Art of Characterization of Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice

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Jane Austen (1775-1817), was a well-known novelist and representative of the Victorian age. She was best known for her six major novels. Her plots often explore the need for women in marriage in the pursuit of auspicious social uprightness and economic security.


‘Pride and Prejudice’ is a novel of manners. This type of literature generates a narrative that emphasizes social conventions and the upbringings of people of different classes, genders, religions, and cultures. Pride and Prejudice specifically focuses on the social setting of the English aristocracy in the 19th century.  This novel is a true representation of contemporary society that distinguishes the social class, the need for distinction, the necessity for marriage as a symbol of social standing, and the dual face of society. She also typifies women by the weakness of the times: They were property and half-educated.


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This was a specific issue that Austen wanted to draw. Her true talent is revealed through her gifted talent for the portrayal and depiction of the situation and characters in a vivid way. She depicts her characters honestly and convincingly. She is insightful about every microscopic level of manner and conduct and any variation from the standard.  She has a limited variety of characters and thus limits herself to the landed elite and only touches the nobility once or unless to mock them.


Jane Austen's vivid characterization is one of the important aspects of Pride and Prejudice. The main features of her depiction are her characters are never repeated, individual but universal, real three three-dimensional, and living beings like humans. Her characters are revealed through conversation as well as comparison. Jane Austen said of her heroine, “I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print”. Sir Walter Scott describes her characterization in these words, “Jane Austen confines herself chiefly to the middling classes of society, and those which are sketched with most originality and precision, belong to a class rather below that standard.”


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Aristocracy is hardly touched for satirical purposes. In Pride and Prejudice, Lady Catherine is an example. Lord David Cecil believes that “In her six books, she never repeats a single character … There is all the difference in the world between the vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet and the vulgarity of Mrs. Jennings.”


Although, Jane Austen’s characters are complex; however, there are some shortcomings. Darcy is real and convincing but performs only in scenes with Elizabeth. The minor characters are generally flat but they also grow when we meet them. Thus each of these wide ranges of characters is multi-dimensional with a mix of good and bad characteristics, unveiling strong individual peculiarities and personalities, at the same time distinctive of universal human nature.

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