Test 2
Plot
Overview
The
news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor
of Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn,
especially in the Bennet household. The Bennets have five unmarried
daughters—from oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—and
Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them all married. After Mr. Bennet pays a
social visit to Mr. Bingley, the Bennets attend a ball at which Mr. Bingley is
present. He is taken with Jane and spends much of the evening dancing with her.
His close friend, Mr. Darcy, is less pleased with the evening and haughtily
refuses to dance with Elizabeth, which makes everyone view him as arrogant and
obnoxious.
At
social functions over subsequent weeks, however, Mr. Darcy finds himself
increasingly attracted to Elizabeth’s charm and intelligence. Jane’s friendship
with Mr. Bingley also continues to burgeon, and Jane pays a visit to the
Bingley mansion. On her journey to the house she is caught in a downpour and
catches ill, forcing her to stay at Netherfield for several days. In order to
tend to Jane, Elizabeth hikes through muddy fields and arrives with a spattered
dress, much to the disdain of the snobbish Miss Bingley, Charles Bingley’s
sister. Miss Bingley’s spite only increases when she notices that Darcy, whom
she is pursuing, pays quite a bit of attention to Elizabeth.
Summary
Pride
and Prejudice is set in rural England in the early 19th century, and it follows
the Bennet family, which includes five very different sisters. Mrs. Bennet is
anxious to see all her daughters married, especially as the modest family
estate is to be inherited by William Collins when Mr. Bennet dies. At a ball,
the wealthy and newly arrived Charles Bingley takes an immediate interest in
the eldest Bennet daughter, the beautiful and shy Jane. The encounter between
his friend Darcy and Elizabeth is less cordial. Although Austen shows them
intrigued by each other, she reverses the convention of first impressions:
pride of rank and fortune and prejudice against the social inferiority of
Elizabeth’s family hold Darcy aloof, while Elizabeth is equally fired both by
the pride of self-respect and by prejudice against Darcy’s snobbery.
The
pompous Collins subsequently arrives, hoping to marry one of the Bennet
sisters. Elizabeth, however, refuses his offer of marriage, and he instead
becomes engaged to her friend Charlotte Lucas. During this time, Elizabeth
encounters the charming George Wickham, a military officer. There is a mutual
attraction between the two, and he informs her that Darcy has denied him his
inheritance.
After
Bingley abruptly departs for London, Elizabeth’s dislike of Darcy increases as
she becomes convinced that he is discouraging Bingley’s relationship with Jane.
Darcy, however, has grown increasingly fond of Elizabeth, admiring her
intelligence and vitality. While visiting the now-married Charlotte, Elizabeth
sees Darcy, who professes his love for her and proposes. A surprised Elizabeth
refuses his offer, and, when Darcy demands an explanation, she accuses him of
breaking up Jane and Bingley. Darcy subsequently writes Elizabeth a letter in
which he explains that he separated the couple largely because he did not believe
Jane returned Bingley’s affection. He also discloses that Wickham, after
squandering his inheritance, tried to marry Darcy’s then 15-year-old sister in
an attempt to gain possession of her fortune. With these revelations, Elizabeth
begins to see Darcy in a new light.
When
Elizabeth and Jane return home, they find Mr. Collins visiting their household.
Mr. Collins is a young clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property,
which has been “entailed,” meaning that it can only be passed down to male
heirs. Mr. Collins is a pompous fool, though he is quite enthralled by the
Bennet girls. Shortly after his arrival, he makes a proposal of marriage to
Elizabeth. She turns him down, wounding his pride. Meanwhile, the Bennet girls
have become friendly with militia officers stationed in a nearby town. Among
them is Wickham, a handsome young soldier who is friendly toward Elizabeth and
tells her how Darcy cruelly cheated him out of an inheritance.
At
the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield and return to
London, much to Jane’s dismay. A further shock arrives with the news that Mr.
Collins has become engaged to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend and the
poor daughter of a local knight. Charlotte explains to Elizabeth that she is
getting older and needs the match for financial reasons. Charlotte and Mr.
Collins get married and Elizabeth promises to visit them at their new home. As
winter progresses, Jane visits the city to see friends (hoping also that she
might see Mr. Bingley). However, Miss Bingley visits her and behaves rudely,
while Mr. Bingley fails to visit her at all. The marriage prospects for the
Bennet girls appear bleak.
Shortly
thereafter the youngest Bennet sister, Lydia, elopes with Wickham. The news is
met with great alarm by Elizabeth, since the scandalous affair—which is
unlikely to end in marriage—could ruin the reputation of the other Bennet
sisters. When she tells Darcy, he persuades Wickham to marry Lydia, offering
him money. Despite Darcy’s attempt to keep his intervention a secret, Elizabeth
learns of his actions. At the encouragement of Darcy, Bingley subsequently
returns, and he and Jane become engaged. Finally, Darcy proposes again to
Elizabeth, who this time accepts.
Shortly
thereafter, however, a letter arrives from home, telling Elizabeth that Lydia
has eloped with Wickham and that the couple is nowhere to be found, which
suggests that they may be living together out of wedlock. Fearful of the
disgrace such a situation would bring on her entire family, Elizabeth hastens
home. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Bennet go off to search for Lydia, but Mr. Bennet
eventually returns home empty-handed. Just when all hope seems lost, a letter
comes from Mr. Gardiner saying that the couple has been found and that Wickham
has agreed to marry Lydia in exchange for an annual income. The Bennets are
convinced that Mr. Gardiner has paid off Wickham, but Elizabeth learns that the
source of the money, and of her family’s salvation, was none other than Darcy.
Now
married, Wickham and Lydia return to Longbourn briefly, where Mr. Bennet treats
them coldly. They then depart for Wickham’s new assignment in the North of
England. Shortly thereafter, Bingley returns to Netherfield and resumes his
courtship of Jane. Darcy goes to stay with him and pays visits to the Bennets
but makes no mention of his desire to marry Elizabeth. Bingley, on the other
hand, presses his suit and proposes to Jane, to the delight of everyone but
Bingley’s haughty sister. While the family celebrates, Lady Catherine de Bourgh
pays a visit to Longbourn. She corners Elizabeth and says that she has heard
that Darcy, her nephew, is planning to marry her. Since she considers a Bennet
an unsuitable match for a Darcy, Lady Catherine demands that Elizabeth promise
to refuse him. Elizabeth spiritedly refuses, saying she is not engaged to
Darcy, but she will not promise anything against her own happiness. A little
later, Elizabeth and Darcy go out walking together and he tells her that his
feelings have not altered since the spring. She tenderly accepts his proposal,
and both Jane and Elizabeth are married.
That
spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte, who now lives near the home of Mr.
Collins’s patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who is also Darcy’s aunt. Darcy
calls on Lady Catherine and encounters Elizabeth, whose presence leads him to
make a number of visits to the Collins’s home, where she is staying. One day,
he makes a s Elizabeth that the young officer is a liar and that the real cause
of their disagreement was Wickham’s attempt to elope with his young sister,
Georgiana Darcy. shocking proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth quickly refuses.
She tells Darcy that she considers him arrogant and unpleasant, then scolds him
for steering Bingley away from Jane and disinheriting Wickham. Darcy leaves her
but shortly thereafter delivers a letter to her. In this letter, he admits that
he urged Bingley to distance himself from Jane, but claims he did so only
because he thought their romance was not serious. As for Wickham, he inform
This
letter causes Elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about Darcy. She returns
home and acts coldly toward Wickham. The militia is leaving town, which makes
the younger, rather man-crazy Bennet girls distraught. Lydia manages to obtain
permission from her father to spend the summer with an old colonel in Brighton,
where Wickham’s regiment will be stationed. With the arrival of June, Elizabeth
goes on another journey, this time with the Gardiners, who are relatives of the
Bennets. The trip takes her to the North and eventually to the neighborhood of
Pemberley, Darcy’s estate. She visits Pemberley, after making sure that Darcy
is away, and delights in the building and grounds, while hearing from Darcy’s
servants that he is a wonderful, generous master. Suddenly, Darcy arrives and
behaves cordially toward her. Making no mention of his proposal, he entertains
the Gardiners and invites Elizabeth to meet his sister.
Character
List
Elizabeth
Bennet - The novel’s protagonist. The
second daughter of Mr. Bennet, Elizabeth is the most intelligent and sensible
of the five Bennet sisters. She is well read and quick-witted, with a tongue
that occasionally proves too sharp for her own good. Her realization of Darcy’s
essential goodness eventually triumphs over her initial prejudice against him.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF ELIZABETH BENNET.
Fitzwilliam
Darcy - A wealthy gentleman, the master
of Pemberley, and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Darcy is
intelligent and honest, his excess of pride causes him to look down on his
social inferiors. Over the course of the novel, he tempers his
class-consciousness and learns to admire and love Elizabeth for her strong
character.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF FITZWILLIAM DARCY.
Jane
Bennet - The eldest and most beautiful
Bennet sister. Jane is more reserved and gentler than Elizabeth. The easy
pleasantness with which she and Bingley interact contrasts starkly with the
mutual distaste that marks the encounters between Elizabeth and Darcy.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF JANE BENNET.
Charles
Bingley - Darcy’s considerably wealthy
best friend. Bingley’s purchase of Netherfield, an estate near the Bennets,
serves as the impetus for the novel. He is a genial, well-intentioned
gentleman, whose easygoing nature contrasts with Darcy’s initially discourteous
demeanor. He is blissfully uncaring about class differences.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF CHARLES BINGLEY.
Mr.
Bennet - The patriarch of the Bennet
family, a gentleman of modest income with five unmarried daughters. Mr. Bennet
has a sarcastic, cynical sense of humor that he uses to purposefully irritate
his wife. Though he loves his daughters (Elizabeth in particular), he often
fails as a parent, preferring to withdraw from the never-ending marriage
concerns of the women around him rather than offer help.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF MR. BENNET.
Mrs.
Bennet - Mr. Bennet’s wife, a foolish,
noisy woman whose only goal in life is to see her daughters married. Because of
her low breeding and often unbecoming behavior, Mrs. Bennet often repels the
very suitors whom she tries to attract for her daughters.
Read
an IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF MRS. BENNET.
George
Wickham - A handsome, fortune-hunting
militia officer. Wickham’s good looks and charm attract Elizabeth initially,
but Darcy’s revelation about Wickham’s disreputable past clues her in to his
true nature and simultaneously draws her closer to Darcy.
Lydia
Bennet - The youngest Bennet sister, she
is gossipy, immature, and self-involved. Unlike Elizabeth, Lydia flings herself
headlong into romance and ends up running off with Wickham.
Mr.
Collins - A pompous, generally idiotic
clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property. Mr. Collins’s own social
status is nothing to brag about, but he takes great pains to let everyone and
anyone know that Lady Catherine de Bourgh serves as his patroness. He is the
worst combination of snobbish and obsequious.
Miss
Bingley - Bingley’s snobbish sister.
Miss Bingley bears inordinate disdain for Elizabeth’s middle-class background.
Her vain attempts to garner Darcy’s attention cause Darcy to admire Elizabeth’s
self-possessed character even more.
Lady
Catherine De Bourgh - A rich, bossy
noblewoman; Mr. Collins’s patron and Darcy’s aunt. Lady Catherine epitomizes
class snobbery, especially in her attempts to order the middle-class Elizabeth
away from her well-bred nephew.
Mr.
And Mrs. Gardiner - Mrs. Bennet’s brother
and his wife. The Gardiners, caring, nurturing, and full of common sense, often
prove to be better parents to the Bennet daughters than Mr. Bennet and his
wife.
Charlotte
Lucas - Elizabeth’s dear friend.
Pragmatic where Elizabeth is romantic, and also six years older than Elizabeth,
Charlotte does not view love as the most vital component of a marriage. She is
more interested in having a comfortable home. Thus, when Mr. Collins proposes,
she accepts.
Georgiana
Darcy - Darcy’s sister. She is immensely
pretty and just as shy. She has great skill at playing the pianoforte.
Mary
Bennet - The middle Bennet sister,
bookish and pedantic.
Catherine
Bennet - The fourth Bennet sister. Like
Lydia, she is girlishly enthralled with the soldiers.
Themes
Themes
are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Love
Pride
and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in English
literature: the courtship between Darcy and Elizabeth. As in any good love
story, the lovers must elude and overcome numerous stumbling blocks, beginning
with the tensions caused by the lovers’ own personal qualities. Elizabeth’s
pride makes her misjudge Darcy on the basis of a poor first impression, while
Darcy’s prejudice against Elizabeth’s poor social standing blinds him, for a
time, to her many virtues. (Of course, one could also say that Elizabeth is
guilty of prejudice and Darcy of pride—the title cuts both ways.) Austen,
meanwhile, poses countless smaller obstacles to the realization of the love
between Elizabeth and Darcy, including Lady Catherine’s attempt to control her
nephew, Miss Bingley’s snobbery, Mrs. Bennet’s idiocy, and Wickham’s deceit. In
each case, anxieties about social connections, or the desire for better social
connections, interfere with the workings of love. Darcy and Elizabeth’s
realization of a mutual and tender love seems to imply that Austen views love
as something independent of these social forces, as something that can be
captured if only an individual is able to escape the warping effects of
hierarchical society. Austen does sound some more realist (or, one could say,
cynical) notes about love, using the character of Charlotte Lucas, who marries
the buffoon Mr. Collins for his money, to demonstrate that the heart does not
always dictate marriage. Yet with her central characters, Austen suggests that
true love is a force separate from society and one that can conquer even the
most difficult of circumstances.
Reputation
Pride
and Prejudice depicts a society in which a woman’s reputation is of the utmost
importance. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways. Stepping outside the
social norms makes her vulnerable to ostracism. This theme appears in the
novel, when Elizabeth walks to Netherfield and arrives with muddy skirts, to
the shock of the reputation-conscious Miss Bingley and her friends. At other
points, the ill-mannered, ridiculous behavior of Mrs. Bennet gives her a bad
reputation with the more refined (and snobbish) Darcys and Bingleys. Austen
pokes gentle fun at the snobs in these examples, but later in the novel, when
Lydia elopes with Wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats
reputation as a very serious matter. By becoming Wickham’s lover without
benefit of marriage, Lydia clearly places herself outside the social pale, and
her disgrace threatens the entire Bennet family. The fact that Lydia’s
judgment, however terrible, would likely have condemned the other Bennet
sisters to marriageless lives seems grossly unfair. Why should Elizabeth’s
reputation suffer along with Lydia’s? Darcy’s intervention on the Bennets’ behalf
thus becomes all the more generous, but some readers might resent that such an
intervention was necessary at all. If Darcy’s money had failed to convince
Wickham to marry Lydia, would Darcy have still married Elizabeth? Does his
transcendence of prejudice extend that far? The happy ending of Pride and
Prejudice is certainly emotionally satisfying, but in many ways it leaves the
theme of reputation, and the importance placed on reputation, unexplored. One
can ask of Pride and Prejudice, to what extent does it critique social
structures, and to what extent does it simply accept their inevitability?
Class
The
theme of class is related to reputation, in that both reflect the strictly
regimented nature of life for the middle and upper classes in Regency England.
The lines of class are strictly drawn. While the Bennets, who are middle class,
may socialize with the upper-class Bingleys and Darcys, they are clearly their
social inferiors and are treated as such. Austen satirizes this kind of
class-consciousness, particularly in the character of Mr. Collins, who spends
most of his time toadying to his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Though Mr. Collins offers an extreme example, he is not the only one to hold
such views. His conception of the importance of class is shared, among others,
by Mr. Darcy, who believes in the dignity of his lineage; Miss Bingley, who
dislikes anyone not as socially accepted as she is; and Wickham, who will do
anything he can to get enough money to raise himself into a higher station. Mr.
Collins’s views are merely the most extreme and obvious. The satire directed at
Mr. Collins is therefore also more subtly directed at the entire social
hierarchy and the conception of all those within it at its correctness, in
complete disregard of other, more worthy virtues. Through the Darcy-Elizabeth
and Bingley-Jane marriages, Austen shows the power of love and happiness to
overcome class boundaries and prejudices, thereby implying that such prejudices
are hollow, unfeeling, and unproductive. Of course, this whole discussion of
class must be made with the understanding that Austen herself is often
criticized as being a classist: she doesn’t really represent anyone from the
lower classes; those servants she does portray are generally happy with their
lot. Austen does criticize class structure but only a limited slice of that
structure.