Essay on Pride and Prejudice as Romantic Novel and Romantic Criticism

Pride and Prejudice as amatory Novel and Ro globetic Criticism To a great extent, Jane Austen satirizes conventional romantic novels by inverting the expectations of experience at first sight and the celebration of passion and physical attractiveness, and criticizing their essential of sense. However, there are also elements of conventional romance in the novel, notably, in the success of Jane and Bingleys love. The first indication of Austens inversion of accepted romantic conventions is Elizabeth and Darcys mutual dislike on first sight. However, Jane and Bingley fall in love to the highest degree immediately, and the development of their romance follows conventional romantic-novel wisdom, down to the obstacles in the form of Darcys and Bingleys sisters judgment of conviction (the typical disapproval of the Family) and the attraction amidst the rich young man and the middle class maid. Their Cinderella story ends in happily-ever-after, as does Elizabeths and Darcys. Eli zabeths defiance of gentlewoman Catherine recalls Megs defiance of her aunt in Little Women, and Darcys willingness to accept Elizabeth despite the low quality of her connections is a triumph of conventional romantic-novel expectations. One of the most striking examples of Austens badinage is her emphasis on reason, as opposed to the wanton passion lauded into the sight of romantic novels. Lydia and Wickhams marriage is seen as a triumph of their passions over their chastity, and she is certain that little permanent happiness can arise from such(prenominal) a union. This is exemplified by Wickhams continuance of his extravagant habits, and the degeneracy of any feelings between them to indifference. The indifference Mr Bennet has for his wife, and the unsatisfactorine... ...Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1983. Jane Austen Info Page. Henry Churchyard. U of Texas, Austin. 23 Nov. 2000. <http//www.pemberly.com/janeinfo/janeinfo/ hypertext mark-up language>. Kaplan, Debo rah. Structures of Status Eighteenth-Century Social Experience as Form in tact Books and Jane Austens Novels. Diss. University of Michigan, 1979. Monaghan, David. Jane Austen Structure and Social Vision. New York Barnes & Noble Books, 1980. Poplawski, Paul. A Jane Austen Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut Greenwood Press, 1998. Reidhead, Julia, ed. Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 7, 2nd ed. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. Ward, David Allen. Pride and Prejudice. Explicator. 51.1 (1992). Wright, Andrew H. Feeling and Complexity in Pride and Prejudice. Ed. Donald Gray. New York W.W. Norton & Company, 1966. 410-420.