Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
DIRECTIONS:
a. Use the following 12 literary theories to think about different ways of analyzing this novel. Read
through all 12 theories and the questions for each theory that serve to identify the critical approach
of the theory as well as provoke thoughts for the analysis of literature.
b. Each theory has a few questions to be used for analysis of literature. Learn at least one question for
each specific theory as a way to identify the theory. You do not have to answer all of the questions.
c. Choose one of the 12 theories that interests you and works well with Pride and Prejudice. Choose one
that you can individually defend and support with examples from the book in a Socratic Seminar. Note
that some of the theories are more often used in APE Lit than others. (Do not use #9.) If you don’t
know what to choose, choose one of the theories marked as an “AP” theory. Answer the questions
that belong to the theory that you selected. (Write the answers.)
d. Research at least two (2) additional sources of information that discuss and explain the literary
theory you selected. Internet sources (.edu) are acceptable. (Sometimes .org will also be a legitimate
source.) Do not use data bases (not even the ones on the media center site). Take notes OR print and
highlight the information that makes the most sense to you. INCLUDE the URL on your notes or
printout. You will turn in this research for a homework grade. (Do not choose #9.) The purpose of
the research is to gain an individual better understanding of the selected theory.
e. Write a possible theme statement for Pride and Prejudice from your selected literary theory’s point of
view. (Attach the theme statement to the research.) See the list of Pride and Prejudice themes on the
Survival Guide website for additional help and suggestions. Remember that a theme must be a
complete sentence (not a topic).
f. Use the questions from the handout and your research to participate in an online Socratic Seminar
next week. During the seminar you should also take notes by reading what other students have to say about
their selected theories and then writing brief definitions in the margin next to each theory. In the online
Socratic seminar, group members will also attempt to apply their selected literary theories to Pride and
Prejudice and then agree or disagree with other members’ responses (more directions later)
g. The attached possible essay topics that follow the theories will be used as topics for the online
Socratic Seminar. Prepare responses to the essay topics for the seminar (to be re-used for the in-class
essay on another day) from the viewpoint of the literary theory you selected. You will also be
expected to identify the theories that other students use for their viewpoint during the seminar.
What is a literary theory? It is a heuristic for generating analytical thought about literature. Critics should avoid
distorting a work by quoting from it selectively or by ignoring aspects of it that do not fit their theoretical approach
or do not conform to their interpretative perspective. Do not sacrifice art to ideology. The best use of critical theory
is as heuristics (methods of generating ideas). A heuristic often takes the form of a set of questions. Use the
questions to compare and contrast, define and classify, and analyze and divide a topic.
(from Literature by DiYanni textbook)
**=primary AP heuristics *=additional AP methods
.
*1.Marxist Critical Questions: (example definition: economic/social critique)
a. What social forces and institutions are represented in this book? What is the author’s attitude toward
them? Does she accept them or challenge them?
b. What political economic elements appear in this novel? How important are they in determining or
influencing the lives of the characters?
c.What economic issues appear in the novel? How important are economic facts in influencing the
motivation and behavior of the characters?
d. To what extent are the lives of characters influenced or determined by social, political, and economic
force? To what extent are the characters aware of these forces?
See example: http://weeklylitbit.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/3-close-reading-pride-and-prejudice-marxist-reading/
*2. Feminist Critical Questions: (explain why these questions are in this category: What do these questions have in
common?)
a. To what extent does the representation of women (and men) in the novel reflect the place and time in
which the work was written?
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
b. How are the relations between men and women, or those between members of the same sex, presented in
the work? What roles do men and women assume and perform and with what consequences? What is the
relationship of power to gender?
c. Does the author present the work from within a predominantly male or female sensibility? Why might
this have been done, and with what effects?
Four central tenets of feminist criticism:
1. Western civilization is pervasively patriarchal -- that is, male-centered and controlled, and is organized and
conducted in such a way as to subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political,
economic, social, legal, and artistic.
2. The prevailing concepts of gender -- of the traits that constitute what is masculine and what is feminine -- are
largely, if not entirely, cultural constructs that were generated by the omnipresent patriarchal biases of our
civilization.
3. This patriarchal (or masculinist, or androcentric) ideology pervades those writings which have been considered
great literature, and which until recently have been written almost entirely by men for men.
4. The traditional aesthetic categories and criteria for analyzing and appraising literary works . . . are in fact
infused with masculine assumptions, interests, and ways of reasoning, so that the standard ranking, and also the
critical treatments, of literary works have in fact been tacitly but thoroughly gender-biased.
M.H. Abrams
Glossary of Literary Terms
3.Reader-Response Critical Questions (explain why these questions are in this category)
a. What places in the text caused you to do the most serious thinking? How did you put the pieces,
sections, parts of the work together to make sense of it?
b. At what places in the text did you have to make inferences, fill in gaps, make interpretive decisions? On
what bases did you make these inferential guesses?
c. If you read the entire text more than one time or sections of it, how has your second and subsequent
readings differed from earlier ones? How do you account for those differences (or for lack of differences)
in your thoughts and feelings about the work?
**4.Structuralist Critical Questions [AP STUDY](binary opposition)
(why in this category?)
a. How do the elements of the work’s plot or action suggest a meaningful pattern? What changes,
adjustments, transformations, shifts of tone, attitude, behavior, or feelings do you find?
b. What system of relationships governs the work as a whole?
c. What are the elements of the work -- words, stanzas, chapters, parts, for example -- and how can these be
seen as revealing “difference”? Identify contrasting elements.
d. How are the work’s primary images and events related to one another? What elements of differentiation
exist, and what do they signify?
*5.Semiotic Critical Questions
(semiotics=the study of signs and sign systems; the
study of codes or the systems we use to understand
the meaning of events and entities)
a. What are the literary or psychological symbols that communicate cultural meaning in the work?
b. Without restricting communication to forms of language, what are other forms of discourse
(communication) that convey meaning in the work?
c. How do fashion or manners (through words or signs and symbols) communicate in this text?
*6.Deconstructive Critical Questions (why are these questions in this category?)
a. What oppositions exist in the work? Which of the two opposing terms of each pair is the privileged or
more powerful term? How is this shown in the work?
b. What textual elements (details, images, incidents, passages) suggest a contradiction or alternative to
the privileged or more powerful term?
c. What is the prevailing ideology or set of cultural assumptions in the work?
d. What passages most reveal gaps, inconsistencies, or contradictions?
e. How stable is the text? How decidable is its meaning?
f. In a pair of equally valid conflicting oppositions, which is the prevailing ideology that needs
to be subverted, undermined, challenged, or otherwise called into question? Is one gender, for example,
superior to another? (PnP example: Is noblesse oblige noble or condescending?)
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
**7.Formalist Critical Questions** [AP STUDY] (why are these questions in this category?)
a. How is the work structured or organized? How is its plot related to structure?
b. What is the relationship of each part of the work to the work as a whole? How are the parts related to
one another?
c. Who is narrating the work? How does point of view affect the work?
d. Who are the major and minor characters, what do they represent, and how do they relate to one another?
e. How is the setting related to the characters and their actions?
To what extent is the setting symbolic?
f. What is the function of specific images, similes, metaphors, and symbols in the work?
*8.Historical and New Historicist Critical Questions (what do these questions have in common?)
a. When was the work written? When was it published? How was it received by the critics and public?
b. What social attitudes and cultural practices related to the action of the work were prevalent during the
time the work was written and published?
c. What kinds of power relations does the work describe, reflect, or embody?
d. What other types of historical documents, cultural artifacts, or social institutions might be analyzed in
conjunction with this particular literary work? how might a close reading of such a nonliterary text
illuminate this particular literary work?
e. To what extent can we understand the past as it is reflected in the literary work? To what extent does
the work reflect differences from the ideas and values of its time?
See example: http://weeklylitbit.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/5-close-reading-pride-and-prejudice-new-historicist-reading/
9. Biographical Critical Questions (what do these questions have in common?)
a. What influences evident in the writer’s life does the work reflect?
b. What are the effects of the differences between actual events and their literary transformation in the
work?
c. What has the author revealed in the work about her characteristic modes of thought, perception, or
emotion? What place does the work have in the artist’s literary development and career?
*10.Psychological Critical Questions
a. How do the images, metaphors, and other linguistic elements reveal the psychological motivations of
characters or the psychological mindset of its author?
See example: http://weeklylitbit.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/4-close-reading-pride-and-prejudice-psychoanalytic-reading/
**11.Archetypal Critical Questions (what do these questions have in common?)
a. What incidents in the work seem familiar enough that they might be considered symbolic or archetypal?
b. To what extent are creatures, elements of nature, or man-made objects play a role in the work? To what
extent might they be considered symbolic?
c. What changes do the characters undergo? How can those changes be characterized or named?
d. What religious or quasi-religious traditions with which you are familiar might the work’s story,
characters, elements, or objects be compared to or affiliated with? Why?
12.Gender Studies Critical Questions
(commonality?)
(Gay and Lesbian Studies)
a. What kinds of sexual identity, behavior, and attitudes are reflected in the work? Is there any overtly or
covertly expressed view of homosexuality or lesbianism?
b. To what does extent does the work accommodate, describe, or exemplify same-sex relationships? To
what extent are same-sex sexual relationships either in the foreground or background of the work?
c. With what kinds of social, economic, and cultural privileges (or lack thereof) are same-sex unions or
relationships depicted? With what effects and consequences?
Potential In-class Essay Prompts
Use the following potential essay prompts for discussion and preparation. Assign a Critical Theory Category to
each essay prompt. (What kind of thinking does it take to answer each question.) Write the number (1-12) of the
Critical Theory (or theories) to which the question belongs next to each question. It is not necessary to name the
theory. It is necessary to use a theory question to generate ideas for your in-class essay.
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
Potential in-class essay prompts
1. Jane Austen’s work elevated the novel to new importance. Discuss how her point of view, mastery of plot
structure, economy of style, consistent moral universe, and precise ironic observation contribute to her
accomplishment. Connect to a literary theory and a theme.
2. Elizabeth knows that “neither rational happiness nor worldly prosperity could be justly expected for her sister”
but recognizes all the advantages of the arrangement made for Lydia. Discuss how Austen’s novel confirms
marriage as the vehicle of upward mobility, security, and social stratification. Analyze all of the marriages in the
book in the context of Austen’s society and its expectations and the tensions created by those expectations. What is
the purpose of this analysis? Connect to at least one literary theory and theme.
3. Although this novel explores the inconsistencies and superficialities of her society, Austen gives the book a
conventional “happy” ending. The marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy suggests that the happiest marriage is the
wealthiest marriage. She rewards the happy couple with both love and money. Does this conclusion suggest that
Austen has conceded to the expectations of her society? Justify your answer. Connect to at least one literary theory
and theme.
4. Jane Austen rejected the Age of Romanticism. Examine this novel as a work of the Age of Reason. Discuss how
Austen handles the spontaneity of individual human lives against the conventionality of societal propriety. Despite
her attempts to reject romanticism, does this book eventually allow the individual to triumph over society? (or not?)
Justify your answer. Connect to at least one literary theory and theme.
5. Explain why the title of this novel is a better title than its original title, which was First Impressions. What role
do first impressions play in the story? In which cases do first impressions turn out to be inaccurate, in which cases
correct? What does the newer title contribute to the novel that the old one does not? Discuss how the title aptly
reinforces theme, characterizations, and comedy. Connect to at least one literary theory and theme.
6. Identify which of these issues is the most significant to Austen’s novel and justify your answer:
- Attempting to belittle others only reduces one’s own importance.
- Individuals who merely reflect society’s views are shallow.
- Individuals must balance the demands of society with the needs of personal morality.
- Nobility, dignity, and good manners can be defined by the natural integrity of an individual rather than by rank,
financial status, or rules.
- Marriage does not require the sacrifice of principles in exchange for security.
Provide at least six examples from the novel. Connect to a literary theory and theme.
7. Jane Austen’s recipe for true love is valid (or not). Justify your answer with proof.Connect to a theory and theme.
8. Jane Austen is a closet feminist (or not). Prove your answer. Connect to a theory and theme.
9. Charlotte Brontë (19th century Romanticism author) did not appreciate Pride and Prejudice. She felt that Jane
Austen didn't write about her characters' hearts. Austen believed herself to belong to the Age of Reason rather than
Romanticism. Do you think Brontë's criticism is accurate? Is Austen's treatment of her characters' feelings
superficial? Connect to a theory and a theme.
10. After Jane becomes engaged to Bingley, she says she wishes Elizabeth to be as happy as she is. Elizabeth
replies, "If you were to give me forty such men, I could never could be so happy as you. Till I have your disposition,
your goodness, I never can have your happiness." Do you think Elizabeth's statement is true? Is it better to be good,
to think the best of people, and be happy? Or is it better to see the world accurately, and feel less happiness? Which
one of these statements does the novel’s conclusion reflect? Connect to a theme and theory.
11. Mr. Bennet's honesty and wry humor make him one of the most appealing characters in the book. Yet, as the
novel develops, it becomes clear that he has failed as a father. Mr. Bennet’s failure jeopardizes his family’s social,
moral, and financial future. In what ways does Mr. Bennet let his children down? How does his action, or inaction,
affect the behavior of his daughters and wife? Explain how humor and irony have been Mr. Bennet’s defense against
these problems and why they ultimately fail. Connect to a theory and theme.
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
12. Charlotte doesn't marry Mr. Collins for love. Why does she marry him? Are her reasons valid? Are they fair to
Mr. Collins? Explain how it is possible to understand their marriage as moral rather than immoral. Connect to a
theory and theme.
13. Both Elizabeth and Darcy undergo transformations. How does each change and how does the transformation
occur? Could Elizabeth's transformation have happened without Darcy's? Or vice versa? Connect to a theory and
theme.
14. Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Collins, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh are famously comic characters. What makes them so
funny? How does Elizabeth's perception of them affect the reader’s trust in Elizabeth's views of other people in the
book, particularly of Wickham and Darcy? How does Elizabeth’s reliability as a narrator contribute to the irony of
the book? Connect to a theory and theme.
15. For most of the book, pride prevents Darcy from having what he most desires. Why is he so proud? How is his
pride displayed? Is Elizabeth proud? Contrast the definitions of pride provided by Mary and Charlotte. Which one is
the best definition? Why? Connect to a theory and theme.
16. Select a critical theory and discuss the appropriate critical approach to this novel. Connect to a theme.
17. AP Essay Prompt 1990: In a work (PnP) in which there is family conflict, explain how that conflict contributes
to the significance (thematic statement) of the work. (Connect to a theory and theme.)
18. AP Essay Prompt 1992: In a work (PnP) with major satirical characterizations, explain the devices used by the
author to develop those characterizations and how they contribute in a significant way to the meaning of the work.
(Connect to a theory and theme.)
19. AP Essay Prompt 1986: In a work (PnP), choose a quotation that best characterizes the work’s theme and
explain both how this quotation is exemplary in illustrating the theme as well as what it contributes to the
development of the theme when it appears in the work. Example: “Vanity, not love, has been my folly.” (You, of
course, must identify the speaker.) Connect to a theory and theme.
20. Scholar David Daiches wrote of Austen that “unsentimental realism is at the core of her art.” Prove or disprove
this statement. Justify your response with examples and logic. Connect to a theory and theme.
21. AP Essay Prompt 1998: Jane Austen’s novels are comedies of manners. According to Perrine, tragedies reveal
the potential nobility of humankind and comedies their limitations and follies. Discuss ways in which PnP fulfills
the role of comedy and yet provides a significant human experience without tragedy. Justify whether or not a book
with a happy ending is as revealing as the dark endings of tragedy. Connect to a theory and theme.
22. AP Essay Prompt: PnP is satire. Identify the object of Austen’s satire. Explain and prove whether or not you
believe her to be effective in exposing and defeating her target. Connect to a theory and theme.
23. AP Essay Prompt: In a work (PnP) with major satirical characterizations, explain how the author uses literary
devices to reveal the social values and purposes of the characters and their significance (thematic statement) to the
work as a whole.
24. AP Essay Prompt 2005: In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899), protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess
“that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.” In Pride and Prejudice, identify a
character who conforms outwardly while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this
tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning (significance – thematic
statement) of the work. Avoid mere plot summary.
25. AP Essay Prompt: Select a scene from PnP and write an essay in which you analyze how the author uses
characterization to produce a comic effect. Explain the purpose and significance of the comic effect to the work as a
whole (to a thematic statement).
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
Suggested Themes

Pride prevents human beings from seeing the truth of a situation and from achieving happiness in
life.

Social prejudice causes unjustified pride of place.

Pride in individual perceptions or a wound to pride can cause misplaced prejudice.

The family is primarily responsible for the intellectual and moral education of children.

Gender injustices in 19th c. society demonstrate the compelling role of money in women’s lives
simply to gain financial security.

Although an egalitarian ideology or leveling of all social classes is not required, an over-emphasis
on class hierarchy profoundly influences 19th c. English society, restricting upward mobility.

Society takes an interest in the private virtue of its members.

Individual scandal has far-reaching consequences.

Human life is purposeful, and human beings must guide their appetites and desires through their
use of reason.

Attempting to belittle others only reduces one’s own importance.

Individuals who merely reflect society’s views are shallow.

Individuals must balance the demands of society with the needs of personal morality.

An individual’s natural integrity can define nobility, dignity, and good manners rather than rank,
financial status or rules.

Marriage does not require the sacrifice of principles in exchange for security.

Relationships can be rational as well as emotional.

Love must begin with self-knowledge.

Fulfilling the roles defined by society limit individual growth and expression.

Self-deceit is a temporary solution for problems that vulnerability can solve.

Self-deceit prevents recognition of faults.

Humans must balance their desires with reason while also taking into account their emotions.

Inferiority can only be felt by those who already feel inferior.

High status can be a burden rather than a gift.

Social status, particularly high status, dehumanizes individuals and strips them of their identity,
causing them to respond to others as stereotypes.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in
want of a wife. (ironic reversal)

The adjustment of relations between society and the individual is not sentimental or
melodramatic.
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.
Survey of Literary Critical Theory
Potential in-class essay prompts: Pride and Prejudice
adapted from DiYanni, Robert, ed. Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Boston: McGraw Hill, 1998.