Quotes

These are some quotes I found that might help me with some of my paper ideas:

“You are determined to ruin him in the opinion of all his friends, and make him the contempt of the world" (268)

"For what do we live, but to make sport of our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?" (272)

" With a strong prejudice against everything he might say, she began his account on what happened at Netherfield" (152)

“Ah! Jane, I take your place now, and you must go lower, because I am a married woman”(235).

" But vanity, not love, has been my folly" (156)

“All that I required of you to assure you daughter, by settlement, for equal share of five thousand pounds…. To enter into and engagement of allowing her during your life one hundred pounds per annum” (224).

"As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit" (276)

Paper Ideas

So far, I have come up with a list of topics that might be a good idea for my paper. I hope writing about it will be more tolerable than reading it:

Relationships between men and women

Social class

Importance of Marriage

Changes in characters

A Hard Beauty

Pride and Prejudice is all about the beauty. Reading a novel that is not only tender and nice to the reader but also slow has been somewhat hard. Austen uses a lot of words to say very little and it is starting to get on my nerves. The reader is given very nice descriptions of each character and is then introduced to a word of slow confusion. Mr. Bingley is described as “good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy unaffected manners” (6) which an excellent description. It tells people what he is like, his manners, and his appearance. Probably the most important things in the book. Because Austen focuses on these silly, superficial details the book is incredibly slow. It is true that you get a good idea of what is going on and what everybody thinks about it, but the rate at which events take place bores the reader. I am not a person that enjoys very detailed books where not much happens and Pride and Prejudice is just the case.

I have come to the conclusion that, as Mr. Tangen suggested, after I find something I like in the book it has to become my primary focus. At this point it is probably the rate at which it moves. It is entertaining to see how Austen writes. I am not insinuating that it is not good, because it clearly is; I am only saying that I have laughed at the characters interpretations of each other. After all, it is a ladies book.

A Similar Irony

I am surprised that most of the conversations in the book have been rather superficial. This is probably because the characters are interested and are worried about simple things. Women are usually criticizing everyone and are preoccupied with finding the right husband for their daughters. By right I mean wealthy. Men on the other hand talk about women and money. They are comparing each other’s wallets and luxuries. Even though most of the conversations are rather simple and dull, some catch my attention. When characters start to talk about marriage they usually offer good insight: “Without thinking highly either of men or matrimony, marriage had always been her object” (Austen, 136) It becomes clear to the reader after the first fifty pages that the way two people get together is the main theme. Everything revolves around marriage and wealth. Preferably both.

The book also offers a clear depiction the time period. Austen is able to offer her view of high class England. Apart from the parties and the dialect the reader can also learn about the past by viewing the characters customs. Not only do they consider money the driving force behind life but the will do anything to get it. Statements such as: “it was the only provision for well-educated young women of small fortune, and however uncertain of giving happiness, must be their pleasantness preservative from want.” (Austen, 136) The reader is, with no doubt, convinced that wealthy men look for beautiful woman and that beautiful woman look for wealthy men. This is clear since the very beginning and is not so different from what we do today.

Proud And Frail

It is interesting to see how films portray the different character in a book. I personally form a certain image in my head about each character. In this case, I see Mr. Bingley as a determined and handsome man. As a matter of fact, most of the men that are part of the Pride and Prejudice cast appear to be incredible in every aspect. So far, the movie has portrayed Mr. Bingley as a stupid, dorky, and shallow man. He laughs at a hint of a joke and is very annoying. Wealth is clear for the director of the movie and he does appear to have a lot of money. What is surprising about his wealth is that he does seem like a man who has earned all of his money and who can brag about it. Men in general have a certain disposition that makes them seem disoriented and weak. The book has given me a feeling of women superiority that can be expected from Jane Austen.

No Choice

At my Catholic confirmation class, my teacher is constantly telling me to be more optimistic about religion. My mother, who is not very religious, got the spontaneous idea that it would be a good idea for me to get it out of the way. Knowing that I have to take the class makes it easier for me to enjoy it. What I am getting to is the rules established by Pride and Prejudice. Austen not only mentions societies rules and norms but is explicit when telling the audience that there is an established pecking order. Charlotte mentions that "happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance" (Austen, 16) which suggests that you do not have much chance when picking your husband. It is simple luck if you like him. Knowing that this is still true today, maybe not as it was before, makes me think of the importance of making with what you’ve got. It sounds as a cliché but it appears to be the best solution when there is no option in the matter.

Vocabulary

Propitious
Affability
Atonement
Threadbare
Pianoforte

Austen: A Manly Woman

Society has established a set of rules or norms that dictate the way we live and act. Every person must abide to these rules and obey or they will be punished. These ideas range from killing another person to the role of a housewife. Austen makes her own rules for a woman: “A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, all the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved” (Austen, 29). These rules she create go hand in hand with the ones she makes men follow. Austen does not leave much room for interpretation and is clear when stating what every person should do.

Since the first sentence in the book Austen is already telling the reader what to do: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." (Austen, 1). This statement makes it very clear that if you have a good fortune you must what a wife. The novel is based on this and other facts that make it clear that people are greedy and have money as their priority. Austen is a forceful writer that represents an imposing novel. When you read it you feel as if the author were giving out orders and you had to follow them.

Before My Time

In order to enjoy a new book I must begin by using the tips that we learned about a good reader. The one that got to me the cost was being a positive reader. Before the video I used to foolishly think that some authors just wrote something good out of luck. In other words, I believed that Shakespeare did not write so many great pieces but that people over studied him. I now realize that it is stupid to question authors because the point is that they did it. If it was luck a reader should not be bake to know or care.

Pride and Prejudice is definitely a classic. It is because of this simple reason that I must read it as an optimistic reader. It is hard for me to take it seriously since it appears to be a simple novel. It might have been revolutionary at the time but it is somewhat standard now. All of this goes back to the idea that it is very hard to write something original today. The first thing I analyzed was the title. I noticed that the importance was the difference between connotation and denotation. What we might consider the meaning of pride today is very different from what Austen meant it to be. In my search I found a definition inside the book: "Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."" (Austen, 21). It is not as different as we consider it today. Austen then relates to a theory we have come to in Spanish class. A series of great authors are considered extraordinary today because they were able to see what was going to happen after their time.

Transcendence

When Hamlets death grows near, the text starts reflecting upon the impact and the transcendence of life. The gravedigger scene expresses Hamlets ideas about what everyone becomes. He uses Alexander to represent how someone so great was reduced to something so basic: “Do you think Alexander looked o’ this / fashion i’ th’ earth?” (V.i.204-205). It then becomes clear that your body will always rot and that the only way you will be remembered is because of your actions. Alexander was remembered and so was Hamlet. The inclusion of real people into the play makes it believable and gives it a feeling of sophistication.

Like many Shakespeare tragedies most of the main characters, if not all, die at the end. The play was concluded in a short scene. Kings, Queens, Princes, and lovers perished in a rather small period of time. I was intrigued at the rate that the characters were slain. Maybe it goes hand in hand with the idea that the death of your body is only important if your actions will not be remembered. Because they all died so quickly, Shakespeare might be trying to prove that their story will live on even after death.