1. By JaneAusten
Course Code: Eng-104
Course Title: Introduction to Fiction

2. Conducted By:
Monir Hossen
Lecturer
Department of English
Uttara University
Email: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com

3. Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)
was an English novelist whose works of romantic
fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a
place as one of the most widely read writers in
English literature.
She was educated primarily by her father and
older brothers as well as through her own reading.
Her works include Sense and Sensibility(1811),
Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park(1814)
and Emma (1816). She also wrote Northanger
Abbey and Persuasion, both published in 1818,
and began writing Sanditon, but died before
completing it.
Her plots mostly highlight the dependence of
women on marriage to secure social standing and
economic security.
She earned little fame during her lifetime but the
publication in 1869 of her nephew's A Memoir of
Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public andit
was by 1940s that she became widely accepted in
academia as a great English writer.
Author Details:
Jane Austen

4. SETTING
In the story the readers are taken to different
towns and places but the story is set in
England at large.
Following are the places discussed in the
novel.
Longbourn: The Bennet family estate near the
town of Meryton. It will be inherited by Mr.
Collins when Mr. Bennet dies.
Netherfield: Bingley's estate near Longbourn
and near the town of Meryton.
Meryton: Town near Longbourn where
Mrs.Phillips lives and the soldiers are

5. Rosings: Lady Catherine De Bourgh's estate in
Hunsford. Mr. Collins has a parish near this
estate, and Elizabeth visits Rosings while she is
visiting Charlotte.
Pemberley: Mr. Darcy's estate in Derbyshire.
Hertfordshire: The county, where Longbourn,
Netherfield, and Meryton are all located.
Hunsford: The town where Charlotte and Mr.
Collins live.
Brighton: The town to which the soldiers from
Meryton are moved.
Derbyshire: The county where Mr. Darcy's
estate, Pemberly, is located.

7. As said in the words of Mary at the beginning of the novel, "human
nature is particularly prone to [pride]" (Volume I, Chapter 5). In
the novel, pride prevents the characters from seeing the truth of a
situation and from achieving happiness in life.
Pride is one of the main barriers that creates an obstacle to
Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage. Darcy's pride in his position in
society leads him initially to scorn anyone outside of his own
social circle.
Elizabeth's vanity clouds her judgment, making her prone to think
ill of Darcy and to think well of Wickham.
In the end, Elizabeth's rebukes of Darcy help him to realize his
fault and to change accordingly, as demonstrated in his genuinely
friendly treatment of the Gardiners, whom he previously would
have scorned because of their low social class.
Darcy's letter shows Elizabeth that her judgments were wrong and
she realizes that they were based on vanity, not on reason.

8. Pride and prejudice are intimately related in the novel. As critic A.
Walton Litz comments, "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."
However, Darcy tries to overcome his prejudice as it is demonstrated
when he treats the Gardiners with great civility. The Gardiners are a
much lower class than Darcy, because Mr. Gardiner is a lawyer and
must practice a trade to earn a living, rather than living off of the
interest of an estate as gentlemen do.
From the beginning of the novel Elizabeth prides herself on her keen
ability for perception. Yet this supposed ability is often lacking, as in
Elizabeth's judgments of Darcy and Wickham.

9. Austen is critical of the gender injustices
present in 19th century English society.
The novel demonstrates how women such as
Charlotte need to marry simply in order to gain
financial security.
The entailment of the Longbourn estate is an
extreme hardship on the Bennet family, and is
quite obviously unjust. The entailment of Mr.
Bennet's estate leaves his daughters in a poor
financial situation which both requires them to
marry and makes it more difficult to marrywell.
Clearly, Austen believes that woman are at
least as intelligent and capable as men, and
considers their inferior status in society to be
unjust. She herself went against convention by
remaining single and earning a living through
her novels.

10. Austen portrays the family as primarily responsible for the
intellectual and moral education of children. Mr. and Mrs.
Bennet's failure to provide this education for their daughters leads
to the utter shamelessness, foolishness, and immorality of Lydia.
Elizabeth and Jane have managed to develop virtue and strong
characters in spite of the negligence of their parents, perhaps
through the help of their studies and the good influence of Mr.
and Mrs. Gardiner, who are the only relatives in the novel that
take a serious concern in the girls' well-being and provide sound
guidance.
Elizabeth and Jane are constantly forced to put up with the
foolishness and poor judgment of their mother and the sarcastic
indifference of their father.
Even when Elizabeth advises her father not to allow Lydia to go
to Brighton, he ignores the advice because he thinks it would be
too difficult to deal with Lydia's complaining.
The result is the scandal of Lydia's elopement with Wickham.

11. Considerations of class are omnipresent in
the novel.
Darcy's inordinate pride is based on his
extreme class-consciousness. Yet eventually
he sees that factors other than wealth
determine who truly belongs in the
aristocracy.
Those such as Miss Bingley and Mrs. Hurst,
who are born into the aristocracy, are idle,
mean-spirited and annoying, Mr. and Mrs.
Gardiner are not members of the aristocracy
in terms of wealth or birth but are natural
aristocrats by virtue of their intelligence,
good-breeding and virtue.
The comic formality of Mr. Collins and his
obsequious relationship with Lady Catherine
serve as a satire class consciousness and
social formalities.

12. 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.
Darcy considers his failure to expose the wickedness of
Wickham's character to be a breach of his social duty
because if Wickham's true character had been known others
would not have been so easily deceived by him.
While Austen is critical of society's ability to judge properly,as
demonstrated especially in their judgments of Wickham and
Darcy, she does believe that society has a crucial role in
promoting virtue.
Austen has a profound sense that individuals are social
beings and that their happiness is found through relationships
with others.
According to critic Richard Simpson, Austen has a "thorough
consciousness that man is a social being, and that apart from
society there is not even the individual."

13. Characters
Elizabeth Bennet
- The novel’s protagonist.
- second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet.
- most intelligent and sensible
- Her realization of Darcy’s essential goodness eventually
triumphs over her initial prejudice against him.

14. Fitzwilliam Darcy
-He is Bingley's best friend and the nephew of Lady
Catherine de Bourgh. He is a very wealthy, handsome,
and proud bachelor.
-He is viewed as rude and conceited by all the
inhabitants of Meryton.
-He is intelligent and honest but his pride causes him
to look down on his social inferiors.
“….for almost all his actions may be traced to pride;-and
pride has often been his best friend.”(George
Wickham-vol. I ch.16)
-However, Darcy gradually tempers his class-
consciousness and eventually falls in love with, and
marries Elizabeth.

15. Jane Bennet
The eldest and most beautiful Bennet sister.
Jane is more reserved and gentler than Elizabeth.
She is later married to Mr.Bingley.
Charles Bingley
Mr. Bingley is a wealthy, young bachelor who moves
into the Bennet's neighborhood. His purchase of
Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets, serves as the
momentum for the novel. His friendly nature contrasts
with Darcy’s initially rude behavior. He is uncaring
about class differences.

16. Mr. Bennet -
The patriarch of the Bennet family
He has very little interest in the duties of polite
society or in raising his daughters. For example,
when Elizabeth rejects Mr. Collins’ proposal, Mrs.
Bennet asks for her husband’s opinion but he
merely replies “…what am I to do on the
occasion? It seems an hopeless business” (Mr.
Bennet- vol. I ch.20)
He finds his wife and his three youngest
daughters to be unbearably silly, but
Elizabeth and Jane make him proud.

17. Mrs. Bennet -
She is a foolish, noisy woman whose greatest aspiration
is to have her five daughters married off.
Mrs. Bennet does not approve of Elizabeth's logic and
practicality, and Elizabeth is her least favorite daughter.
“Elizabeth was the least dear to her of all her
children….”(vol. I-ch.18)
Mary Bennet - The middle Bennet sister who is very
bookish. She is the only one of the Bennet girls who
remains unmarried.
Catherine Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister.
Like Lydia, she is girlishly enthralled with the
soldiers.
Lydia Bennet
-The youngest Bennet sister.
-She is gossipy, immature and self-involved. In the end
she marries George Wickham.

18. George Wickham
-A handsome, fortune-huntingmilitia officer.
-Wickham’s good looks and charm attract Elizabeth initially. He
convinces her that he was greatly wronged by Mr. Darcy, but soon
she learns of his true character, and realizes that she has been
mistaken.
-Wickham later marries Lydia after they run away together.
Mr. Collins
-A pompous clergyman who is Mr. Bennet's cousin and will inherit his
estate when Mr. Bennet dies

19. Charlotte Lucas - Elizabeth’s dear friend. Charlotte
does not view love as the most vital component of a
marriage and is more interested in having a
comfortable home. Thus, when Mr. Collins
proposes, she accepts.
Sir William Lucas: He is Charlotte's father.
Maria Lucas-is Charlotte's younger sister.

20. Miss Bingley -Bingley’s snobbish sister. She bears
inordinate disdain for Elizabeth’s middle-class
background.
Mrs. Hurst: She is Bingley's older, marriedsister who is
just as two-faced as Miss Bingley.
Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner -Mrs. Bennet’s brother
and his wife. They are caring, nurturing, and full
of common sense.
- Mrs. Gardiner and Elizabeth are quite close because
Elizabeth's own mother is silly while Mrs. Gardiner is
more thoughtful and practical like Elizabeth.
- Mr. Gardiner tries to find Lydia and Wickham
when they have run away together.

21. Lady Catherine de Bourgh -A rich, bossy noblewoman
who is Darcy's wealthy aunt and Collins' patroness. She
greatly illustrates class snobbery as she is a forceful lady
who expects everyone to appreciate and follow her
advice on every topic.
Miss De Bourgh- Miss De Bourgh is Darcy's cousin
and Lady Catherine's daughter.
Georgiana Darcy - Darcy’s sister. She is immensely
pretty and just as shy. She is wary because she was
almost conned into eloping with Mr. Wickham, which
would have been a grave mistake. She has great skills
at playing the pianoforte.
Colonel Fitzwilliam: Col. Fitzwilliam is Darcy's cousin
and also co-guardian of Miss Darcy, Darcy's little
sister.

22. Bibliography
www.google.com/images
http://en.wikipedia.org/

23. Thank you