(a)

Pride and Prejudice

Critically analyse the following passage from Pride and Prejudice, giving detailed consideration to what the passage shows of the thematic concerns and narrative methods of the novel (for example, what themes are dealt with here? What use is made of narrative point of view? How is characterisation achieved?). Pride and prejudice was written by Jane Austen and published in 1813. This passage of the story was written in third person narration perspective that displays thematic concerns and narrative methods throughout the novel to make the readers relate to the story or understand the relations and differences between the 19th century society and the modern society. The themes in this passage are pride, prejudice, family, marriage, class and society, wealth, love, women and femininity, and language and communication. The narrative methods of this passage are narration and point of view (third person narration e.g. focalisation and indirect speech), selection and arrangement of events, characterisation, description, dialogue, exposition and the development of themes. Written in third person, this passage from the “pride and Prejudice” novel is written and told by an omniscient narrator (Jane Austin) who used her heroine and hero character (Elizabeth) as a

focalizer through her actions and feelings towards herself, others and what is happening around her. The themes in this “Pride and prejudice” passage are pride, prejudice, family, marriage, class and society, love, wealth, women and femininity as well as language and communication. Throughout the passage, pride is seen as a major habit and attitude in every character when they express themselves to or treat others based on judgements and assumptions. A pride can be seen in Mrs Bennet’s words when she said ‘What is Mr Darcy to me, pray, that I should be afraid of him? I am sure we owe him no such particular civility as to be obliged to say nothing he may not like to hear.’ Prejudice is shown when the passages’ heroine and hero Elizabeth tried to stop her mother from expressing herself so freely and loudly on a dinner table with friends and neighbours and this is shown in the following sentence “Nothing that she could say, however, had any influence. Her mother would talk of her views in the same intelligible tone. Elizabeth blushed and blushed again with shame and vexation”. Family is another major theme in this “Pride and prejudice” passage. Jane Austin does not only reveal the love and pride within Bennet family but shows the social norms of the 19th century family values. We learned in this passage that Bennet family were middle class if not poor but were educated, disciplined and have very good manners.

Pride and prejudice passage hero Elizabeth and Mrs Bennet feelings and hopes of Jane’s relationship with a rich young man (Mr Bingley) shows how successful they wish and want to be in their future lives. Another major theme in this passage is marriage. Pride and prejudice is a story of love and in this passage, we learned that the relationships between men and women that led to marriage in the early 19th century in England were sometimes unequal and affected many men and women. Jane and Mr Bingley’s relationship is composed of both love and wealth considerations. Jane’s relationship with Mr Bingley is considered love by Elizabeth but Mrs Bennet seems to want her daughter’s marriage to Mr Bingley due to his wealth and his personal looks as the omniscient narrator described in the following sentence “His being such a charming young man, and so rich, and living but three miles from them, were the first points of self-gratulation”. Mrs Bennet believes that her older daughter’s successful marriage will set a great lucky path for all her daughters since women were at the time not allowed to inherit anything from their parents. Class and society are also a theme in this Pride and prejudice passage. Jane Austin’s criticisms in this passage are aimed at class and society. The omniscient narrator in this passage considers the Bingley family (rich family) humble as their interest in Jane (from middle-class family) is

about to lead to marriage. Mrs Bennet’s conversation and talks to Lady Lucas (poor class) seems to be a bit arrogant and deserve narrators’ criticisms. Wealth is another major theme that plays a vital role in this passage. The omniscient narrator demonstrates in this passage through Mrs Bennet’s hopes of marrying her daughter off to a wealthy young man (Mr Bingley) to make sure her daughter’s future is financially secured. The narrator informs the readers in this passage that those parents of the early 19th century times used to favour wealth more than love when considering their children’s marriage. The following sentence “She concluded with many good wishes that Lady Lucas might soon be equally fortunate, though evidently and triumphantly believing there was no chance of it” shows how relieved Mrs Bennet is to have wealth finding her daughters through Jane’s expected marriage to Mr Bingley and also wish improbable hopes for the same luck of wealth to go to Lady Lucas way. Women and Femininity is another theme in this passage where the omniscient narrator wants the readers to know about the early 19th century feminine times of social realities, marriage decisions as well as courting. The Bennet girls and their fellow village girls were considered as proper for marriage or penny-pinching old maidhood rather than look for Jobs in the early 19th century in England. This feminine is shown in the passage through Elizabeth and her mother’s expectations, hopes and great feelings of Janes’ marriage to a wealthy Mr Bingley. Language

and communication is also one of the major themes in this passage. The omniscient narrator shows language and communication theme through Elizabeth and Mrs Bennet’s feelings and actions to show the readers which character is too proud (pride) and who is too humble. At the end of the passage, the omniscient narrator considers Elizabeth’s maturity higher enough to challenge how mother’s as described in the following sentence “In vain did Elizabeth endeavour to check the rapidity of her mother’s words, or persuade her to describe her felicity in a less audible whisper;’ she urged and alerted her mother to be careful and consider her words before she end up making herself a victim or disappoint Mr Daisy whom she does not trust. The narrative methods of this passage are narration and point of view (third person narration e.g. focalisation and indirect speech), selection and arrangement of events, characterisation, description, dialogue, exposition and the development of themes. In this “Pride and Prejudice” passage, the story is told through third person narration that made the narrator omniscient and excludes her from the characters within the passage if not the whole story of pride and prejudice. The omniscient narrator tells the story in this passage through the thoughts, actions and feelings of her focalizer (Elizabeth) who understands the meaning of her own behaviour and language communication as well as those of other

characters in the story to make the readers aware of what Jane Austin (omniscient narrator) had seen in her generation of the early 19th century in England and how enjoyable or faulty it was for her and others. Selection and arrangement of events in this passage make the story straightforward for the readers who learn about character after character. This technique make readers consider this “Pride and Prejudice” passage as an interweaving of subplot or plot instead of thinking of it as a recording of events. The omniscient narrator have used description, exposition and the development of themes to help the readers gain greater understanding, knowledge, imagination and relate themselves to this passage characters in a suspense way. A dialogue technique is used to make readers know the characters in person through their language and communication use. The omniscient narrator shows the importance of dialogue when Elizabeth reminds her mother to be careful of conversations in fear of disappointing or informing Daisy. In this pride and prejudice passage, characterisation is achieved through description, actions, feelings and dialogue. The omniscient narrator portrayed and characterised Elizabeth sympathetically because of her empathy and greater understanding of her own behaviours as well as those of others. Mrs Bennet, according to omniscient narrator’s description and dialogue is considered an antagonist character because of her desires and for not being able to consider other people’s feelings

let alone hers. Elizabeth easily won the best character of this passage for being Jane Austin’s focalizer whose feelings, thoughts and actions are used to tell the story, and determine the personality of other characters and for also being able to correct her fellow character’s mistakes with great understanding and empathy. This “pride and prejudice” passage story is told in third person narration and Jane Austin was skilful enough to exclude herself from the characters and used Elizabeth as a focalizer to successfully tell the story. The themes and narrative methods helped Jane Austin convey the early 19th century society social norms that can relate to the readers of the then and modern times. The external narrator achieved characterisation using description, and dialogue techniques as well as actions, feelings and thoughts. The skills of the omniscient narrator helped reward Elizabeth best character for having been a great focalizer in which a story is told through her thoughts, feelings, actions and dialogue.