Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1993.

Brief summary:

«It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.» This is the well-known beginning of one of Jane Austen´s masterpieces, Pride and Prejudice.

As in all Jane Austen´s novels, the main business of Pride and Prejudice is the disposal of young women in marriage. The pressures of social expectation, the weight of traditional social arrangements, and the strains exerted by family and property are strong enough to understand Elizabeth Bennet´s revolutionary behaviour.

Families themselves, as Elizabeth perfectly knows, can be enough of a trial, but these occasional glimpses of a malign social world beyond the family make it even clearer why Austen´s heroines feel such genteel desperation to escape.

In my humble opinion, this book has been one of the most revolutionary books in the history of literature. That a woman in that society, had the courage to reject a man, who had treated her poorly, although the society hadn´t taught her to do so, is absolutely astonishing. I wish I had Elizabeth´s personality! A woman with much integrity as Elizabeth is considered the heroine of the plot.

Analysis of the book:

First Impressions is an early version of the acclaimed novel Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen in 1796. It is also the first complete novel of this marvelous writer.

When Pride and Prejudice starts, Jane and Bingley fall in love with each other. What Jane Austen has successfully conveyed is the meeting of two sympathetic intelligences. The couple is identified not just as potential lovers but as potential allies.

What absolutely must be remarked is that,  instead of Austen settling for them to be the heroes of the plot, Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy turned out to be her main focus. This radical change of point of view can only be allocated to Jane Austen. She succeeds by far in surprising the reader with her unexpected storyline, wonderful characters, and adequate language.

Elizabeth Bennet had all the right to hate Darcy. When they first met at the ball of Netherfield, she tried to be as much charming as possible and asked him if he would like to dance with her. His only answer was: “Not if I can help it.” That rude behavior, not only made me feel sad about Lizzy, but I also thought that he was a wretched man, who deserved nothing but Lizzy´s greeting.  “Thoroughly tolerable, I dare say not handsome enough to tempt me.” Mr. Darcy´s opinion about Elizabeth was one of the few reasons, for which Elizabeth thought that he was the last man in the world she could ever be prevailed upon to marry.

I personally have to acknowledge, that my feelings towards Mr. Darcy were just as Elizabeth ones. I thought he was a miserable character right from the beginning of the plot. He was at the same time haughty, fastidious and reserved, and his manners, though well-bred, were not inviting at all. In contrast to Bingley, with which there had been no formality whatsoever, no stiffness and he had soon felt acquainted with all the room.

One of Austen´s challenging accomplishments was, being able to change the reader´s feelings towards a specific character nothing but almost at the end of the book. During the whole book, Darcy is vexatious and proud. But through the explanation letter to Elizabeth, Jane Austen achieves exactly what she wanted, to turn hatred into love and appreciation. All pride Mr. Darcy was thought to be, was just a prejudice.

Austen´s wry analysis of how social position can refract the meaning of language is a strikingly modern achievement. She was ahead in this social world, where everything depends on meanings that are implicit rather than explicit. For example, when Darcy moves his chair towards Elizabeth, or when Miss Bingley says: “I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library”, a library like Darcy´s, whom she wanted more than anything to be her husband, is her implicit meaning.

Jane Austen also tries to explain every single detail, based on what happened before. When Elizabeth reads Darcy´s explanation letter, she has no choice, than to go back over the evidence, searching for clues she had missed before. Jane Austen´s novels are keen on returning again and again to the damage done by misinterpretation that comes from concealment and gossip.

When Jane dances twice with Mr. Bingley in the ball of Netherfield, Mrs. Bennet is delighted. A man of such a fortune, dancing with her own daughter twice!!  Such clues are eagerly sought in a society that allows little scope for the direct display of sexual interest.

Darcy´s regret for having concealed Mr. Wickham´s real personality, is just not rhetorical, but accurate information about the people around one is vital to the business of judging their words and actions. His sudden change of behavior after realizing what a fool he had been to Elizabeth, made me feel he was a well-bred man after all. And made me realize he had been totally bewitched with Elizabeth during the whole book.

They live in a society where everything is known, in a neighborhood of “voluntary spies”. Lydia´s elopement with Mr. Wickmam was rapidly spread through the neighborhood polluting the Bennet image.

Austen herself called the novel to be ´light & bright & sparkling´. Perhaps her work shows something of her own experience. I suppose the novel she writes is the life she would have wanted to live and relish, instead of her own. In fact, she was the same age as Elizabeth during the period she wrote the novel. Society should not have been so cruel and sexist as it was, embittering plenty of women´s lives, who were prevailed upon to marry for their family´s convenience and not because of true love.

The fact that the high society was always making light of the Bennet family was brought into prominence during the whole storyline. It´s true of course that the world is still out there, where the marriage will still somehow depend more on money than love, where not everyone will be in the same circumstances as others, but we have to reach an accommodation with this reality. That´s why the novel does not end among the painful social realities of ordinary life, instead, it ends at Pemberley, their paradise. We might have to admit that not only in literature but also in real life, it is from time to time preferable to shut the gates against reality.

I truly think this book has changed my way of thinking. I won´t be left indifferent anymore when talking about women´s rights or social status in the past. This book has marked me and that´s the reason why I think that reading Jane Austen´s masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, has totally changed my life.