How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel?

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Out staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel?, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel? paper at affordable prices with cheap essay writing service! The original title of Jane Austen's novel, "Pride and Prejudice" was "First impressions". From this title it is clear that Jane Austen wanted to convey to the reader the importance of first impressions and how we form them so quickly. Other themes of the novel include pride, prejudice, conceit and vanity. Most people have these feelings or opinions without even realising it. Pride is a feeling of satisfaction that you have done well, however, it can also mean that you feel better than others. Pride can be linked to vanity, which can be described as a feeling of excessive pride regarding aspects of yourself, for example, your looks or abilities. Prejudice is an unfair dislike of another person because of your opinions about an aspect of their lives, such as their religion or race. Mary Bennet gives this definition of vanity within the novel. "Vanity and pride are different things… A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what others think of us." This is important to the text as it shows that vanity is an important issue to the characters in the novel and it also shows the reader that vanity is likely to be one of the themes explored.

The themes of pride and prejudice are explored through characters and events in the novel, which I will be discussed

Initially Elizabeth, the romantic heroin, harbours a deep dislike to Darcy owing to the fact that he appears to be hostile towards her family and others with lower social status and less wealth. Darcy is described as being "proud" and said to have a "forbidding, disagreeable countenance", meaning that he appears to be unwelcoming and unapproachable to others. Elizabeth believes that Darcy is prejudiced against her family because of their lower social status and less wealth, because she believes that Darcy dislikes her she forms her own prejudice against him, believing that he is too proud of his social status and wealth and is harsh, rude and unwelcoming to others.

Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy is fuelled when she hears from Wickham that Darcy has treated him wrongly. Elizabeth accepts Wickham's story without exploring it fully because she believes that he is a gentleman and so is trustworthy. This illustrates how first impressions can be wrong, as Wickham is not a gentleman as Elizabeth first thought and has not told Elizabeth the whole truth about why Darcy treated him wrongly. When Elizabeth finds out the truth behind Wickham and Darcy's dislike for each other, her opinion of both Wickham and Darcy changes dramatically. This is a crucial point in the novel as this is when Elizabeth realises how easily she has formed prejudices and opinions about people that are wrong. Austen has carefully and skilfully guided the reader to have the same opinions, as Elizabeth and this is the point in the reader realises that they too have formed inaccurate opinions and prejudices against characters.

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At the beginning of the novel the reader is intended to dislike Darcy. Austen creates this through the use of language by the omniscient narrator. Without realising it the reader has been forced to form a certain opinion of each character by the narrator, which is later reversed. Austen described Darcy as "haughty, reserved and fastidious, and his manners…were not inviting." This makes the audience believe that Darcy is rude, has bad manners and is not easy to please.

Letters play an important role as a plot device in the novel. The arrival of a letter often brought bad news, a crisis, or a twist in the plot. For example, whilst visiting Pemberly, Darcy's home, believing him to be away Elizabeth hears from Darcy's housekeeper that he is a very nice man, and when he unexpectedly arrives he treats Elizabeth and her family with respect and kindness, leading Elizabeth to believe that she could grow to love Darcy after all. However, just when things appear to be going well for the family, Elizabeth receives a letter from Jane telling her of a crisis at home. The letter brings with it a twist in the plot and an interesting crisis. While she was away from home Wickham, who Elizabeth had believed was a gentleman had eloped with her younger sister. As Elizabeth and Jane were so far apart letters would have been the main form of communication at the time.

The novel is narrated in the style of an omniscient narrator, and so although the narrator is detached from the story the narration tells of characters private thoughts and feelings. Through this style of narration, events are often foreshadowed by descriptions of the characters feelings and thoughts. For example, during Darcy's first proposal the narrator describes Elizabeth's feelings, "in spite of her deeply-rooted dislike, she could not be insensible to the compliment of such a man's affection, and though her intentions did not vary for an instant, she was sorry for the pain that he was about to receive," This description of Elizabeth's feelings shows the reader that Elizabeth is going to reject Darcy's proposal. In addition to this the narrator tells the reader, "he had no doubt of a favourable answer." This not only tells the reader what answer Darcy was expecting but it further confirms Darcy's pride in his social position. Darcy is aware that his offer of marriage to a person of lower social status would be very beneficial for Elizabeth as she would gain wealth, social status and a more comfortable lifestyle, because of this Darcy believed that Elizabeth would accept him immediately. This shows that Darcy believes his social connections and wealth will guarantee him Elizabeth's hand in marriage.

Elizabeth is shocked by Darcy's sudden proposal, "Elizabeth's astonishment was beyond expression," as she believed Darcy's unwelcoming attitude towards her was because he disliked her and was prejudiced against her family. However, it is now revealed that Darcy's cold attitude towards Elizabeth was because he was trying to suppress his feelings towards her. During his proposal Darcy suggests that he should not have such feelings for her as he has "sense of her inferiority." Elizabeth already dislikes Darcy and his comments about her family connections fuels her belief that he is too proud and vain and so takes offence to his comments about her family. Elizabeth rejects Darcy and from the narration it is clear that she has wounded his pride and he cannot understand why she would not wish to marry him. Darcy then asks for further explanation and Elizabeth, unable to hide her dislike for him anymore begins an argument with him. Although the pair are arguing they still follow social expectations of the nineteenth century by using polite language even though they are angry and resentful towards each other. Darcy further insults Elizabeth by asking, "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?" by saying this Darcy has insulted her social status and her family.

When the argument continues, the characters begin to tell each other their real feelings. As the argument gets more tense and more heated. Because the characters are now revealing their feelings and thoughts openly through dialogue there is little further need for narrative, so during the argument dialogue takes over with only occasional narrative to explain their actions. This is a very tense moment in the novel as both Darcy and Elizabeth openly voice their prejudices and dislike towards each other, and as each looses their patience and begins to get angry the dialogue over-rules the narrative and as they argue with each other the narrative is replaced by their speech, in a style of a play.

Events in the novel allow Austen to further explore the themes of pride and prejudice.

In Chapter 4 Darcy makes his first proposal but Elizabeth rejects him. However, during the argument she reveals to Darcy the reasons why she doesn't like him, including what she has been told about his mistreatment of Wickham. Darcy knows that this information is incorrect and later he sends a letter to Elizabeth explaining what really happened between him and Wickham. Darcy's explanation of the events makes Elizabeth realise that her first impressions and opinions of Darcy and Wickham have been very wrong and her feelings about both change. When Darcy proposes for a second time, in chapter 58, Elizabeth accepts because her opinion about Darcy has changed.

Original readers may have reacted differently to themes of the novel, depending on their social class. For example, people of a lower social class would understand and sympathize with the Bennet family and may have been able to relate to the prejudice that they would have experienced. Although they are of a very different social class, wealthy people would have been able to relate to the characters of a high social class, such as Darcy and Bingley and may have experienced attraction to a person of a different class like Darcy experienced with Elizabeth so they may be able to sympathise with the characters. Also, people of a higher social status would have got an insight of how lower class people feel about them.

In addition to this, many readers would have realised through the actions of the characters in the novel that they form opinions quickly, often based on rumours that may have not been true. In addition to this, people may have realised that people of different social class, don't always conform to stereotypes as they may have thought. For example, not all rich people are rude and unwelcoming to less wealthy people, such as Bingley and not all young ladies are obsessed with marrying a rich man, for example, Mary Bennet. Austen's over-exaggerated characters, such as Mrs Bennet, obsessed with marrying her daughters to rich bachelors, and Mr Collins, who wasted no opportunity to boast about his connections with the very wealthy Lady Catherine DeBourg, would have been comical to original readers who may have experienced people like these characters, obsessed with obtaining wealth and superior social connections. Austen subtly mocks people who act like this, and some original readers, with mothers like Mrs Bennet or cousins like Mr Collins would have been able to relate to Elizabeth's feelings of embarrassment about her mother's behaviour in public, or her uncles vain pride in his social connections.

Original readers may also have been able to relate to the strict codes of social conduct in early nineteenth century Britain. When engaging socially there were strict rules to follow, such as you must be polite to everyone even if you dislike them and the formal relationships between the sexes. Some of the readers would have understood this as they may have disliked someone intensely but realised that they had to maintain polite and formal towards the person they disliked. Therefore, original readers may have been able to understand Elizabeth's frustrations at the way she was expected to act, and also her embarrassment when her family frequently broke the social conduct rules.

This would still apply to modern readers, as people would still be embarrassed about the behaviour of their families. The theme of the novel was designed to make the original readers think about their prejudices and opinions of others and realise that they were not always correct.

The theme of pride and prejudice is still relevant to modern readers. Often without realising it, we will form opinions about people within minutes of meeting them and often, before really getting to know them. In addition to this, people still hold prejudices. Although there are no longer social classes in the same sense as there was when the novel was written, people still judge people who are poorer or richer than them. For example, people often will avoid talking to somebody whose clothes show that they obviously don't have much money. However, people will also form opinions about people who wear expensive designer clothes, thinking that they are too proud of their money, which is why they wear designer clothes. Modern readers, would probably not have considered there prejudices like this and the novel shows the modern readers that ideas have changed very little since Austen wrote the book in the early 1800's. As well as prejudice, people also form opinions about people based upon their appearance and often gossip, without considering whether or not it is true. As the romantic heroine, Elizabeth, found out, people who appear to be trustworthy, genuine and friendly are sometimes not, and modern readers can still associate with this.

Although modern readers still form judgements about people, they still exhibit pride in their wealth and at a personal level. For example, people who are wealthy will buy designer clothes, as a symbol of their wealth for everybody to see. Designer clothes are often of the same quality as cheaper clothes, but with a designer name or label on them they are automatically seen as better because they are more expensive. This shows that modern day readers still take pride in the wealth. Misplaced pride can lead people to believe that they are better than others because they are more wealthy, prettier or more intelligent. As the novel shows, people who exhibit this vain pride are often disliked by others and thought of as bad people. However, people should still be allowed to be proud of themselves or their achievements, but people sometimes need to consider whether beauty, wealth, intelligence, or popularity make you superior to others.

Although the novel has many themes and morals, essentially it is still a traditional rags to riches love story. These type of stories have continued to be popular over hundreds of years, from Shakespearian plays such as "Romeo and Juliet", to more modern films such as "Titanic" and even current films or books. I think that rags to riches love story is popular because it makes people happy believing that love can overcome social status, class and wealth, whether or not that really is the case.

I believe that through her novel, Austen wanted to explore the themes of pride, prejudice and first impressions, as well as making social comments about her time. Through events and characters in the novel Austen shows the importance of making informed judgements and not listening to gossip. I think that Austen also wanted to show how little attention should be paid to first impressions and other people's unfair prejudices. I believe that Austen aimed to show people how pride and prejudice was exhibited across social boundaries and that if people could overcome their prejudices they would be much happier. I think that Austen was trying to imply that people should try and try and overcome their prejudices against social classes and wealth because the social boundaries between different classes were changing during the time she wrote the novel.

I believe that Austen was suggesting that before we judge other people we should consider ourselves. For example, when Elizabeth thought that Darcy was prejudiced against her, she formed her own prejudice against him. Although she was angry that he was judging her and her family without knowing them, she was in fact doing exactly the same, forming a negative opinion of him because of his appearance, social class and gossip. For example, before getting angry that people are judging you, stop to consider whether or not you are also judging people. People often don't realise they have prejudices and make these first impressions and opinions based on rumours or appearances. I think that Austen was suggesting that if everyone could overcome their prejudice and their vain or conceited pride like Elizabeth and Darcy, then new relationships could develop and everybody would be much happier. Please note that this sample paper on How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel? is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel?, we are here to assist you. Your cheap research papers on How does Jane Austen explore the theme of Pride and Prejudice in the novel? will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.

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