Pride and Prejudice Flashcards
What’s an aphorism?
Generally accepted truth expressed in a short and direct sentence.
Eg ‘it’s a truth universally acknowledged’
“It is a truth…
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. “
Mrs to Mr Bennet - annoying me
“You take delight in vexing me”
Mr Bennet description quotes:
“Mr Bennet was so odd a mixture of quick parts [and] sarcastic humour”
“the experience of three-and-twenty years had been insufficient to make his wife understand his character” (ill-suited)
Mrs Bennet description quote:
“Her mind was less difficult to develope”
“She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper”
Mrs Bennet on getting her daughters married:
“The business of her life was to get her daughters married”
When was the novel set etc
Regency period, before the Victorian era (1811-1820)
- England was at war with France and it was during the Industrial Revolution; but much of England was still very rural and most people lived in the countryside.
(The novel doesn’t mention outside it’s central preoccupation is marriage and wealth. The characters’ knowledge of the outside world is non-existent ➡️ they are not concerned except the militia regiment )
What does Mrs Bennet say of Mrs Long in chapter 2?
“She is a selfish hypocritical woman, and I have no opinion of her”
(Strong sense of irony as she constantly expresses her strong opinions, making her very hypocritical)
Mr Collins changing from Jane to Elizabeth
“Mr Collins had only to change from Jane to Elizabeth - and it was soon done - done while Mrs Bennet was stirring the fire”
(Bathos)
What’s bathos?
A literary effect where Austen leaves a particularly less noble idea at the end of the sentence so that it ends with an anti-climax, lending it a comic effect.
Bingley and Darcy antithesis
“Bingley was sure of being liked wherever he appeared; Darcy was continually giving offence.”
What’s antithesis?
The pairing of opposites in the same sentence for contrasting effect.
Darcy is first described as:
“haughty, reserved, and fastidious, and his manners though well bred, were not inviting.”
Darcy and Bingley’s contrast in character quote:
“great opposition of character.”
Bingley’s first impression of Jane quote
“he could not conceive an angel more beautiful”
Mr Bennet about Lizzy being smarter
“Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters.”
(Lizzy has more of her wits about her, not frivolous and foolish like her other sisters appear to be. Jane also has a composed character however Elizabeth has more of Mr Bennet’s dry humour and from the beginning of the novel, it is apparent that she is his favourite daughter)
Mr Collins to Elizabeth about refusing
“…I know it to be the established custom of your sex to reject a man on the first application”
“your refusal of my addresses is merely words”
Mr Darcy admires and loves Elizabeth how much?
“how ardently I admire and love you.”
Mr Darcy about Lizzie’s connections and conditions:
“Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections?”
“whose conditions in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”
(Blunt, not happy about his feelings)
The moment of engagement!
“her sentiments had undergone so material a change since the period to which he alluded”
Elizabeth to Jane about her love for Darcy
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began.”
Lady Catherine de Bourgh likes what?
“She likes to have the distinction of rank preserved.”
