Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Page, 1945. Print
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a fiction story written in 1945. In the story, we follow the life of the Bennett family, mainly Elizabeth and Jane, the two eldest daughters, along with their interests in Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley. Within the story, it is revealed that Lizzy will only marry for love, and this goes against her mother's wishes. Her mother's life was run by her daughters getting married, not caring for who they were or if there was love. Lizzy's need for love and passion is revealed when we see her deny the hand of Mr. Collins. We do not see her as a foolish, headstrong female, but we see her as a confident young lady who knows what she wants in a man.
Networking Controlling Values |
In an earlier blog post, I projected that the lack of love in the family is what drives Elizabeth to seek love in a future spouse. In order to fulfill her desires, she seeks her fulfillment outside of her family's wishes.
Love and the Lack of Love are two extremely important controlling values in this story, as well as Shame and Honor. (Shame and honor are more along the underlying controlling values, as seen here.)
In my blog post about Mrs. Bennett, I went into vast detail in my projections as to why she does what she does. In the way I read Pride & Prejudice, I felt that without these controlling values the story wouldn't have structure. Without love and honor, the story has no backbone. Which brings me to try to attempt all the forms...
Syllogistic
Syllogistic progression is the unfolding of the steps of an argument, correct? Such that the conclusion follows as a matter of necessity once the premises are laid out for the reader...
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are in the same boat. They both view one another as something they're not. Elizabeth views Mr. Darcy as proud and arrogant, yet she's attracted to him. Mr. Darcy views Elizabeth as a charming young woman (subconsciously) but in retrospect, she looks like she's proud and arrogant by not excepting the first hand that comes to her.
We know they're attracted to one another, we know there's all these obstacles for them. They keep coming up, whether they're characters or places of meeting, or situations... We know they love each other through every scene. When is it going to happen? Darcy proposed to Elizabeth and she refused, saying he was the most arrogant selfish man... This is where we as readers are like "NOOOO YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TOGETHER!!" And they meet again after that, time after time, and then one day they step out of reading the situation the way it is and see it from a new point of view. The characters themselves have an aha moment, and then they realize that they were meant to be together, against all odds. And when Darcy asks for her hand again, the conclusion is made real and comes to the surface and everyone is happy. Except Lady Catherine deBough. She's frothing with rage.
Qualitiative Progressive
Did you ever hear a girl talk about a guy she hates? There's always an air of bitterness, and a constant nit-picking at all that the guy does. In a way, some girls start out despising the guy they like before realizing the they like him.
Elizabeth didn't necessarily hate Mr. Darcy at first, but I'm sure his rudeness towards her was a big wall in the way for her liking him. 'A given mood, once it is present, allows us to enter another mood, or state of mind, that might follow.' In knowing this, that there is some tension between them, and if the reader has ever experienced that, I'm sure it's not hard to develop that feeling into, well if there's fighting, there's always making up to do too, and that comes with a relationship later...
The quality is love, masked by one's own projections of the other person. It's only made real when one looks beyond the surface.
Repetitive
Repetitive form is the consistent maintaining of a principle under new guises...Here are some things I have found that repeatedly come into play throughout the story. There are so many pieces of textual evidence for each of these that I can't possibly use them all to explain.
#Lizzy wants to marry for love
#Jane is shy #Caroline Bingley is rude to Jane #Mr. Darcy ignores Elizabeth #Mr. Bingley and Jane are obsessed with each other but everyone knows it except them. #Caroline likes Mr. Darcy #Mrs. Bennett complains about her nerves #Jane is naive to Caroline's rudeness #Mrs. Bennett only wants her daughters to marry #Elizabeth sees Caroline is rude, Jane won't listen #Mr. Darcy sees that Caroline likes him, but he likes Elizabeth #Mrs. Bennett humiliates her daughters #Mr. Collins is a pompous windbag #Mr. Wickham is in the ----------shire malitia (??? what's the dashes for?) |
Conventional
For the conventional form, I want to isolate the 'what's wrong here' between Lizzy and Darcy. They have multiple encounters after his rejected proposal, where nothing is said between them conserning the subject of marriage. In this case, the problem is floating around in the air, or like some people say, like the big pink elephant in the room. Everyone can see it, but why aren't they addressing it?
From some people's points of view, not talking about something that's necessary is completely fine. Some people like being ignorant. And frankly it makes me mad. Like come on, talk about it! Get it resolved! Don't keep dragging it on forever and ever. We as readers want resolutions and happy endings.
This is probably why I got bored while reading this halfway through. I was tired of every time Lizzy and Darcy met up, there was nothing said about their relationship. I hate when things are drawn out. Like cut to the chase already.
Minor and Incidental
I'm going to show you now the types of sentences that I have come across in reading Pride & Prejudice, and help determine how their form contributes to the overall flow of the story.
"His behavior to herself could now have had no tolerable motive; he had either been decieved with regard to her fortune, or had been gratifying his vanity by encouraging the preference which she believed she had most incautiously shown."
Page 205
This quote, much like the rest of the book, is jam-packed in a way that we don't use all too often in regular speech. I'm sure no person on the face of America has ever said a sentence like this, or as long as this, using sophisticated language to convey emotions such as this.
The whole novel is written in this dialect and the only way I can fully understand it is if I read in a British accent and make believe I am part of the story. Oftentimes I have to stop reading and look up a word. "Huh, that sounds fancy, I wonder what it means." It's a fun way to be involved in the text and also learn new vocabulary that the rest of society has long done away with.
The Hermenuic Code
This is the part of the story that keeps me locked in it. It's where there's something wrong (Lizzy and Darcy are madly in love, but neither of them can get over themselves and be together), and the characters don't address it (they can't talk about it because they're pride and prejudice is in the way)...or if they do, it still goes as an unanswered question. There's a request for an answer, and I want to know what happens! Then instead of answering my question, I'm taken down a rabbit hole, and the question is evaded. Then there is no answer. Much like in the Matrix, there is no spoon. I want to know what happens! TELL MEEE! Then it's like the answer is almost held back on purpose just to torment me!
This happens in Pride & Prejudice when Elizabeth reads Mr. Darcy's letter to her.
"If Elizabeth, when Mr. Darcy gave her the letter, did not expect it to contain a renewal of his offers, she had formed no expectation at all of its contents."
This quote reveals that me as the reader, is just like Elizabeth, in the fact that, we think it's a love letter. ITS NOT A LOVE LETTER.
Even Elizabeth, through her predjudice (she's judging it to be a love letter before she opens it), she wants it to be a love letter, but in reality, the question's answer is suspended once again. The answer is withheld, and the reader and the character are held back from the knowledge that the answer will bring, as well as the turning point of future situations. Which brings me to the Symbolic code.
The Symbolic Code
This is the code that is literally the entire book. Man meets woman, they like each other but vow to loathe each other for all eternity first. He's super rich, and she's middle class so it can't be possible for them to be together. So many toils, snares, roadblocks, and stumbling blocks are set before them, and through a wild goose chase, following eachother and secretly plotting to meet one another when they don't expect it, just solidifies all the symbolizm that comes with a traditional love story.
This story is different than the others because a rich man falls in love with a not-so-rich girl. Sounds cliche, but the author worded the whole story so it doesn't sound cliche. She didn't make him super wealthy, in realtaion to her, she didn't make Elizabeth super porr eating dirt either. It's believable.
His pride and her prejudice get in the way, but in the end it's what brings them together. They were both so blind to one another and jumped to conclustions without really getting to know one another instead of putting their differences aside. And that's what makes it a 'classic'.
How I developed...
Reading a book in this way is unlike anything I've ever experienced before. For practically most of my life, I have been taught to read and analyze everything. Character analysis and digging deeper into what the text doesn't say, comes naturally to me. Yet, when I started this course, I was completely bewildered. I was like WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO.
I didn't understand how to read. And for a while there towards the beginning of the semester, I couldn't read. I picked a book that was bigger than me, and quite frankly, the most awful book written that I have seen and attempted to read. I set myself up for failure before I even understood all that I had to do.
I'm glad that I came across this 1945 version of Pride & Prejudice at a local flea market. If I hadn't, I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't understand how to do any of this stuff. Reading has definitely changed in my eyes.
This book was the perfect book to pick for a read, because it has many many many examples of all the things we needed to look for as capale readers. I am thankful for this course and I am thankful that God has guided me this far and has given me the tools and knowledge that I need to succeed.