Pride and Prejudice Essay Discussions

[Shrieking]

Hi there guys! I'm new here by the way. It's really nice joining this forums! I have some questions about Pride and Prejudice and I need some of your views, I suppose you knew the novel a lot better than I do. Please I need help.:(

1. Letters have played an important part in the history of the English novel, beginning with Richardson's Pamela and Clarissa; these epistolary novels consisted almost entirely of letters. In Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, letters survive as a literary device. Could you discuss the use of letters in the novel?


This is just one of my question, I wish this thread would be supported by my fellow LN members. This is not only for my "school thing" but for all that really are interested in knowing more about Austen's novel.

thank you in advance!:)

[eyemaker]

Okay, First welcome to the forums Shrieking! regarding your problem, I will just share to you what I knew about that question above.
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One of the ways in which Jane Austen defines the small world of Hertfordshire, which constitutes the social context on the novel, is through frequent exchange of letters. Austen includes some twenty letters in her narrative, suggesting the importance of correspondence in a closed circle of acquaintances with few amusements other than the exchange of news. Taken as a whole, the letters imply much about social convention with polish, politeness, and place, as well as the preoccupation with the minute details of daily life.

Each letter also [provides a glimpse into its writer's character. for example. Caroline Bingley betrays a hint of her essentially frivolous and catty nature in her first "Friendly" overture to Jane:

If you are not so compassionate as to dine today with Louisa and me, we shall be in danger of hating each other for the rest of our lives, for a whole day's tete-a-tete between two women can never end without a quarrel.(Volume I, C-7)

The hyperbole and the archly sophisticated tone sketch a portrait of a flighty and somewhat snobbish young lady indulging in a whim.

Perhaps the most telling instance of characterization via letter is Mr. Collin's lengthy note introduction to Mr. Bennet. The circumlocutions, the left-handed compliments, and the self aggrandizing style all reveal the clergyman as a ridiculous popinjay who, as Mr. bennet anticipates, will provide comic amusement for the company: "there is a mixture of servility and self-importance in his letter, which promises well. i am impatient to see him" (I, 3)

In a similar way, every other letter in the novel reveals something about the character of its writer. Jane's letter to Lissie are loving, sweet, cheerful, and brave; Mr. Gardiner's letters to Mr. Bennet are sensible, business, tactful, and generous; and Mrs. Gardiner's letters to Elizabeth are warm, solicitous, and encouraging. The letters of Mr. Darcy, the hero of the tale, tell us much about him. Both his reserve and his warmth, his pride and his compassion are underscored in the crucial letter explaining his motives in the Bingley and Wickham affairs.

Darcy's letter indicates a third function of the correspondence in Pride and Prejudice, that of propelling the plot forward by means of revelation and explanation. The small mysteries and misunderstandings which abound in the early part of the novel are dispelled by means of a series of important letters addressed to Elizabeth: Darcy's letter defending his conduct against her bitter charges; Jane's letter describing Wickham's elopement with Lydia; and Mrs. Gardiner's letter describing Darcy's benevolence in rescuing Lydia from disgrace. All three operate to establish Darcy's character in Elizabeth's eyes and to change her feelings toward him.

Darcy's letters, in fact, the turning point of the entire novel, in that it forces Elizabeth to recognize the truth not only about others but about herself. Prejudiced by her own vanity, which had initially been both stung by Darcy's indifference and flattered by Wickham's attentions, she has seriously misjudged both men.

Letters thus function on several levels in the novel. they are the vehicles for both comic caricature and profound characterization, both trivial gossip and important revelation./ Most broadly, they define the social world of Hertfordshire as a minuet of gestures and response, of emotion controlled and channeled through language.

---eye