Readings in Major Authors

Austen, Brontë, Eliot

Question Sheet

Pride and Prejudice

For Monday, please read chapters 1-23 (to end of Vol. I) in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Please consider the following questions, jot down your thoughts, and be prepared to discuss them in class. A word of advice: make a diagram of characters and their relationships to one another.

• The first two paragraphs of Pride and Prejudice are bold and declarative, and they set a tone for the rest of the novel. Why does Austen begin her novel with these pronouncements? What kind of society is being hinted at in these lines, and what is the narrator’s attitude toward this society? Where else in the first few chapters do we get a sense of the narrator’s attitude toward this society?

• What characteristics are valued in a man by this society? What characteristics are undesirable in a man?

• What kind of character is Darcy? Does he conform to his society’s standards of manhood? What is the narrator’s opinion of Darcy?

• What characteristics are valued in a woman by the society portrayed in the novel? What characteristics are undesirable in a woman?

• What kind of character is Elizabeth Bennet? Does she conform to her society’s standards of womanhood? What is the narrator’s opinion of Elizabeth?

• What are the different views of courtship presented in the novel? Can you think of metaphors for these views (e.g., courtship as a hunt). Does the novel seem to endorse one view over another? How do we know?

• At the beginning of chapter 10, there is a discussion on writing between Darcy and the Bingleys. What can we gather about the narrator’s own attitude toward the purpose and process of writing from this discussion and others? How about reading? What attitude toward reading does the novel seem to advocate? NB: Note also the care (and frequency!) with which letters in general are both composed and read in this novel.

• The characteristic of pride is mentioned at numerous moments in this novel and is often given contradicting values. Is pride a good trait or a bad trait? Justify your answer.