Irony and Social Commentary in Pride and Prejudice Essay -- Jane Auste

jeering and amicable commentary in Pride and damageLike all other society, nineteenth-century England had its share of foppish fools andfawning leeches, hot-blooded lovers and garrulous, gossiping women. piece of music few people exhibitthese failings with abandonment, few escape their taint altogether. In the novel Pride andPrejudice, the author Jane Austen satirizes these instances of not social evils rather,unpleasant social peculiarities, via a most careful use of irony in the dialogues and thoughts of around of her most delightful characters. The main character indulging in this valued commodityis Mr. bennet, whom Austen considers important enough that a razor-sharp wit forms anecessary sectionalisation of his personality. The irony is chiefly exhibited in two ship canal a general ambiencethat results from a frequent use of satiric language (as for instance, the incessant use ofantithesis in the conversations) and brief but heavy attacks by Mr. Bennet against allforms of foolishness harmless or otherwise. whole the formulaic mannerisms affected by thepeople in his society as well as the social obligations that create them become the target of Mr.Bennets criticism. However, it is clear that Mr. Bennet is very much a part of the society that heso readily despises. That he persists in devising fun of it is what makes his ripostes so rife withincongruity.The novel contains a large start of conversations between different characters theseconversations are, in keeping with the style that prevailed in that period, quite a elaborate, indeedsometimes to the point of tedium. Austen portrays an attitude of unflagging boredom in Mr.Bennet when confronted with such speeches, through his incessant ironic asides. T... ...eaning in these plainly innocuous words, for the former implies prostitution and the latter a dishonorable maternalism with a bastard child. Given the venomous character of such evenhandedlycommonplace gossip even among the presumabl y respectable rural bourgeoisie tis nowonder that Austen rallies against such a harmful form of frivolity.Austen thus uses the difficult tool of irony to great effect in depicting thefoolishness both harmful and harmless which afflicts most people. In doing so, she efficaciously delivers social commentary presumably for the purpose of correcting these defects incharacter of her lad Englishmen. Along the way, the reader is delightfully entertained by thefools inhabiting Pride and Prejudice as well as the personalities that persist in denouncing it, ina manner that is at times more farcical than satirical.6