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Melissa Thornton
Dr. Holt
AP English Literature3
6 November 2015
Perception through Phenomenology
In the study of Jane Austens literature, critical perspectives are varied and vastranging
from societal satires to escapist romances. What many critics theories fail to acknowledge when
analyzing Pride and Prejudice is the texts interiority and embodiment of phenomenology. While
reading, [y]ou are inside [the book]; it is inside you; there is no longer either outside or inside,
and you must experience the book to find its meaning (Poulet 42). As Susan Morgans
Perception and Pride and Prejudice states, [w]e have granted [Austen] morality and manners,
technical genius and an observant eye, yet not the ability to create a philosophical work (338).
To fully unravel Pride and Prejudices pedagogical message, readers must examine how agency
forces our experiences to mirror that of Elizabeth, evoking interiority and ultimately concretizing
the limits of individual perception.
Through free indirect discourse, the novels narration locates readers perspective within
Elizabeths point of view. While still flowing between the other characters consciousnesses, the
narrator uses biased commentary and a focus on Elizabeth to shape our thinking. We first
encounter Elizabeth when her father describes her as having something more of quickness than
her sisters, a flattering declaration that sways the audience to view Elizabeths opinions as
superior (Austen 4). To solidify our understanding of Elizabeths character, the narrator declares
her to have a judgment [] unassailed by any attention to herself (11). Initial successful
judgments about Caroline Bingleys insincerity and Mr. Collinss absurdity validate readers

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predetermined opinion of Elizabeth, preventing us from doubting her perception. By denying us
an objective third-person narrator, Austen manipulates our observations and ties us to Elizabeths
point of view.
We find our perception skewed once more by Mr. Darcys character as he draws attention
to the novels discussion of perception by highlighting Elizabeths prejudices. For both Elizabeth
and the audience, the narrator initially presents Darcy as the proudest, most disagreeable man in
the world despite the lack of any first-hand experience to support such a drastic claim (8).
Though Elizabeth believes her constant observation of others to equate understanding them, she
only allows what she sees to confirm her first impressions. Interactions between Darcy and
Elizabeth bring to light her propensity to willfully [] misunderstand people from snap
judgments while Darcy takes his time when forming opinions of others as we see through the
phases of his relationship with Elizabeth (40). Rare glimpses into Darcys consciousness expand
readers perspectives to realize that Elizabeths subjective discernment may prevent her from
attaining objective knowledge.
The catalyst for both Elizabeths and readers self-awakening comes from her failed
observations of both Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham. Upon Wickhams entrance to the novel, we
learn that he ha[s] all the best part of beauty, a fine countenance, a good figure, and a very
pleasing address (49). Blinded by the truth in his looks, Elizabeth trusts Wickhams
defamation of Darcys character despite others warnings against Wickhams slanderous
statements (59). The flaws in Elizabeths judgment become more clear to us when she rejects
these warnings for being unacquainted with several parts of the storyignoring her own
ignorance of Darcys point of view (66). Not until Darcys letter to Elizabeth can readers fully
see her mistakes in calculating the two mens characters. From the letter, we learn that first

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impressions can be misleading and one individuals perception cannot be the complete truth.
Elizabeths epiphany regarding her biased perception of Darcy reveals the novels
ontological argument; how we come to understand the novel requires realizing its prejudiced
narration, just as how Elizabeth comes to know people should take more time and receptive
interpretation. Only after Elizabeth sees the need to broaden her perspective can we realize how
restricted agency has limited our freedom to objectively observe her character and others.
Austens use of free indirect discourse creates a permanent opposition to the impressions we
might otherwise form when reading from a detached point of view (Iser 63). We have
unconsciously mistaken ourselves to be impartial onlookers, yet while reading [our]
consciousness [has] behave[d] as though it were the consciousness of another (Poulet 44). By
way of our interior experience, we learn the flaws of a limited perspective alongside Elizabeth.
To concretize the impact of Austens free indirect discourse on our perception, we can
look to one of Pride and Prejudices adaptations, Lost in Austen, which both embodies and
furthers the texts argument by illustrating the extent to which Austens focus on perception
explores and elicits interiority. Lost in Austen, a choose your own adventure novel, changes
readers experience of the novel by making it interactive to demonstrate how our perception and
experience inform our interpretation of the text. The use of a second-person narrator reflects how
we subconsciously enter the novels experience while reading Pride and Prejudice; a second
self takes over, a self which thinks and feels for [us] (Poulet 45). We progress through the novel
as an adapted Elizabeth, unable to access other characters points of view, enabling us to see that
we ourselves are adapted Elizabeths. Recalling our prior experience with the source text, we
remember how insights into multiple perspectives guided us to see that truth must come from
flexible understanding.

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As the second-person narrator further draws us inside the narrative, the variety of paths
through Lost in Austen reveals how one readers interpretation of Pride and Prejudice cannot
encompass its full purpose, but lives within the framework Austen established for our experience
of the novel. From death by gypsies to a happily ever after, readers own choices decide the
conclusion of Lost in Austen, emphasizing how in Pride and Prejudice, [t]he work lives its own
life within [us]; in a certain sense, it thinks itself, and it even gives itself meaning within [us]
(Poulet 47). Just as critics interpret Pride and Prejudice many different ways, Lost in Austen can
be viewed as a game, a reflection of society, a satire, or a discussion of ontology. Adapting Pride
and Prejudice into a create your own adventure novel reveals to readers how one text is
potentially capable of several different realizations, and no one reading can ever exhaust the full
potential, for each individual reader will fill in the gaps in his own way (Iser 56). From reading
Lost in Austen, we see how the phenomenology of Pride and Prejudices experience allows each
reader to come to an individual conclusion.
Austens genius lies in the fact that Pride and Prejudice purposefully lacks a single,
ultimate claim, evidenced by its interiority that allows for a variety of interpretations. Depending
on our individual perspectives, the novel divulges different arguments; the novels intentions
may be manifold, they may even be infinite, but they are always present embryonically in the
work itself, implied by it, circumscribed by it, and finally traceable to it (Tompkins xv). By
focusing on our experience as readers through the narrative, we uncover how the reading
process is selective, and the potential text is infinitely richer than any of its individual
realizations (Iser 55). For this reason, Austens work remains widely read, as it will always
provoke different reactions and new realizations no matter how many times you read it, such is
its interiority, its controversy, its inexhaustibility.

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Bibliography
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. 3rd ed. New York City: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2001. Print.
Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. N.p.: U of Minnesota P, 1996. Ebook file.
Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Iser, Wolfgang. The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach. Reader-Response
Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Ed. Jane P. Tompkins. Baltimore: John
Hopkins UP, 1980. 50-70. Ebook file.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, and Colin Smith. Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge,
2014. Ebook file.
Morgan, Susan. Perception in Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen. Ed.
Donald Gray. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 338-47. Print.
Poulet, Georges. Criticism and the Experience of Interiority. Reader-Response Criticism:
From Formalism to Post-Structuralism. Ed. Jane P. Tompkins. Baltimore: John Hopkins
UP, 1980. 41-50. Ebook file.
Quinn, Edward. Phenomenology. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second
Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc.
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Quinn, Edward. Reader response criticism. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms,
Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File,
Inc. Web. 3 Nov. 2015
Tompkins, Jane P., ed. Reader-Response Criticism: From Formalism to Post-Structuralism.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980. Ebook file.

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Webster, Emma Campbell. Lost in Austen. New York: Berkley Publishing Group, 2007. Print.