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Pride and Prejudice (Characters (Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a rich woman…
Pride and Prejudice
Characters
- Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a rich woman who has Mr. Collins wrapped around her finger. She perfectly refelcts teh entitled person belonging to the highest class who feels they are above everyone else.
- Mrs. Gardiner is a respectful woman who is of a higher class but still has respect for everyone and even those below her. Her marriage is a respectable one with Mr. Gardiner and portrays of an ideal marriage of the time period, but not Austen's ideal marriage.
- Mr. Bennet is a sarcastic, self-concerned man, aside form caring for Elizabeth, and is included to reflect the marriage of a man married just for the sake of marriage and ends up unhappy later on.
- Mr. Darcy is a proud man who has a change of heart that leads him to marrying Elizabeth when he is able to get over himself and social classes. His and Elizabeth's marriage reflect the marriage of love and willingness, not expectation.
- Mrs. Bennet is a clueless, flimsy woman who is cares only about marriage. She portryas the obsession of marriage through her desperation to marry off her daughters and through her own marriage.
- Mr. Collins is a know-it-all and is also obsessed with marriage. His proposal to Elizabeth was for logical reasons only and shows another man marrying just because it is a reasonable option.
- Charlotte Lucas is a friend of Elizabeth's who is not regarded with as much respect because she is so old and has not yet been married. When Mr. Collins proposes to her she desperately says yes and agrees to it even though she may not even like him. She is desperate to get married and reflects the personality of someone who believes a woman's hole life depends on marriage.
- Mary is a smart, quiet girl who remains unmarried and mostly irrelevant to the main plot of the story. She is included to reflect another personality of a quiet girl who is more interested in books than marriage to further exaggerate Austen's dislike of the obsession of marriage.
- Colonel Fitzwilliam is a respectable man without much money. He is interested in marriage with Elizabtht and hintst at it, but once he realizes it would not e reasonable with their financial situations he changes his mine. This shows refusal to marry if it is not reasonable, even if each other could potentially be interested.
- Lydia very much resembles Mrs. Bennet in the way she acts; she is very flimsy and clueless but most of all obsessed with marriage. She runs off with Mr. Wickham and is clueless to the fact that he does not intend to marry her. She resembles the girl who is so obsessed with being married that the marriage she finds fails.
- Jane is a caring and respectful girl who marries Mr. Bingley. She is viewed with respect and is included in the novel to show what the ideal girl is like of the time and an ideal marriage of love and reason that Austen seems to approve.
- Elizabeth is a strong-willed, independent character who is seen as slightly unruly. She portrays the independent woman who will not bow down to marriage. Her marriage is one that Austen believes should resemble every marriage because it was for no other reasons that love and just because they wanted to marry each other.
Themes
Roles of Women- Women are expected to gain a good education but the education of women is expected to be different than that of a man. Women are taught etiquette and manners, not book smarts. They are expected to have a full knowledge of the arts, like singing dancing, and drawing. If a woman is smart in these areas, she may be considered successful. A marriage is also not considered successful unless she is married and all woman are expected to get married.
Social Expectations- Women are expected to be respectful to everyone, especially those who are of a higher class than them and they are expected to not give their own opinions, especially when it contradicts that of someone else. They are also expected to accept any reasonably marriage especially if it comes from a wealthy man and in general their lives are thought to be revolved around marriage.
Marriage- There are many different type of marriage and Austen reflects many of them through the marriage and proposal throughout Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage is the one that Austen thinks all marriages should reflect, and Lydia's and Wickham's are the opposite. Mr. Collin's proposal is also not approved by Austen because it was only for logical reasons and nothing else.
Satire and Irony
Satire is used when there was a discussion on accomplished women. Elizabeth said that there were not women who could match the standards of what the men considered an accomplished woman, and when Elizabeth left Miss Bennet said that Elizabeth was insulting women, all the while she was standing there insulting Elizabeth.
Irony- It is ironic when Mr. Bennet tells Mrs. Bennet to introduce her and their daughters to Mr. Bingley when he know that they cannot do it themselves. Mr. Bennet knows that he has to be the one to introduce them all.