'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen *Victorian Age female novelist

1. By:Ikram Ullah

2.  Most prominent female novelist
 Of late 18th and early 19th century
 Born on 16 December 1775
 Her education was completed at home under supervision
of his father.
 She described herself as “the most unlearned and
uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress.”
 There is no hidden meanings and philosophy in her novels.

3.  She is also not an idealist like Chaucer and Shakespeare she
accepts the “law of nature.”
 She mocks at extravagant maternal affection such as what
Mrs. Bennet professes for Lydia in Pride and Prejudice.
 Though love is necessary for marriage, one should not ignore
the importance of Money.
 At Steven ton, she wrote the first draft of her novels, Pride
and Prejudice , earlier entitled “First Impression” and written
in 1796.
 She doesn’t make higher issues of life-theological, political, or
social- a subject for discussion in her novels.

5.  Mrs. Bennet “the business of [whose] life was to get her
daughters married.”, looks for man with monetary means.
 Her mind was less difficult to develop.
 She was a woman of mean understanding, little information,
and uncertain temper.
 Mr. Bennet , a man of intelligence, turn reserved, capricious
and sarcastic.
 He neglects domestic responsibilities and confines himself to
his study with the result that his younger daughters grow
wayward.
 His youngest daughter Lydia turns a determined flirt and bring
ignominy to the family by eloping with Wickham.

7.  First of the new marriages in the novel between Charlotte and
Collins.
 Lucas a good natured and sensible woman whereas Collins, a
foolish man of servile nature and self importance
 This marriage is not based on love and mutual understanding.
 A girl of small fortune and no beauty, for her respectable
option to marry someone to ensure economic security
 Charlotte explains to Elizabeth her the purpose of her marriage
with Collin ,“I am not romantic, you know; I never was. I
ask only a comfortable home; and considering Mr.
Collins’s character, connection, and situation in life, I am
convinced that my chance of happiness with him is as fair
as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”
(p193)

8.  Worse marriage than that of Charlotte and Collins
 They elope before they get married.
 Compatibility and understanding are once again
absent.
 Lydia is captivated by the external glamour of
Wickham’s personality.
 She thinks, she is in love with him but she is only
infatuated.
 It is based on Wickham’s considerations for material
gains.

9.  Jane and Bingley are sincerely in love with each
other.
 Between them exists a great emotional compatibility.
 By nature, both are sweet and gentle, free from
malice, ill will, affectation and duplicity, calm,
unsuspecting, simple and willing to forgive readily.
 There is every likelihood that they will lead a happy
married life.

10.  Still, their marriage is timidly weak. Bingley is too
weak-willed that in spite of loving Jane deeply, he
does not take any initiative.
 Their temperamental harmony lacks the
strengthening support of intellectual understanding
and maturity.
 “Still they will be happy because Bingley is too good
to offend consciously and Jane is too good not to
forgive even any offense.”

11.  They entered into marriage bond after knowing each other for
a long time
 Austen described their marriage the most satisfactory marriage
of all.
 Based as they are on genuine love, they bring real happiness to
both couples.
 The title of the novel was drawn from the epilogue of Miss
Burney’s novel, Cecilia.
 It is more appropriate because it sums up the main qualities of
hero and the heroine of the novel.
 Darcy being Pride and Elizabeth being Prejudice.

12.  It’s modeled on Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
 In this comedy, Benedick and Beatrice, who hate each other in
the beginning, are ultimately married at the end.
 Elizabeth and Darcy begin with prejudices and gradually move
towards understanding.
 Elizabeth helps Darcy to shed his pride and be really the
gentleman.
 Darcy in turn acts nobly and generously to win her love.
Mutual affection and regards developed between them that
form the basis of a sound marriage.
 “It was a union that must have been to the advantage of
both”

13.  Elizabeth has to assure that she loves and respects
Darcy. Love and respect count most in a marital
union, and having secured both, Elizabeth does not
make any false or exaggerated statement when she
says half-mockingly: “It is settled between us
already that we are to be the happiest couple in the
world.”