Jane Austen
Kate Smith
Analysis of Extract from Chapter 3 of Pride and Prejudice
The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. The novel has a third person narrator, is romantic fiction and covers themes such as love, romance, marriage, reputation, money, status, class and hierarchy but it also deals with the social changes that were happening at the time including more social mobility due to ‘new money’ and the role of women in society as they began to try and break down the restraints previously imposed upon them.
In the extract provided Mrs Bennet says ‘If I can see one of my daughters happily settled in
Netherfield....and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing left to wish for’.
Mrs Bennet states her favourable opinion of Bingley before she has even met him based entirely on gossip.
When the community meet both Bingley and Darcy for the first time Bingley is described as
‘good looking, and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy unaffected manners’. Although at first Darcy is described equally positively (particularly when gossip spreads that he has £10,000 a year) the local community then decides from Darcy’s behaviour that he is ‘proud, to be above his company and above being pleased’.
Through these examples Mrs Bennet and the local society show that they value appearances, social etiquette, monetary value and hierarchy more than character.
The local community make prejudiced assumptions about the newcomers based on gossip and first impressions rather than firsthand knowledge, similar to how the majority of characters treat Fanny in Mansfield Park when she first arrives.
Later in chapter three Elizabeth has her pride hurt as she overhears what Darcy says about her ‘she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.....’ however;
Elizabeth also has pride
Analysis of Extract from Chapter 3 of Pride and Prejudice
The novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen was first published in 1813. The novel has a third person narrator, is romantic fiction and covers themes such as love, romance, marriage, reputation, money, status, class and hierarchy but it also deals with the social changes that were happening at the time including more social mobility due to ‘new money’ and the role of women in society as they began to try and break down the restraints previously imposed upon them.
In the extract provided Mrs Bennet says ‘If I can see one of my daughters happily settled in
Netherfield....and all the others equally well married, I shall have nothing left to wish for’.
Mrs Bennet states her favourable opinion of Bingley before she has even met him based entirely on gossip.
When the community meet both Bingley and Darcy for the first time Bingley is described as
‘good looking, and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy unaffected manners’. Although at first Darcy is described equally positively (particularly when gossip spreads that he has £10,000 a year) the local community then decides from Darcy’s behaviour that he is ‘proud, to be above his company and above being pleased’.
Through these examples Mrs Bennet and the local society show that they value appearances, social etiquette, monetary value and hierarchy more than character.
The local community make prejudiced assumptions about the newcomers based on gossip and first impressions rather than firsthand knowledge, similar to how the majority of characters treat Fanny in Mansfield Park when she first arrives.
Later in chapter three Elizabeth has her pride hurt as she overhears what Darcy says about her ‘she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.....’ however;
Elizabeth also has pride