Society in Jane Austen's time
In Jane Austen's time there were great differences between the social classes. The aristocracy remained at the top of the social ladder, owning lands and estates that were passed from generation to generation so they did not have to work to earn a living. Their main occupations were going to parties, giving balls and arranging marriages. Jane Austen underlined how the aristocracy tended to keep its distance from people who belonged to other social classes, considering them inferior. Below the aristocracy came the gentry, to which most of the characters in Jane Austen's novels belong. People of this class owned land but they were not as wealthy as the aristocracy.
Style and themes
Jane Austen's polished and elegant style is characterised by wit, irony and well structured sentences. Her great skill at orchestrating conversation plays an important part in bringing the characters alive to the reader.
This was her way of dealing with important social matters, such as the role of money, property and marriage in a society where women had little or no
economic power.
Chronologically her works belong to the Romantic age, a time in which feelings and passion for the world and what was happening in it were paramount for many writers. Austen, however, remained untouched by the upheavals which affected other artists of her time, even though she was a close contemporary to the greatest Romantic poets, Wordsworth and Coleridge. She was certainly not ignorant of the power of feelings but believed they should be controlled. Her novels are a balance between reason and feelings and her female characters may be independent, but they do not aspire to individualism and real unconventionality like Romantic heroes.
Novel of manners
Pride and Prejudice is a typical novel of manners, clearly illustrating how people interact, and how the feelings you show in public can often be very different to your true feelings. Property, social class and the need to marry to maintain both are at the heart of this novel. This heart, however, is cleverly disguised by a complicated interweaving of events, misunderstandings and jealousies, all coated in a patina of wit and irony which is typical of Jane Austen's style.
Pride and Prejudice
The Bennet family (Mr and Mrs Bennet and their five daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty and Lydia) live in Longbourn, Hertfordshire. They discuss the expected arrival of Charles Bingley, a rich young man who'll soon be living at a nearby estate called Netherfield. Mrs Bennet wants her husband to go and meet him, as he might make a good husband for one of her daughters. Marrying them off is her main concern in life.The Bennets soon meet Mr Bingley at a ball organised by their neighbours. He arrives with his sister and a friend, Mr Darcy. While all agree that Mr Bingley is a very nice man, Mr Darcy is recognised as being snobbish and conceited. From this moment, however, Elizabeth and Darcy meet several times on different occasions and while a love story develops between her sister Jane and Mr Bingley, Elizabeth does not seem to notice the increasing interest that Darcy has for her as she is more conditioned by the negative gossip she hears about him. Her prejudice towards him becomes almost unbearable when she hears that Darcy convinced Mr Bingley not to marry her sister Jane.
Darcy's first attempt at proposal and Elizabeth's bitter refusal represent the central point of the plot. From this moment on the reader, Elizabeth, begins to learn more about Mr Darcy and his real nature.
She begins to put the pieces together of a complicated story and in the end is forced to realise how Darcy has acted in a dignified and generous manner towards her
family on more than one occasion. Darcy later tells her that it was all done in an attempt to win her love. By now Elizabeth is forced to look inside herself and acknowledge how her own feelings towards Darcy have changed. The novel ends with Darcy's second proposal. This time both characters confess their mistakes and openly express their feelings for one another. It is a happy ending all round: for Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane, Mr Bingley and for everyone in the Bennet family.
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