This is the third in a series of posts about Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Below I outline the points I would cover in discussing the novel with an eye towards implementing the covenantal model.
PLOT
TRANSCENDENCE: Marriage is on everyone’s minds, especially the Bennets, who boast five daughters
HIERARCHY: The two oldest Bennets attract suitors, but fail to find a match for various reasons ranging from temperament to social standing.
ETHICS: Elizabeth and Darcy must confront their own shortcomings: prejudice and pride respectively.
SANCTIONS: Mr. Darcy earns Elizabeth’s love by saving the youngest Bennet daughter from personal disgrace which would have also affected the family.
SUCCESSION: Three of the five Bennet sisters are married with the second oldest, Elizabeth, getting the best of the bunch. The feared entailment of the Bennet property is no longer a problem.
RHETORIC
TRANSCENDENCE: The novel’s most powerful rhetoric comes in handwritten letters. Of particular importance is Mr. Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth upon her rejecting his first proposal of marriage. The letter is powerful chiefly because it can be reread.
HIERARCHY: The narrator can and does offer insight into the minds of different characters but chiefly we get insight into the heart of Elizabeth. She is our hero (though she is the second oldest), and from her we get the most judgment and evaluation.
ETHICS: The novel is concerned with moral failings but handles the topic ironically. Viz. the characters who talk the most about how others should live are not terribly helpful: Mary Bennet and Mr. Collins. In fact, Collins the parson is a particularly bad at both giving and executing moral advice.
SANCTIONS: In rural society, sanctions are handed out by the crowd to families. The narrator reports on what groups of individuals collectively think about Mr. Darcy (too proud) or Lydia’s elopement (so unfortunate). These judgments are discussed by the witty omniscient narrator.
SUCCESSION: Austen birthed a thousand romance novels with her plot. Her privileging of wit over wealth and a plot carried by internal character changes rather external events became the standard rhetoric of the marriage-plot novel.
KEY SYMBOLS
TRANSCENDENCE: Land (with the connotation of natural superiority)
HIERARCHY: Homes (as a visible representation of authority)
ETHICS: The army (as both a model for discipline and corporate unity and, in the case of Wickham, a base for disorderly behavior)
SANCTIONS: Letters (the means by which judgment is offered and accepted)
SUCCESSION: Marriage
THEMES
TRANSCENDENCE: Love trumps every other social consideration.
HIERARCHY: Authority is not the problem. A willingness to exhibit authority one has not earned? That’s the problem.
ETHICS: You commit the sin of pride when you misinterpret yourself. You commit prejudice when you misinterpret others.
SANCTIONS: The greatest blessing one can receive is to have one’s love requited in marriage. That is, you are interpreted favorably by someone else. The greatest curse? An incompanionate marriage: that is, you marry someone beneath you. The second greatest curse? No marriage at all.
SUCCESSION: You can tell a lot about a parent by looking at the child.
Experiments in Criticism 