Pride and Prejudice

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Pride and Prejudice a novel by Jane Austen
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About the Author

• Jane Austen is one of the world's most famous
  authors.
• She spent most of her life in the historic and
  beautiful
• county of Hampshire in the south of England. She
  loved the
• county, and it was here that she found the
  inspiration to
• write such classics as Pride Prejudice, Emma,
  Mansfield
• Park and Sense Sensibility.
• Jane wrote her famous works drawing on a large
  circle of
• friends, social gatherings and places around
  Hampshire
• that she visited in order to devise her
  characters and the
• settings for her novels. She was one of
  literature's keenest
• observers of human life, with the gift of making
  the mundane appear
• bright and interesting.

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Summary

• Pride and Prejudice is the story of Mr and Mrs
  Bennet, their five daughters, and the various
  romantic adventures at their Hertfordshire
  residence of Longbourn. The parents' characters
  are greatly contrasted Mr Bennet being a wise
  and witty gentleman while Mrs Bennet is
  permanently distracted by the issue of marrying
  off her daughters at any cost. Austen's tale is
  spurred on by the arrival of the young and
  wealthy bachelor Charles Bingley and his friend
  Fitzwilliam Darcy. It is the story of the various
  affections, affectations and engagement
  shenanigans that develop due to Mrs Bennet's
  relentless matchmaking and the dashing Darcy's
  tempestuous relationship with Elizabeth Bennet
  who Jane Austen claimed was favorite amongst her
  literary offspring.

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Main Characters

• Elizabeth Bennet
• the heroine of the novel, is 22 years old and
  the second oldest of the Bennet sisters. She is
  her fathers favorite and has inherited his wit,
  independence and intelligence. It is the
  liveliness of her mind and sense of humor that
  originally attracts Darcy.

Mr. Darcy Darcys image as a proud man is
emphasized by his offensive rejection of
Elizabeth. He is arrogant, proud and prejudiced
against the socially inferior Bennets.
Initially his strong prejudices and first
impressions stop him from pursuing Elizabeth,
but eventually he gives in to his impulses. As a
result of his unexpected rejection from
Elizabeth, he is humbled and endeavours to shed
his appearance of pride.
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Themes

• Pride In the novel, pride prevents the
  characters from seeing the truth of a situation
  and from achieving happiness in life.
• Prejudice in Pride and Prejudice one cannot
  equate Darcy with Pride, or Elizabeth with
  Prejudice Darcy's pride of place is founded on
  social prejudice, while Elizabeth's initial
  prejudice against him is rooted in pride of her
  own quick perceptions.
• Family Austen portrays the family as primarily
  responsible for the intellectual and moral
  education of children.
• Women and Marriage Austen is critical of the
  gender injustices present in 19th century English
  society. The novel demonstrates how money such as
  Charlotte need to marry men they are not in love
  with simply in order to gain financial security.

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Themes Continued

• Class Considerations of class are omnipresent in
  the novel. The novel does not put forth an
  egalitarian ideology or call for the leveling of
  all social classes, yet it does criticize an
  over-emphasis on class.
• Individual and Society The novel portrays a
  world in which society takes an interest in the
  private virtue of its members. When Lydia elopes
  with Wickham, therefore, it is scandal to the
  whole society and an injury to entire Bennet
  family.
• Virtue Austen's novel shows conceptions of
  virtue. She sees human life as purposeful and
  believes that human beings must guide their
  appetites and desires through their use of
  reason.