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Hannah George
Ms.McGee lA
AP English 12
January 13,2011
Comedy in Pride and Prejudice
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune
must be in want of a wife" (Auste,
1). The novel Pride and Prejudice starts out with comedy in
the very first line of the novel; throughout the whole story comedy contributes to the meaning of
the work of the novel and what Jane Austen is trying to get across to the reader. The Bennet
family is the core ofthe comedy in the novel between Mr. Bennet's subtle humor and Mrs.
Bennet's comedStheir
five daughters. The reader does not necessarily read it and laugh,
it is more "thoughtful laughter" in the sense that it underlies in how Austen is portraying the
characters to be and to speak to one another. The relationships throughout the novel have humor
in them, family relationships as well as romantic relationships. Jane Austen has the characters
work off of each other to create this thoughtful laughter throughout the novel.
Characters such as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy contribute to the thoughtful laughter
that appears. From the beginning of the novel at the ball which they both ~
attended Austen
displays this concept. Mr. Darcy says about Elizabeth "She is tolerable; but not handsome
enough to tempt me" (Auste~18). Elizabeth hears he say this to Mr. Bingley but acts as if she just
does not care, she just sees him as a abhorrent man and all about his money and shy around
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others. Both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy make wrong judgments about one another, and the reader
knows they are making these wrong judgments about one another and this is where the
thoughtful laughter is showed. Mr. Wickham tells Elizabeth a lie about Mr. Darcy and what
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happened when they were younger, so by him telling her a lie about Mr. Darcy it makes
Elizabeth feel negative toward, him even more. Elizabeth will not find out the truth until later in
the novel when Mr. Darcy writes her a letter explaining the real situation as to what happened
between him and Mr. Wickham. When Elizabeth first sees Mr. Darcy is when her older sister
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Jane first meets Mr. Darcy's best friend, Mr. Bin~
Darcy at first; i~y
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to think how they are such good friends. Mr.
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says "She
is the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld" (Austeng 8) talking about Jane who he
connected with at the ball when they met. At the end of the novel Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth end
up together as do Mr. Bingly and Jane, this is thoughtful humor because throughout the novel
they did not know they were going to end up together with how the story went, they knew false
information about one another and as a reader we saw what they were seeing in each other was
actually not true. They got married
of love not out of need like for money like Mrs. Bennet
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wanted for the girls, to marry wealthy.
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Mr. Collins is a humorous character also in the novel He sucks up a lot
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Bennets, saying it is his "obligation" to marry one of the daughters
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about her daughter; which she is all about her daughters so she probably oves earing men talk
about them like Mr. Collins does about them. When he purposes to Elizabeth even the sister
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know it is funny, Elizabeth was not interested in him at all and did not care ifhe was the one
inheriting her father{land or not, she did not want to have to marry him. Lucky for her best
friend Charlotte though who was getting older and would pretty much marry anyone, so when
Mr. Collins went to her she said yes that she would marry him. When Mr. Collins went up to Mr.
Darcy to introduce himself and kind of made a fool out of himself it just showed the type of
character he was blunt and had a lot of pride in him. His boss was Mr. Darcy's aunt so he
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thought it would be appropriate to introduce himself. Another underlying humor in the novel is
Lydia the youngest of the Bennet daughters running off with Mr. Wickham, who Elizabeth had
found out the truth about and therefore did not like him. The most ironic "thoughtful laughter" is
Mr. Darcy is the one who paid for the wedding and paid off Mr. Wickham's debt so Lydia would
not bring a bad name to the Bennet family, especially to Mr. Bennet.
All and all-throughout the whole novel Jane Austen has used this type of humor to create
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ry.Withoutitthecharacterswouldnottietogetherliketheydid.The
/ story would not be what it was and not have flowed like it did. At the end of the novel everything
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started to make sense, Darcy and Elizabeth ending up together, Jane and Mr. Bingly, Mrs.
Bennet and how she was portrayed through out the story, even Lydia and Mr. Wickham, it all
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and thoughtful humor that was not very obvious but it was always there.
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