Pride and Prejudice Research Paper free essay sample

During Jane Austen’s time, in the early 1800’s, women were around to be married off, bear children, and cater to their man. Men were meant to work and instruct their women, and the more money you had, the more respected you were. A woman’s goal in life was to marry higher than her class, and social status was everything. History often has a way of repeating itself, whether that history is bad or good, and Austen was not oblivious to this fact. She created a novel to portray the ways of her time, and to appropriately criticize her era where criticism was due. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice effectively opposes the conservative views of her time through her diction and plot throughout the novel in order to inform readers of the idiocy of acting in a non-progressive manner. The point of view in Pride and Prejudice is free indirect discourse; the story is told through Elizabeth, but not in first person. We will write a custom essay sample on Pride and Prejudice Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a result, the events in the novel lack much drama or emotion. According to Maria Rosa Menocal on JSTOR, â€Å"The atmosphere is intellectual and cold, and there is not much detail or warmth throughout the novel. The darkness and bland mood that results from Austen’s use of free indirect discourse can be a representation of Austen’s negative opinion towards what is going on in the novel. Austen obviously disagrees with the conservative values of her era, and finds it repulsive to look for marriage or any kind of fulfillment based on money or social class. The actions and events in the novel derive from the opinions, ideas, and attitudes of the characters and their society, which essentially advances the plot of the novel. The emotions in the novel are open for interpretation by the audience, since they are not expressed to readers directly. Austen’s brilliance is revealed in her novel, as she is able to relay such a complex message to her audience while still using such simplistic style. The way Austen starts her novel is almost enough to prove that Pride and Prejudice is in fact a progressive novel. The novel starts out, â€Å"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife† (3). According to The Literature Network website, â€Å"In this statement, Austen has cleverly done three things: she has declared that the main subject of the novel will be courtship and marriage, she has established the humorous tone of the novel by taking a simple subject to elaborate and to speak intelligently of, and she has prepared the reader for a chase in the novel of either a husband in search of a wife, or a women in pursuit of a husband. † Austen’s use of sarcasm and satire in this opening statement already enables readers to know that she is taking an opposing stance on conservatism and the way that things are â€Å"supposed to be. The first line sets the mood and easily defines the author’s purpose for the rest of the novel. Austen is against the emphasis on man in his social environment rather than in his individual conditions, and this is clear to readers from the beginning just by reading the very first sentence. Although the vast majority of the cha racters in the novel have a conservative view on life, Austen’s indirect criticism of these characters actually proves that she does not agree with them, therefore making her literary work progressive. Elizabeth’s mother, Mrs. Bennet can arguably be considered one of the most conservative characters in the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Mrs. Bennet excitedly reports to her husband, â€Å"A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls! † (3). At this point in the novel, Mrs. Bennet knows absolutely nothing about this man that she is more than willing to let one of her daughters go off with, other than his income and the existence of his wealth; yet she is still certain that it is a fantastic idea for one of her daughters to end up with him. It is extremely relevant that Mrs. Bennet pays no mind to which daughter should be with him- it simply does not matter to her. She takes no time to think of which daughter may like him best or if any of them will even like him at all. She is primarily concerned with the surface level issues of her society, and the importance of marrying well in society without regard to the compatibility of the two people. All that matters to Mrs. Bennet is social ranking, wealth, and marriage. While these are all extreme conservative views, Austen is actually mocking Mrs. Bennet with the exaggerative manner in which she has Mrs. Bennet go about life. Austen describes Mrs. Bennet as â€Å"a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancies herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news† (4). A woman of â€Å"little information† can only mean a woman without much of a brain or smarts. The fact that Austen would describe a character with such conservative views as an ignorant being proves that Austen’s goal of Pride and Prejudice was to stray away from conservative teachings and move forward in a progressive manner. The idea of marrying for love versus money majorly comes into play throughout this novel. It can definitely be argued that this is indeed a conservative novel because almost everyone’s intentions throughout the story are to marry for convenience, wealth, and social status. However, it can also be argued that Austen’s exact opinions and viewpoints are expressed through Elizabeth’s actions and beliefs. A well-known and respected literary critic of Austen, Claudia L. Johnson, explains, â€Å"In all of Austen’s novels, but especially Pride and Prejudice, pursuing happiness is the business of life† (349). Elizabeth is one of the few characters to actually realize that she does not want a life of convenience or wealth- she just wants to be happy. This stance is very different from most of the opinions of those around her during her time period. In a Jane Austen magazine, author Laura Boyle states in her article, â€Å"In the first volume, Darcy is â€Å"bewitched† by Elizabeth Bennet, but in the second he loses her. The third volume starts with his coming to a mature love for her and he wins his bride. Austen does not show us romantic tenderness in Pride and Prejudice from Elizabeth for much of the novel. † The action of Mr. Darcy â€Å"losing† Elizabeth is a very non-conservative one. In an ideal conservative situation, a man of wealth would never, under any circumstance, lose any woman, and especially one that he is actually interested in. By the end of the novel, Elizabeth does indeed marry Mr. Darcy for nothing other than love, and complete happiness has been achieved through true love and feelings, which is a very progressive notion. Essayist Diana Francis of Ball State University reflects about the ending of Pride and Prejudice, â€Å"Austen means to critique the shallow definition of a suitable marriage, one in which love or even compatibility plays no part, and makes the statement that wealth certainly does not necessarily equate to manners, intelligence, or class. † Before Elizabeth really knew Mr. Darcy or had any feelings for him, she denied his marriage proposal and wanted no part of it. It was not until she truly wanted to be with him and developed deep feelings for him that the marriage worked out and was able to take place. The fact that Austen would not let the most sensible character of the novel, Elizabeth, marry until she wanted to shows the audience where she stands on marriages occurring for anything other than love, which is a very progressive take on the matter. Other types of marriage, such as marriages out of convenience or sole sexual attraction are also addressed in the novel. Although the audience knows almost nothing of how Mr. and Mrs. Bennet got together, it can be inferred by their conversations at the beginning of the novel that their marriage was similar to the relationship between Lydia and Wickham. Mr. Bennet married a woman that he found sexually attractive while overlooking the fact that she was just a plain stupid woman. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Bennet says, â€Å"You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will still be better, for as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you best of the party† (3). The only compliment that Mr. Bennet ever really gives his wife is about her looks, which is a very superficial and surface level thing. He has nothing other than that to really explain why he married her or why he is still with her. She provides him with satisfaction of his sexual needs, and he provides her with stability; alas, a marriage of convenience and sexual attraction. Paula Cohen says in her scholarly journal, â€Å"Although Austen gently parodies the young girls awkward entree into her role, she clearly supports, in this novel, the conventional initiation process as proper to female development. Indeed, the brunt of the novels satire is directed at those who, as poor role models, would not seek either wittingly or unwittingly to thwart her progress or pervert it to some other end than that of being pleasing and useful to the man whom she will eventually marry. Austen is very much against women making their life goal to get married and please a man. She mocks and indirectly criticizes every female character in the novel that falls under this category, thus revealing her opinion on the subject matter. Mrs. Bennet’s favoritism towards Lydia, the most out of control and foolish of the sisters, and her comments on how she was once as â€Å"full of life† as Lydia reveals the similarities between them. Mr. Bennet’s comment on Wickham being his favorite son-in-law is also significant in the sense that similarities can be revealed about them as well. Mr. Bennet’s self-realization near the end of the novel when he discovers that his lack of attention towards his family had led them to be the people that they had turned into came too late to change anything. Overturning the conservative values of her time, Austen shows that the man will not always â€Å"save† the woman- men can also do wrong and portray a weak character, and are just as likely to mess up as a woman. It is no coincidence that the two characters presumed to be two of the dumbest characters in the novel would end up together. It is also rather interesting and no coincidence either that one of the two protagonist characters of the story, Mr. Darcy, was inspired by a man that Austen knew in real life. According to the New York Times, Ben Sisario reports, â€Å"A portrait of the man believed to have inspired the character of Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s â€Å"Pride and Prejudice† is going on sale†¦ Thomas Lefroy†¦ born in Ireland, met Austen in 1796, when both were in their early 20s. They had a flirtation, and Lefroy, whose family was poor†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Although this man that Austen met came from no wealth, he was still the inspiration for the character with the most sense and progressive views in the novel, therefore revealing to the audience that Austen had no regards for wealth or superficial values in a relationship, thus enabling her to go against the conservative views of her time yet again. Because Elizabeth is so sharp and such an observer of other people, she recognizes her mothers silliness and vows to never have the same life or â€Å"love† as her parents. This stubbornness of Elizabeth’s, however, is paradoxically a trap in itself; by going solely by her own observations and always against and refusing the opinions of others, Elizabeth threatens her future life and love with Mr. Darcy. Critics in favor of a â€Å"conservative† Austen can easily say that this particular point of the plot of the novel represents an opposing view to progressivism, since when a woman finally speaks up and makes her own decisions, she messes up her life and ruins her own happiness. Another well-known and respected literary critic, Marilyn Butler, believes, â€Å"The more one examines the novel the more difficult it becomes to read into it authorial approval of the element in Elizabeth which is rebellious† (321). While this may seem true on the surface, there is a deeper message here to read into. Although Austen was writing her novel to attack conservatism, she was still well aware that most likely no change would come from her writings or beliefs. Her time period was not really prone to taking a progressive view on anything, and making any kind of a step in the direction towards a freer and non-conservative life style would probably not happen. Austen portrays this realization through the slight surrender of Elizabeth when she accepts Mr. Darcy’s marriage proposal. However, this was not a full surrender, as Elizabeth only accepted his proposal because she truly loved him and wanted to be married to him. The act itself of Elizabeth and Mr.