Resumo de Pride And Prejudice

Jane Austen, the greatest of all the novelists of manners was born in 1775 and died in 1817. With no exhibitionist critical apparatus this modest daughter of a Hampshire rector, with her quietly penetrating vision of man as a social animal, her polished and controlled wit and beneath all her steady, moral apprehension of the nature of human relationships produced riveting novels.
?Pride and Prejudice? is by far the most popular of all Jane Austen?s novels. Austen herself said of it that she thought it was rather too light and bright and sparkling, it wants shade, and this is perhaps why it is so popular. The vivacity and precision of style carries the reader through the book with ease. The style is smooth and modest; it covers a subtle pricking of irony, masterly in its own way. There is a luminous life about the characters and in unobtrusive and dexterous art; it is Austen?s masterpiece. Structurally the book has a high level of craftsmanship. There is the Bennet family; Jane and Mr. Bingley, Darcy and Elizabeth - all come together and in the nick of time produce apt revelations of character from Wickham and others. The characters circle each other in a ballet like movement ? vivacious and witty Elizabeth, proud Mr. Darcy, beautiful, compassionate Jane, the affable Mr. Bingley, scheming Miss Bingley, the hypocritical Wickham, not to forget Mrs. Bennet who is a remarkable comic creation. Elizabeth?s prejudice finds itself up against Darcy?s pride giving the novel its crux. The plot riveting as it is makes it easy for us to forget just how many different forms of narratives are used ? from the epistolary form, concise reportage, sparkling dialogue to information obtained in the form of gossip.
The opening sentence, detached as it is, is remarkable in its summing up of the novel. The dilemmas that the characters face be it moral or social, all resolve around the difficulties of truth. And for all its mock seriousness it may be well in order for us to consider that the emergence of the eighteenth century novel coincided with the new inquiry into the nature of human truth and challenged previous knowledge of the world. And with all its explorations of the truth, of the dilemma faced between illusion and reality, the novel is perhaps so successful because it draws the reader into its problems. We worry that the kind hearted Jane may be forever parted from Bingley, frown upon Charlotte?s engagement, laugh at Mr. Collins and ponder on why a couple as incompatible as Mr. and Mrs. Bennet ever got married at all. There is a progression of diverse impressions, which reminds us time and again of how foolish it would be to take just one person?s account as the infallible truth. A perfect case in point being the case of Wickham?s past, and we as the reader grapple with Elizabeth Bennet over two wildly differing accounts. It is always the truth that is in question, and engrossed in whether Elizabeth and Darcy will be united at the end we often forget to consider the relationships between truth and reality that Austen deftly explores. Whether one should rely more on accounts of others or one?s own impression is a dilemma the characters face repeatedly, for instance the Gardiners who have heard scathing reports about Darcy from Elizabeth but like immensely the grave but courteous young man who show them about Pemberley.
This is a novel to be applauded for because of its comic vision that illuminates the characters especially Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and the ridiculous Mr. Collins. So when Mr. Bennet laments that after her husband?s death she may be turned out of her home, her husband replies, ?My dear, do not give way to such gloomy thoughts? Let us flatter ourselves that I may be the survivor.? Marriage as implied by the opening sentence is the central issue and has both comic and serious overtones and the pace never falters. Austen however docilely accepts the hierarchy in the class structure, something that a modern reader might find jarring. But she sharply attacks snobbery in the form of characters like Lady Catherine.
Elizabeth is fascinating because she is not perfect. She is impulsive and prejudiced but spirited and brave, unabashedly human and that perhaps is why we love her. Like the reader who is reading the book, she too is observing and noting and coming to terms with things. As she reads Darcy?s revelatory letter, stumbling over sentences in her eagerness to see what lies at the end, the reader too skips words in the zeal to find out what Darcy has conveyed. As she re-examines the letter, the reader is forced to mentally go back to passages and realize the truth about Wickham. ?Till this moment, I never knew myself? says a shaken Elizabeth and we as the reader are also compelled to re-assess everything ? from Darcy?s character to Elizabeth?s strong prejudices.

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