Preview

Pride And Prejudice Response Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
517 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pride And Prejudice Response Essay
Pride and Prejudice Discussion Items No 1 Response

1. How does the setting of the early nineteenth, late eighteenth century England influence the characters and events of the novel? The traditions and culture influence the characters and plot completely throughout Pride and Prejudice. The division of classes found in in this culture provide the base for the complicated game the characters must play to attract each other. Since England is well developed at this time, it is possible for the characters to occupy the safe jobs and comfortable lifestyle they do. It safe to say this novel could only take place in this time period and place.

2. Why does Mrs. Bennet go through such troubles and schemes, such as forcing Jane to ride horseback in the rain, to marry off her daughters (Austen 29)? How does Mr. Bennet feel about this? Mrs. Bennet is willing to do almost anything to get her daughters a proper man. She sees putting her daughters at risk for illness
…show more content…
How do class rankings matter in relations to marriage compatibility to the characters? Class rankings and social status decide who marries who and who does not in this society. Associating with people of lower classes is unusual and such engagements are looked down upon by members of the higher classes. Exceptions however rise, such as in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet came from a lower class than Mr. Bennet but such situations prove that the lines dividing classes can be blurred and bent.
5. How do the characters use social events such as balls and dinners to serve their personal agendas? The balls and dinners are used for the community to socialize, but more importantly for the single to mingle. Men and women dance together and meet each other at these events. As in the case where the Bennet girls are introduced to Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, the women immediately size up and evaluate the men. The men also browse the selection of women, making the balls the ultimate place to find a

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Austen includes the intent and actions of attracting Mr. Bingley for one of the Bennet's daughters. Mr. Bennet has always intended to visit Mr. Bingley but has said to his wife he won't go. Once he has gone, his wife says to him,…

    • 2674 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This quote shows how Mrs. Bennet is already thinking of marrying her daughters to a man she does not know well. She is talking to Mr. Bennet and telling him that he should already know about her plan. This information shows how it was a priority for women to get married back then so that they could be taken care of. Foreshadowing…

    • 1315 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    None of the Bennet girls have jobs, nor are they looking for any. All they’ve been clamoring for is to get married to someone quickly, which their mother, Mrs. Bennet, constantly reminds them to do. Elizabeth is the only one to challenge that convention, as she seems in no rush to get married and takes her time in carefully finding someone who can not only secure her financially, but suit her emotionally. Perhaps Jane Austen is criticizing the way in which 19th century England made women mere puppets in a society dominated by…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and everybody hoped we would never come there again.” (3) These were the feelings that Miss Elizabeth Bennet possessed at the start of Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen weaved a marvelous tale of love in its rarest and truest form. This love was formed out of a once burning hatred. The transformations throughout Austen’s masterpiece shows how true love fights through the boundary of pride and prejudice which exists in the society of Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Jane Austen captivates us through the characters of Darcy and Elizabeth through their altering feelings for one another and the world causing anxiety for the readers at first but ultimately an overwhelming relief for the readers.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mrs. Bennet is the prime example of a static character. From the very beginning, learning of Mr. Bingley arriving into town, we see the wheels in Mrs. Bennet's mind start to turn. "Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune, four or five thousane a year. What a fine thing for our girls!" (6). Right away she is setting them up for the game, because in her head one of her girls has to marry the rich man. She views the thought of a wealthy man entering town as the perfect oppurtunity to have her daughters step up into the rich community. Marrying off her daughters serves as the main purpose in Mrs. Bennet's life, and she stays that way throughout the book. To everyone's dismay, Mrs. Bennet even has her eldest daughter travel to see the Bingleys by foot, since "it seems likely to rain, and then you must stay the night" (28). Having her daughter walk through the rain and become ill was not a bad thing to Mrs. Bennet, but a way to get her daughter married off. Upon the proposal of Mr. Collins and Elizabeth, Mrs. Bennet even goes so far as to say, "[I insist upon her accepting it], or I will never see her again" (96). Mr. Bennet goes on to say how she should not marry Mr. Collins, while Mrs. Bennet "talked to Elizabeth again and again, coaxed and threatened her by turns" (97). Mrs. Bennet will never give up on marrying off the girls, it's something she has always done, and always will…

    • 277 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mwds

    • 3104 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Historical information: From 1800 to 1815 the Napoleonic Wars took place between England and France and thus government censorship of literature proliferated so that Austen could not freely expose her identity as an authoress. The social atmosphere at the time was very stratified and class divisions were important as were family connections and wealth and it is for this reason that much of Pride and Prejudice is not so much based on love as it is on ridicule.…

    • 3104 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. A young man, Mr. Bingley, has arrived in town. He is wealthy and successful. Parents dream of their daughters finding a husband like him. Throughout the beginning of the book, Mrs. Bennet tries to impress Mr. Bingley with her daughters so he may find one of them a desirable wife, specifically her daughter Jane. Chapter 1 | This shows the difference in society between then and now. During the time this book takes place, women didn't have obligations in society other than finding a good husband. Now a days, parents don't care about their daughters getting married as much as they care about them getting a good education and being successful in life. |…

    • 2070 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “[Mrs. Bennet} was a women of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.” (226)…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pride and Prejudice

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This novel, being written in the eighteenth century, still provides many current, controversial themes. What is marriage about? Why should it be pursued? Mrs. Bennet seems to think that fortune precedes love when it comes to marriage. When first speaking of Mr. Bingley, Mrs. Bennet shares her excitement by saying “a single man of large fortune;…what a fine thing for our girls!” (1). She finds it convenient for her daughters that the single Mr. Bingley has moved near to Longbourn. All she truly wants is to have her daughters married to respectable, wealthy men. Love, she feels, would be a lucky bonus. Because of this, the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet seems to be questionable as well.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Property inheritance is another subject which Austen satirizes by using the situation of the Bennet family. In Regency England property was entailed, meaning it was passed down through a family, usually following the patrilineal line. “Mr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heir’s male” (Page77). Here it is shown how a family estate was passed down, here in the Bennet’s case, as is it with most families, the estate was passed down to the next male in the family. This would mean that after Mr.Bennet died his daughters would have to leave their home and hand it over to the next male relative (Mr. Collins). This is the motivation behind Mrs.Bennet’s need to marry off her children before the death of her husband. This paradigm created by entailment limits both property and independence of women as it robs them of their immediate family inheritance and also causes them to hasten in finding a suitor. Both circumstances impose…

    • 1236 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pride and Prejudice Essay

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages

    One of the first relationships introduced in the novel is that of Jane and Mr. Bingley. They met at the very first ball in Meryton. Mr. Bingley immediately took a liking to Jane, seeing as he danced with her the most. They fell in love due to all of their similarities. For example, Jane is a very gentle, benevolent girl and Bingley is a very scrupulous, civil man. They were both falling in love with each other and all believed that an engagement between them was imminent. The relationship was perfect except for the detail that Jane had no wealth or connections. Mr. Darcy and Bingley’s sisters persuade Bingley that Jane is not in love with him, convince him to stay in London for the winter, and conceal from him the fact that Jane, herself was in London. When Lizzy addresses the issue, Darcy only says, “I have no wish of denying that I did everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister or that I rejoice in my success… I esteemed a most unhappy connection” (183,189). Darcy with his pedantic attitude is focused only on wealth and…

    • 1470 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Beowulf Gender Roles

    • 2077 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Bennet’s words to Mr. Bennet illustrate that a woman is not allowed to do certain things without permission of her husband. She said “Impossibile, Mr. Bennet, impossible, when I am not acquainted with him myself,...” and “ …I knew I should persuade you at last.” (Pg9) Here, according to Mrs. Bennet, it is impossible for her to introduce herself to Mr. Bingley unless Mr. Bennet meets him first; and secondly, she expresses her happiness when she successfully convinced her husband to go for the visiting trip. This depicts that men are superior in the society and they have more power in the family.…

    • 2077 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mr. Bennet and the Failures of Fatherhood in Jane Austen's Novels Author(s): Mary A. Burgan Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Oct., 1975), pp. 536552 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27707956 . Accessed: 29/08/2012 00:55…

    • 8365 Words
    • 34 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Darcy is first introduced to the people of Hertfordshire, they determine that he is not worth pleasing due to his aloofness and disagreeable manners. The characters first meet Darcy at the Netherfield ball. When describing Darcy, Austen writes, "... [A]nd he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased..." (Pride and Prejudice, p. 6). The people at the ball, including Elizabeth, do not have any desire to please Darcy; they look upon his incivility with disdain. Originally, people are excited to meet Darcy because of his wealth, but at the ball they are offended by Darcy’s ungentlemanly behavior. The people of Hertfordshire only know Darcy superficially, as opposed to his sister Georgiana who understands his character. Because of their distant relationship with Darcy, Elizabeth and the people of Hertfordshire judge him as being disagreeable and having ungentlemanly…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The movie Pride and Prejudice was first written in the early 19th century, in England, by Jane Austen. A woman who lacks fortune is in need of a wealthy man. So, basically any guy from a family with a good income would be the marriage hunt. Someone who is Rich but unintelligent, unattractive, boring men? Mrs. Bennet says, "Bring it on!” She has five daughters with no fortune. Only one day when a young wealthy man named Mr. Bingley moves into the neighborhood, and is interested in her eldest daughter Jane. She becomes extremely happy; that the only thing she would do is to try to push them together in every way possible. Its not all what you call roses and champagne. Mr. Bingley is a very pleasant and easygoing man, while his sisters are very snobby who is mostly like Mr. Darcy. Rich, and good-looking, close friends with Mr. Bingley, as well as, that he is very proud of himself. While on the other hand, the bents are not up to the social structure of theirs. So Mr. Darcy is proportionally disagreeable to Jane’s younger sister Elizabeth. When Mr. Bingley suggests to Mr. Darcy to dance with Elizabeth, he replies that she is tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me, which basically means she is not pretty. By accident while the two men carry on talking, Elizabeth over hears them. Ouch. Its all clear to everyone that Mr. Bingley is falling in love with Jane, as well as she is, but she does not really show her feelings. However. Later on, Elizabeth gossips to her friend charlotte Lucas about the situation, but then her friend argues with her that Jane needs to show her feelings more and that she should show more affection, or she could risk loosing Mr. Bingley. Meanwhile, when Mr. Darcy is fin is finished from criticizing Elizabeth, he starts to become more attracted to her. You could say its something about her " fine eyes". Any who, Mr. Bingley's sisters invite Jane to a dinner. When Jane’s mother insist on her…

    • 1437 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays