The Families in the novel:
- The Bennets family- Mr. and Mrs. Bennet including five daughters i.e. Jane, Elizabeth, Mary Kitty, Lydia
- The Darcys family- Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Georgiana Darcy, Lady Anne Darcy
- The Collins family- Mr. William Collins,
- The Binglesy family- Charles Bingley, Carolina Bingley, Louisa Hurst
- The Gardiners family- Mr. Gardiner, Mrs. Gardiner
- The Lucases – Sir William, Lady Lucas, Charlotte Lucas, Maria
- The Wickhams – George Wickham
Character highlights:
Elizabeth Bennet – Main protagonist and 2nd daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, intelligent and more sensible than of her sisters and quick witted by nature
Mr. Darcy – The master of Pemberley and nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Jane Bennet – Elder sister of Elizabeth, sweet, beautiful, gentle and more reserved in nature of her all sisters
Mr. Bennet – Father of Elizabeth, the patriarch of the family and owner of Longbourn estate
Mrs. Bennet – Mother of Elizabeth, foolish and noisy in nature and only goal is to see her daughters get married
George Wickham – A handsome military officer
Charles Bingley – A wealthy friend of Mr. Darcy, genial and well behave gentleman
Georgiana Darcy – younger sister of Mr. Darcy, shy, pretty and pianist
Lady Catherine de Bourgh – Aunt of Mr. Darcy, and bossy rich woman
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner – Mrs. Bennet’s brother and his wife
Charlotte Lucas – Dear friend of Elizabeth
Mr. William Collins – A clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s Property
The theme of the Novel
The novel is based on social class, class distinction and status, also overcoming obstacles for true love, integrity, women’s reputation and strength of family network.
Women’s reputation in the novel depicts the society in which a woman’s integrity and self- respect is of the utmost important.
The genre of the novel
The genre of the novel is Romance and manners.
About The novel
Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular, novel by Jane Austen, published in three volumes on 28th February, 1813. It is a novel of manners. Pride and prejudice shows, two kinds of comedy, which is `comedy of humors` and `comedy of manners`. (which is the basic assumption of upper- class English society)
Pride and Prejudice is a romantic, fiction, and a satire novel by jane Austen. In Pride and Prejudice, jane Austen uses `wit` and irony to describe the cult of sensibility and offering a corrective contractual theme. Hence, the novel is thematically based on verbal, dramatic, situational and irony of characters. The novel has set in Hertfordshire in classical England in the turn of 19th century.
The novel follows the main protagonist Elizabeth, who has dynamic character that learns about the repercussions of hasty judgements and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial and actual goodness of life.
Mr. Bennet who is the owner of Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire who lives in with his five daughters including the main protagonist Elizabeth. His property is entailed and can only be passed on to a male heir.
Mrs. Bennet who lacks inheritance, which means she can’t inherit the property because of Mr. Bennet’s stipulation (a condition that made during an agreement or contract), and only male heir can inherit his estate according to his ‘will’, so the family faces such issue and will become destitute upon Mr. Bennet’s death. Therefore, the situation arises that at least one of the daughters have to marry well to support the others, that is how the plot of the novel moves forward.
Summary and analysis
The novel pride and prejudice follows a linear and chronological structure. Jane Austen has presented two pairs of lovers in the novel in order to show that the concept of individual autonomy, she is invoking is quite a complex and a single pair of characters, that would not give us a fair idea of the full range of human qualities that she wants to put into their relationship. The first pair is Jane and Mr. Bingley and the Second Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy.
Moreover, Jane’ s interest is not only to show the struggle for true love but she actually wants to explore the possibilities that whether the meaningful and durable love relationship between a young man and woman do really exist in the society of her time.
Therefore, the plot of the novel, hence revolves around the main protagonist Elizabeth, who struggle for compatible life partner, despite having all the obstacles like; social conventions and her own self- awareness. She encounters many hurdles by her opponent who create obstacles between her and happy marriage. These opponents included her mother who does not understand that what kind of marriage Elizabeth wants. Mr. Collins who try to persuade her but she refuses to marry him, Miss Bingley and Lady Catherine who both try to stop her to marry Mr. Darcy.
In the novel, there is a conflict between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy at ball party, when he refused to dance with Elizabeth by saying that she is not handsome enough to tempt him, here, Elizabeth has created bad perception about his personality. Soon after sometime when plot moves forward, he creates soft feeling for Elizabeth and finds her attractive and proposes her but she refuses. Her rejection of his proposal parallels her previous rejection of Mr. Collins. At this point she believes that Darcy is not a good person also she won’t accept a marriage to a man whom she does not love, no matter what he might offer her. However, the plot takes intense turn when she rejects Mr. Darcy, this rejection leads him to reveal a new information that makes her again question about his personality.
Somehow, by time passes Elizabeth starts growing feelings for Mr. Darcy, but their growing feelings for each other now interrupted by the new conflict Lydia’s elopement, which dominates the novel’s plot until its resolution. Lydia, younger sister of Elizabeth resolved her marriage issue, after that the focus of the plot shifts to Jane’s story, which shows that she reunited with Mr. Bingley. On the other side, Lady Catherine who attempts to keep Elizabeth away from Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth now prepared herself to face this moment, she refuses to back down.
However, all the obstacles has now over, so Mr. Darcy at the end of the novel proposes her second time and this time Elizabeth accepts him. Eventually, the climax followed by some hurdles throughout the novel by the main character ends with happy ending with the preparation of the marriage ceremony.
Therefore, in the novel Elizabeth holds the title of being prejudice as we can see in the novel too that how quickly she judges Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy with too little information. Whereas, Mr. Darcy is the one who stands for pride, as he acts, as if he is superior to the people of Hertfordshire.
Thus, Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ we can say that has describes the world where both expectations and reputations matter the most.
Pride and Prejudice is most loved novel by readers in English literature as it has sold approximately 20 million copies and also inspired many modern literary writers.
The Literary World 