Pride & Prejudice, analysis, part 1 of 3

What a superb opening chapter this novel has. First, there’s that famous line. Next, a decidedly unromantic glimpse at a marriage. Mr and Mrs Bennet, it would appear, are not living happily ever after. Their marriage has tilted towards disillusion, indifference and bickering.

Mrs Bennet is established as a twittering air-head, albeit with a tough job on her hands getting five daughters married. Mr Bennet, ground down by years of pointless fuss and an absence of intelligent engagement, gets our sympathy in the first instance, though later his flaws become apparent. These personality traits are clear in their first verbal exchange.

‘… “My dear Mr Bennet,’ said his lady to him one day, ‘have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?’

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.’

Austen chooses to put Mr Bennet’s first response in reported speech. This cleverly sets up his disinterest. Mrs Bennet struggles on:

‘… “But it is,” returned she; “for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it.”

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

“Do you not want to know who has taken it?” cried his wife impatiently.

“You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”’

Mr Bennet has spoken directly and it’s sarcastic.

This married couple unromantically rubs along as best it can. In the chapter’s final paragraph, for those who might need a bit more signposting, Austen underlines it all.

“Mr. Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve, and caprice, that the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character. Her mind was less difficult to develop. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married; its solace was visiting and news.”

Considering this has become the greatest, most enduring romantic novel ever written, the opening chapter is very counter intuitive. Pride & Prejudice has spawned many copies duplicating its opposites attract, rags to riches story that hurtles towards the ideal happy ending. For Mr Darcy is the ultimate catch, not least because of Pemberley and his ten thousand a year, but also because of his moody, sexy personality. And say what you like Ms. Charlotte Bronte - and she was very disparaging about this novel - Mr Rochester, with a few tweaks, is very like Darcy. And yet! Our Jane opens her most romantic novel with a marriage no one would want to be in.

The Bennets are a mismatched couple and after twenty-three years of marriage do not understand each other. But that’s not going to be good enough for our heroine, Elizabeth Bennet. Though she and Mr. Darcy famously dislike each other on sight, the question the novel asks is: what will it take for them not only to fall in love but live in harmony? Pride & Prejudice appears to be about love and money but really it’s about compatability, and compatability requires work on both sides, not to mention the ability to see round the corners of your own entrenched attitude.

So, with the county in a flurry, the novel heads inexorably towards the ‘meet cute’ of Darcy and Elizabeth and that occurs at the local assembly rooms. Darcy arrives with Mr. Bingley and though everyone is impressed by his tall, handsome appearance,

‘… his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud…’

Elizabeth is on the receiving end of Darcy’s proud and disagreeable personality in a short scene that is now famous. Mr. Bingley encourages Darcy to ask Elizabeth to dance.

“Which do you mean?" and turning round he looked for a moment at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said: "She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me.”

This awful snub is the stuff of romantic nightmares. What could be worse than being thought tolerable? Elizabeth in a very modern way, decides to ‘own’ the insult by telling anyone who will listen of Darcy’s rudeness. This is the sort of bold behaviour we know and love in our literary heroines and Elizabeth epitomises this forthright, active attitude that persists into the 21^st century. In terms of Regency England though, a more modest attitude was expected. Elizabeth is being indiscreet and unladylike.

Austen has negated this out by making it clear before the ‘meet-not-so-cute’ that everyone dislikes Darcy for his proud ways. Nevertheless, this incident is one of the few moments in the novel where the smart, incisive Elizabeth is in agreement with her blowsy, tactless mother.

Mrs Bennet voices the barrier of prejudice that Elizabeth erects when it comes to Mr. Darcy.

“But I can assure you," she added, "that Lizzy does not lose much by not suiting his fancy; for he is a most disagreeable, horrid man, not at all worth pleasing. So high and so conceited that there was no enduring him! He walked here, and he walked there, fancying himself so very great! Not handsome enough to dance with! I wish you had been there, my dear, to have given him one of your set-downs. I quite detest the man.”

After the ball, the Miss Lucases and the Miss Bennets discuss the situation. In particular, in Chapter 6, Charlotte and Elizabeth talk about Jane’s prospects with Mr. Bingley. Charlotte reveals herself to be astute on the modus operandi of acquiring a husband and presciently points out trouble ahead.

‘… “Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on.”

“But she does help him on, as much as her nature will allow. If I can perceive her regard for him, he must be a simpleton, indeed, not to discover it too.”

“Remember, Eliza, that he does not know Jane’s disposition as you do.”’

Jane Bennet has a lot in common with Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility, concealing her feelings and appearing not to care too deeply. Elizabeth is another type of Marianne Dashwood, emotional and unafraid to express herself and it’s interesting to see Jane Austen taking the same personality types and develop them, testing them with different challenges.

It's also in Chapter 6 that Jane Austen gives us a direct dive into Mr. Darcy’s private thoughts on Elizabeth Bennet. This is done in a clever segue taking us out of Elizabeth’s perspective and neatly presenting us with Darcy’s evolving feelings.

“Occupied in observing Mr. Bingley's attentions to her sister, Elizabeth was far from suspecting that she was herself becoming an object of some interest in the eyes of his friend. Mr. Darcy had at first scarcely allowed her to be pretty; he had looked at her without admiration at the ball; and when they next met, he looked at her only to criticise. But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying.”

It's so neatly done and highly unusual in Jane Austen’s novels as she rarely gives her male protagonists any space. But it’s vital that the reader is allowed this insight if we are to enjoy the spectacle of Elizabeth and Darcy blundering about, insulting each other and generally being at complete cross-purposes before admitting to that they love. I particularly enjoy the fact that Darcy finds his growing interest in Elizabeth to be ‘mortifying’. He’s pushing up against his barrier of pride.

If Mr. Bingley’s arrival in the neighbourhood is the inciting incident of Pride & Prejudice then the rocket fuel powering the novel’s throughline is watching Elizabeth and Darcy adjust their hasty first impressions. The original title of the novel was First Impressions and its a better title, more accurately conveying what the story is about.

Darcy actively seeks Elizabeth out in a variety of social situations. Between Chapters 6 and 12, Austen gives us the best romantic encounters written in the English language. These chapters are the reason why Pride & Prejudice has endured for two hundred and fifty years. They are full of sparkling dialogue and funny, sexy moments juxtaposed by teeth-grindingly annoying characters, snooty put-downs, and a helpless attraction between two people who think they dislike each other. The rest of the novel is wonderful too but without these chapters setting up the field of battle the events to come simply wouldn’t work.