3.1.2.6The novel at a glance
Mr Bingley takes a house near the Bennets, whose five daughters must marry because the estate is entailed away from them. Elizabeth Bennet takes against Bingley's friend Darcy, who insults her at a ball, and believes Wickham's account of him. Darcy proposes and is refused; his letter corrects her. Lydia elopes with Wickham and Darcy secretly rescues the family's reputation. Elizabeth and Darcy marry.
Published in 1813. An entail meant an estate passed to a male heir regardless of the family's daughters, so the Bennet girls faced poverty on their father's death. Marriage was the principal career available to a gentlewoman, and a sexual scandal involving one sister damaged the marriage prospects of all of them.
- entail
- a legal restriction passing an estate to a male heir
- free indirect speech
- narration that slips into a character's own idiom without quotation marks, which Austen uses constantly
- accomplishments
- the drawing, music and languages a gentlewoman was expected to display
3.1.2.6Characters
Elizabeth's intelligence is real and fallible: she is wrong about Darcy and about Wickham, and the novel's turning point is her recognition of it.
Darcy's pride is class prejudice, and his first proposal insults her family while asking for her hand. Both characters change, which is why the title names two faults rather than one.
Charlotte Lucas is the novel's realist, and her calm competence at Hunsford vindicates a decision Elizabeth finds shocking. Mr Bennet's wit is a form of neglect, and the plot demonstrates the cost.
3.1.2.6Themes
Marriage is presented in four versions: Charlotte's pragmatism, Lydia's disaster, the Gardiners' steadiness and Elizabeth's negotiated equality.
First impressions and the difficulty of reading other people give the novel its original title and its real subject.
Class operates not between rich and poor but in fine gradations within the gentry, which is what makes Darcy's objection to the Bennets intelligible.
Common mistake
Reading the novel as a romance in which two people simply fall in love. Both have to be shown to be wrong first, and the novel is a comedy of judgement rather than of feeling.
3.1.2.6The writer's methods
Austen's irony is carried by free indirect speech, which lets the narration adopt a character's idiom while quietly undercutting it. Letters do the work of revelation, particularly Darcy's, which Elizabeth must reason through alone. Houses stand for their owners: Pemberley's unimproved nature against Rosings's catalogued expense.
Worked example
Answer:
- The title names two faults, one for each of the leads
- Free indirect speech carries the irony
- Four marriages give four models to compare
- Elizabeth's error is the novel's turning point
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 1, Section B. The question is worth 30 marks and an extract from the novel is printed, and the question asks you to start with that extract and then write about the novel as a whole. Allow about 50 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.