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Key:
Repetition
Word connected with colour
Alliteration
Assonance
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Language
Comment on meaning/effect
long, gold-rolled /
Cigarette holder
has turned / My
bottom raven black
Stench / Of rancid
breath of public
hide-and-speak
3. Select some key phrases from the poem, working with a partner if possible.
These may:
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Plot
Mr Bingley is a rich man who has come to live in Netherfield. This causes much
general excitement, especially for Mrs Bennet with her five unmarried daughters.
A good marriage will be essential for her daughters their fathers house and the
estate will not be passed down to them because of inheritance laws, which state
that a male heir will inherit.
Mrs Bennet is keen for her eldest daughter, Jane, to meet Mr Bingley, and Jane
dances with him at a village ball. Bingleys friend, Mr Darcy, is seen by others to be
very proud and arrogant. He meets Elizabeth, the next eldest daughter, but is not
impressed with the lower social status of the Bennets and is rather rude about
Elizabeth. Later, Elizabeth learns (mistakenly, as it turns out) that Mr Darcy has
acted dishonourably to Mr Wickham, a handsome and pleasant young officer
stationed at Meryton, and so she forms an equally low opinion of Darcy. However,
Darcy gradually changes his mind about Elizabeth, valuing her intelligent
conversation and her bright eyes, to the extent that, while they are at Rosings, he
declares his love. To his surprise, he is rejected, partly because of his involvement in
separating Jane and Bingley and partly because of Elizabeths beliefs about his
behaviour towards Wickham. Elizabeth has very different ideas about marriage
from many of those around her. Her friend, Charlotte Lucas, marries the
unpleasant Mr Collins (who proposed to her only because Elizabeth turned him
down too) for practical and financial reasons.
The fact that the novel has a plot that centres on marriage is set out from its
famous opening lines:
Darcy realises that he must behave differently if he is to win Elizabeth, and writes
to her explaining why he acted as he did with regard to Jane and Mr Wickham. He
sets out the story of Mr Wickham in full, in particular how he had almost seduced
Georgiana Darcy (his younger sister) in an attempt to take possession of her money.
Elizabeth now begins to question whether she has misjudged Darcy. On a holiday
with her aunt and uncle in Derbyshire, she meets Darcy at his splendid estate of
Pemberley and finds his manner very altered. She later becomes even more grateful
to him for rescuing the situation after Wickham and Lydia, her youngest sister,
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have eloped, by arranging, anonymously, for them to marry and for Wickhams
debts to be paid. Elizabeth assumes she will never see Darcy again, but Darcy, in
guilt, admits to Mr Bingley that he was wrong to intervene in Bingleys relationship
with Jane and brings about Bingleys renewed hopes for Jane.
Mr Bingley returns to Netherfield Hall, with the intention of proposing to Jane, who
delightedly accepts. Darcy returns with him. By this time, both Elizabeth and Darcy
have overcome their prejudice against each other, and abandoned the pride which
had stopped them expressing their true feelings. The novel, therefore, ends with the
marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy and of Jane and Bingley, much to the joy of all,
not least of Mrs Bennet: the opening words seem to have come true.
Characters
Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy
Elizabeth Bennet
Mr Darcy is:
Elizabeth is:
loyal
impulsive
stubborn
a kind master
often awkward
a loving brother
Jane Bennet
Jane is:
Mr Bingley
Mr Bingley is:
easily led
eager to please
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Mr Bennet
Mrs Bennet
Mr Bennet is:
melodramatic
foolish.
Mary Bennet
Kitty Bennet
Kitty is:
influenced by Lydia
rather strait-laced.
George Wickham
Lydia Bennet
Mr Wickham is:
Lydia is:
a determined flirt
deceitful
Mary is:
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Mr Collins
Charlotte Lucas
Mr Collins is:
Charlotte is:
Caroline Bingley
Caroline is:
Georgiana Darcy
Georgiana is:
extremely pretty
very shy
very musical
jealous of Elizabeth.
The Gardiners
Themes
Courtship, proposals and marriage
Austens interest in the subject of marriage is shown in her study of the
relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet and also in the treatment of Mr Collins
and Charlotte Lucas. However, even more of the novel is focused on the processes
that take place prior to marriage, and the way in which people set about trying to
get married: how and why men propose to women, and how their proposals are
responded to. This focus allows her to examine the place of marriage in society and
the range of attitudes to marriage that the different characters possess. She
contrasts true love matches and romantic attachments (see opposite) with
practical, financial or businesslike propositions, such as that of Charlotte Lucas and
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The fact that Austen chose this title, after originally calling the novel First
Impressions, shows how important she thought these two undesirable qualities
were in the lives of her characters. Pride, closely associated with the arrogance of
wealth and class in some cases, is clearly seen in several characters, but none more
so than Darcy although it could be said that Elizabeths pride is severely wounded
by his initial attitude to her. The word prejudice is nowadays associated
particularly with discrimination and bias against other people because of matters
such as their ethnic background: so-called racial prejudice. The word essentially
means pre-judging a person or event, so it is linked to the idea of first
impressions, Austens original title. Her idea is clearly that initial impressions can
cloud peoples judgement and make them unable to see a persons true qualities
and this certainly applies strongly to both central characters in the novel.
Society and social class
Austen wrote at a time when the divisions based on class were seen as vitally
important and people largely stayed within their own class. She realised that when
the class boundaries were broken things could prove difficult and be, for a novelist,
full of interest, particularly if someone from the upper class were to mix with
someone from what we might call the middle or even upper middle classes.
The upper classes were so called because they were the richest members of society,
and their wealth came from owning a great deal of land, which they had inherited
through their families (the aristocracy), at a time before the main impact of the
Industrial Revolution, which made many other people rich either through running
businesses or through trading. Even the Bingleys were not thought of by some as
true upper class, because their fortune was derived from trade, which meant that
some of the landed aristocracy could be quite snobbish (and prejudiced) towards
them. Lady Catherine De Bourgh particularly represents this traditional sense of
her own superiority: she looks down on the Bennets, who clearly do not match up
to her social standards. Elizabeth refuses to be overawed by her attitudes, as she is
the daughter of a gentleman, but Mr Collins behaviour shows how the general
expectation was that such grand ladies would be treated in a very deferential way
by other classes. The novel has numerous examples of how society expected people
to behave, and how easy it was to do the wrong thing.
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Authors craft
Setting
Language
Tone of voice
We have seen how important tone of voice is in the words spoken by the
characters. This is also true in the narrative of the text.
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First, check that you know where the letters appear, what they say, what they tell
us about the writers and what their effect is on the characters receiving them.
Think about the differences in tone and style. Then choose one letter and write
notes about its significance in relation to theme, plot and character. (You may
wish to choose Darcys letter to Elizabeth or the letter from Mr Collins to Mr
Bennet before visiting him.) Pick out some key phrases and write a comment on
their significance. The first example has been given for you.
Key phrase
Significance
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1. Think about the way in which Mr Bennet reacts to his life in a house with so
many women. How sympathetic do you think Jane Austen wishes us to be
towards him?
2. Look closely at the relationship between Jane and Elizabeth during the course
of the novel, and write about its importance in the novel.
3. Does Austens character of Mr Collins have any redeeming features, or is he
there purely to be a figure of fun?
4. Which qualities does Jane Austen seem to admire and which does she dislike
in the society she portrays?
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