Pride and Prejudice Questions Chapter 2-3

1. How does Austen go against the grain of traditional romance stories of the period?

Many critics in the nineteenth century approved of Austen’s work, as she was vastly different from other novelists, injecting little of the “screams along the corridor” variety of novels that is suitable only for “maids and chamberwomen”. This is characterised largely by the story of Elizabeth and Darcy, which is an inversion of romantic book expectations. Victorian society became fascinated first by her exemplary, quiet life, then by her novels. This marked the transition from obscurity to being one of this century and last’s most influential literary figures. In many ways, her books are more in tune with our times and tastes than her own. In the first review she ever received, she was taken to task for a ‘want of newness’, but her books now seem markedly more original than anything else of the period.

2. What is the biggest stumbling block in the future development of a romance between Jane and Bingley?

The biggest stumbling block is when Mr. Darcy interfered with the romance between Mr. Bingley and her sister, Jane. Although Jane enters into one of the happiest and most successful marriages in the novel, her relationship with Bingley is a rather static one. Just as she is consistently good and kind, her feelings and regard for Bingley never falter or change. She feels sorrow when he leaves, of course, but that does not diminish her love for him. Their relationship, while pleasant, is not marked by the range of emotions that Elizabeth and Darcy feel for one another. Her marriage, then, is favorable because she and Bingley married for love and are compatible, but it is not quite ideal because it lacks the depth found in Elizabeth and Darcy’s marriage.

3. What is Lizzy’s first impression of Mr. Darcy?

When Elizabeth first met Darcy at the Meryton ball, everyone in the room agreed that he was the proudest, rudest man present. He only danced with Bingley’s sisters and only conversed with Bingley’s party. He refused to meet anyone new. He felt that the society was beneath him, even saying that there wasn’t a single woman in the room that “would not be a punishment” for him to dance with. Elizabeth first thought that Mr. Darcy was a proud, disagreeable man and she could not figure out why he would be friends with Mr. Bingley who is the exact opposite of that.  She also thought he was a snob. Also Elizabeth’s first impressions, meanwhile, catalogue Darcy as arrogant and self-satisfied; as a result, she later accepts slanderous accusations against him as true.