Preview

Pride and Prejudice

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
531 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice Paper

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a satiric English novel written by Jane Austen. Satire is a work that blends a censorious attitude with humor and wit for improving human institutions or humanity. Darcy and Lady Catherine are wealthy people who treat the poor differently than people of the same class as them. Mr. Collins is a middle class man who is a cousin of the Bennet girls. Pride and Prejudice should be considered a satiric novel because Jane Austen makes fun of social positions and manners.

Pride and Prejudice is a satiric novel because of the way the rich treated the poor. Darcy treats the lower class differently when he says, “Your sisters are engaged, and there is not another woman in the room whom it would not be a punishment to me to stand up with.” (13). Mr. Darcy is belittling people in the lower class before he knows them because of their financial state. This shows Darcy’s insecurities when he sees Elizabeth in the beginning of the novel. Lady Catherine insults the poor when she says, “This must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening in summer: the windows are full west.” (327). This shows Lady Catherine’s judgmental attitude toward the Bennet’s throughout the novel. Lady Catherine’s dislike is displayed toward the Bennet’s and of the idea of Elizabeth marring Darcy. In the eyes of Mr. Darcy and Lady Catherine the poor and the rich should not be treated the same.

Pride and Prejudice is a satiric novel because of the way people act in society. Darcy makes an unfavorable comment when he says, “The country, can in general supply but few subjects for such a study. In a country neighbourhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society.” (42). When Mr. Darcy says this it shows his lack of respect to the lower class that lives in the country. This shows how Darcy is confident and self absorbed with his current state in society. Mr. Collins’ behavior is unacceptable when he says, “You must

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    UNV501

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status, in addition to being a love story.”…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of all the books I’ve read throughout high school, I feel that Pride and Prejudice epitomizes politics the most. Throughout the story, there’s this class struggle that manifests itself between the lower, middle, and upper class. Members of the upper class, the Bingleys and the Darcys, are portrayed as being “snobbish” and “prideful” people, and they aren’t afraid to flaunt their wealthy status to others. The Bennets, on the other hand, are part of the middle class and are constantly reminded of their inferiority to the upper class by specific members of the upper class. For example, Catherine De Bough, who attempted to prevent Elizabeth from marrying her nephew, Mr. Darcy, so their family’s reputation wouldn’t be tarnished, or Miss Bingley, who constantly degraded Elizabeth and Jane for attracting more successful men despite their lower social status.Then there’s the people of the lower class like Wickham, whose one goal is to assimilate with the upper class by marrying a woman who exudes wealthiness. Despite this inter-class struggle, Jane and Elizabeth both end up marrying higher class men, challenging the notion that in-class marriage is the only acceptable way to find one’s significant other.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    APA Activity ONE

    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Austen has stated that, “Pride and Prejudice is a novel that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status.”…

    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane Austen suggests pride is worse than prejudice. Vanity coupled with pride is by far more offensive than prejudice. Mary explains to Lizzy and Charlotte that pride is “a very common failing.” Mr. Darcy was pronounced to be “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world.” and even his wealth could not excuse his pride. Mr. Wickham’s comment regarding Mr. Darcy reinforces this line of thinking. “Everybody is disgusted with his pride.” In the novel, Austen demonstrates that both pride and prejudice can be unhealthy qualities. Elizabeth and Darcy both have qualities of pride and prejudice, and it almost cost them their relationship. Elizabeth’s prejudice towards Mr. Darcy is predicated on Mr. Wickham’s false charges against him and Mr. Darcy’s…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Criticism and manners determine the image given to a person from society. The satire, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, portrays the social life of young women who marry for love or money. The Bennet family becomes the center of attention through the conversing between Jane Bennet with Mr. Bingley, and Elizabeth Bennet with Mr. Darcy. Women married the wealthy for security and fortunate living. However, the men devise their own ways of courting women. Mr.Wickham and Mr.Darcy become foils of each other, through their many acquaintances with Elizabeth.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Pride and Prejudice, Austen mainly deals with middle and higher-class society. The Bennets being of a middle class socialize time and again with their own class and higher, particularly Elizabeth. Middle and higher class culture of Austen's time concentrated on the importance of having wealth and social status. The novel revolves around the lives of affluent families - their appearance, their actions, their homes, their relationships and their social events.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride and Prejudice (1819), written by Jane Austen is based on the middle class social life in England during the early nineteenth century. It is written around Elizabeth, who is a daughter of an estate owner and her family. Elizabeth and her elder sister have reached their age and their mother seeks suitable gentlemen as their husbands. Meanwhile Elizabeth receives marriage proposals from two distinctive persons, the foremost by Mr. Collins for whom Elizabeth’s family estate is entailed and shortly from one Mr. Darcy, a rich land owner from the city. Both of the offers of marriage show their characteristic differences while sharing some aspects in common.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    An examination of Jane Austen’s 1813 social satire Pride and Prejudice, and the reading of Fay Weldon’s 1984 epistolary text Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, allows understanding of Austen’s novel to be moulded and then shifted. Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners, focusing on marriage, Pride, Prejudice and Social Class which are projected through the characters, gentry-class setting and Austen’s authorial comment. Austen’s purpose was to portray the world of the gentry class, and satirise some aspects of her society and praise others. Weldon’s purpose is to encourage an understanding of the value of literature for individuals and society. She models Austen’s writing to demonstrate her argument and in so doing she gives a heightened understanding of values in Austen’s context. She reviews Austen’s society, providing an explanation of social conventions such as marriage, social stratification and women. Aunt Fay’s opinions allow readers to reshape their understanding of events and characters in Pride and Prejudice. Her conclusions allow the reader to draw connections between our contemporary society and Austen’s context, which then enables us to reshape our original understanding of Pride and Prejudice and our own context.…

    • 2183 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride and Prejudice reflect the strictly regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency England. Jane Austen satirizes this kind of class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins, who though Mr. Collins offers an extreme example, he is not the one to hold such view. His conception of the importance class is shared, among other by Mr. Darcy who believes in the dignity of his lineage.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, depicts pride and prejudice and their consequences when she proposes a society where people are judged on their social standing rather than merit. The people and events in the novel are used to depict the prejudicial, ignorant, and proud nature of society, which can be seen as inhibitors to personal happiness. The use of satire is prevalent in the novel. Austen satirizes the high class by expressing how societal standards can degrade a character’s identity. The novel questions the nature of social hierarchy that prevents people from seeing the best in others which can result in misunderstanding and breakdown of social relationships. Austen focuses greatly on the class system and in many ways, the novel…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The novel “Pride and Prejudice” is a story based in 19th century, at the end of the age of reason and at the beginning of the era of romance. This was in the year 1816, which in truth was a very conflicting period of ideas. This is reflected in Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship as it progresses throughout the novel, as at the start, Darcy’s own distorted and ‘prejudiced’ way of viewing those lower than him is slowly discarded as he becomes more romantically interested in Elizabeth as the plot progresses. Therefore, in context, their relationship may in fact symbolize the era the author was living in with progression between reason and romance.…

    • 1268 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The plot of Pride and Prejudice is about a lower upper class woman in the 18th century who is trying to get all of her daughters married to wealthy men. Jane, Mrs Bennet's oldest daughter falls in love with the handsome and wealthy Bingley. But Bingley's sister and best friend Darcy try to pull them apart. Darcy is a very proud and arrogant character, who Elizabeth hates because of his involvement in her sisters heartbreak. Darcy falls in love with Elizabeth and she then ends up falling in love Darcy, which results in them both getting married as well as Jane and Bingley.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Our first introduction to pride and prejudice is at a ball Mr. Bingley throws. His sisters and a dear friend of his, Mr. Darcy, accompany him.. Eighteenth-century England was quite preoccupied with status, especially concerning wealth and reputation. Darcy's reluctance to speak with anyone stemmed from his lack of respect for anyone outside his close-knit circle. His good breeding was obvious only to those whom he knew well. Elizabeth is prejudiced against Darcy for entirely different reasons. She received information that was one-sided and made unfair assumptions on Darcy's character. She prejudged him; combining the superficial view she had of him and some rumours. The roles of pride and prejudice can be summed up in the exchange between Darcy and Elizabeth, after he proposed. Darcy clearly defines the reasons for his prejudice: "Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?" (Pg.164) Elizabeth's prejudice…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    “He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped we would never come there again.” (3) These were the feelings that Miss Elizabeth Bennet possessed at the start of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen weaved a marvelous tale of love in its rarest and truest form. This love was formed out of a once burning hatred. The transformations throughout Austen’s masterpiece shows how true love fights through the boundary of pride and prejudice which exists in the society of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Jane Austen captivates us through the characters of Darcy and Elizabeth through their altering feelings for one another and the world causing anxiety for the readers at first but ultimately an overwhelming relief for the readers.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The movie Pride and Prejudice was first written in the early 19th century, in England, by Jane Austen. A woman who lacks fortune is in need of a wealthy man. So, basically any guy from a family with a good income would be the marriage hunt. Someone who is Rich but unintelligent, unattractive, boring men? Mrs. Bennet says, "Bring it on!” She has five daughters with no fortune. Only one day when a young wealthy man named Mr. Bingley moves into the neighborhood, and is interested in her eldest daughter Jane. She becomes extremely happy; that the only thing she would do is to try to push them together in every way possible. Its not all what you call roses and champagne. Mr. Bingley is a very pleasant and easygoing man, while his sisters are very snobby who is mostly like Mr. Darcy. Rich, and good-looking, close friends with Mr. Bingley, as well as, that he is very proud of himself. While on the other hand, the bents are not up to the social structure of theirs. So Mr. Darcy is proportionally disagreeable to Jane’s younger sister Elizabeth. When Mr. Bingley suggests to Mr. Darcy to dance with Elizabeth, he replies that she is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me, which basically means she is not pretty. By accident while the two men carry on talking, Elizabeth over hears them. Ouch. Its all clear to everyone that Mr. Bingley is falling in love with Jane, as well as she is, but she does not really show her feelings. However. Later on, Elizabeth gossips to her friend charlotte Lucas about the situation, but then her friend argues with her that Jane needs to show her feelings more and that she should show more affection, or she could risk loosing Mr. Bingley. Meanwhile, when Mr. Darcy is fin is finished from criticizing Elizabeth, he starts to become more attracted to her. You could say its something about her " fine eyes". Any who, Mr. Bingley's sisters invite Jane to a dinner. When Jane’s mother insist on her…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays