Pride and Prejudice
Conclusion
& Extension
Outline
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Your Questions?
Structure
Theme: Marriage & Love, Money, Class and
Manners/Breeding
Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice vs. Some 19th-Century Texts
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1. Marriage & Money/Class: “The Bride Comes to
Yellow Sky” “The £1,000,000 Bank Note”
2. Woman: “She Walks in Beauty”
3. Art & Nature? Pemberley vs. Ozymandias or Grecian
Urn
Pride and Prejudice in Today’s World
Why is Darcy's first name
"Fitzwilliam"?
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"Fitzwilliam" was Darcy's mother's surname (she
was known as "Lady Anne Fitzwilliam" before
her marriage to Darcy's father, and "Lady Anne
Darcy" afterwards), and at the time it was rather
common to give a son his mother's maiden
surname as his own first name, especially if his
mother's family was in some way prominent or
distinguished (or sometimes another prominent
family surname different from his own surname).
This explains why Darcy's first name is the same
as his cousin Col. Fitzwilliam's surname. (source)
More Questions and
Comments
Why are there names with --
A realist tradition (seemingly to hide the
identities of the real persons and places).
2. How old is Darcy?
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“Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty;
and such I might have been but for you, my
dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! ” (p. 282) (see a
list of the characters and their ages here.)
3. Re. Charlotte’s views of knowing one before
marrying him or her.
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“we only need to know the general part of the
personality since the more you realize, the
more disappointed you get.”
1.
More Questions and
Comments
1.
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Why is Ms. Darcy not prejudiced against
Elizabeth?
Not all aristocrats are arrogant.
Ms. Darcy is shy, but not “exceedingly
proud.”
Elizabeth is good-mannered and
intelligent. She makes Ms. Darcy feels
less embarrassed after Ms. Bingley’s
mentioning Wickham.
Structure: Pattern & Contrast
Vol 1: (1) Marriage and Family -- 3 Match-Making
Attempts; (Mrs. Bennet-Jane’s, Collins’, Charlotte’s)
(2) 3 Balls
Vol 2: (1) Marriage and Individuals -- 3 Sisters’ Trips
(climax: Darcy’s proposal change: letter
readings)
Vol III: (1) Jane’ & Elizabeth’s changes vs. Lydia’s
lack of them.
(2) Marriages – a choice of individuals while the
family factors cannot be ignored.
Structure: Pattern & Contrast
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Proposals:
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Laughter:
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Collin’s first and 2nd proposal; Darcy’s first proposal
and 2nd proposal;
Collins’ response to being rejected; Darcy’s.
Elizabeth’s way of laughter vs. Lydia’s (e.g. when
being invited by Mrs. Forster – Lydia “laughing and
talking with more violence than ever”; her letter)
Pride vs. vanity or different kinds of pride.
Prejudice, wrong judgment, lack of judgment,
lack of moral principles.
Different kinds of letters.
Themes: Marriage
Factors to Consider: (1) Love & First
Impressions
Appearance & sex —natural attraction,
not to be trusted.
 Respect and understanding of each other
 discussion of Charlotte’s case
 More . .. Family connections, money and
class background
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Marriage
Factors to Consider: (2) Money
Daughters and young sons – no inheritance
 Charlotte’s practical considerations.
 Mrs. Gardiner’s suggestion to Eliza.
 Colonel Fitzwilliam's remark on his marriage
considerations.
 Wickham’s fortune-hunting.
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Younger sons’ profession: clergyman, military officers
Women are not supposed to work; limited choices of
work: e.g. governess. Therefore, for survival they
mostly depend on marrying a husband or on the
(meager) inheritance their parents settle for them.
Marriage
Factors to Consider: (3) Class
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Appendix 1:
The novel’s focus: the rural elites in a country
community with their subtle class differences
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traditional gentry such as Darcy (with inherited land)
Pseudo gentry (or lesser gentry p. 300) (e.g. Sir
Lucas and Bingley)  Austen is more interested in
those in the lower part of this society, since she
herself is not from a rich family of traditional gentry
(her father is a clergyman).
Marriage
Factors to Consider: (3) Class
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Elements of class distinction (in our novel):
furniture, number of servants, whether one has
a cook or not, a governess or not. (Appendix)
The other elements (Minma 53): “descent and
connections, the length of its residence, wealth
and its source, occupation.”
Those elements subject to change: income,
official position and marriage (or no marriage).
 a fixed order as a point of reference, never
fully realized (Minma 53); a society on the brink
of radical changes.
Class & Breeding/Manners
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“The title of gentleman, and the respect and love
of the heroine, must be earned” (302).
In other words, class distinction turns out to be
less important that having good breeding,
manners and intelligence.
E. over the Gardiners:
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Before introducing them to Darcy, she was worried
over their class background (business) and residence
(London Cheapside)
After doing it, she finds "glory in every expression,
every sentence of her uncle which marked his
intelligence, his taste, or his good manners“ (III: 1)
Jane Austen –her novels as
her children
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An intelligent woman who is not lucky in her emotional life.
(see clips 21:2; 42:42)
Both Jane and Casandra stay single all their life: (her
letter to Casandra) Friday. -- At length the day is come on
which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you
receive this it will be over. My tears flow at the melancholy
idea.“
Publish four novels anonymously. The editor wanted to
change the love scenes in PP. Austen: "You say the book
[PP] is indecent. You say I am immodest. But Sir in the
depiction of love, modesty is the fullness of truth; and
decency frankness; and so I must also be frank with you,
and ask that you remove my name from the title page in
all future printings; 'A lady' will do well enough."
Writing was her main interest in life and she was able to
make money with selling the six novels; however, writing
novels was not considered a “proper career” for women
then.
PP vs. Some 19th-Century Texts
Marriage & Class
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Three different kinds of marriage in
“Bank-Note” (US), “Yellow Sky” (US)
and PP (UK—late 18th C).
“Bank-Note” – the couple: equally
interested in business but not
materialistic; social climbing done
easily.
“Yellow Sky” – the couple, who don’t
really know each other, are
incompetent in the Pullman.
PP vs. Some 19th-Century Texts
Woman
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Pride and Prejudice
But no sooner had he made it clear to himself
and his friends that she had hardly a good
feature in her face, than he began to find it
was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the
beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this
discovery succeeded some others equally
mortifying. Though he had detected with a
critical eye more than one failure of perfect
symmetry in her form, he was forced to
acknowledge her figure to be light and
pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her
manners were not those of the fashionable
world, he was caught by their easy
playfulness.
PP vs. Some 19th-Century Texts
Woman
1. Praised as perfect and elevated to the
position of goddess
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
2. Still an object of love.
PP vs. Some 19th-Century Texts
Art vs. Nature
Piano – a lady’s “accomplishment”
 Pemberley:
“It was a large, handsome, stone building, standing
well on rising ground, and backed by a ridge of
high woody hills; -- and in front, a stream of some
natural importance was swelled into greater, but
without any artificial appearance. Its banks were
neither formal, nor falsely adorned.”
 The portraits tell of family history.
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Ozymandias – wrecked by time; out on a desert
futility of human ambition.
Grecian Urn -- frozen pictures of ordinary people and
their lives.
 “Art” and “Ambition” put in broader historical
perspectives.
PP in the Present World
Both film versions
 (melo-)dramatize it e.g.
letter-reading, proposal
scene of Wright’s version.
 foreground the sexual
attractions of the characters.
(e.g. Darcy’s swimming in
the BBC version, Eliza’s
bare shoulders in Wright’s
version.)
Bridget Jones’s Diary & PP
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Bridget’s mother // Elizabeth’s
Mark Darcy + Daniel Cleaver // F.
Darcy + Wickham; Mark Darcy’s
house, the setting of Pemberley
house
Difference: Bridget – Lonely,
straightforward,
more sexually explicit in language
and behavior.
Bridget Jones’s Diary—
Confessions at a party
e.g. E.g. M. Darcy: I realize that when I met you at the turkey curry
buffet, I was unforgivably rude, and wearing a reindeer jumper.
… I don't think you're an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of
the ridiculous about you. Your mother's pretty interesting. And
you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um, you
tend to let whatever's in your head come out of your mouth
without much consideration of the consequences... But the thing
is, um, what I'm trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in
fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much. Just as
you are.
Bridget: You once said you liked me just as I am and I just wanted to
say likewise. I mean there are stupid things your mum buys you,
tonight's another... classic. You're haughty, and you always say
the wrong thing in every situation and I seriously believe that you
should rethink the length of your sideburns. But, you're a nice
man and I like you. If you wanted to pop by some time that might
be nice... more than nice.
What’s Unchanged?
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Pride – what does it mean?
Prejudice caused by
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lack of understanding or education,
class and cultural differences
Human need for both money and love
Reference
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Minma, Shinobu. “Self-Deception and
Superiority Complex: Derangement of
Hierarchy in Jane Austen's Emma”
Eighteen Century Fiction 14. 1 (Oct,
2001): 49-65.