Use of satire in Pride and Prejudice

Introduction:

                   

Prejudice is one of the most popular novels of Jane Austen due to its multi-dimensional versatility of themes. Jane Austen is an accomplished artist within her limited range, she handles characters, dialogues, events and plot-construction with an exquisite mastery, weaving and interweaving all main elements of novel into one. Jane Austen used satire in her famous novel Pride and Prejudice. Satire is basically used to attack the characters to bring a change about them. The tone of the novel is light, satirical, and vivid. Scenes such as Mr. Collins proposal to Elizabeth, and Lady Catherine visits to Lizzy at Longbourn, provides comic relief to the reader while at the same time revealing certain traits of the characters. For example, Lydia’s lack of common sense and responsibility is revealed when she takes pride in being the first Bennet girl to be married. Lydia does not take into consideration the circumstance of her marriage, the personality of her husband, or the prospects of their marriage for the future.

            Jane Austen uses different literary devices throughout Pride and Prejudice and most of them are used to create humour and various other elements that enrich the story. Satire is used in Pride and Prejudice to make fun of human vices or weaknesses.

The range of Jane Austen’s characters is rather narrow. She selects her characters from among the landed gentry in the countryside. Sir Walter Scott very accurately describes this range:

“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.”

Satire:

Satire can be described as “a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice is held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule”

Or

“the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly etc.”

Satire and the absurd in Pride and Prejudice:

The principal, most widespread and most obvious form of humour in the novel is satire - lampooning by means of caricature or exaggeration customs and attitudes that the author disapproves, or characters who embody these hated attitudes.  Austen also has an eye for the absurd in human behaviour, and we meet, in the pages of the novel, a number of memorably silly characters who go beyond stereotypes: the best of these are probably Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine and Mr. Wickham. In some cases, Austen will use her chief character, Elizabeth, to point this ridicule, while in others she allows the absurdity to manifest itself. Mr. Bennet is also used as a more detached commentator on the society he evidently despises and from which he holds aloof.  Austen, despite or because of her sex, aims most of her satire at women. Her favourite target seems to be the small-mindedness of the sex, the typical preoccupation with fashion, comfort and domestic security. Men are also ridiculed, but more for their individual failings. Perhaps the exaggerated and undignified self-abasement of Collins and, to some extent, Sir William Lucas, is a more widespread fault, as, perhaps, is the philistinism of Hurst and the avarice of Wickham.

Different Examples of Satire from Pride and Prejudice:

We have different examples of satire through out the novel and we will discuss them according to the different characters in the novel.

William Collins:

William Collins, aged twenty-five, is Mr Bennet's clergyman cousin and, as Mr Bennet has no son, heir to his estate. Austen described him as "not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society." Collins boasts of his acquaintance with and advantageous patronage from Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Mr Bennet, Jane, and Elizabeth consider him pompous and lacking in common sense.

            Austen disapproves of Mr. Collins and that is why she attacks and satirizes him. His living with Lady Catherine has caused him to demoralize himself. He thinks and talks highly of people higher than himself, such as, Lady Catherine DeBourgh. An example of this is when they were invited to dine with Lady Catherine DeBourgh and Mr. Collins then tells Elizabeth:

"Do not make yourself uneasy, my dear cousin, about  your apparel. Lady Catherine is far form requiring that elegance of dress in us which becomes herself and daughter. I would advise you merely to put on whatever of your clothes is superior to the rest ...she likes to have the distinction of rank preserved"

This shows how high he thinks Lady Catherine is and this sort of shows that he thinks he's sort of better than her by implying that she doesn't have an elegant dress.

Mr. Collins is so thickheaded that he didn't notice Mr. Darcy's contempt towards him. When Mr. Bennet commented on Mr. Collins letter, Mr. Bennet said that Mr. Collins letter contained a "mixture of servility / and self importance". This is why Mr. Collins is also a fop.

Elizabeth finds Mr Collins “a conceited, pompous, narrow-minded, silly man”. Her observation is quite correct. Elizabeth¹s rejection of Mr Collin¹s marriage proposal was a revolutionary landmark in the context of the novel. Although rejecting a man who you do not love is a self-evident truth for us in todays society, in 1813, it was a far less obvious matter. Mr Collins was socially desirable, he would provide Elizabeth a home, respectability and long term stability for the Bennet family. However, on a personal level, Elizabeth realizes that Mr Collins would have brought her to insanity and that she could never love such a man.

Another quote from Mr. Collins is:
"The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this."

In this quote, Austen uses satire through Mr. Collins simply by showing how much he is a people pleaser. Austen shows that Mr. Collins would rather deal with death, or would prefer death, than to make a ripple, or to ruffle the feathers of society and propriety in that day and age.

In Chapter 19 Mr Collins proposes to Lizzy. The conversation on her part is dripping with sarcasm.

"The idea of Mr. Collins, with all his solemn composure, being run away with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing that she could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him farther, and he continued"

Austen satirizes Mr. Collins because people shouldn't demoralize themselves for the sake of people higher than them on the social ladder of society. People shouldn't think that they are better than most people because thinking that doesn't make you better, it makes you worse. People like this needs to be changed.

Mr. Williams Collins, the silly and conceited baboon who is completely stupify by Lady Catherine in every aspect of his life that he has forgotten his own morals and duty.

Lady Catherine De Bourgh:

She possesses wealth and social standing, is haughty, domineering and condescending. The highest person on the social ladder mentioned in Pride and Prejudice is Lady Catherine De Bourgh. Jane Austen also disapproves of her. Lady Catherine is demanding and thinks that she can order whomever she wants around.

An example of this is when she visits Elizabeth after hearing the rumor that Mr. Darcy was to propose to her. Lady Catherine thinks she and people like her are better than everyone because she says to Elizabeth:

"I know the rumor it must be a scandalous falsehood"

She accuses Elizabeth of trying to get Mr. Darcy from the beginning.

"Your arts and allurements may, in a moment of infatuation, have made him forget what he owes to himself and all his family"

When Elizabeth replied with a "smart-aleck" comment, Lady Catherine De Bourgh says:

 "Miss Bennet, do you know who I am?"

What she means by this is that Elizabeth shouldn't talk back to her because she is one of the highest people on the social ladder. When Lady Catherine De Bourgh was "interrogating" Elizabeth, she demands Elizabeth to promise no to marry Mr. Darcy if he proposes. Lady Catherine thinks she can order whomever she wants just because she is high and mighty. Ordering servants around is a lot different from ordering other people around because servants work for you and other people don't. These are reasons why she needs to be changed. The main reason of Austen’s disapproval of Lady Catherine is her arrogant nature and that is why Austen satirizes her.

Here is another quote from Lady Catherine character relating satire:

"And that I suppose is one of your sisters."

Austen uses satire in this particular quote by showing that Lady Catherine, who is looked up to as the example for how you should behave, dress, and be associated with, is stiffly and rudely addressing Elizabeth's sister, Kitty, while showing none of the manners that she so strongly preaches about her community.

Lady Catherine comes to speak to Elizebeth Bennet about a supposed engagement to Mr Darcy in Chapter 56. These lines are the strongest example of the satire in Pride and Prejudice:
"If you believed it impossible to be true," said Elizabeth, colouring with astonishment and disdain, "I wonder you took the trouble of coming so far. What could your ladyship propose by it?"
"At once to insist upon having such a report universally contradicted."

"Your coming to Longbourn, to see me and my family," said Elizabeth coolly, "will be rather a confirmation of it; if, indeed, such a report is in existence."

            Pride and Prejudice has satire through out the entire book. The most outrageous characters in the book like Mr. Collins and Lady Catherine De Bourgh are so over inflated with their self pontificating that Elizabeth Bennet only has to observe and smile at the prideful boasting for the others in the room to observe the situation.

Mrs. Bennet:

Mrs Bennet is the wife of her social superior Mr Bennet, and mother of Elizabeth and her sisters. She is frivolous, excitable, and narrow-minded, and is susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations. Her public manners and social climbing are embarrassing to Jane and Elizabeth.

Mrs. Bennet with five marriageable daughters has fond hopes of arranging a match between the eligible suitor Charles Bingley and any one of her daughters. And she is such a fool and greedy woman that she sends Jane in a rainy storm to visit Mr. Bingley as in Chapter 7, Elizabeth remarks sarcastically about Jane’s sickness:

“If Jane should die; it would be comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley”

 This shows that Mrs Bannet is such a foolish and greedy woman that for her the first priority is that Jane’s marriage to Mr. Bingley and she even does not care if she lost her daughter in this scenario and the following lines are a proof of her greedy nature and is also a good example of satirizing.

"You had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to rain and you must stay all  night"

another important line:

                        "As long as she stays there, it is all very well"

This shows that how Mrs. Bennet is trying to tempt Mr. Bingley using Jane’s illness as a weapon and she does not want to miss any chance and she plays the game even on the sake of the life of her daughter.

Austen uses satire against characters with deficient characteristics. One of these characteristics is ignorance. Austen attacks characters, such as, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet, which all have deficient characteristics. The first sentence of this novel, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife" establishes Austen's reason for satirizing the characters in this novel.

Jane Austen satirizes Mrs. Bennet because she is only looking for a rich fellow for her daughters and she has no concern with the happiness of her daughters and she is just running after the wealth and the high class aristocratic society. She must also have thought about the happiness and feelings of her daughters too but for her the wealth was more important.

Conclusion:

Austen had extremely radical views for her time. She believed that marriage should not occur on the grounds of superficial feelings, pressures to marry, or wealth and social status and for this purpose she satirizes the society of the 18^th century of that time through different characters in her novel. Austen uses satire against characters with deficient characteristics. One of these characteristics is ignorance. Austen attacks characters, such as, Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet, which all have deficient characteristics.