pride and prejudice Chapter 2 summary
?Pride and Prejudice Question1. Discuss the appropriateness of the title ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and its change from ‘First Impression’.
Pride and Prejudice is a novel about surmounting obstacles and achieving romantic happiness. It was first published as First Impression in the year 1797 and later in 1813 it was revised and republished as Pride and Prejudice. Yet, for Elizabeth and Darcy the protagonist, the challenge lies in the books original title, First Impression.Darcy the proud, picky noble woman’s nephew must break free from his original dismissal of Elizabeth of not handsome enough to tempt him and his class based prejudices against her lack of wealth and family connections. Meanwhile, Elizabeth needs to free herself from the prejudice that Darcy is arrogant and self-satisfied; as a result she later accepts slanderous accusations against him as true. Perhaps, the change in the title was due to the fact that the novel as a whole deals with the idea of pride and prejudice which is not just confined to Elizabeth and Darcy but is true for all the characters.The title is very significant in the development of the text.
As the book progresses, the connotation of the tile become more apt, using these three words, Austen has been able to depict the main components of the novel, such as character description and basic plot summary. The title Pride and Prejudice helps to narrow down the story into two traits. To say that it was Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth’s prejudice would be absolutely wrong.
They both and rest all characters suffer from pride or prejudice or both.Early in the novel, the character Mary Bennet gives Jane Austen’s explanation of pride when she says, “Pride…is a very common failing…human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other. ” What Austen is saying is that pride is a feeling of self-respect, sometimes reasonable or justified; although pride can be justified, she gives it an overall negative implication when she refers to it is a “failing” or fault.Her definition of pride is displayed constantly throughout the book in the nature of her characters. Mostly by Darcy who shows pride due to his status and possessions.
Although, he does that because of his wealth but, he verifies Austen’s negative connotation of pride by looking down upon others. Whereas, others characters that show pride are Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine and Miss Bingley, they too are similarly proud due to their wealth. Fascinatingly, even the Bennet family fits into the Austen’s definition of pride.
Elizabeth is proud because she has high levels of respect for herself and her dignity, but her pride becomes negative when due to her self-respect, she starts forming prejudices against others. Lydia took pride in being the first Bennet girl to be married without taking into account the consequences of her marriage or the personality of her husband. Many characters in the novel suffer from prejudice as well. Pride is defined as unfavorable opinion formed without fair reason or sufficient knowledge of a situation.
Elizabeth clearly fits into this definition of this prejudice person.She firstly forms prejudice against Mr. Darcy in just her first meeting and later about Wickham who gives hostile account of Darcy which is easily accepted by her due to her biasness even though she doesn’t have true information about it. Her prejudice is all the more strengthened when she comes to know it was Darcy who separated Bingley and her sister.
In one of the instances in the novel when Darcy through a letter tries to explain her all that she accuses him of, she is already “persuaded that he could have no explanation to give. ith a strong prejudice against anything he might say. ” Her prejudice against him is so strong that she doesn’t even have an open mind when he tries to explain himself.
Its not just Elizabeth who suffers from this malady, the entire Bennet family and the people of Netherfield form an opinion similar to that of Elizabeth regarding Darcy all based upon their first meeting with him. Other characters such as Lady Catherine, Miss Bingley & Darcy are prejudiced against the ordinary and less wealthy people like the Bennet family.They form opinion about Elizabeth based upon the family she comes from, they assume that like her family members she is not worthy to be talked to as an equal. Interestingly, the prejudice in the novel is not just about the character but is also related to the society. It challenges the prejudice in the society in the era of 18th century related to economic stability, class division, marriage etc. The marriage of Mr.
Collins and Charlotte Lucas is one such example which is based on economic stability rather than on love or appearance.It was a common practice during Austen’s time to marry for the purpose of saving oneself from spinsterhood or to gain financial security. Austen in a comic manner has shown like elements of the prejudiced society in the form of this marriage and paternalism as mentioned in the text;“Mr Bennets property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughter, was entailed in default of heirs male, on a distant relation. ” B.
Manglam in his essay ‘Interrogation of class and gender’ mentions about social prejudice in the society as in the case of Charles Bingley, who due to his growing status in the society should have married a girl with a higher status who could have uplifted him in the society than Jane. The title Pride and Prejudice gives description of a large portion of the characters and an insight into what the novel is about. These two traits create obstacles for the main characters Elizabeth and Darcy by keeping them apart. Darcy’s pride is the first thing that comes between them, leading Elizabeth to form prejudice about him.He keeps on commenting about Elizabeth’s lack of wealth and lower status which confirms her prejudice opinion about him. As a result she judges him inaccurately and builds a wall, blocking out anything that might change her opinion about him. Pride and prejudice might be the reason which kept these two characters away but, ironically it is the intertwining and mingling of these two characteristics that make them realize their faults.
When Elizabeth rejects Darcy’s first proposal he gets shocked as he did not expect that and as an outcome reexamines himself.Then after he gets over his pride and changes his ways for Elizabeth, she finally sees the truth about him. She realizes that he has the right to be proud of his accomplishments and that he was right about the distastefulness of her family. It is then when she acknowledges that her judgments of Darcy were too hasty and based on insignificant details.
After reading the novel Pride and Prejudice, it becomes clear why Jane Austen chose this title. These three words, possibly the most important words of the novel, are responsible for the development of the entire plot.Using just these words the basic traits of many of the characters and can be summarized. The way that the characters handle their pride and/or prejudice either builds up more conflicts between characters or solves existing ones. This title is suitable for the novel because of the way the entire novel (character development, conflict, climax, resolution, etc) revolves around these words. Question2.
Discuss Jane-Bingley courtship. In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice marriage plays a major role, the novel is a romantic novel and therefore deals with idea of love, romance and marriage.There are four courtships that take place in the course of the novel, Jane-Bingley, Elizabeth-Darcy, Lydia- Wickham and Collins-Charlotte.
Whereas, the marriage of Elizabeth and Darcy is of the main focus yet, the prolonged courtship of Jane and Bingley is of principal to the plot. Jane and Bingley strangely are kind of similar characters created by Austen, they both can be described as amiable, cheerful, friendly, good-natured, and always ready to think the best of others; they lack entirely the prickly egotism of Elizabeth and Darcy.The marriage between Jane Bennet and Charles Bingley is an example of a successful marriage in the book. As expressed by Elizabeth “.
really believed all his [Bingley] expectations of felicity, to be rationally founded, because they had for basis the excellent understanding, and super-excellent disposition of Jane, and a general similarity of feeling and taste between her and himself. ” Yet, it has a blemish that they both are easily affected by the external forces and are not able to support each other and their love.As seen in the course of novel both the characters are too gullible and good hearted which leads to hampering of their relationship by the other people and their views. Jane Bingley first met at the Mereyton ball and quickly get attracted to one another. But, due to their nature a concern is developed which first appears by Charlotte when she points out as-“…
.. though Bingley and Jane meet tolerably often, it is never for many hours together; and as they always see each other in large mixed parties, it is impossible that every moment should be employed in conversing together.
Jane should therefore make the most of every half hour in which she can command his attention. When she is secure of him, there will be leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses. ” The love between Jane and Bingley blossoms further when she visits Netherfield and due to her ill health is compelled to live there. Both Jane and Bingley then come to a point where Jane expects Charles to propose marriage to her. But, the tables turn when Bingley abruptly leaves the country and goes to London. Jane’s spirits are lowered after this incident and she starts losing hope.
Her hopes are further shattered when she receives a letter from Caroline Bingley in which she mentions about a hopeful tie between her brother and Georgina Darcy. She losses all hopes after the letter and feels that she is not desirable by the Bingley family and Charles. Although for Elizabeth, she is not very convinced and wishes to know the reason. She comes to know the truth on her visit to London that it was Darcy who separated Jane and Bingley and convinced Bingley that Jane did not love him. But, later towards the end, it’s Darcy who reunites them by clearing the misunderstandings and bringing him back to the Netherfield.Bingley’s return to Netherfield is followed by his visit to Longbourne and asking Jane’s hand for marriage. Jane Bingley courtship reveals various factors dominating a relationship; B.
Mangalam in his essay ‘Interrogation of class and gender’ elaborates the idea of social prejudice that requires Bingley to marry a girl with higher status to improve his status in the society. In spite of all these obstacles Jane and Bingley transgress the boundaries set by the society and exhibit true love unhampered by either pride or prejudice.