Copy the text you have written in group.

a) Who was Jane Austen?

b) Plot of Pride and Prejudice and setting

c) Main female characters

d) Main male characters

e) Main themes

f) How is the story told?

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In 1787 Jane began writing poems and some prose. She also continued to live at her family's home and took part in activities like balls, visits, tea parties and readings. 

When Jane was twenty, she met Tom Lefroy, a nephew of her neighbours, and they spent a lot of time together. But Tom couldn't marry her because his family was in debts and he was the only one who could make a career, so they had to stop seeing each other. After her father's death, she with her mother and Cassandra moved to Chawton, where she published some of her most popular novels. 

Jane Austen died in Winchester in 1817, at the age of 41. All her novels were published anonymously and only after her death her brother Henry revealed her identity.

• Northanger Abbey: was finished in 1803 , but was published only in 1818 , after the death of Jane. Catherine Morland is for Jane Austen the anti-eroine of the plot because she thinks that she is living one of the stories told in her favourite books. This novel describes in an ironic way the British society.
• Mansfield Park: was written between 1812 and 1814 and published, for the first time, in 1814. The main character is Fanny Price. She goes to live in her relatives’ home. All cousins snob her, except Edmund and so, she falls in love with him. Edmund, however, loves Mary, an English woman. Another boy falls in love with Fanny but in the end Fanny and Edmund get married.
• Sense and Sensibility: was written between 1795 and 1810 and published anonymously, for the first time, in 1811. The most important characters are two sisters: Elionor and Marianne. They lived in a pretty house with their family when their father died. So, they had to leave home because the first son wanted to live only with his wife in that home. The family is thus obliged to move to a friend's house. In the novel, Jane tells about two different sisters. The main theme is how to use sense and sensibility in a correct way. This theme is necessary to growing up.
• Pride and Prejudice: the novel was originally called "First Impressions". It was written between 1796 and 1797 and published in 1813. It's a novel of manners that describes the life of a typical English middle-age family. The main themes are love and marriage. The main character,Elizabeth, is very similar to Jane because she is a strong and ironic female.
• Emma: the novel was published anonymously in 1815. It tells the story of Emma, a rich, intelligent and beautiful girl that lives with her father. After many events she discovers that she is in love with her best friend. The plot ends with the marriage of the couple.
• Persuasion: was written between 1815 and 1816 and published after Jane’s death by her brother, in 1818. In this novel the main character is Anne. She is engaged to Frederick but her father and a family friend persuade her to break the relationship. She accepts this but after seven years, when se sees Frederick again, she understands that she must marry him.

England in XVIII century was interested by the Industrial Revolution. It brought by a great enrichment of the higher class and a new way to organize their social lives. The view of Austen's contemporary society is expressed very well through her novels.

Her novels give voice to one of the main concerns that families had at that time: carry forward the generation or to raise the family in a higher social class. So, it was important that daughters (women) could find a rich husband. The wedding was often arranged by the families for money and property.
At the same time, this way of thinking produced in society also many villains who would exploit and seduce women just for money. A woman was often found attractive for what she had. While still unmarried, a woman belonged to her father and then to her husband. When somebody asked her hand, at the same time, he asked for her possessions.

Becoming Jane is a historical and biography film produced by Julian Jarroid. It tells the story of Jane Austen, expecially her love story with Thomas Langlois Lefroy. This film is a revision of Jane's life but it describes also the personality and the strong temperament of the author... It is a must see!

The most important female characters in Proud and Prejudice are:

• Elizabeth Bennet is the protagonist of the novel. She is the second daughter of Mr. Bennet. She is young, very intelligent, sensible and honest. She has got moral force and is respected by people. Jane Austen describes her as a rational, warm-hearted girl, who is sensible and protective with her family. One of her negative traits is her prejudice towards people. For example, in the beginning of the story Elizabeth has a lot of prejudice, against Mr. Darcy, who in her opinion is too proud. She judges him withouth knowing the truth. However in the end she will change her mind and will accept Darcy's love.
  
• Jane is the first daughter of Mr. Bennet. She is considered the most beautiful between the sisters. For this reason her mother considers her destined to marry a very important man. Jane is the confident of Elizabeth and she will fall in love with Bingley but their love will be hampered by Darcy.
  
• Lydia is one of the five sisters and she is the younger. She is quite foolish and cheerful and this is the reason why her mother loves her personality. Lydia will fall in love with an official, Mr. Wickam, and will elope with him to Scotland. Wickham will turn out to be a liar and a dishonest man.
  
• Mary is the third daughter of Mr. Bennet. She hasn't got any talent so she studis all day and loves reading. She is intelligent but reserved.

• Mrs. Bennet is Mr. Bennet's wife. She has five daughters: Elizabeth, Jane, Lydia, Mary and Cathrine. She is not a dynamic character in the story, because she does not change. She is energetical, very gossiping and she is a woman who has clear goals in her life: she wants too see her daughters married. Her marriage with Mr. Bennet isn't based on true love and this is the reason why she is so intrusive. She talks a lot and this makes her daughters and her husband feel ashamed of her.
• Lady Chaterine de Bourgh is Darcy's aunt. She is an aristocrat and really arrogant with Elizabeth. She has only a daughter, Anne, and wants her daughter to marry Darcy. She is authoritarian and superb.
• Charlotte Lucas is Elizabeth's friend. She is poor and being already 27 years old, she is considered too old for marriage. This is why she will consent to marry Mr Collins.
• Caroline Bingley is the sister of Charles Bingley. She has fallen in love with Mr. Darcy. She is a snob and disapproves of those who are less than her. What's more, she hates the Bennet's family, above all Elizabeth only because Mr. Darcy like Miss Bennet more than her.
• Louisa is Bingley's sister. She is really snob and is married to Mr Hurst.
• Georgiana is the minor sister of Mr. Darcy. She is a simple girl and she is a good piano player.
• Gardiner is the wife of Mrs Bennet's brother. She is sensible and educated. She has got a good frienship with Jane and Elizabeth.
• Anne is Lady Catherine's daughter
• Lady Philips is the sister of Mrs.Bennet. She has got a character like her sister and always wants her grandchildren to visit her.
• Maria Lucas is Charlotte's sister and her father is Sir Lucas.

Courtship takes an intense importance, the marriage is the final step of the novel because before there is the courtship. In this novel the courtship is something personal,
that is different from person to person because there are different loves.

Pride and Prjudice is free of symbolism. However Pemberley, which is Darcy's palace, is at the center of the novel and becomes a symbol of wealth. Elizabeth visits it when she understands that her sentiments for Darcy are concrete; she remains surprised by
the beauty of the palace and countyside. Darcy has a natural arrogance but also we find the honesty and we understand that he is not false.

Love is presented as a very strong emotion, which goes beyond our reason. This is why it can win all and it can help the protagonists overcome all the difficulties imposed by social rules and conventions of 19th century society.

For Austen love is necessary to be happy. However, her characters need also to be brave because of the many restrictions to individual freedom. Love was often considered in fact as something negative and falling in love was seen as a weakness. Most marriages were arranged by families only for money and property reasons.

In the novel of Pride of Prejudice, love is dealt with as a romantic emotion that can bring the protagonists to their personal interior growth. Elisabeth and Darcy will find their happiness at the end because they will make their choices out of love, unlike the majority of their contemporaries who would marry for social status and property. 
Elisabeth and Darcy are the heroine and hero in Pride and Prejudice because these two characters manage to overcome many difficulties caused not only by the limits imposed by society but also due to their different personalities.

Elisabeth is initially too judgemental and full of prejudice against Darcy, who she believes to be too proud and arrogant. Darcy, on the other hand, is a very proud man who belongs to the upper classes and sees Elisabeth as inferior to him because she belongs to a lower social class. Pride and Prejudice will cause the two protagonists to stay far from each other. Throughout the novel a lot of things change: in the end both Elisabeth and Darcy fall in love because they change their opinions and become ready for this great love.

The marriage market regards the middle and upper classes where the families are moved by topics like money, decorum, property and indeed marriage; all of this produces a rage of villians: social climbers, unscrupolous relatives, gamblers. You can understand the importance given to the social values and the lack consideration of the woman just from “marriage market”, because marriage is like a market where buyers and sellers meet for their buisness. The families decide about the daughters' marriages based of their interests, so the women can't choose the future husband. A woman is expected to behave in certain ways, but in Pride and Prejudice the woman's reputation is very important and is re-considered. 

Austen wants to change the “bad” view of marriage, the woman's role in society and also of love typical of the 1800. In her novel she decribes through Elizabeth the figure of a strong woman who finds her real love and not a conventional marriage.

So the reputation of the woman and the theme of the marriage market are narrated according to the traditions of the 19th century and also with Austen's reconsideration of them with a spirit of change.

The story is set usually in the countryside with few episodes in town. The place is Loungbourn, a small country village in Hertfordshire, in rural England, where Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters. The story unfolds during the Napoleonic wars (1797-1815) and focuses on the lives of a small group o people belonging to the upper and middle level of society.

Jane Austen uses in Pride and Prejudice a third-person narrator in most of the novel, althiugh some parts are narrated also through a first-person narrator. In Pride and Prejudice the story is often structured in the form of dialogues and this points out the use of irony. The novel often presents comic situations which entertain the reader, especially by Mr Bennet and his wife. For example in the first chapter he says "I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration this twenty years at least". This type of irony is frequently employed as a technique in relation to the characters. Instead passions and emotions are not expressed directly but more subtly.

The author often used the past tense and the story is seen from Elizabeth's point of view.

Pride and Prejudice has become so famous because of the way the story is told. The plot is revealed through dialogues, which makes it even more involving, brilliant and easy to understand. In order to avoid being repetitive, Jane Austen alternated the narration of events with passages of reflection or letters (especially in the later chapter). 

The style of the narration allows us to outline the characters' personality. Some of them are great stage personalities (like Mrs Bennet), some are flat characters (as Jane) and some are handled with irony (like Mr Collins). 

Mr Darcy is doubtless a main character, in fact his proposal to Elizabeth (in the 16th chapter) is the main scene of the novel and it is told using the climax: this is a literary device which consists in emphasising the scene more and more during the narration. Moreover, Darcy's estate in Pemberley is the only symbol present in the novel and represents Darcy's soul. It is "a stream of natural importance ... without any artificial appearance", like Darcy, who has a natural importance but refuses social appearance. Moreover, when Elizabeth meets Darcy on the estate, she is walking through a bridge, which represents the psychological journey made by the two lovers.

The Bennet family are part of a middle social class. They can have relations with anyone is up to their status or higher. Bingley and Darcy belong instead to the upper classes because they are aristocrats and own big properties and a noble title. Darcy falls in love with Elisabeth although he and Lady deBurgh consider the Bennets as inferior to them.

Another important character that is made the target of Jane Austin's irony is Mr Collins. He has a good social position but does not belong to the aristocracy. He believes in the importance of social division and tries to gain the favours of Lady deBurgh. Mr Collins appears as a negative character. He is an object of direct satire because he is selfish and too respectful of aristocratic models. 

In the novel, Jane Austen conveys the message that having prejudices about social classes is something negative which can cause unhappiness in the characters' life. This conflict will however be removed in the final with the marriage of Darcy to Elizabeth and Bingley to Jane.