... Characters: 1. Mr. Bennet: An odd mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humor, reserve, and impulsive tendencies. Married 23 years to Mrs. Bennet. First to call on Bingley. Father of Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty, and Mary. He has a close relationship with Elizabeth. As for the rest of his family, they ... hard for knowledge and accomplishments, conceited manner, bookish. 11. Mr. Darcy: Bingley's friend, tall, handsome features, of noble blood. Pemberley's owner. Started out with bad manners. Easiness, openness, ductility of his temper, clever, haughty, reserved, fastidious, gives offense w...

• Word Count: 3577
• Approx Pages: 14
• Grade Level: High School

... representation of him: "and [she] was confident at last, that she recollected having heard Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-natured boy" (II.ii). This "at last" implies that she is twisting the facts to agree with what she and others want to believe. Be attentive to such ... and self-knowledge, for although she "always saw . . . with pain" his improprieties, she does not now, as she used to, try to put them out of her mind because of her affection for him. This growth of Elizabeth's perception, although it gives her pain, also makes her a better person; it is...

• Word Count: 3260
• Approx Pages: 13

... humiliated fury, with what psychologists [Such as Helen Block Lewis in "Introduction: Shame--The `Sleeper' in Psychoathology," The Role of Shame in Symptom Formation, edited by Lewis (1987)] today would call "shame-rage" (Lewis, "Shame" 19): "She lost all compassion in anger.... `If I could feel gratitude, I would now thank you. But I cannot.... The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented ... before they took place." When Darcy and Bingley revisit Longbourn, Elizabeth's "shame," "misery" and "wretchedness" all return as she listens to her mother brag about Lydia's marriage and ...

• Word Count: 3336
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... her a bad reputation with the more refined Darcy and Bingley's. Austen pokes fun at snobs in these examples, but later in, when Lydia elopes with Wickham and lives with him out of wedlock, the author treats reputation as a very serious matter. By becoming Wickham's lover without benefit of marriage, Lydia places herself outside the social norms' and her disgrace threatens the ... -off-), and finally of Lydia. Courtship takes on an unspoken, importance in the novel. Marriage is the ultimate goal for both men and women and courtship is the real working-out of love. Courtship becomes a sort...

• Word Count: 3094
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... ? Nora: I must. Let them say what they like Helmer: You"re acting like a child. You don't understand the society you live in. Nora: You"re right I don't. I"m going to find out - which one of us is right, society or me. Nora is tired of making the concessions for her marriage and after sacrificing her convictions for so long, needs to find ... her family was in need and as a member of society she must respect the wishes of her father, so a compromise was made on her behalf, and through compromising she set out conditions for herself, incorporating her beliefs and morality, saying that she...

• Word Count: 2566
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... this sentence would read, " it is an acknowledged truth in our particular society that a single woman without a fortune must need a husband who has one." .It is Mark Shorer who points out that this theme, so apparent in the story line, is reinforced by the very language Jane Austen uses. " The Stylistic base is derived from commerce and property, the counting house ... from her two elder sisters, is vain, ignorant, idle and absolutely uncontrolled. Moreover, she indulges herself in flirtation with officers. They elope from Brighton without any engagement and are found out in London fina...

• Word Count: 4276
• Approx Pages: 17
• Grade Level: High School

... is love shared between Jane and Bingley, there is a prejudice against the Bennet girls showed by Ms. Bingley due to class, and reputation is blockading Darcy out of Elizabeth's future. One such quote concerning the proposal of Darcy to Elizabeth captures the spirit of the book and distributes the themes and motifs of the ... the theme that reputation and social status interfere with love. In this quote we also see how Darcy gives Elizabeth a "sense of inferiority."" She points out that he is much more in tune with social status and spends more time emphasizing her lower rank than he does...

• Word Count: 4144
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of irony as a defence against nineteenth-century society replicates that of her author's. After her initial meeting with Darcy and his comment on her "tolerable" appearance, Elizabeth points out his rudeness by stating the opposite, informing Sir William Lucas that "Mr Darcy is all politeness" (13, 27). Similarly, Emma's matchmaking effort between the young beauty Harriet Smith ... " in order to realistically be content together (57). Darcy has to escape his proud and pretentious nature, which he realises is wrong when Elizabeth rejects his proposal, and points out that he made his claim...

• Word Count: 5516
• Approx Pages: 22
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... gaze can best be determined by comparing the role of the gaze in Austen's most widely known novel, Pride and Prejudice, and the novel that stands out among her others, Northanger Abbey. Before attempting to determine if a female gaze does exist, it is necessary to examine and define the concept of a ... another part of the room because, "there are two odious young men who have been staring at me this half hour. They really put me quite out of countenance" (NA 48). This is a quite natural response to feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of strange men. However, after the two men leave, ...

• Word Count: 4152
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School