Elizabeth Bennet

1. Elizabeth Bennet “I must confess I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print” ~ Jane Austen ~ (in a letter to Cassandra January 29, 1813)

2. What evidence is there to support Austen’s view of Elizabeth?

3. Characterisation: • Characterisation refers to the process by which readers construct characters on the basis of evidence in the text provided by writers. This evidence may include: • Dialogue • Actions • Thoughts, feelings and deliberations • Descriptions (from a narrator or other characters)

4. Elizabeth Bennet has all the personality traits to bring her into conflict with her society: wit, intelligence, outspokenness, conceit and independence. Despite these, however, she succeeds and is rewarded with the promise of happiness. Why?

5. Case studies • In groups, use the four characterisation bullets to explain what we learn about the character* of Elizabeth in the following encounters. You may then like to compare how this is different to how she behaves at a different part of the novel, how it foreshadows…, or shows her maturity… etc (*Think about both meanings of character) • Elizabeth at the Ball • Elizabeth’s appearance at Netherfield Park • Elizabeth, later that evening • Elizabeth meets Wickham • Rejection of Darcy’s letter • Encounter with Lady Catherine • Elizabeth at Pemberley • Mr Collins’ proposal • Bennet family at Netherfield

6. Elizabeth’s education of self / maturity • In order for accurate interpretation of propriety to be made there is a need for the individual to be both an: - experiencier (note that Mary is not) and a - reasoner (Jane’s myopia sees her thinking well of the whole world) • Self-knowledge: Elizabeth states ‘I never knew myself’ and comes to realise that she had been ‘blind, partial, prejudiced and absurd’. ‘I, who have prided myself on my discernment! (Til this moment) I never knew myself. • Elizabeth in making her self-realisation has had to decipher the discrepancies between appearance and reality. • Elizabeth tries to recall some instance of goodness when she reflects on her encounter with Wickham, ‘she delighted – of integrity or benevolence, but she could remember no more substantial good’ • Elizabeth begins to contemplate questions of substance as opposed to basing her decisions on appearance. She comes to realise that of her two suitors; one has all the goodness, and the other has all the appearance of it. • So for Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice, the novel tells the unfolding of hidden reality, and coming to replace the attraction of mere appearance with substance. • Elizabeth’s understanding and development or maturity of character unfolds with the reading of Darcy’s letter, but it is not complete till she has penetrated his home and confronted the portrait and of course makes the realisation about the hand that Darcy has played in Lydia’s marriage. • Elizabeth wants to be recognised for what she is, not for what she represents (as Collins sees her as a suitable wife) – • She ‘puts truth to self above truth to role’ and subsequently represents a significant literary development for the heroine character in being the one who acts rather than the one who is acted upon. • Elizabeth by holding out against society’s plan/scheme – she helps to sustain our belief in the possibility of individual autonomy, and in her connection with Darcy shows us the possibility for connections to be made between classes in defiance of society’s conservative understanding of propriety.

7. Heroines in Romantic Literature • http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=_VV4ztam2NY • ‘The first volume dramatises Elizabeth’s impatient divergences from the stock heroine of romantic fiction and the proper young lady of moralising novelists’ Rachel Brownstein