Jane Austen depicts a society which, for all its seeming privileges (pleasant houses, endless hours of leisure), closely monitors behavior. Her heroines in particular discover in the course of the novel that individual happiness cannot exist separately from our responsibilities to others.
In 'Pride and Prejudice' there certainly is a great deal of comedy, and will appeal to many readers for what Claire Tomalin calls 'its good-humored comedy, its sunny heroine, its dream denouement'.
In 'Pride and Prejudice' there certainly is a great deal of comedy, and will appeal to many readers for what Claire Tomalin calls 'its good-humored comedy, its sunny heroine, its dream denouement'.
The two main characters appear to be part of what Vivien Jones calls a typical 'rags-to-riches love story', maintaining happiness after a series of vicissitudes, which might incline readers to think it rather superficial.
The critic talks about the surface trivia of Austen's society, which seems to comprise only of balls, scarlet coats, and Muslin gowns, but she probes beneath the surface of her society and concerns herself with the real confinement of the lives of women in her period.
The critic talks about the surface trivia of Austen's society, which seems to comprise only of balls, scarlet coats, and Muslin gowns, but she probes beneath the surface of her society and concerns herself with the real confinement of the lives of women in her period.
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Jane Austen explores how women were victims of a patriarchal society, by presenting the unfairness of the entail. She presents Mr. Collins as a fool, by bluntly stating through the critical objective narrative that he 'was not a sensible man'. |
It is ridiculous that such an imbecile should be able to turn out the two rational sisters Jane and Elizabeth from their own home, since should they not be married they could be facing the same options as Jane Fairfax in Austen's 'Emma', left to 'the governess trade', with its sinister echo of 'the slave trade'.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, she explores not only how women were victims in society, but through Wickham how they were powerless, direct victims of men.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, she explores not only how women were victims in society, but through Wickham how they were powerless, direct victims of men.
Learning the Social Rules
One of the reasons Austen’s world charms us is because it appears to follow stricter rules than our own, setting limits on behavior. There are precise forms of introduction and address, conventions for ‘coming out’ into society, for paying and returning social visits, even for mixing with different social ranks.
Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion are sensitive to questions of social status and can all be seen extending the definition of polite society to include previously excluded members of the professional and merchant classes and the navy.
Above all, relations between young men and women are carefully monitored. One reason dance scenes are so prominent in Austen’s novels is that the dance floor was, in her time, the best opportunity for identifying romantic partners and for advancing a courtship, for testing relations between the sexes.
Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion are sensitive to questions of social status and can all be seen extending the definition of polite society to include previously excluded members of the professional and merchant classes and the navy.
Above all, relations between young men and women are carefully monitored. One reason dance scenes are so prominent in Austen’s novels is that the dance floor was, in her time, the best opportunity for identifying romantic partners and for advancing a courtship, for testing relations between the sexes.
But even the comparative freedom of dance had its rules and etiquette: for the number of dances one might have with a single partner; for the amount of bodily contact between partners; while a woman’s refusal of one partner effectively disallowed her from dancing with another.
At the edges of the dance floor were the chaperones and those sitting the dance out, who watched, noticed, and interpreted behavior.
Being Watched
Pride and Prejudice unfolds as a series of public or semi-public events – assemblies, balls, supper parties, country-house gatherings – each one followed by anxious reviews shared by two people in private as they analyze its events. The characters are discovered reading the behavior of others, interpreting motives and intentions. In all her novels Austen portrays a society that closely restricts mental and physical space, particularly for women, who are allowed little solitude or independence.
Many of the crucial events of an Austen plot take place indoors or in the confining presence of a number of people. Frequently the plot moves forward by means of overheard conversations; rumor plays a large part in transmitting and distorting news, and everybody appears to be a gossip.
The sense of being watched, hedged in, and discussed by a whole community informs all Austen’s novels.
Learning to Live in Society
A moral slipperiness attaches to Austen’s favorite words, which can mislead readers and characters alike. Take the use of ‘opinion’ in Pride and Prejudice. The novel is awash with ‘opinions’ whose robustness will be probed and dismantled in the course of the narrative.
In particular, Austen exposes the tendency of ‘opinion’ to masquerade as informed judgment when it may be no more than ignorance or prejudice.
Time and again in Austen’s novels, opinion substitutes for truth. Opinions are bandied about as if they are truths. Who speaks the truth in Jane Austen’s novels?
Time and again in Austen’s novels, opinion substitutes for truth. Opinions are bandied about as if they are truths. Who speaks the truth in Jane Austen’s novels?
The convergence of narrative voice with a character voice, one of Austen’s great legacies to the 19th-century European novel, is crucially an affirmation of opinion, or point of view, even of the gossip of village communities, over general truth.
What this means is that just as her fictional worlds are constituted from multiple opinions, from people watching and commenting on one another’s behavior, in the same way, Austen argues, novels can teach readers the essential skills of interpreting character and learning to live in society, by bearing others’ opinions in mind and knowing when to adjust our own.
Written by: Anusha Vajha
Edited by - Adrija Saha
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