Sarcasm in Pride and Prejudice Essay Example
Sarcasm in Pride and Prejudice
Criticising Social Class
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (1). The opening sentence of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice does not only contain the novel’s major topic of marriage, but also presents an important stylistic device the author has been using throughout the whole book: Sarcasm.
For further argumentation, one would definitely have to define the meaning of “sarcasm”. The Free Online Dictionary provides several definitions of sarcasm:
1. A cutting, often ironic, remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
Two main aspects have to be looked at in detail, again: the mentioning of “ridicule” and the meaning of “wit”. “Ridicule” is the feature that is attached to most of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and can bee seen in the character’s own behaviour or it is pointed at in comments of others. The meaning of “wit” is even more important, as the Free Online Dictionary defines it as “the ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous or disparate things.” Actually, Jane Austen is perfectly able to produce this kind of wit and uses it to produce sarcasm as the novel goes on, as will be discussed later.
As a reader of Pride and Prejudice, the opening sentence might seem straight forward at first sight and in no way arguable. The want of getting married seems to be natural and human. Still, by reading on, one will find Mrs Bennet, the mother of five young unmarried ladies, narrowing this first sentence to: “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”, while telling her husband about a young well-settled man having moved to a nearby estate (1). This kind of changing
Criticising Social Class
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (1). The opening sentence of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice does not only contain the novel’s major topic of marriage, but also presents an important stylistic device the author has been using throughout the whole book: Sarcasm.
For further argumentation, one would definitely have to define the meaning of “sarcasm”. The Free Online Dictionary provides several definitions of sarcasm:
1. A cutting, often ironic, remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
Two main aspects have to be looked at in detail, again: the mentioning of “ridicule” and the meaning of “wit”. “Ridicule” is the feature that is attached to most of the characters in Pride and Prejudice and can bee seen in the character’s own behaviour or it is pointed at in comments of others. The meaning of “wit” is even more important, as the Free Online Dictionary defines it as “the ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous or disparate things.” Actually, Jane Austen is perfectly able to produce this kind of wit and uses it to produce sarcasm as the novel goes on, as will be discussed later.
As a reader of Pride and Prejudice, the opening sentence might seem straight forward at first sight and in no way arguable. The want of getting married seems to be natural and human. Still, by reading on, one will find Mrs Bennet, the mother of five young unmarried ladies, narrowing this first sentence to: “Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”, while telling her husband about a young well-settled man having moved to a nearby estate (1). This kind of changing