Society plays an integral role within many of the books and stories studied so far this year. Specifically to this essay, I have focused on Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice and the question of “society functioning as a character.” The very nature of society in Austen’s work lends itself to becoming a character from the very first line to the final scene. Society’s role, at times, becomes an antagonistic one that affects the characters, their relationships with each other and their own desires as the main characters, namely Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, work to overcome the challenges that society is presenting to the growth of their relationship. In this essay, I will explore how society is a strong influential character that dictates the actions, prejudices and even pride of the characters throughout the book.  

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          Touching back on my first essay on Homer’s The Odyssey, Greek society has set rules that are used as guidelines for the interactions taking place between friends, family and strangers. It is seen throughout the epic poem, such as when Odysseus asks the Cyclops for “a guest present or otherwise / some gift of grace…” (IX 267-268) and is only given violence — an affront to Greek society.

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          The reason for looking back at past works studied is three fold. First, society in Homer’s work is a backdrop that characters are navigating through. It does present obstacles for the characters but it does not control their decisions completely. However, in Austen’s work, society shifts from backdrop to antagonistic character that controls the actions, views and expectations of the characters. To reach their happy ending, the characters need to challenge rules that society has set while staying within the confines of action that society dictates as proper. Even when breaking social rules, the characters must do so with a balance that does not upset society to the point where it breaks down, thus placing the characters in a constant tension between social class and personal desire.

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          Second, social graces are as important in Elizabeth Bennet’s time as it was in Odysseus’s and one of the many foibles of the family is that they suffer from an apparent lack of social grace. This is illustrated many times throughout the novel but it begins with the simple assurance that Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth’s mother, “was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper.” (Austen 4) In short, she was a woman lacking social graces. This sets society as an antagonistic character as it has already given a negative opinion of one member of the family that will only draw censure for both Elizabeth and her sister, Jane, later in the novel.

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          Third, on mentioning society in The Odyssey, the mirrored rules within both stories are evident. In Pride and Prejudice, society’s rules follow class lines in how men and women interact, how decorum between social classes is navigated and the proper manners that revolve around “polite” society. In The Odyssey, it is seen in the ways Odysseus interacts with propriety and care of Nausicaa’s virtue when he meets her. In Pride and Prejudice, the propriety is illustrated by the fact that a woman’s reputation is of the upmost importance, which both she and men must do their absolute best in safeguarding. Society further antagonizes the value of Elizabeth as she breaks those rules of decorum, thus hurting her reputation in such examples as having a “country town indifference to decorum,” after walking, “quite alone,” to visit her sick sister at Netherfield (Austen 23).

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          Focusing on Austen’s novel, the characterisation of society begins in the opening line with “It is a TRUTH universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen 1) From that moment, society is dictating the rules of the marriage market, which was an important part of society at that time. In that first line, society is depicted as a neutral character but by setting the parameters, society is being set up as an antagonist for the characters to overcome.

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          Furthermore, the characters are faced with restrictive expectations placed upon them by society. This is seen many times throughout the novel, but this can be seen through the censure that first Jane, and later Elizabeth, face because of events at the Netherfield ball. While the two eldest sisters act with the decorum expected of them, the rest of their family break several societal rules. Mr. Collins, an extension of the Bennet family, introduces himself to Mr. Darcy, the three younger sisters’ actions: Mary performing for the crowd with little skill or grace, and Catherine and Lydia’s flirtatious manners, Mrs. Bennet’s loud speech about a marriage between Jane and Mr. Bingley, and Mr. Bennet’s own actions at not controlling his daughters and wife all drew ire from Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley’s sisters. This break in societal manners showed the antagonism of society and builds on the class tension that is felt throughout the novel.

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          That the Bennet’s are challenging class structures in the way they behave creates tension that leads to Mr. Darcy deciding that both Jane and Elizabeth lack worth for a good match. While Elizabeth is not aware of Mr. Darcy’s feelings for her, the antagonism of society is felt through the worry for her sister Jane suffering from the fact that their family had acted as thought they’d, “made an agreement to expose themselves as much as they could during the evening.” (Austen 71)

When Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr. Collins at their home, subsequently dining several times with Lady Catherine, who is a personification of the antagonistic nature of society, we see further illustration of Elizabeth’s lack of worth to those belonging to the higher classes. As a character, Lady Catherine finds fault in everything and always has a word as to how to improve — leaving all beneath Lady Catherine subject to reproach. Upon learning that Elizabeth was one of “five daughters brought up at home without a governess,” Lady Catherine gauges her worth as lacking in the eyes of polite society, to which Elizabeth clashes within her own views of those social classes and expectations.

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          Her lack of worth is further highlighted in Mr. Darcy’s first proposal to Elizabeth where he embraces the views of society in his inclination to recite all the flaws of her status and to lament, “To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” (Austen 131) In this case, society is a palpable antagonist that pushes Darcy’s pride and hurt over Elizabeth’s rejection, which was given with her own rejection of that society, where parameters insist that she should be grateful for the interest. However, as the character’s grow and discover more about each other, they begin to challenge societal rules and find a footing that brings them up as equals in many ways.

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          By the end of the novel, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet are able to shape society into one that matches their own desires when they are able to marry for love. However, it should be noted that even by the end of that, society is still there, a less antagonistic character for the Darcy’s but one that is still dictating the rules they are making together. Illustrating that even as the characters change society, it is still, very much, a character that will forever shape and control their expectations, their prejudices, and ultimately, their pride.

 

Works Cited

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Austen, J. (1999). Pride and Prejudice. Wordsworth Classics.

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Homer. The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Richmond Lattimore, Harper and Row, 1965.