JANE AUSTEN: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1813)
SECTION A - INTRODUCTION
Task 1: Fill in the gaps in the text using the words below.
characters – misunderstanding – mutual – outdated – portrays – rural – themes – variety
Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. It (1)______________ the life in the polite (2)_________ society in
England in the 19th century. It is the story of the initial (3)______________ and later (4)__________ attraction
between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy. It is one of the most popular novels in English literature. There are a number
of films and TV adaptations of the book and many modern novels and stories try to imitate Austen's
(5)_______________ or style. The main (6)____________ in the story are love, reputation and social class. Austen
uses
a
(7)___________
of
vocabulary
and
grammar
structures.
Sometimes
her
vocabulary
is
a
bit
(8)________________ because of the time when she wrote her novels.
SECTION B – THE AUTHOR
Task 2: Read the text and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F); correct the
false ones.
Jane Austen was born in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire in the south of England, where her
father was a priest. She was the second daughter and seventh child in a family of eight
children. She started writing at a very early age and published a story called The Three Sisters
when she was just eighteen years old. She and her family moved to Bath when her father
retired in 1801. When he died four years later, she, her mother and her sister moved back to
Hampshire. While events in neighbouring France were determining the shape of Europe with post-revolutionary
France expanding under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte, Jane Austen sat down in a sleepy Hampshire village to write
romantic fiction. Nevertheless, events in Europe created a backdrop to most of her stories. She wrote her most
famous works in the last ten years of her life; Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811, followed by Pride and
Prejudice in 1813. Although her works were well known in her lifetime, she published them anonymously, so she was
not a famous public figure. Two years after Napoleon met his Waterloo in 1815, she died. While most of her stories
revolve around her well-mannered heroine finding and marrying a suitable man, Jane Austen herself never actually
married.
1.
She was the second oldest child in her family.
2.
She was born in the north of England.
3.
She never married.
4.
Her mother died when she was three.
5.
Her father died before she did.
6.
Her father was a priest.
7.
She died at the age of 30.
8.
Her works were well known in her lifetime.
9.
One of her earliest stories was called The Three Sisters.
10. She wrote under a pseudonym.
SECTION C – CONTEXT
Task 3: Read the text below. In what ways was the society of Austen’s time different from ours? What, in your opinion, was the
biggest difference?
The social milieu of Austen’s England was particularly stratified, and class divisions were rooted in family connections
and wealth. In her work, Austen is often critical of the assumptions and prejudices of upper-class England. She
distinguishes between internal merit (goodness of person) and external merit (rank and possessions). Though she
frequently satirizes snobs, she also pokes fun at the poor breeding and misbehaviour of those lower on the social
scale. Nevertheless, Austen was in many ways a realist, and the England she depicts is one in which social mobility is
limited and class-consciousness is strong.
Socially regimented ideas of appropriate behaviour for each gender factored into Austen’s work as well. While social
advancement for young men lay in the military, church, or law, the chief method of self-improvement for women was
the acquisition of wealth. Women could only accomplish this goal through successful marriage, which explains the
ubiquity of matrimony as a goal and topic of conversation in Austen’s writing. Though young women of Austen’s day
had more freedom to choose their husbands than in the early eighteenth century, practical considerations continued
to limit their options.
Even so, critics often accuse Austen of portraying a limited world. As a clergyman’s daughter, Austen would have
done parish work and was certainly aware of the poor around her. However, she wrote about her own world, not
theirs. The critiques she makes of class structure seem to include only the middle class and upper class; the lower
classes, if they appear at all, are generally servants who seem perfectly pleased with their lot. This lack of interest in
the lives of the poor may be a failure on Austen’s part, but it should be understood as a failure shared by almost all of
English society at the time.
SECTION D – PLOT
(the story of the book)
Task 4: What, according to you, are the most important events in the story? Why?
Task 5: Put the following events in the correct order:
A) A newcomer, Mr Wickham, charms Elizabeth. Wickham grew up with Mr Darcy, but hates him. It seems Darcy
took away his career in the church out of anger.
B) A series of letters are exchanged between Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy confesses to separating Bingley from Jane.
He thinks Jane doesn’t love Bingley. He also reveals the true history of Mr Wickham, as a spendthrift and seducer.
C) Bad news arrives. Lydia has run off with Wickham.
D) Bingley moves back into Netherfield Park, courts Jane and proposes. Darcy is there too. He seems to have gone a
bit cold towards Elizabeth.
E) Bingley suddenly leaves for London.
F) Elizabeth (Lizzie) meanwhile takes a passionate dislike to Bingley’s wealthy, yet distant friend Mr Darcy.
G) Elizabeth goes on holiday with the Gardiners. Darcy turns up and is very kind to her.
H) Elizabeth is not threatened. She takes an opportunity to thank Darcy for his work behind the scenes in the Lydia
and Wickham affair. He proposes to her again and this time is accepted.
I) Elizabeth learns from Mrs Gardiner that it was Darcy who found Wickham and provided the money to make him
marry Lydia.
J) Elizabeth rushes home to help find the run-aways. A deal is made with Wickham that he marries Lydia.
K) In a trip to Kent, Elizabeth meets Mr Darcy again. He proudly proposes to her, emphasising the vulgarity of the
Bennet family, in the midst of his proud declaration of love. Elizabeth angrily refuses him. Elizabeth’s refusal is
the more vehement thanks to her having learnt that Darcy was responsible for taking Bingley away from Jane.
L) Jane feels miserable. Mr Collins, who will inherit the Bennet household, due to the laws of male property
accession, comes to visit.
M) Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy’s aunt, pays a visit to Longbourn. She is wants to prevent a marriage between
Elizabeth and Darcy.
N) Mr and Mrs Bennet of Longbourn near Meryton, have five daughters. Jane is the eldest. She is beautiful and
sensible. Elizabeth is clever and witty. The three younger sisters are called Mary, Kitty and Lydia.
O) Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth. She has the guts to refuse this pompous and rather pathetic character.
P) Mrs Bennet plans to bring Jane and Bingley together. Despite her mother’s behaviour, the two of them fall in love.
Q) The militia comes to Meryton and Kitty and Lydia flirt with the officers.
R) When Mr Bingley, a rich bachelor, comes to stay at the nearby estate of Netherfield Park, Mrs Bennet is delighted,
seeing opportunities to get one of her girls married into wealth. ‘What a fine thing for our girls!’ she beams.
SECTION E – CHARACTERS
Task 6: Make a list of adjectives describing the following characters:
Elizabeth
Mr Darcy
Jane
Mr Bingley
Physical
appearance
Personality
Task 7: Read the extract from Chapter three and underline adjectives and expressions used to describe the people in the ballroom.
Add them to your description above.
And when the party entered the assembly room it consisted of only five altogether – Mr Bingley, his two sisters, the
husband of the eldest, and another young man. Mr Bingley was good-looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant
countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His sisters were fine women, with an air of decided fashion. His brotherin-law, Mr Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his
fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes
after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the
ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half
the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be
proud; to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save
him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.
Task 8: Complete the table below:
Noun
Adjective
pride
Noun
Adjective
prejudice
noble
popular
pleasure
admiration
disgust
worth
SECTION F – SETTING
Task 9: Label the map using the
following names.
Bath
Birmingham
Brighton
Pemberley (Chatsworth House)
Lake District
SECTION G – FILM ADAPTATION OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Year: ___________________
Director: ____________________
Starring: _____________________ (Elizabeth Bennet), ____________________ (Mr Darcy)
Task 10: Here are some of the reasons why an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is still likely to succeed.
Which, in your opinion, are the most important factors? Order them from the most important (1) to the
least important one (8).
A) It remains one of the best-loved tales, in the top ten of English readers’ choices when
asked to list their favourite novels.
B) Its most recent TV adaptation in the mid-nineties was hugely popular both in the UK and
abroad. Any new version of the novel is likely to benefit from the collective awareness the
BBC series helped to create and into the new project can use.
C) The novel Pride and Prejudice is set in the early nineteenth century. However, it is ultimately a classic love story,
in which a hero and heroine overcome obstacles, many of their own making to find true love. As a story it deals
with timeless issues that are relevant to today.
D) The fact that Keira Knightley agreed to play Elizabeth Bennet. She is a star with the capacity to guarantee an
audience.
E) Darcy is one of the most romantic heroes in fiction. He embodies many fantasy elements, not least the need to be
freed from limiting emotional bonds that initially make him distant and judgemental.
F) Pride and Prejudice depicts a lost world; it has a strong nostalgic appeal.
G) There are superb locations in Britain, in which Georgian settings can be created at a fraction of the cost of
building sets. Among these is the spectacular Chatsworth House in Derbyshire which is to be used as the setting
for Pemberley, Darcy’s family seat in the Peak District.
H) It is a comedy. There are some superbly amusing characters such as Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins. Also in keeping
with a comedy, it ends happily.
SECTION H – GENRE
(form of literature, characterized by a particular style, form, or content)
Many stories are formulaic. They follow a set formula or pattern. They start and end in quite a predictable way and
yet they still have the power to entertain the audience because they contain unexpected elements; they offer a mix of
the pleasantly familiar and the unusual. When we go along to read a book or see a film we will have expectations of
what we are going to read or see. These expectations will relate to the genre, or type of film, that we are seeing.
Task 11: What do you think makes romantic fictions very popular?
Task 12: Look at the list of romantic elements and find corresponding events in Pride and Prejudice.
A heroine – lively and attractive, though perhaps not obviously so. At the start her circumstances may not be ideal.
She may lack advantages that might smooth her path in life and love.
A hero – ideally tall, dark and handsome. He may have a past, one that continues to colour his present, making him
seemingly cold and unattainable. His circumstances (social standing) may also set him apart.
Early misunderstandings. Despite the hero and heroine being very suitable for one another, their initial contacts
are not happy ones. The differences between them seem to predominate and circumstances seem to conspire against
them.
The family as obstacle. Families are often a major source of problems in romantic fiction. Both the hero and
heroine’s families might prove problematic. There are many ways families can interrupt the course of true love, but
one of the main ones is in undermining the heroine or hero’s love in some way or by demanding that they choose
different partners in life.
Misunderstandings. The hero and heroine might be driven apart by their misreading or misinterpretation of one
another.
Rivals as obstacles. The hero and heroine might well need to see through the attraction of possible love rivals.
These characters may pose an illusory threat, but for a while they will seem like real challengers for the hero or
heroine’s affections.
The crucial meeting(s). At some point the hero and heroine might meet in a context outside of their normal
environment. Freed from some of the social limits and conventions that troubled them in the past, they are able to
read one another more clearly.
Trials and tribulations. Circumstances will arise that test the love of hero and heroine. The hero may well be
required to make a sacrifice that secures the heroine’s affections.
The happy ending. There will be a coming together for the hero and heroine. The strength of their marriage will be
born of the trials and tribulations they have overcome. Against the pattern of mutual respect and love they achieve,
other relationships are clearly to be seen to be wanting. Their love marks a triumph over narrow mindedness and
societal pressures.
SECTION I – THEMES
(the central topics the text deals with)
Task 13: What are the most important themes in the film?