Preview

The themes of class and class consciousness as seen in the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
930 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The themes of class and class consciousness as seen in the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
The themes of class and class consciousness, as seen in Pride and Prejudice, strictly regulate the daily lives of middle and upper class men and women at this period in England. In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen portrays class-consciousness mainly through the relationship between Darcy and Elizabeth as it was from when they first met until the time when Elizabeth visits Pemberley . Austin also shows class-consciousness through many of the other characters in the novel, such as Mr. Collins, who spends most of his time praising and exaggerating the grandeur of his upper-class patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Though Mr. Collins seems to be an extreme example, there are many other class-conscious characters in this novel as well. His perception of the importance of class is shared, among others, by Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Miss Bingley, and Wickham. Mr. Collins's views are merely the most extreme and obvious. Jane Austen shows the ability of people to overcome these class boundaries and prejudices with the power of love, through the marriages of Elizabeth and Darcy, and Jane and Bingley, therefore implying that such prejudices are meaningless, unnecessary, and unproductive.

Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine de Bourgh are some of the more extreme examples of class-consciousness within Pride and Prejudice, and are being used by Austin to accentuate the themes of class and class-consciousness, which exists in many people throughout various levels or classes of society. "I am happy on every occasion to offer those little delicate compliments...her daughter seemed to be born a duchess, and that the most elevated rank, instead of giving her consequence, would be adorned by her." (P.66) This quote, in which Mr. Collins is addressing the Bennets regarding Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is one of the many examples of Mr. Collins' superficial remarks, which greatly exaggerates the grandeur of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and in this instance her daughter as well. "If I had
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    UNV501
    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages

    UNV501

    (Austen, “Pride and Prejudice is a novel that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status”)…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pride And Prejudice Literary Analysis
    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Pride And Prejudice Literary Analysis

    Of all the books I’ve read throughout high school, I feel that Pride and Prejudice epitomizes politics the most. Throughout the story, there’s this class struggle that manifests itself between the lower, middle, and upper class. Members of the upper class, the Bingleys and the Darcys, are portrayed as being “snobbish” and “prideful” people, and they aren’t afraid to flaunt their wealthy status to others. The Bennets, on the other hand, are part of the middle class and are constantly reminded of their inferiority to the upper class by specific members of the upper class. For example, Catherine De Bough, who attempted to prevent Elizabeth from marrying her nephew, Mr. Darcy, so their family’s reputation wouldn’t be tarnished, or Miss Bingley, who constantly degraded Elizabeth and Jane for attracting more successful men despite their lower social status.Then there’s the people of the lower class like Wickham, whose one goal is to assimilate with the upper class by marrying a woman who exudes wealthiness. Despite this inter-class struggle, Jane and Elizabeth both end up marrying higher class men, challenging the notion that in-class marriage is the only acceptable way to find one’s significant other.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    ENG403B NC 02 01 Pride and Prejudice Literary Essay G Figueroa
    • 1309 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ENG403B NC 02 01 Pride and Prejudice Literary Essay G Figueroa

    “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
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jane Austen's Pride Is Worse Than Prejudice
    • 213 Words
    • 1 Page

    Jane Austen's Pride Is Worse Than Prejudice

    Jane Austen suggests pride is worse than prejudice. Vanity coupled with pride is by far more offensive than prejudice. Mary explains to Lizzy and Charlotte that pride is “a very common failing.” Mr. Darcy was pronounced to be “the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world.” and even his wealth could not excuse his pride. Mr. Wickham’s comment regarding Mr. Darcy reinforces this line of thinking. “Everybody is disgusted with his pride.” In the novel, Austen demonstrates that both pride and prejudice can be unhealthy qualities. Elizabeth and Darcy both have qualities of pride and prejudice, and it almost cost them their relationship. Elizabeth’s prejudice towards Mr. Darcy is predicated on Mr. Wickham’s false charges against him and Mr. Darcy’s…

    • 213 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Jane Austen Present Darcy In Pride And Prejudice
    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Does Jane Austen Present Darcy In Pride And Prejudice

    In her novel, Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen introduces two contradicting characters, Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Charles Darcy. In the beginning, Austen paints Elizabeth as a benevolent character, while she portrays Darcy as arrogant and judgmental. According to Butler, however, their distinctions fade and more similarities emerge as the book progresses. Butler describes these similarities as discovered by Elizabeth “whenever [she] discusses Darcy’s faults” (Butler 223). Despite their recently unfolded similarities, Darcy is more Christian-like than Elizabeth, which is confirmed through his attempts to obtain her love, insinuating that humble people have to exert additional effort in order to achieve marital pleasure.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Foil between Mr.Darcy and Mr.Wickham
    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Foil between Mr.Darcy and Mr.Wickham

    Criticism and manners determine the image given to a person from society. The satire, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, portrays the social life of young women who marry for love or money. The Bennet family becomes the center of attention through the conversing between Jane Bennet with Mr. Bingley, and Elizabeth Bennet with Mr. Darcy. Women married the wealthy for security and fortunate living. However, the men devise their own ways of courting women. Mr.Wickham and Mr.Darcy become foils of each other, through their many acquaintances with Elizabeth.…

    • 1035 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast the Proposals That Elizabeth Bennet Receives from Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.
    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare and Contrast the Proposals That Elizabeth Bennet Receives from Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy.

    Pride and Prejudice (1819), written by Jane Austen is based on the middle class social life in England during the early nineteenth century. It is written around Elizabeth, who is a daughter of an estate owner and her family. Elizabeth and her elder sister have reached their age and their mother seeks suitable gentlemen as their husbands. Meanwhile Elizabeth receives marriage proposals from two distinctive persons, the foremost by Mr. Collins for whom Elizabeth’s family estate is entailed and shortly from one Mr. Darcy, a rich land owner from the city. Both of the offers of marriage show their characteristic differences while sharing some aspects in common.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Character Foils in Pride and Prejudice
    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Character Foils in Pride and Prejudice

    Present throughout Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is the idea of marriage and contrasting viewpoints on the matter. Elizabeth retains her romantic view of the subject, despite pressure from societal forces. Her good friend, Charlotte Lucas, however chooses security over emotional fulfillment, showing in a sense a societal norm at that point in time. Through Charlotte's friendship with Elizabeth, her dialogue that echoes the views of society regarding wealth and marriage, and her eventual choice to marry Mr. Collins, she serves as a stark contrast to Elizabeth; further emphasizing Elizabeth's own idealized views.…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Pride and Prejudice/letters to alice
    • 2183 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Pride and Prejudice/letters to alice

    An examination of Jane Austen’s 1813 social satire Pride and Prejudice, and the reading of Fay Weldon’s 1984 epistolary text Letters to Alice on first reading Jane Austen, allows understanding of Austen’s novel to be moulded and then shifted. Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners, focusing on marriage, Pride, Prejudice and Social Class which are projected through the characters, gentry-class setting and Austen’s authorial comment. Austen’s purpose was to portray the world of the gentry class, and satirise some aspects of her society and praise others. Weldon’s purpose is to encourage an understanding of the value of literature for individuals and society. She models Austen’s writing to demonstrate her argument and in so doing she gives a heightened understanding of values in Austen’s context. She reviews Austen’s society, providing an explanation of social conventions such as marriage, social stratification and women. Aunt Fay’s opinions allow readers to reshape their understanding of events and characters in Pride and Prejudice. Her conclusions allow the reader to draw connections between our contemporary society and Austen’s context, which then enables us to reshape our original understanding of Pride and Prejudice and our own context.…

    • 2183 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Are the Reader’s First Impressions of Darcy in the Novel ‘Pride and Prejudice?’
    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages

    What Are the Reader’s First Impressions of Darcy in the Novel ‘Pride and Prejudice?’

    Jane Austen’s self contained life was often reflected in her novels which are inhabited by an array of people including impoverished clerical families, eligible dashing gentlemen and husband hunting women. Marriage, property and intrigue lie at the heart of Pride and Prejudice and Mr Darcy embodies most of these sentiments. The reader’s opinion of Mr Darcy tends to follow that of Elizabeth’s. His transformation in her and our eyes stems partly from the presentation of new information, which suggests her earlier judgments were false, and partly from some observable changes in Mr Darcy’s behaviour.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    First Impressions in Pride and Prejudice Essay Example
    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    First Impressions in Pride and Prejudice Essay Example

    The narrative describes how the prejudices and first impressions (especially those dealing with pride) of the main characters change throughout the novel, focusing on those of Elizabeth Bennet. She had a smart first impression about Mr. Collins and how absurdly self-serving he is and about Lady Catherine de Bourgh and how proud and snobbish she is. Her first impressions of Wickham and Darcy steer her in opposites which ironically so, they do not like each other. Wickham is first thought to be a gentleman by all. His good looks and his easy manner hits Elizabeth without question. Elizabeth and many of the other characters see Darcy as proud. His pride is shown here, “The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which tuned the tide of his popularity; for he as discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.” (Austen, 11). This first impression is given to Elizabeth and she takes it quite harshly. Instead of pride seen in him, Elizabeth sees vanity and she says, “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.” (Austen, 19). First impressions are taken in the novel highly and Mrs. Bennet also makes sure that her daughters are ready for a first impression because her first priority is to get her daughters married so that they may be with a fine husband. These are only a few of the major examples of first impressions, prejudice and pride in the novel, as these themes show up throughout the…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Similarities Between Pride And Prejudice And Magure
    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Similarities Between Pride And Prejudice And Magure

    In Pride and Prejudice, Austen mainly deals with middle and higher-class society. The Bennets being of a middle class socialize time and again with their own class and higher, particularly Elizabeth. Middle and higher class culture of Austen's time concentrated on the importance of having wealth and social status. The novel revolves around the lives of affluent families - their appearance, their actions, their homes, their relationships and their social events.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Jane Austen Use Satire In Pride And Prejudice
    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    How Does Jane Austen Use Satire In Pride And Prejudice

    Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, depicts pride and prejudice and their consequences when she proposes a society where people are judged on their social standing rather than merit. The people and events in the novel are used to depict the prejudicial, ignorant, and proud nature of society, which can be seen as inhibitors to personal happiness. The use of satire is prevalent in the novel. Austen satirizes the high class by expressing how societal standards can degrade a character’s identity. The novel questions the nature of social hierarchy that prevents people from seeing the best in others which can result in misunderstanding and breakdown of social relationships. Austen focuses greatly on the class system and in many ways, the novel…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Connotations Of Women In Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen
    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Connotations Of Women In Pride And Prejudice By Jane Austen

    Despite his wealth and availability, Elizabeth does not want to marry him because of his arrogance, nonsensical attitude, and boastful nature of his wealth and connection to Lady Catherine. Moreover, Elizabeth describes him as “tall and grave and pompous, wrapt in a cloud of solemn vanity, servility, stupidity, and spitefulness, but without the faintest gleam of self-consciousness or suspicion of the ridiculous figure” (Austen, 2005, p. 218) which illustrates his awkward and unappealing nature. Mr. Collins’s aversion for Lady Catherine de Bourgh is furthermore developed by Austen’s creation of the parallel between the stature of both of these characters. While Mr. Collins is considered of a lower class due to his religious affiliation, Lady Catherine is of the elitist class due to her wealth, elegance, and her husband’s connections. In this respect, Mr. Collins is seen to worship Lady Catherine for providing him with his income and humble abode.…

    • 1723 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    APA Activity ONE
    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages

    APA Activity ONE

    Austen has stated that, “Pride and Prejudice is a novel that deals with issues of class, gender, and social status.”…

    • 425 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics