Study Guide – Pride and Prejudice
This guide is a tool for you, provided by RTC in order for you to prepare your students for their
attendance at our production and helping them get the most out of their experience, before and
afterwards. Thank you for joining us!
Setting:
Mid-west England, late 1700’s. The novel was published in 1813, but had been written in its
first form, with the tile First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. The story spans the course of a year, from early fall to early fall.
Pride and Prejudice Plot:
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are the parents of five daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine (Kitty),
and Lydia. The property in which they live is only theirs as long as Mr. Bennet lives (They refer
to this as the “entailment” of the property). After his death, it will pass to his nearest male
relative, a cousin they have never met, Mr. Collins, who is a newly-ordained minister. The girls and their mother would be left with virtually nothing to live on and nowhere to go. It is
the mission of Mrs. Bennet to see her daughters safely married (to husbands able to provide for
them). When the play opens, Mrs. Bennet has just received the happy news that a nearby estate
in the neighbourhood has been rented (“let”) by a wealthy and single bachelor named Mr.
Charles Bingley. Mr. Bennet introduces himself to Bingley, and the women of the family have
the opportunity to get to know him at an assembly hall (community) dance soon afterward. Mr.
Bingley is quickly enchanted with the eldest Bennet daughter, Jane. He is at the dance, however,
with his friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, who is quickly perceived as aloof and conceited. Darcy
refuses to dance with anyone but his friend’s two sisters who also accompany them. He has
something rude to say about the second-oldest daughter, Elizabeth Bennet, who overhears his
comment, and makes up her mind to have nothing to do with him.
Over the next several weeks, however, with Jane and Mr. Bingley growing closer, the two are
thrown together on several occasions. Elizabeth fails to see that Mr. Darcy is forming a different
and improved opinion of her, and continues to dislike him. Mr. Bingley’s two sisters have an
increasing dislike for Elizabeth, a mistrust of Jane, and a quickly growing disdain for the rest of
the family (who are, admittedly, pretty tacky).
Mr. Collins visits the Bennets, with the intention of marrying one of them - this seems only fair
to them, since he’ll be inheriting their entire home and estate. At first, he singles Jane out, but is
told that she will likely be married soon to someone else, and so he sets his eyes on Elizabeth. He
is a creepy but quite funny character, who talks too much and has a fawning admiration for his
benefactor, a wealthy woman who has given him employment as a minister on her estate.
The family meets a young man who has recently joined the militia in the area, named Mr.
Wickham. Mr. Wickham is young and handsome and smooth-talking, and appears to be
interested in Elizabeth. He quickly confides his dislike of Mr. Darcy and tells her how Mr. Darcy
has ruined his life through a financial incident, withdrawing support that Darcy’s father intended
Wickham should have after he (Darcy senior) had died. Elizabeth is horrified by this and
dislikes Darcy even more.
At a ball held at Netherfield, Elizabeth’s family makes fools of themselves, and Darcy feels that
Jane’s feelings for his friend are merely superficial. Bingley’s sisters, the younger of which is
aware of Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth, support him in this. Caroline Bingley, the younger sister,
has hopes of marrying Darcy herself. Darcy uses his influence to persuade Bingley to leave
Hertfordshire soon afterwards. Jane’s doesn’t see or hear from his again for months, and
everyone thinks her hopes have been ruined.
Elizabeth turns down an incredibly offensive offer of marriage by Mr. Collins, who almost
immediately marries her best friend, Charlotte Lucas, instead. Charlotte is not in love with Mr.
Collins at all, but is approaching an unmarriageable age, and looks for the security of a safe
marriage. Elizabeth is disappointed in her friend for settling for something so unromantic, and a
husband so repulsive. However, within a short time, she visits Mr. and Mrs. Collins, and is
introduced to his benefactor, the Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Lady Catherine is also Darcy’s aunt.
She is an overbearing, authoritative, and unpleasant woman. She intends for her daughter, Anne
to marry Darcy. Darcy and his cousin visit Lady Catherine at her home while Elizabeth and her
hosts are there, and the two are thrown together again. Soon afterwards, Darcy’s cousin, Colonel
Fitzwilliam Darcy, mentions something about Darcy breaking up a young couple, and Elizabeth
realises that he’s talking about Jane and Bingley. She is infuriated by his arrogance and
interference.
Almost immediately thereafter, Darcy appears and proposes marriage to her - rather ineptly. In
addition to the bad timing of encountering her while she is so angry, he makes it clear that he is
proposing against his better judgement and despite her horrible family - because he cannot help
but love her. She turns him down coldly and flatly, because of his ill-mannered proposal, his
interference in Jane’s relationship with Bingley, and because of his terrible treatment of Mr.
Wickham. He leaves in quiet but deep distress. He writes her a letter, however, which explains
some things - including telling her the truth of his involvement with Wickham. Wickham had
squandered away the money left him by Mr. Darcy Senior. He had not studied either ministry or
the law, as he had planned to do, but lost the money drinking and gambling. When Darcy would
support him no longer, he tried to seduce Darcy’s fifteen-year-old sister, who had a fortune to
inherit. Darcy cut him off completely. All of Wickham’s story has been a lie.
Elizabeth is embarrassed and regretful. She begins to consider Darcy through new eyes, but
without expectation that their relationship will be renewed.
She visits an aunt who is travelling through England, and they visit the Pemberley estate, where
Darcy lives, but is not expected to be home. He comes home while they are there, and the two
begin seeing each other tentatively. Elizabeth meets his younger sister and likes her very much.
Elizabeth receives a letter from home that her youngest sister, Lydia, who is a terrible flirt, has
run away to elope with Wickham but that there is no news that they have actually married. It
quickly becomes apparent that Wickham had no intention of marrying her, and that Lydia - and
consequently her entire family - will be completely disgraced and ruined. Darcy comes upon her
just as she is reading this news. He makes an excuse and leaves quickly, and Elizabeth is sure
that it is because he will now be unable to even consider seeing her socially.
She returns home, where in due course, through what the family believes is the intervention of an
uncle, Lydia is located with Wickham and a marriage takes place. But before long, Elizabeth is
made aware that it is Darcy who has stepped in to make this happen, at great personal and
financial cost, to protect Lydia and her family. His interpretation is that everything was his fault
because he did not make the society better aware of the predatory nature that he knew was
Wickham’s. He did not want the Bennets to be aware of this action on his part.
Bingley returns to the area and proposes to Jane, Darcy evidently having withdrawn his
objections to their relationship. Darcy as yet says nothing to Elizabeth about his own plans.
Lady Catherine de Bourgh shows up unexpectedly at the Bennet home to say that she has heard
that Darcy plans to propose to Elizabeth. Elizabeth is stunned, but refuses to discuss it with Lady
Catherine, who leaves in a huff when she is unable to get Elizabeth to promise to turn him down.
Darcy and Elizabeth meet and discuss Lady Catherine. Darcy is encouraged by the fact that
Elizabeth has refused to refuse him, and asks her if her feelings have changed toward him. She
says they could not have changed more, and he proposes again. She accepts. Her father and most
of her family is astonished because they were convinced the two disliked each other enormously.
Jane and Elizabeth marry in a double-wedding ceremony. Because of their weddings, the future
of the rest of the family is secure.
Why do so many things happen the way they do?
The Regency Period was a time of a very strict code of conduct. It’s easier to understand a few
things if you understand some of the social rules that governed the community.
1. Women and men related very differently then. Mrs. Bennet relies upon her husband to introduce himself to Mr. Bingley. It would have been
impossible for her as a woman to call upon Mr. Bingley, or to introduce her daughters.
Marriages were often made for financial and social reasons, and often arranged by the parents.
This was not generally a time of romance, and relationship.
Men and women simply did not spend any time alone together or even communicate privately
until they were engaged. No letters! That would have been really improper, to send a letter to a
woman to whom you were not engaged. So when Wickham and Elizabeth are talking together even though they’re out in public, no one else is around, and it’s definitely a bit risky, as neither
of their parents have met, yet. And when Darcy sends Elizabeth a letter to explain himself to her
after the proposal - that’s HUGE - and it really shows how anxious he is to be properly
understood. Most of all - when Lydia runs off with Wickham (and when Wickham tried to run off with
Georgiana, earlier) - it would have meant total ruin for her entire family. The disgrace of going
off with a man and NOT getting married - no one could have got past that. None of the girls
would have been seen in society again - they would have been utterly shunned.
2. Money and social status was handled very differently
You’ll remember that the Bennet girls could not inherit their father’s estate. We are expected to
laugh a bit at Mrs. Bennet as she conspires to marry off her girls - but it’s hard not to sympathise
her. None of them will have much of anything if Mr. Bennet dies. She is trying to plan a way out
- and Mr. Bennet certainly hasn’t been doing anything to ensure their safe future!
Mr. Bingley probably makes more than four times what Mr. Bennet has a year while he is living
(the estate isn’t really owned by Mr. Bennet). Mr. Bennet is what was beginning to be known as
the middle class - this is just beginning to really exist. Darcy, on the other hand, makes more
than two and a half times what Bingley does every year - so at least ten times what the Bennets
have. He’s super-wealthy, and both he and Bingley are aristrocrats. Mr. Bennet just touches the
“gentleman” class, but he married outside of his class, presumably for love, and his wife’s low
social status drags down the girls.
Mr. Collins goes on and on about his “esteemed patroness,” and it gets on our nerves, but he’s
really quite right to do so. He only has a living to make because she gave him the job of being a
minister on her estate’s church. Had she not done so, he would have been apprenticed to an older
minister and served under him until he died, with probably no wage at all, just food and lodging. Mr. Wickham’s marrying interests are all tied up in money. He doesn’t have any of his own, so
he won’t even consider marrying someone unless she’s rich herself. He has a temporary
engagement to a Miss King - it’s probably discovered that he has no money and so she breaks it
off. It’s the biggest reason the Bennets know full well that he will have no intention of marrying
Lydia when he runs away with her.
Charlotte, in turn, does marry for safety and security. She’s getting to be older - in her late
twenties, and is not likely to have many offers. She has brothers - so they’ll inherit when her
father dies, and she won’t. She would likely have had very little money to care for herself with,
and would have been the unhappy responsibility of her oldest brother if she stayed single, if her
parents died. Otherwise, she would have been responsible for taking care of them in their home
in their old age.
Money and social status are also why Caroline Bingley wants to marry Darcy, and why Lady
Catherine de Bourgh wants him to marry her daughter Anne (who is, yes, his first cousin. That
wasn’t a big deal then - keeping money in the family was). It’s why Col. Fitzwilliam, though he’s
obviously attracted to Elizabeth, won’t propose to her (he has no money and neither does she)
and also why Wickham wouldn’t. Money was very much making the world go around!
3. What’s with all the soldiers?
This story takes place in the middle of ongoing war with France, and the militia is the home
defence in case of invasion. When Wickham talks about joining the Regulars, later in the story,
he means that he’ll become a regular soldier working full-time, and might be sent overseas to
fight.
4. Why so many dances?
This was a favourite entertainment - a good excuse for men and women to get together and know
each other a bit, and even come into physical contact with one another! After all, there was no
TV, no internet, no electricity! Social interaction was the best possible way of getting to know
your neighbours and friends, and be introduced to and spend time with, potential husbands and
wives.
5. Why so many letters?
There are a lot of distances covered in this story, and while there were no phones or internet,
letters travelled very quickly indeed, on well-established mail trains and carriages. So news
could actually travel quite quickly - and cheaply, whereas people could not. Some
communication has to take place through mail.
5. Is someone really playing the piano up there on stage?
Most of the music we’re using is recorded, but yes, there is one point in the play where a
character is playing live music on stage. See if you can decide when that happens!
About Jane Austen:
Jane Austen was born in Steventon, England, in 1775, where she lived for the first twenty-five
years of her life. Her father, George Austen, was the rector of the local parish and taught her
largely at home. She began to write while in her teens and completed the original manuscript of
Pride and Prejudice, titled First Impressions, between 1796 and 1797. A publisher rejected the
manuscript, and it was not until 1809 that Austen began the revisions that would bring it to its
final form. Pride and Prejudice was published in January 1813, two years after Sense and
Sensibility, her first novel, and it achieved a popularity that has endured to this day. Austen
published four more novels: Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The last
two were published in 1818, a year after her death.
About the Production:
This production of Pride and Prejudice will be performed by our Senior Ensemble - a group of
students ranging between the ages of 11 and 17. They began rehearsals for this production in
September 2015. They rehearse weekly on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This adaptation was written by Kristina Garswood (Executive Director of RTC) and her
daughter, Caroline Garswood (the oldest member of RTC, 17 years). It is a faithful adaptation
of the novel, in a traditional setting with costuming and language of the Regency period.
It will be directed by Kerri Jubenville with Caleb Hooper as her assistant director. The
choreography of the Regency dances will be handled by Drake Prosser-Spence.
It is expected to run two and a half hours with one intermission.
About Riverfront Theatre Company:
Riverfront Theatre Company is a youth theatrical company in our 13th season. We are a branch
of the Hope4Youth, Inc, and are a registered charity. We accept approximately 50 registered
students each season for a weekly program that runs on Saturdays out of the Herb Gray Centre
on Ouellette. There are no registration fees for our program. We normally put on three
productions a year: our Junior production, usually performed in December or January to family
and friends, our full-company musical in the spring (Aladdin and the Arabian Nights, May
20-22nd and 27-29th, 2016), and one other production by one our senior group – this year, Pride
and Prejudice. For more information, please “like” us on Facebook, visit our website,
www.RiverfrontTheatreCompany.com, or email us at [email protected].
Last year, our students studied their way through the play, Hamlet, in order to better appreciate a
play they were performing involving Shakespeare characters. We followed that up with our first
out-of-town field trip to Stratford. We discovered that this method of studying the play was really
rewarding for us, and we will be doing it again with Pride and Prejudice, though we have been
unable to locate another live production to see. Our Stratford trip this year will involve a
different selection. But in order to best present Pride and Prejudice, a portion of our rehearsal
time for the first half of the season has been dedicated to studying the novel thoroughly.
Education is a huge part of our work with the students.
Study/Discussion Points:
1. Pride and Prejudice had a working title - First Impressions. There is a cliché that “you never get a
second chance to make a first impression.” Is that true in this play? Think about how first
impressions had to be overcome.
2. What are some of the things that lead you to make a first impression of someone? Rank these items
from greatest to least importance. Then discuss whether first impressions are usually reliable, and
why, or why not?
3. The opening line of this novel is one of the best-known in literature: “It is a truth, universally
acknowledged, that a young man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” This line
highlights one of the main themes of the book - marriage and money. Why is the line important for
setting the tone of the story?
4. There are many instances of both Pride and Prejudice in this story. Discuss the ways in which these
failings are exhibited and overcome by the characters.
5. Mr. Darcy has been called the most romantic man in English literature. Do you agree with this
assessment? How did your impression of him change through the story’s progression?
6. How does what Mr. Wickham say contrast with what Mr. Wickham does? (focus on his
simultaneously-professed distaste for gossip contrasted with his willingness to immediately share very
personal matters with Elizabeth, almost a complete stranger.)
7. How is it difficult to identify with the need of the Bennet sisters to be married, from the perspective
of our modern culture? How do you react to the knowledge that Jane Austen herself never married?
8. How does Charlotte Lucas’s perception of marriage differ from Elizabeth’s? Whose do you think is
more accurate for the Regency period? Whose do you think is more accurate today?
9. Working in groups, develop a list of rules that seem to govern conduct in Pride and Prejudice. Share
your list with other groups, noting similarities and differences.
10. Why do you think it’s so difficult for people to admit to themselves that they have made a mistake in
judging others?
11. In the end, what character did you most enjoy in this production? Why?
12. One of the important elements of Pride and Prejudice is that the reader (in this case, the viewer) is
taken along with Elizabeth Bennet in his or her perception of the characters in the story. Did you think
that the actors did a good job of maintaining and changing their characters to suit that changing
perception over time?
13. One of the challenges in this production is that letters play an important role in the book. We had to
get the letters used on the stage, while maintaining the medium. Do you think we managed to keep
the reading and writing of letters dynamic enough? What did you like or dislike about the way we did
this?
14. Did you like this show? Do you have any comments or questions for the cast or production crew?
Send them to us by email at [email protected], or on Twitter and Instagram
@RTCyouth!
15. Did you REALLY like the idea of youth theatre? Come see us again when we do our musical of
Aladdin and the Arabian Nights in May, and find out about joining Riverfront next season, at our
website! www.riverfronttheatrecompany.com