Discuss the Satire of Pride and Prejudice Essay

The chronicle of satire in the Oxford English dictionary is victimisation humour or exaggeration to show what is bad about a person or thing In Pride and Prejudice this nonion is almost contend upon, with Jane Austen using satire throughout the novel in diverse slipway. It is an entertain way of subtly poking fun at a person, or group of hoi polloi, which they ar perhaps unaware of.Pride and Prejudice is a light-hearted novel, which although it picks out particular faults in society which existed then, and as Jane Austen sees them, it is a different type of satire to the type of satire that George Orwell uses in animal get up. Whilst Orwell is poking fun at a political system, Austen is poking fun at the social circles that surround her in everyday life. In my let personal view, both successfully ridicule the groups that they intend to. Both authors rook on the faults, and enlarge and exaggerate them.Although Austen uses satire in her novel, it is concealed to in all pro vided the in reciteigent who see the real purpose and non righteous the comical factor of it all. Austen uses it lightly, and subtly, it is not blatant. She uses it benignly, and never take to bes to be harsh, and offensive. She shows what she has observed, and picks stacks traits it is the isthmus around her who are the inspiration for the characters in her novels. use satire she showed the social snobbery between the linees. She showed how the wealthy upper class debased their absolute and class and considered himself or herself full(prenominal)er than anyone else. They used good deal to gain social status in society, and for role model, Mr. Collins used to phone twilight to gain respect from others, when frequently it would backfire on him, and the stack would either end up express joying at him or disliking him entirely. instead often when a person was being uncivil to them, they would not notice, as it was subtle, this is satire. It is a way of stirring, but it is only ever-affected people if they could interpret it properly.In the text itself, it is very effective. On the surface the novel seems want a complicated love-story, but underneath it shows the true traits of society in the clip of Jane Austen. Austen uses characters from the novel to depict the different types of people that there were in those times.In the novel there are several(prenominal) characters that are continually do fun of satirically. The novel starts with a strong statement, It is truth universally cognise that a single man in possession of a upright fortune, must be in need of a wife. This is as if it is correct in stone, and believed by a lot of the characters, such as Mrs. Bennet, Lydia and Charlotte Lucas. By maxim this, it is showing the woman to be shallow, and only rattling fondness about the material things in life, such as how much bills a man has. The more money he has, the more charitable he is to marry. chick Catherine de Bourgh is another exa mple of a character that has been satirised. She is a lady who comes from the Upper Crust of society, and has a very high tactual sensation of her. She gauges herself to be highly intelligent and ace to everyone else. She overprotects her daughter, and has an immense amount of accommodate over those who are of her acquaintance.Austen shows dame Catherines true character using dialogue. For example, when Lady Catherine goes to visit Lizzie Bennet, and they suffer an argument, Lady Catherine defends her self by saying Do you know who I am? You are shown whom she in truth is when she talks. Her mentation is strong, and she dislikes people talking back at her. In the novel, when Lizzie Bennet was dine with her, she would frequently ask a question, then answer it herself. Austen uses Lady Catherine as an example of a person who has a lot of money, and I high up in the social hierarchy, but lacks manners and tact, and is a superior general snob.A close acquaintance of Lady Cather ine is Mr. Collins who is a cousin-german of the Bennets. He is the chaplain at Rosings Park, for Lady Catherine. Mr. Collins almost worships Lady Catherine, as she has a lot of money, and he realize is well known in society. He is incredibly materialistic, and puts money over personality. He tries to impress people by name dropping, often using Lady Catherine, in believe to gain popularity. He feels that it is important to do this, so that people give be impressed by him, as not only does he know Lady Catherine, he dines with her at least once a week. He is an example of someone who computes that he has to be accepted in society and does this by varied means.He is a snob, and dislikes people that he feels are below him, although he himself is not highly popular. He has a exquisite image of himself in his head, and holds a good opinion of himself. You are shown that he is shallow when he asks Lizzie Bennet to marry him, as he claims that he is in love with her, and then when sh e refuses, he quickly got sedulous to Charlotte Lucas, which sightly proves that he did not love Lizzie, and only asked her, as Lady Catherine said that he should hold up a wife. He is satirically make fun of most when he proposes to Lizzie Bennet. Austen makes the reader almost pity him, as he embarrasses himself to no end, without really knowing it, and making the reader jocularity at him.You can compare Mr. Collins to Mr. Darcy. Mr Darcy is high up in the social hierarchy, as he takes after his fathers name who set such an example, and he sees no reason for him to name drop at all, especially as he is already at the big top of society anyway. Mr. Darcy comes across as the type of person who is actually fine with those who are below him, and although he may be off with them, and confound formed opinions of them, his mind is not closed, and so there is a run a risk for it to change.This is shown when he is kind and civil to the Bennets who were not of the same class as him. Mr. Darcy does not seem to enjoy the company of Mr. Collins as he is a sycophant, and tries to get to know Mr. Darcy by talking about Lady Catherine, Mr. Darcys aunt. He is an example of someone who is a gentleman, and does not abuse his social rank, although it may seems like that to many people who do not know him very well. Mr. Darcy was born(p) into money, and so always knew what it was like, and so does not need to abuse it, when there are other people who were not born into money, and do. For example, they might have got their money from labouring, and then made it big, and disowned their origin history, and then mocked the people who were labouring. The Bingley babys are a perfect example of this.The Bingley sisters are examples of new money, people who were not born into money, but made their money themselves. Even though this is the case, they like to think that they were born into money, and shit that they were always in nice society. They abuse their rank in society, and they mock the people who they feel are below them, they think that those who work for their money are of the lower class this is ironic as they themselves made their money in such a way. The Bingley sisters are examples of people who have money, and really abuse it by sentiment that they are very high up in life, and are rude to those who they think are below them.Mr. Bingley is a true gentlemen, who does not discover a person by how much money they have. He is an example to all those who thought that they were better than anyone else were. He treated everyone with respect. This is shown when he move in love with Jane Bennet, who everyone else thought was far below him, and that Mr. Bingley was far superior to her. He showed everyone else that it did not matter where a person was on the replete list, but what sort of person they were, and that their personality mattered.William Lucas was a vain and self-aggrandising man, and boasts a lot about his knighthood, but he isnt re ally all that experienced, and it is all just a large faade that he is hiding behind. He is an example of someone who is really proud, but does not really have a reason to be proud. totally of the characters mentioned, and several others in the novel are metaphorically wearing a mask, and pretend to be something that they are not, just so that they can be excepted into polite society. They are all one person, as they are like sheep, and copy each other, so that they can also be excepted easier. For example, when no-one knew of the plant Wickham had done, everyone liked him, as most people did, but when some people found out what he had done, even if they did not tell anyone, you could tell that everyone else was severe to copy them by not being civil to him.They just used to follow the crowd, and they would get so caught up in what they were trying to be, that they would forget who they really were, and what their real identity was. Austen depicts this using satire in her novel, a nd makes it known to the reader what it was like in those times. In some ways it also can be reflected on what it still is forthwith, except nowadays there is a sheet over it all, and so you cannot see it that much.All in all I think that the satire is very affective, and I think that Austen uses it to her advantages, and it reflects true fully what the real situation was in those times, and how it was touchy to tell whom the real people were. I think that the satire that she uses is really clever, and it makes you think a lot. On the surface it is quite light hearted, but underneath the surface it is much deeper than humour, and it makes you understand that there was a lot of people who were so obsessed with being sociable, that in the end you had to laugh at them.It is hard to understand it fully nowadays, as times have changed, and people have different understandings. The satire could become diluted in such situations, but I think that in this case it does not, and it sash st rong. I think this because it just makes the modern world which we live in seem so much more trivial, and it gives you an understanding of what it must have been like to live then. I feel that the satire used in Pride and Prejudice is altogether witty, and clever, never once failing to mean something.