Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 romantic novel by Jane Austen. It charts the emotional development of the protagonist Elizabeth Bennet, who learns the error of making hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between the superficial and the essential. The comedy of the writing lies in the depiction of manners, education, marriage and money during the Regency era in Britain.
Mr. Bennet of the Longbourn estate has five daughters, but his property is inalienable intact entailed by a fee tail male, meaning that none of the girls can inherit it. His wife has no fortune, so it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others upon his death. Jane Austen’s opening line, ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife’, is a sentence filled with irony and playfulness. The novel revolves around the importance of marrying for love, not simply for money, despite the social pressures to make a good (i.e., wealthy) match.
The novel opens with Mrs. Bennet trying to persuade Mr. Bennet to visit Mr. Bingley, a rich bachelor who has arrived in the neighbourhood. After some verbal sparring with Mr. Bennet baiting his wife, she believes he will not visit. A little while later, he does make the visit to Netherfield, Mr. Bingley’s rented house, much to the delight of Mrs Bennet and her daughters. The visit is followed by an invitation to a ball at the local assembly rooms that the whole neighbourhood will attend.
At the ball, Mr. Bingley is open and cheerful, popular with all the guests and appears to be very attracted to Miss Jane Bennet (the Bennets’ eldest daughter), with whom he dances twice. His friend Mr. Darcy is reputed to be twice as wealthy; he is haughty and aloof and his manners cause everyone to turn from interest to a decided dislike of him. He declines to dance with Elizabeth, stating that she is not pretty enough to tempt him. She finds this amusing and jokes about it with her sisters. Mr. Bingley’s sister, Caroline, later invites Jane to visit.
When Jane visits Miss Bingley, she is caught in a rain shower on the way and comes down with a bad cold. Elizabeth visits the ill Jane at Netherfield. There Darcy begins to be attracted to Elizabeth, while Miss Bingley becomes jealous, as she has designs on Darcy herself.
Mr. Collins, a cousin of Mr. Bennet and heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family. He is a pompous and obsequious clergyman who intends to marry one of the Bennet girls. When he learns that Jane may be engaged to Mr. Bingley, he quickly decides to propose to Elizabeth, as the next in both age and beauty.
Elizabeth and her family meet the dashing and charming George Wickham, who singles out Elizabeth and tells her how Mr. Darcy deprived him of a living (position as clergyman in a prosperous parish with good revenue that, once granted, is for life) promised to him by Mr. Darcy’s late father. Elizabeth’s dislike of Mr. Darcy is confirmed.
At a ball at Netherfield, Elizabeth dances with Mr. Darcy. Other than Jane and Elizabeth, several members of the Bennet family show a distinct lack of decorum. Mrs. Bennet hints loudly that she fully expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged, and the younger Bennet sisters expose the family to ridicule.
Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth, who rejects him, to the fury of her mother and the relief of her father. Shortly after, they receive news that the Bingleys are suddenly leaving for London with no plans to return. After his humiliating rejection by Elizabeth, Mr. Collins proposes to Charlotte Lucas, a sensible young woman and Elizabeth’s friend.
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