Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice Retellings!

2. It’s the Ultimate Rom-Com

Blending the elements of romance, sarcasm, and comedy – Jane Austen presents one of her most
skillful works in writing Pride and Prejudice. The story, at its core, focuses on how both
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy have to let go of their own respective pride and prejudice in order to be
together. The narrative is centered around a lot of misunderstandings that are probably the only
obstacles in the union of the two – and by the end of the novel, we see both of the characters
evolved emotionally as they unlearn and relearn their perspectives towards each other – and by
extension, the world. The novel is also fun – with Mr. Bennet’s realistic comments like: “For
what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?” “I have a
high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with
consideration for these twenty years at least.”

3. Memorable Quotes

Pride and Prejudice has one of the most popular collections of quotes throughout the novel, right
from the very opening lines, which is so cleverly structured: “It is a truth universally
acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The
dripping irony and sarcasm set the tone for the rest of the novel – and Austen does not
disappoint. Or this one: “He is a gentleman, and I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are
equal.” Austen’s writing style is ornate – and only she could have employed the use of sarcasm
without sounding too pretentious. "It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone at least
once in their lifetime has come across a copy of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

4. Well-Written Characters

The brilliance of the novel is in the fact that the characters are relatable. We have met people like
them in our lives as well – Mrs. Bennet being the archetypal over-enthusiastic Aunt whose only
purpose in life is marriage, Mr. Bennet being the detached yet loving father to his daughters with
a favorable attitude towards one of them, Lydia – a sixteen-year-old smitten with handsome army
officers, Wickham with his playboy-ish charms and more of such relatable characters. You never
feel for once that it is a new character- these are people we have met, known, and probably
understood.

5. Harsh Realities
While the fate of the Bennet Sisters being married into wealth seems amusing, the novel also
talks about the fate of Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte whose position is not so great in the societal
hierarchy. She makes a prudent choice in marrying Mr. Collins – to the disappointment of
Elizabeth, whose romanticism deludes her to be unable to understand Charlotte’s situation. She is
the daughter of a retired knight – and too educated to marry a working man beneath her social
standing. At the same time, she is average-looking, so she fails to get matched with someone of
the upper class. Her only choice is compromise, and we see this situation often in many
marriages and matches, which makes this novel so real. These are five major reasons for Pride
and Prejudice being such an evergreen novel. If you have not grabbed your copy of Pride and
Prejudice yet – I highly suggest you do and have a taste of this beautiful, timeless classic.

Jane Austen as a novelist has stringently set her limits which she seldom
oversteps, elaborate.

Jane Austen as a novelist has stringently set her limits which she seldom oversteps. She was
amazingly aware of which side her genius lay and she exploited it accordingly without any false
notions of her capabilities or limitations. As Lord David Cecil points out, she very wisely
stayed "within the range of her imaginative inspiration." Her imaginative inspiration was as
severely limited as, for example, Hardy's or Arnold Bennett's. Her themes, her characters, her
background setting -everything has a well-etched range within which she works, and works
exquisitely. Jane Austen herself referred to her work as “Two inches of ivory.” In a letter to her
niece, Fanny Knight, Jane Austen wrote, “Three or four families in a country village is the
very thing to work on.”

Although she works on a very small canvas, yet she has widened the scope of fiction in almost
all its directions. Her stories are mostly indoor actions where only family matters are discussed.
However, her plots are perfect and characterization is superb.

Critics have labeled her novels belonging to a narrow range of themes and characterization. Even
in her limited world, Austen restricts herself to the depiction of a particular class of country
gentry. She excludes the matters of lower class and hardly touches aristocracy. For instance, she
has discussed Lady Catherine only for the purpose of satire. The same sort of story is repeated,
subject matters are very much the same in all her novels, confined to the landed
gentry – Servants, laborers and yeomanry rarely appear in her novels. Her nephew James
Austen-Leigh, alludes to her limited range:
“She was always careful not to meddle with matters with which she did not thoroughly
understand”.
                                                                                                         There is no terrible happening
in Jane Austin’s novels. Everything happens in a civilized manner. The extreme severity in
“Pride and Prejudice” is elopement of Lydia with Wickham.

Charlotte Bronte was constrained to observe about Jane Austen:

"She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him by nothing profound. The
passions are perfectly unknown to her : she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that
stormy sisterhood."
Charlotte Bronte believes that Jane Austen is not concerned with the deep morals and she is an
author of the surface only: “Her business is not half so much with the human heart as with
the human eye, mouth, hands and feet.”

Andrew H. Wright points out that there is very little religion discussed in her novels, politics is
not mentioned too. There are no adventures found in her books, no abstract ideas and no
discussion of spiritual or metaphysical issues.

Macaulay declares that her characters are commonplace, “yet they are all as perfectly
discriminated from each other as if they were the most eccentric of human beings.”

Sir Walter Scott appreciates the precision of her Art and its merit:“That young lady has a talent
for describing the involvement of feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the
most wonderful I have ever met with.”

G.H. Lewes pays glowing tribute to her:“First and foremost, let Jane Austen be named, the
greatest artist that has ever written... Her circle may be restricted, but it is complete. Her
world is a perfect orb, and vital sphere.”
Pride and Prejudice like her other novels has a narrow physical setting in which she lived. The
story revolves around Netherfield, Longbourn, Hunsford, Meryton and Pemberley. It seems to be
an irony of the history that when the Romantic Poets were discovering the beauties of nature,
Jane Austen confined her characters within the four walls of the drawing room. Her heroines also
famously never leave the family. Edward Fitzgerald states: “She never goes out of the
Parlour.”

Jane Austen’s limitations stemmed from the choice of her themes: love, marriage and courtship.
All of her six novels deal with same theme of love and marriage. There are pretty girls waiting
for eligible bachelors to be married to.

 Another limitation is the feminization of her novels. Men do not appear except in the company
of women. All the information about Darcy is proved through Elizabeth’s point of view. Hence,
the reader looks at Darcy through Elizabeth’s eye

However her novels are profound in the psychological delineation of her characters. She is able
to capture superbly, the subtlety of thoughts and reflexes of her characters. We can sum up above
discussion in the words of Virginia Woolf: “Jane Austen is the mistress of a much deeper
emotion than appears on the surface.”