Progress_in_Pride_and_Prejudice

A-Introduction: Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was a famous English novelist who has been earned a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature by her style of burlesque and irony. Many literacy critics have sung the praise of her novels both in moral and realistic aspects, they also love her way of describing characters’ personalities very truthfully and giving prominence in the simple prose. In fact, these styles brought all readers about a refresh change which was not available at that time at all. When the English literature was developed strongly in the beginnings of eighteenth century with the unrealistic romantic style of almost writers, Jane Austen’s writings created the new aspiration through building some prominent characters. She formed a humorous world of the English middle-class in her age. Then this started the trend of “ Family Novels” which was concentrate to describe lifestyles and tension between the female characters and their society they were living. This characteristic of the writer’s style makes us partly feel that her novels are closer to our present world than the traditions of 18th century. Pride and Prejudice is one of the best Jane Austen’s works. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice had a long and varied life before it finally saw publication on January 28, 1813. It was began writing in 1796 and completed the initial draft in August 1797 when she was only 21 with the original title – First Impressions, as with all of her novels, Austen read the work aloud to her family as she was working on it. After that, her father wrote to London bookseller Thomas Cadell on November 1, 1797 to offer it for publication but it was rejected. Then her family relocated to Bath in 1801 and she gave up writing for almost five years after the deaths of both her father and a close friend in 1805. It was not ultil to 28 January of 1813, the novel was published and become her second published novel. In the period of early 18th century, this work was really a masterpiece and marked a great turn for English literature. In this novel, the writer Austen used the ironic writing style and humorous prose, which had not been in other contemporary novels, to reflect the contemporary society and man who lives in different social cirtumstances and classes most precisely. Through Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen blew a new aspiration into English Literature at the beginnings of the 19th century. It is worth of being the most progressive novel in the Romanticism. B-Body: 1. Progress in content: Main theme of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice turns around a series of misunderstandings between two protagonists: Elizabeth Bennet – a middle-class young woman and Fitzwilliam Darcy – a wealthy upper-class young man. In this novel, pride prevents the character from seeing the truth of a situation and from achieving happiness in life. It becomes one of the main barriers and creates an obstacle to Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy’ love. Darcy is proud of his estate, his position in society and scorn anyone who does not belong to his social class, and as said in the words of Charlotte Lucas at the Chapter 5 of novel: "His pride, does not offend me so much as pride often does, because there is an excuse for it. One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, every thing in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.” Elizabeth’s pride is her self-respect and this is exposed in her reply to Lucas: "That is very true, and I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.", or "He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal" And sometimes, her pride becomes the vanity which clouds her judgment and makes her think ill of Darcy and think well of Wickham – the man who is quickly judged to be a perfect person because of his friendliness and ease manner but unfortunately, it is just the first impression. Following the words of Maria Lucas, she appreciates Elizabeth’s wrong of vanity and pride. “Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us." (chapter 5, Episode 1). However, in the end, Darcy sends to Elizabeth a letter to show that her judgments were wrong and she realizes that they were based on vanity, not on reason and Elizabeth rebuke Darcy to help him to realize his faults and change his attitude to the lower social class people. Pride and Prejudice are intimately related in the novel, both of main characters have these personalities. Darcy’s prejudice is about the low social position of the Bennet and Elizabeth’s prejudice is about his arrogance and class. Nevertheless, this detail was created by the author to make the contrast climaxed. As critic A. Walton Litz comments: “In Pride and Prejudice one can not equate Darcy with Pride, or Elizabeth with Prejudice, Darcy’s pride of place is founded on social prejudice while Elizabeth’s initial prejudice against him is rooted in pride of her own quick perceptions” But in the end, they have to overcome their prejudice to fall in love each other and this leads to their marriage. Darcy must overcome his prejudice in order to see Elizabeth would be a good wife for him and to win Elizabeth’s heart. "In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you." And this is the glass of cold water he received: “ From the very beginning, your manners impressed me with the fullest belief in your pride and selfishness, and I had not know you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be persuaded to marry" Not until reading more than half of the book we can get the paragraph in which Lizzy realizes that she loves Darcy and that "I am the happiest creature in the world" because of having his love. The overcoming of his prejudice is demonstrated when he treats the Gardiners with a great civility whereas the Gardiners belong to a much lower class than him. About Elizabeth, finally she must refuse all her prejudice to consider her good feelings for Darcy and accepts his second engagement. In addition to the issues of Pride and Prejudice, through this novel, Ms. Austen is critical of the female injustices present in 19th century English society and exposes her belief in intelligence of women. Besides, she considers their inferior status in society to be unjust. The Charlottes need to marry men they are not in love with simply to gain financial security and the entailment of Mr Bennet’s leaves his daughters in a poor financial situation which requires them to marry. Most of them have the thought of depending on their future husbands and always recognizes that “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance”. But Elizabeth is different from them. Through the plot of the novel, it is obviously that Austen wants to show how Elizabeth is able to be happy by refusing to marry for financial purposes and only marrying a man who she truly loves and respect. With the happy ending and the perfect love of both of leading charaters, the work can be said to be a romantic novel. However, the realistic factors are also expressed clearly, through this work, we seem to see a lively painting of English society in first half of the 19th century. 2. Progress in art: Firsts of all, Pride and prejudice, like most of Jane Austen’s works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech. By using narrative which adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, that of Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions and being surprised along with her when events prove these to be mistaken. Secondly, Austen's purpose is to illustrate the reality of early 18th century society in all its aspects and to accomplish this, she uses the ironic form. The first sentence of Pride and Prejudice depends upon the ‘truth universally acknowledged that a bachelor must be in want of a wife’. The tone of the assertion and the use of the word ‘must’ imply an ironic reversal and in reality mothers of daughters are in need of ‘a single man in possession of a good fortune’. Besides, Austen uses this form to build up all characters with an economy of words, for example when she introduces Mr.Bingley “Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England, that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place” or “A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!". The constant use of ironic prose has really difficult problems but Austen deals with them in an adroit manner. The ironic tone in the authorial voice can be seen in the description of Mrs Bennet's job “'the business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news”, there is no complicated sentence structure. Everything Mr Bennet says is intensely ironic and with such a constant character, little depth of feeling can be enough to express his own voice. When his anger at Wickharn's seduction of his daughter is told, the narrator's voice must take over to tell the readers that he refuses to allow the couple into the house. The ironic tone interacts with another one at the various stages of the novels to create humour, pathos, sympathy and understanding. It is Austen's mastery of the application of irony which makes her work. C – Conclusion: In 2005 there was a vote of all British people which was hold by BBC Jane Austen was voted for British Female Author who is loved the best. Particularly the novel Pride and Prejudice was voted for second beloved British novel of all the times (just ranking after Lord of the Rings because of movie effects). It is worth being a masterpiece of Jane Austen. Through Pride and prejudice, Jane blew a new aspiration into English literature by her great talent in narrative way, in ironic style and in building-character art. I make sure that with this work, she will be alive in every reader’s mind forever. _The end_