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Visit the EDSITEMENT page on using Austen as a historical source and make notes on how the passages capture "a capital picture of real life".
If you'd like to listen to the audiobook as you read (highly recommend) this is a free version on YouTube. Check the comments for chapter jump links!
CHAPTERS 1-10 Passage Analysis
Spotting SATIRE: In your paired chapters, identify a short passage that contains a satirical line/exchange/description. Analyze what Austen is poking fun at & how she does so.
Characterization: Who do we encounter in your chapters and do what do we learn about them?
Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy-the two most eligible bachelors in town!- are described in depth in chapters 3-4, and while they are the best of friends, they could not be more different. Make a set of notes comparing Bingley and Darcy and their possibilities as suitors.
What are the Bennets' reactions to the two men? How does their behavior at the Ball set up the complications that may arise?
Create a Journal Page comparing these 2 pitiable proposals: what they illuminate about the men who offer them, the society that encourages them, and the woman who rejected them.
Mr Collins' Three Point Plan for LOVE!
One of the most humorous passages in the novel is Mr Collins' ill-conceived proposal to Lizzy. Re-read the passage and record his reasons for wishing to marry her. What does Jane Austen seem to be satirizing in this section?
How does Lizzy respond? What would the consequences of such a response have been in the Regency Era? Consider too, Mr and Mrs Bennets' responses to Lizzy's answer. Why do you think they react the way they do?
Dreamy (but dreadful) Darcy...
While he's more handsome and way richer, Mr Darcy is not much better at proposals. Why might Darcy have messed this up so badly? What does Lizzy's answer say about her when you consider the position women were in at the time, especially the Bennets? How is this proposal as illuminating of her as Mr Collins' proposal?
Letter Writing in the Regency Era
Envelopes were not used in this period. Letters consisted of a single sheet of paper, folded in half to make four pages. Jane Austen wrote with a goose-quill pen, using iron gall ink, either homemade or, more likely, bought from a stationer’s shop. The letter was written across the first three pages and the top and bottom thirds of the fourth page, leaving its middle third blank. With the first page uppermost, the bottom third of the letter was then folded upwards and the top third folded down so that the edges met in the middle. Then, holding the letter lengthways, the left-hand and right-hand sides were tucked inside each other. The packet was sealed with wax and the address written on the blank reverse.
Outside London, which had its own postal service, postage, based on weight and distance travelled, was paid by the recipient not the sender. This acted as an incentive for the writer to economize by using every scrap of paper.
Letter Writing Accomplishments Activity: Identify a moment in the story that would make a good letter. Then decide whose persona you will adopt and to whom you will write!
Why are letters so important in the novel? Following is information about Darcy's Explanation letter, and a link to Barbara Heller's Pride & Prejudice Letter Project:
"It is where Elizabeth has this epiphany and self-realization of how she’s completely misunderstood the situation. Darcy’s letter becomes a proxy for the man that Elizabeth is able to revisit and reread the letter in a way that if it was a conversation, she would be distorting it in her memory. But the letters on the page don’t change. That’s what slowly leads her to her epiphanies: reading and rereading the letter. The letter stays the same, but with every reading [Elizabeth] has changed. She can consider who Darcy is without his being present, without having to respond, without having to have a witty retort, and without any pressure to write him back. It’s not just the information that the letter conveys that’s important, but the fact that it is a letter."
The following passage is taken from Longbourn, a novel by Jo Baker, which was inspired by Jane Austen’s Regency era satire, Pride and Prejudice. The passage follows Sarah, a domestic servant in the Bennets' home, completing her morning duties. Read the passage carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how Baker uses language to characterize Sarah’s world and her attitude toward it.
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