Analysis of the work Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice

This article will talk about the famous writer and her no less famous book. For those who do not remember or do not know the plot of the imperishable novel, it is outlined summary. "Pride and Prejudice" - a story about English morals society XIX century. It would seem that it could arouse interest among modern readers? However, Pride and Prejudice is a novel that has gone through countless editions. Several films and TV series have been shot based on it. Austen's novel has been read for two centuries not only in England, but also in other countries.

About the author

Not much is known about the personality and appearance of the writer. Only a portrait of Austen, painted by one of her relatives, has survived. According to some reports, she loved entertainment, but was a very sensible lady who wrote the novel “Pride and Prejudice.”

The book, reviews of which were mostly laudatory both from contemporaries and from readers of today, that is, two hundred years after publication, was rejected several times by publishers. Austen began writing the novel at the age of twenty. The publishers did not like the manuscript. Jane did not change either the plot or the main images. She shelved work on the novel and only remembered about it sixteen years later. By that time, Austen had gained considerable experience as a writer and was able to edit the work properly.

The final version of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” was written by the hand of an accomplished author of realistic prose. The book, reviews of which were initially negative from publishers, was published after careful revision. Although it is possible, the whole point is that the publishing world has changed over an impressive period of time. What was of no interest in 1798 became relevant in the second decade of the 19th century.

Style and issues

Jane Austen created her works in the genre of the novel of manners, the founder of which is considered to be Samuel Richardson. Austen's book is filled with irony and deep psychologism. The fate of the writer is similar to the fate of the heroine of the novel “Pride and Prejudice”. The plot of the work directly concerns the morals and prejudices that reigned in English society at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries.

A girl from a poor family could hardly hope for personal happiness. Jane Austen, unlike her heroine, never got married. In her youth, she had an affair with a young man whose family was also experiencing financial difficulties. They broke up. When Austen turned thirty, she ostentatiously put on a cap, thereby declaring herself an old maid.

Plot

What can you say in a summary? “Pride and Prejudice” is a story about girls from a decent English family who were not married for a long time, but were eventually led down the aisle. The Bennet sisters could have remained spinsters. After all, their family has five daughters, and this is a disaster for a poor English nobleman. Of course, no film, much less a retelling, can replace reading the novel Pride and Prejudice. Quotes from the book presented at the end of the article confirm that its author has subtle humor and keen observation.

Retelling plan

Pride and Prejudice is a novel that every educated person should read in its entirety. It’s not for nothing that Austen’s work is included in the English literature. educational program and a course in the history of world literature, which future philologists take in all European countries. For those who do not claim to be an educated, well-read person, a brief summary is provided.

“Pride and Prejudice” is a book in two parts. Each of them has several chapters. You should make a small outline before writing a summary. Pride and Prejudice has a plot that can be broken down into parts and titled as follows:

1. News of Mr. Bingley's arrival.
2. Darcy and Elizabeth.
3. Mr Collins.
4. Darcy's Confession.

News of Mr. Bingley's arrival

The life of a large, poor aristocratic family is at the center of the plot of the novel Pride and Prejudice. The main characters are the head of the family, Mr. Bennet, his nervous wife, who is not distinguished by wisdom and education, as well as their five daughters.

The Bennett sisters are girls of marriageable age. Each of them has a bright personality. The eldest, Jane, is a kind, selfless girl, according to generally accepted opinion, the most beautiful of the Bennet daughters. Elizabeth is inferior to her older sister in beauty, but not in prudence and intelligence. Lizzie is the main character. The story of this girl's love for the rich and arrogant Darcy is the main plotline of the novel. Bennet's other daughters are Mary, Catherine, Lydia.

It all begins with Mrs. Bennet learning the good news: the young, and most importantly, single Mr. Bingley, who has rented one of the richest local estates, arrives in the neighboring village.

Believing that this man must fall in love with one of his daughters, the woman pesters her husband with a demand to visit his potential son-in-law. Mr. Bingley reacts to his wife's entreaties not without sarcasm. However, the next day Bingley pays a visit and receives invitations to a party, to which he should appear together with his wife and daughters.

It is worth saying that the novel takes place in the provinces. The news of the arrival of a young aristocrat spreads with lightning speed.

Mr Darcy

Mrs. Bennet became even more excited, and subsequently disappointed, when she learned that Bingley had arrived not alone, but in the company of his friend, Mr. Darcy. This young man is also incredibly rich, coming from an old aristocratic family. But, unlike his friend, Darcy is arrogant, pompous, and narcissistic.

Bingley falls in love with Jane at first sight. Miss Bennet is also not indifferent to this young man. But only Lizzie knows about her feelings. Jane Bennet is a reserved, proud girl, which, however, does not prevent her from having an extremely kind heart. Bingley's relatives are alarmed by his affection for a girl from a dubious family. The sisters deceive him into leaving for London.

Darcy and Elizabeth

Bennett's eldest daughter will not see her lover for several months. Later it turns out that the whole thing is due to the machinations of the insidious Bingley sisters. But Elizabeth will be especially indignant at Darcy’s act. After all, it was he who made the effort to break off his friend’s relationship with Jane.

The relationship between Darcy and Lizzie cannot be called warm. They are both proud. But prejudices and prejudices, which Mr. Darcy is not without, seem to push Miss Bennet away from him. Elizabeth is significantly different from other unmarried girls. She is independent, educated, has a sharp mind and powers of observation. Deep down, she feels sympathy for Darcy. But his snobbery causes a storm of indignation in her. Their dialogue is a verbal duel, each of the participants trying to hurt the opponent as much as possible, without violating generally accepted norms of etiquette.

Mr Collins

One day, a relative appears at the Bennetts' house. His name is Collins. This is very stupid limited person. But he knows how to flatter perfectly, and therefore achieved a lot: he received a parish in the rich estate of a lady, who would later turn out to be a relative of Darcy. Collins, due to his stupidity, is also self-confident. The fact is that according to English law, after Bennett's death he must take possession of his estate. After all, he has no male heir.

Mr. Collins visits relatives for a reason. He decided to propose to Elizabeth. The time has come to get married, and he cannot find a better wife than Bennett’s daughter. She is educated, well-mannered. Besides, she will be grateful to him until the end of her days. The marriage of Lizzie and Collins will save the Bennet family from ruin and poverty. Imagine the surprise of this self-confident careerist when he receives a refusal! Elizabeth rejects Collins' proposal, but he soon finds a replacement for her. Charlotte, Lizzie's friend, accepts his proposal, being a practical and sensible girl.

Confessions of Darcy

This hero appears in the plot when Lizzie feels nothing but hostility towards Darcy. Wickham is a young, charming man. He wins over Elizabeth and later tells a heartbreaking story in which he is a martyr and Darcy the villain. Miss Bennet willingly believes Wickham's stories.

Later, when Darcy suddenly proposes, Elizabeth rejects him. But the reason for this refusal is not only Wickham, who was allegedly offended by a wealthy aristocrat. It's all about pride. And in prejudice. Darcy admits that he is ready to agree to a misalliance. But he drops a phrase that causes indignation in Lizzie’s soul. “I am ready to become close to those who are much lower than me socially,” Darcy says and is immediately refused.

The next day, Elizabeth receives a letter. In it, Darcy talks about Wickham, telling the true story of their quarrel. It turns out that the man to whom Elizabeth was so disposed is a scoundrel. And the one she disliked was offended by her cruelly and unfairly.

A few days later, one of the younger Bennett sisters disappears along with a young officer. It turns out to be the same Wickham. The Bennett family is disgraced.

Denouement

Darcy suddenly appears in the eyes main character a completely different person - kind, sincere. He saves the Bennet family from shame by forcing Wickham, almost by force, to marry the girl he dishonored. He then again asks Lizzie to become his wife, to which she happily agrees. Bingley, meanwhile, meets with Jane. Two weddings are scheduled for one day. This is the ending of the novel by one of the best writers of the nineteenth century.

Movies

The first film adaptation of the novel Pride and Prejudice was made in 1940. But the most successful is the film that came out much later.

In 1995, a six-episode film based on the novel by Jane Austen was released. The main roles were played by Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. In 2005, the film adaptation directed by Joe Wright premiered. Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen played in this film. The film based on the famous novel “Pride and Prejudice” won four Oscars.

Quotes from the book

Austen's work contains humor in a truly English style. Thanks to her sophisticated style of presentation and vivid dialogues, the works of this writer are popular all over the world. Here are a few quotes from Jane Austen's novel:

• “A woman who is the mother of five grown daughters has so little beauty left that she has to not think about it at all.”
• “If a woman hides her feelings for her boyfriend, she risks losing him.”
• “When someone tries to intimidate me, I become more defiant.”
• "You are too generous to play with my heart."

Jane Austen is one of the most popular writers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most people are known for her novel Pride and Prejudice, but this is not her only successful work. All her works are imbued with real emotions and filled with interesting thoughts. In every story, morality surrounds every action of the heroes with a thin thread, indicating the rightness and wrongness of their decisions and actions.

Jane Austen began writing this story at the age of 21. Having finished working on it, the writer gave the manuscript to the publishing house, but they refused her. I had to postpone the publication of the book for 15 long years. Before attempting to publish this novel again, Austen did a good job of completely editing and refining the material.

The novel was originally called First Impression, which is what she called it in a letter to her sister. Then in 1811 or 1812 (there are no exact data), the writer renamed the book “Pride and Prejudice.” Presumably the name was changed in order to avoid confusion with others works of the same name. There is a hypothesis that before the complete editing of the manuscript, “First Impression” was a novel in letters.

Jane Austen sold Pride and Prejudice to publisher Thomas Edgertan. He in turn published the first edition in three volumes on January 27, 1813. The second edition was published in November of the same year. The third edition was published in 1817. In the edition of the book, Jane Austen's name was not written; in the "author" line it was stated: "written by the author of Sense and Sensibility" ("Sense and Sensibility").

Genre, direction

The work is written in the novel genre. All of Austen's works are characterized by the direction of realism. All the situations in her work are connected with arranged marriages, with love between people from different levels of society - a characteristic feature of that time. It was relevant then, and is still relevant today.

The entire narration of the novel comes from Elizabeth's perspective. The reader adopts the heroine's point of view. Feels the world through her eyes, her thoughts. This feature is characteristic of almost all of the author’s works. We learn about the feelings of other characters through letters. They also contribute to further revelation of the characters of certain characters. So, in one of the letters we learn about the essence of Mr. Wickham. Through him it is revealed inner world Mr. Darcy himself.

The essence

At that time, marriages were arranged for convenience. Roughly speaking, if the party is beneficial for the future and for the family, then there is nothing to talk about. There will be a wedding. Getting married, marrying for love, was rare for people of that time. The book is dedicated to this problem: the heroine stubbornly defends her right to control her feelings. Perhaps with this work the writer wanted to show that defending your desire to marry for love is not so bad. Yes, there will be misunderstanding on the part of society, but on the other hand there will be no difficulties of living in the company of a person who is not particularly loved.

Despite the pressure of the environment, as the example of the heroine proves to us, it is worth remaining true to yourself. If you feel that you are doing the right thing, that your feelings do not deceive you, and you understand that otherwise it will be worse for you, then you need to continue to be confident in this and not succumb to the provocations of other people. This is the only way to remain happy and be known as a firm person who cannot be broken by other people’s opinions.

The main characters and their characteristics

1. The main character of the novel is Elizabeth Bennett- a sensible girl who knows exactly what she wants. Lizzie, as her father affectionately calls her, is incapable of adapting to anyone's wishes. She is ready to go against the opinion of the majority if she is sure that the solution they propose will not bring her happiness. Despite her sound mind, she is not without a light and cheerful disposition. He loves to joke and laugh, and is sympathetic to the whims of his family. She is not as insightful, but that is her charm. Over time, she will be able to see the true colors of the people around her. She judges them based on their first impression, but can just as easily change her mind when she realizes that she was mistaken about the person.
2. Mr Darcy- one more main character. His image is composed of the main features of a rich and worthy man. He combines nobility with arrogance, great intelligence with disdain, and introverted behavior with a big heart. Mr. Darcy has a different upbringing than Elizabeth Bennet. He is a man of noble blood, belongs to a different level of society. He reveres everything discreet, neat and clear. He doesn't understand small town life. Initially, it seems as if this hero is a negative character, but over the course of the story his image is revealed. It becomes clear that despite the betrayal of a friend who was like a brother to him, despite the fact that it was difficult for him to accept his feelings for the “simpleton” Elizabeth, he showed his nobility, he helped Miss Lydia Bennet without any personal gain. He is the ideal of many girls.

Topics and issues

1. Obviously affected pride problem, which becomes a barrier between lovers or loved ones. It destroys feelings, makes you resist and feel like an absolute “ram” because you are standing at a dead end and don’t want to budge even a millimeter. You see only a wall in front of you, but if you tense up and look to the side, you can see that this wall is easy to get around, you just have to understand that pride means nothing when it turns into pride and arrogance, fed by prejudices.
2. The problem of social inequality and, as a consequence, prejudice. Jane Austen very successfully changed the title of the book. After all, in essence, it makes you wonder which of them is proud and which is prejudiced. Mr. Darcy hurt Elizabeth's pride by saying that she was neither so beautiful nor smart enough to be able to accompany him in the dance. Mr. Darcy is precisely prejudiced against Lizzie because of her family and first impression. It seems to him that a woman who is lower in origin and has such “strange” relatives cannot be next to him. But all this can be turned in the opposite direction. Mr. Darcy is too proud to even notice Elizabeth and show even a drop of condescension towards her, and Elizabeth is too prejudiced about his behavior in society, because he behaved very arrogantly and arrogantly. She has a definite opinion about him, therefore, she is already prejudiced and cannot discern something more serious and different in him.
3. Again and again the author touches on the topic of the influence of other people on a person’s opinions and actions. Thus, Mr. Bingley was seriously influenced by Mr. Darcy. He, not being convinced of his own arguments, assured the poor lover that Jane was not particularly interested in him as a future beloved wife; rather, she was simply worried about the desire to get married in order to quickly satisfy her mother’s requests and leave her home. But in fact, Jane was a more subtle person who carefully hid her feelings so as not to seem frivolous.
4. From this we can derive another small problem revealed in this work - the problem of closed character. Hiding your feelings so much that your lover has no idea about reciprocity is not always good. But this is everyone's personal matter. Too individual.
5. Also affected to some extent theme of family and education. The relationship between Jane and Lizzie is great propaganda for modern society. Friendship between sisters, respect for parents, love between parents, a touch of humor - all these are a combination of ideal components that form a strong bond in the family. Although their middle sister Mary was very different in character from the other two, she was loved. The family is multi-character and that is why it is good. In addition, the children were raised independently by Mrs. Bennet, without governesses. For high society, this is an indicator of recklessness, but, nevertheless, she managed and raised worthy daughters. Although Miss Lidy did not quite live up to her mother's expectations. Perhaps it was indeed because of insufficient upbringing that she grew up so frivolous.

Meaning

The idea of ​​the novel is that all our human prejudices do not matter when it comes to love. A person desperately fills his head with these viruses that poison all feelings. If you look into all this, then only emotions remain. And this is the most important thing. Mr. Darcy, like Elizabeth Bennet, became entangled in their own pride and prejudices, but, having managed to overcome them, they became absolutely happy.

In addition, the writer invested strong-willed character traits into her heroine, setting an example for the ladies of her century. Elizabeth knows her worth, despite her family's poverty. She is not going to sell herself at a brides fair just to get richer. She is driven by dignity, which she does not forget about for a minute. This woman is free from greed and outside influence. By portraying such a virtuous and independent heroine, the author taught a lesson to his contemporaries, which is not a sin to repeat today, because we are sometimes surrounded by mercantile and driven girls who are ready to do anything to move up the social ladder.

Criticism

Jane Austen's novels are always popular. Even today, her books are recognized as the standard of English prose throughout the world. "Pride and Prejudice" takes second place in the top "200" best books according to the BBC." In 2013, the 200th anniversary of the work was celebrated around the world. Even such well-known publications as The Huffington Post, The New York Times and The Daily Telegraph took part in the celebration.

The first edition of the book was a success with the public and critics. Lord Byron's wife, Anna Isabella Byron, called this work a "fashionable novel." George Henry Lewis, a famous critic and reviewer, also gave positive criticism of this work.

But, nevertheless, there were those who completely criticized this novel. Thus, Charlotte Brontë, in a letter to Lewis, compared Austen’s novel to a cultivated garden with neat borders, delicate flowers, where there is not a single hill, open area. In other words, the writer lacked something vital and refreshing in her work. Charlotte Brontë believed that the novel did not deserve an ounce of praise and admiration. She reproached Austen for her inability to see the life of her people as it is. There are several more negative reviews about the work from famous people, but perhaps it is better to have your own opinion about the book. After reading it, you can love or hate this novel, but we must admit that this is a classic in literature that you need to know and be able to understand.

Jane Austen herself, in a letter to her sister, said that she was very worried that the novel was too “sunny and sparkling”; she wanted to make it stricter and more correct.

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COURSE WORK

"The Image of the Province in Jane Austen's Novel

"Pride and Prejudice"

INTRODUCTION

The work of Jane Austen belongs to the transitional period of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, when the artistic and literary system changed its direction in development from the Enlightenment to romanticism and realism, which almost simultaneously coexisted in Great Britain and mutually influenced each other. The writer’s novels are constantly in the zone of unflagging reader and research attention, which is associated with the originality of the artistic solution in them to the so-called “eternal” existential questions of human existence. To this day, they are in demand by the reader, as they are dedicated to universal human values ​​that do not lose their relevance, and they reveal the evolution of the concept of a woman’s personality in historical and literary development. The interest of professional researchers is based on the opinion that Jane Austen is an innovator of motifs and techniques that enriched English realistic prose. In this regard, Austen’s work is perceived as the foundation for important discoveries in English literature of the 30s of the 19th century. The consonance of Austen’s works with the most pressing problems of modern civilization determines the demand for research addressed to the “universal human component” of her work, even today, in beginning of XXI century.

Despite the fact that the work and life of Jane Austen was studied by such famous critics as R. Liddell, M. Madrick, W. Scott, A. Kettle, S. Morgan, N. Auerbach, R. Fehrer, M. Bradbury, R. Chapman, W. Booth, A. Litz, the analysis of her work is still relevant and interesting in research today.

In a fairly representative foreign and domestic research tradition in the field of studying creative heritage Jane Austen, however, in our opinion, is an aspect that has not been sufficiently studied, such as the influence of the province on the formation of the writer’s worldview and creativity. Related to this is the scientific novelty of the work, which lies in a detailed examination of provincial England in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”. The relevance of the study becomes especially obvious in the context of unquenchable interest in the personality of Jane Austen and her work.

The purpose of the course work is to analyze the image of the English province in Jane Austen's novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

Coursework objectives:

Identification of the relationship between biographical events in Austen’s life and her work;

Revealing the influence of Jane Austen's provincial life on the plot of her novels;

Justification of the need to study the novel “Pride and Prejudice” in terms of historical value;

Consideration of the mental priorities and stereotypes of the provincial environment of England in the 18th century;

Study of stylistic means of revealing the characters' characters based on the novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

The subject of the study is the novel “Pride and Prejudice” itself in Russian and the original language.

The object of the study is the English province of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.

Main research methods: methods of conceptual, philological, functional, component text analysis, elements of comparative, descriptive methods, historical and etymological method.

The theoretical significance of the work lies in the fact that the image of the province in the novel is considered as important characteristic lifestyle and morality of provincials of the 18th century in England.

The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the presented materials can be used in the practice of university teaching when developing courses on the history of English literature of the 18th - 19th centuries.

The presented work, in addition to the introduction and conclusions, contains three sections that clarify theoretical and practical issues on the formulated topic. In addition, a list of processed scientific sources is attached.

The research material is the original text of Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” and its Russian translation, biographical articles about the writer, publications and studies of Austen’s work, critical literature.

This work can be used for further research.

1. JANE AUSTEN – THE “FIRST LADY” OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

1.1 Jane Austen - the founder of the classic romance novel

Due to the established literary tradition, most authors are men. And in order for “women’s” literature to occupy its niche, it is necessary to position itself as a unique and independent cultural phenomenon. It is necessary to find a different approach to literary activity. A female author, describing her model of seeing and understanding the world, focuses on personal observations and experiences; she is looking for special ways of perceiving and assessing reality, trying not to get lost in the established standards of the male literary tradition. This is what made Jane Austen's novels so popular.

Jane Austen is rightfully considered the “first lady” of English literature; the positivist critic Lewis puts her as an example to Charlotte Bronte, her “exemplary realism” becomes the basis for followers of this genre. Later, J. Eliot discovers the connection of his aesthetic principles with the practice of the “incomparable” (as defined by W. Scott) Jane.

Despite the little fame and popularity of this name in the 19th century, the study of Austen’s literary heritage began during her lifetime. W. Scott, who became one of the first critics and reviewers of Jane Austen, dedicated a detailed article to the novice author. The writer noted the emergence of a fundamentally new “novel style” depicting the everyday life of a person, in which he saw the origin of a realistic image. W. Scott, in his statements about the author’s creative style, expressed the idea that Austen “creatively approaches the romantic heritage and in many ways surpasses his predecessors.”

Jane Austen gave the basis for English realism, which was developed by her followers. She has been and continues to be set as an example more than once. After all, to tell the truth, today there are few writers whose books can be reread at least twice. And reading Austen’s novels at different ages, each time you discover them in a new way, drawing truths and drawing conclusions for yourself, determining what is funny and stupid, and what you really should learn. For example, meekness and patience, the ability to neglect one’s principles and pride, prejudice and arrogance.

It is difficult to disagree with W. Litz, who wrote in his monograph about Austen: “We call her the first “modern” English novelist because she was the first prose writer who synthesized what Fielding and Richardson had achieved, thereby anticipating the classical images of the 19th century, that method him, which allowed artists to reflect both the course of external events and the complexity of individual impressions and perceptions of the individual.”

Everything that she herself wrote was perceived and revised by her followers. “It stands at a crossroads in the history of the novel, anticipating in some respects the greater preoccupation with moral issues of the Victorians, while at the same time maintaining the objectivity, skepticism and detachment of the 18th century. Although her social range was limited... in some respects she knew more and had a broader view of life than many of the more experienced and learned writers who came after her."

M. Bradbury emphasizes the relevance and topicality of the writer’s work. According to the researcher, while focusing on the “moral” world in his novels, Austen, however, focuses on what is reasonable and desirable in social relations (marriage, material security). From the point of view of M. Bradbury, Austen's novels are distinguished by a type of narrative style that is progressive compared to previous literature: the omniscient narrator is replaced by the characters' reflections about what is happening. The comparison of different points of view deepens the psychologism of the narrative, and their obvious polarity creates a comic effect. The listed circumstances, from the researcher’s point of view, indicate both a certain dependence of Austen’s work on the aesthetics of the Enlightenment, and the emergence of features of the author’s realistic consciousness.

Jane Austen was the herald of realism in British literature, the founder of the family, “ladies' novel.” She revolutionized the art of narrative, establishing the leading role of the novel and proving that women have the right to creativity. At one time, Jane Austen took up her pen when a woman writer was criticized and not taken seriously.

The history of the creation of her most popular and famous novel, Pride and Prejudice, begins back in 1796. Austen finished it by August of the following year; she was then twenty-one. Little is known about this early version of the book from its original title, First Impressions. As far as is known, no copy of that original exists. Three months after Miss Austen finished the book, her father offered the manuscript to a publisher in the hope that it would be published. The publisher refused without even seeing the manuscript.

Fortunately for all her fans, the first refusal did not stop Miss Austen, she continued to write; although it was not until the winter of 1811, fourteen years after finishing First Impressions, that she took up the manuscript and began revising it into the book we know today as Pride and Prejudice. The work was much more successful than its earlier incarnation; it was accepted for publication and presented to the world on January 28, 1813.

Jane Austen's name was never attached to any of her published novels during her lifetime, and the title page of Pride and Prejudice read: "From the Author of Sense and Sensibility."

So why are Jane Austen's novels so popular today? Why, despite the fact that the manners and era that gave birth to them are long gone, do they continue to touch and excite readers? The answer to this question is simple. Jane Austen was a great artist who had the ability to “live the lives of her heroes and convey this feeling to readers.” “She was interested in the ordinary, and not what is called extraordinary,” noted S. Maugham. “However, thanks to her visual acuity, irony and wit, everything she wrote was extraordinary.”

The reason for Austen's eternal youth is her subtle irony and cheerful laughter. Immutable truths, outwardly accepted with respect by her, are subjected to ironic ridicule; Her laughter not only amuses, but also awakens thought and undermines the very foundations of false social principles. This is the enduring significance of Austen's irony, its humanity and ethical value.

1.2 The influence of the province on the writer’s work

Jane Austen's life was relatively short and uneventful. She was born in Hampshire into the family of a priest. The family was large: Jane grew up surrounded by six brothers and a sister. The Austins were poor. They kept no servants; only from time to time a village girl came to help with the housework. Mrs. Austin smoked hams and made mead and beer; Cassandra cooked; Jane covered the whole family.

Despite the fact that rural existence did not indulge in variety, life in the rural wilderness played a beneficial role for the writer’s creativity. All her works do not pretend to be more than a description of the life of two or three modest provincial families. But the author’s excellent knowledge of human nature and psychology, her subtle humor, her jewelry pen even today, two centuries later, never cease to amaze and delight, giving every right to rank the novels she created among the masterpieces of world literature.

Jane Austen had one quality that is not often found in novelists: she knew her capabilities and their limits. As a fifteen-year-old girl, writing her first unfinished novel in the corner of the classroom, she had already firmly outlined with school chalk the circle of themes, characters and relationships that she recognized as her own; that circle that will not be crossed even in the years of mature creativity. According to the writer, the most interesting topic seemed to her to be “the life of several families living in the countryside.”

To some this may seem small and modest, but in this field Jane Austen managed to create surprisingly capacious images and situations that, with purely English humor, described the life of middle-class people in the English province, and received the title of “Queen of the English Novel.” The secret of her popularity is simple: she wrote about what she knew thoroughly, she knew based on her observation and experience taken from everyday life, since she was born in the provinces.

A quiet, cozy place in rural England, where all more or less worthy people know each other, visit each other, discuss each other- This is an unusually stable world. A world where there is no place for cataclysms and catastrophes, where relationships are simple and clear, where people have enough time to think about and deeply analyze the events that happen to them; where there is a place for feelings, they are important, they are given significant meaning.

Calmly and without tension, she guides the reader through the plot lines of her novels. There is no doubt that Jane Austen is a subtle psychologist of human characters, she is not distracted by detailed descriptions of appearance, interior, nature, the inner world of a person is important to her, which is revealed through dialogues between the characters in novels. Jane Austen looks at the events of the era from her own unique perspective.

Having analyzed the life of the founder of the classic romance novel, you can, through the prism of the irony of the pen, see in her novels real people with whom she had to deal, somewhere even herself, her experiences and problems, between the lines you can see the almost transparent haze of the most hidden corners of her soul, hear whispers of the deepest secrets of her life. She wrote about the sphere of life in which she herself grew up; she knew the problems of the provincials from the inside. At the same time, unlike her predecessors, as E. Baker correctly noted, Austen was not fundamentally a “educational or moralizing” novelist.

The novelist consciously gravitated towards the economical use of artistic and visual means. She strove to express in a few words, without any verbal embellishment, the most important and necessary things. It is characteristic that Austen sought to draw these visual means from the sphere of the everyday reality that surrounded her.

“Her judgments,” writes Kettle, “are always based on actual facts and the aspirations of her heroes. Taken in a broad sense, they are always social. Human happiness in her understanding is by no means an abstract principle.”

The writer’s work stands at the origins of English critical realism of the 19th century. Her literary heritage comprise six novels about the life and morals of the English small nobility and rural clergy. Austen's powers of observation, as her novels show, were unusually acute, but she did not write about everything she knew and saw. She was interested in the psychological background of ordinary, everyday actions in the provincial corners of England. “You can’t even say about a writer like Jane Austen that she is original - she is simple and natural, like nature itself,” wrote one of the most insightful critics G.-K. Chesterton.

Jane Austen is a master of everyday life; she easily depicts characters and faces through the prism of subtle humor and irony. The secret of the enduring popularity of Jane Austen's novels is simple: she, several centuries ahead of her time, wrote about what so deeply worries human minds and souls. Jane Austen wrote about how simple and difficult it is to combine love and prejudice, sincere love and the need to “improve” your financial condition through a successful marriage. Reading any novel by Jane Austen confirms the idea that only someone who himself experienced the struggle of these contradictory principles could portray them so faithfully.

2. THE IMAGE OF THE PROVINCE IN JANE AUSTEN’S NOVEL “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.”

2.1 The English province is a key element of the artistic space in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

The image of the province is not new; it has been present in the works of many authors for centuries, but Jane Austen introduced the most complex thoughts into it in an accessible presentation , a thorough knowledge of human nature, English humor and love in its purely “feminine” understanding.

The everyday life of ordinary people, the little things in the life of provincial existence - this is the artistic space of the novel “Pride and Prejudice”, where Austen, thanks to his subtle wit and brilliant irony, reaches great depth.

The description of the province itself is very laconic and restrained; Jane avoids unnecessary descriptions and unnecessary details, strictly subordinating all elements of the narrative to its main development. She criticizes novels in which "circumstances are introduced that have apparent significance, but which, however, lead nowhere." There were no such circumstances in her novels; in them all descriptions, all landscapes are used for the further development of action or characters.

There is almost no landscape in the novel: a few lines of description of Rosings and Pemberley. The names of towns and estates are often fictitious, for example, Netherfield Park, Meryton, Hansford, Westerham, etc.

The novel takes place in Longbourn, "the village in which they [the Bennets] lived, and where the Bennet family occupied a prominent position." The name of the village is also fictitious. The Lucases, with whom the Bennetts were on friendly terms, live next door. Nearby, in Netherfield, Mr. Bingley and his sisters and his friend, Mr. Darcy, appear. They visited here occasionally, introducing new topics for the conversations of everyone around them, adding variety to the everyday life of provincial residents.

In her novel, Jane Austen combines the intimacy of depicting the life of provincial English families - “painting miniatures with a thin brush,” as the writer herself defined her artistic style - with an amazing breadth of coverage of life phenomena. Reading the novel, we learn about various aspects of life in England at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries: about the economy, politics, social structure, church, the institution of marriage in those days, about morals, life, manners, clothing. The English province, as a key element of the novel's artistic space, is necessary to characterize that era, for the development of action and for a brighter comic effect.

Austen does not have descriptions of outfits or furnishings in the house, but the reader clearly imagines the place of origin of the actions through the dialogues and caustic comments of the novelist herself.

The small nuances of human relationships are conveyed in great detail, which, together with the fascinating “Old English” dialogues, evokes a feeling of immersion in the atmosphere of the 19th century and in the world of an individual English family. The following dialogues of the characters in the novel “Pride and Prejudice” are interesting:

"The country," said Darcy, "can in general supply but a few subjects for such a study. In a country neighborhood you move in a very confined and unvarying society."

"Yes, indeed," cried Mrs. Bennet, offended by his manner of mentioning a country neighbourhood. "I assure you there is quite as much of that going on in the country as in town."

"I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the country, for my part, except the shops and public places. The country is a vast deal pleasanter, is it not, Mr. Bingley?"

"When I am in the country," he replied, "I never wish to leave it; and when I am in town it is pretty much the same. They have each their advantages, and I can be equally happy in either."

"Aye-that is because you have the right disposition. But that gentleman," looking at Darcy, "seemed to think the country was nothing at all."

One can note the very simple way of life of families in the English province. The man is responsible for the financial support of the family, the inheritance is passed on only through the male line, thus the daughters have only one hope - marriage. What are the female half of England doing? – Attending balls and discussing events taking place in the surrounding area. Reasoning about life is also very simple. “Whoever is interested in dancing, it doesn’t cost anything to fall in love.”

“Ah, if I could see one of my daughters happy mistress of Netherfield,” Mrs. Bennet said to her husband, “and marry the others just as successfully, then I would have nothing more to desire.”

The female half certainly meets after the balls in order to discuss the events that took place at the ball - this is an integral part of their life. They discuss every detail, every word spoken during the dances, and plan further actions to win men’s hearts.

Wherever in the provinces, the problem of marriage is purely a property problem. This is why Austen's characters so often put words like match and fortune next to each other in their conversations. “As to a fortune it is a most eligible match,” notes one of the heroines of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” in connection with the marriage of Mr. Collins and Charlotte Lucas. “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” - this is how the first chapter of the novel begins. "Fortune" - i.e. the wealth that a young landowner has the good fortune to possess becomes and should become an object of desire for the environment where he will most likely begin to look for a life partner. Because not only negative characters, but those who sympathize with the writer constantly talk about fortunes, profitable parties and inheritances.

By immersing the reader in the atmosphere of the English province, Jane Austen gives us the opportunity to better understand the actions of the characters in the novel and compare the actions of different layers of the gentry. On every page of the novel Pride and Prejudice, the English countryside is a key backdrop for the development of events.

2.2 Images of the provincial nobility and their role in the novel.

The focus of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” is the private life of the provincial nobility, among which the author identifies people of various property status. The plot of the novel is simple, and the grouping of characters in it is strictly thought out. The provincial family is, as they say, “middle-class”: the father of the family, Mr. Bennet, is of quite noble blood, phlegmatic, prone to a stoically doomed perception of both the life around him and himself; He treats his own wife with particular irony: Mrs. Bennet really cannot boast of either origin, intelligence, or upbringing. The Bennett couple have five daughters: the eldest, Jane and Elizabeth, will become the central heroines of the novel.

The action takes place in a typical English province. Sensational news comes to a small town: one of the richest estates in the area will no longer be empty: it has been rented by a rich young man, a “metropolitan thing” and aristocrat, Mr. Bingley. However, Mr. Bingley does not arrive alone; he is accompanied by his sisters, as well as his friend Mr. Darcy. The action develops around one, at first glance, seemingly trivial conflict: Elizabeth Bennet meets with the aristocrat Darcy. She feels Darcy's disdain for her family, and a prejudice against him is born in her, which is difficult for her to overcome even when mutual feelings are born between people. Darcy, in turn, aware of his superiority (both class and personal) over the provincial gentry, first reveals emphasized arrogance in the presence of Elizabeth, and then, having fallen in love with the girl, overcomes both his pride and his prejudices.

Let us dwell in more detail on the images of the provincial heroes of the novel. J. Austen characterizes human nature in his work as “a combination ... of good and bad.” Her character appears in development, in the unity of the particular and the general, “so unlike anyone else and so similar to others.” This deeply innovative understanding of the nature of character allowed Austen to create psychologically convincing images in the novel Pride and Prejudice.

The main character of the novel, Elizabeth Bennet, is the artistic discovery of Jane Austen. Elizabeth, who grew up in the family of a poor provincial squire, in an environment characterized by petty interests and narrow-mindedness, stands out sharply from the general background. Her mindset can be called analytical. She thinks a lot and seriously, observing the morals of the people around her. However, the writer does not idealize the heroine. Miss Bingley remarks: “There is so much folk complacency in her whole appearance that it is impossible to reconcile herself with it! »

She is poor and suffers from the vulgarity of her family. Living under the same roof with a mother who did not shine with tact and intelligence, and with obnoxious younger sisters, was very painful for Elizabeth. In Elizabeth's character there is no frivolity, a thoughtless pursuit of entertainment, characteristic of her younger sister Lydia. The monotony and monotony of everyday provincial life make any trip that promises a change of impressions, the opportunity to meet new people, so desirable. Therefore, her aunt’s offer to go on a trip with them causes outright delight. “What a delight! What felicity! .

Elizabeth is a heroine with a rich inner life; concrete facts of reality make her think about the imperfections of human nature. She understands well the limitations of her mother, she is antipathetic to the vanity of the priest Collins and the prim arrogance of the rich and noble Lady de Bourg.

In her refusal to marry the priest Collins, the character of Elizabeth is revealed at its best. Her words convince us that before us is a woman who will not go against her feelings, for whom in love and marriage it is not considerations of self-interest or profit that are important.

"Mr. Collins," she says, "is a vain, pompous, narrow-minded, stupid man... The woman who marries him cannot be considered sane." Thus, through her attitude towards Collins, Elizabeth’s character is convincingly revealed, her integrity and uncompromisingness become obvious.

Elizabeth's opposite is her sister Lydia, although they grew up and were raised in the same family. She is the most frivolous of the five daughters of the Bennet family. Lydia is proud of her new military gentlemen, and reproaches Elizabeth for her pickiness in relation to gentlemen. “Jane will soon be our old maid, honestly! She's almost twenty-three already! If I hadn’t been able to get myself a husband before these years, I would have burned with shame.” She just wants to get married, she does not lose herself in thoughts about the similarity of interests, about the inner qualities of people, about who exactly to live with, it seems to her that she doesn’t care with whom, the main thing is that she is married, and before her older sisters.

All her actions are illogical, reckless and short-sighted. Lydia doesn't think about social status and about the ability of the officers to provide her with a decent income, which would be enough to live on. She doesn't care about those around her or her family. This is perfectly confirmed by the fact of her escape with Wickham. Lydia does not think at all about the consequences, and does not think at all about what reputation she creates for the whole family, what example Kitty sets. She doesn't respect family values and does not care at all about the reputation of his family name, disgracing his mother and father with his frivolous behavior, and preventing his sisters from getting married with such fame.

The image of Darcy is revealed in general in less detail than the image of Elizabeth. Austen highlights in this hero, first of all, one leading feature - his pride. “He can be completely different,” says Wickham, “if he finds meaning in it. With those who are equal to him in position in society, he behaves differently than with those who have succeeded in life less than him.”

Darcy is attractive because of his “good fortune” - ten thousand pounds a year. However, in addition, he is the owner of “fine, tall person, handsome features, noble miens” - that is, “a beautiful slender figure, pleasant facial features and aristocratic manners.” However, Mr. Darcy has one significant flaw: he is not at all “agreeable.” Moreover, despite his aristocracy, he has “disagreeable contenance”, that is, “unfriendly manners, unfriendly behavior.”

How is this hostility expressed? The fact is that he danced only two dances with familiar ladies - Mr. Bingley's sisters - and flatly refused to make new acquaintances, both among men and among ladies. He "passed the remainder of the evening walking about the room, and from time to time uttering a few words to some of his company." Such unsociability quickly turns everyone's sympathy away from the aristocrat. Darcy, meanwhile, moves from unfriendly to rude. When Mr. Bingley, fascinated by Jane Bennet, notices that Jane's younger sister Elizabeth is left without a partner, he invites his friend to invite Elizabeth. But Mr. Darcy does not share his enthusiasm. Seeing that Elizabeth is close enough to hear their conversation, he nevertheless tells his friend that the second Miss Bennet is “tolerable” - “acceptable”, but nevertheless “not handsome enough to tempt me” - “not good enough for to attract me."

Darcy makes a certain impression on those around him: a proud, arrogant person. This is how he perceives local society at the beginning of the novel: “Darcy, on the contrary, saw around him a crowd of rather ugly and completely tasteless people, in whom he did not feel the slightest interest and from whom he did not notice any attention or affection.” Being in the grip of snobbish prejudices, Darcy managed to separate his friend Bingley from Jane Bennet, believing that the latter, due to her “social position, was an unsuitable couple for him.”

Despite his negative qualities, Darcy has intelligence, strength of character, and the ability to love. He says the following about himself: “I have enough weaknesses. I just hope my mind is free of them. But I wouldn’t vouch for my character.” The refusal Darcy received from Elizabeth was a difficult test for his pride. A man of an aristocratic upbringing, he did not betray the feelings raging within him. Given his restraint, the most natural way of expressing emotions was not direct dialogue with his chosen one, but correspondence with her.

One of the brightest representatives of the provincial English environment is the image of Mrs. Bennet. “She is frankly stupid, blatantly tactless, extremely narrow-minded and, accordingly, very high opinion about oneself, with an unstable mood. When she was dissatisfied with something, she believed that her nerves were not in order. Her only entertainment was visits and news.”

The image of Mrs. Bennet, her narrow-mindedness and primitive thinking are expressed through dialogue in a comic-everyday style. The verbose speeches put into Mrs. Bennet’s mouth objectively parody philistine ideas and interests. They allow us to present in an ironic way the mores of a very specific social environment. Mrs. Bennet is obsessed with only one idea, like all mothers in England at that time - to marry off their five daughters:

“- A young bachelor with an income of four or five thousand a year! Isn’t it a good opportunity for our girls?”

Mrs. Bennet does not understand that she looks stupid and does not feel ridicule, zealously defending her point of view and not seeing the subtext of mockery in her husband’s speeches. Her image is truthful and frank, she always says what she thinks, although not always thinking about the consequences. The final goal is important to her, and it doesn’t matter what sacrifices will be made to achieve it. So, she sends her own daughter, dear Jane, into the rain, risking her health, but benefiting Jane’s soul and heart, because in this way she spends several days in the care of the person dear to her heart - Mr. Bingley.

As for Mr. Bennet, having married a narrow-minded, spiritually undeveloped woman, he, instead of raising her, considered it better to isolate himself - from Mrs. Bennet, from her stupidity, truly unprecedented, and at the same time from the world with its problems - the walls of the library or a newspaper. Disappointed in the family idyll, he sneers at everything, despises everyone around him, including, it seems, himself. Over the years, indifference becomes not only a protective shell, but also second nature for Mr. Bennet, whose existence, in fact, is even more meaningless than his wife, who, although stupid, is not cynical. Even at the beginning of their marriage, Mr. Bennet regretted that behind his wife’s beautiful appearance he did not see the narrowness of her horizons. He acts rudely by ridiculing his wife’s stupidity and ignorance in the presence of his own daughters.

"Almost all of Mr. Bennet's property consisted of an estate generating two thousand pounds a year. Unfortunately for his daughters, this estate was inherited through the male line and, since there was no male child in the family, passed on the death of Mr. Bennet to a distant relative. Funds Mrs. Bennet, sufficient in her present situation, could in no way compensate for the possible loss of the estate in the future. Her father during his lifetime was a solicitor in Meryton, leaving her only four thousand pounds.

That is, if the Bennet young ladies do not find husbands for themselves after the death of their father, they will have to leave their home and live with five of them on Mrs. Bennet’s very limited income. It is not surprising that Mrs. Bennet is nervous and fixated on catching suitors.

The image of Collins is one of the most colorful in the novel. Collins is presented as a smug fool on his first visit to the Bennett house. He is unbearably pompous and verbose. He endlessly praises his own merits and the advantages of his position, the main one of which is the patronage of the wealthy aristocrat Lady Catherine de Bourg. As a preacher in the parish that is part of Lady de Bourg's domain, Collins in every possible way advertises his devotion to her. He is extremely proud that a lady with a title has brought him closer to her: “my humble abode is separated only by a lane from Rosings Park, her Ladyship’s residence.” Characteristically, Collins is by no means a hypocrite. Therefore, Collins' humiliating speech (my humble abode) is a highly typical phenomenon, corresponding to the very essence of his character. Mr. Collins says with respectful delight: “Her behavior to my dear Charlotte,” he continues, “is charming. We dine at Rosings twice every week, and are never allowed to walk home. Her Ladyship"s carriage is regularly ordered for us. I should say, one of her Ladyship"s carriages, for she has several" . He cannot stress enough that Lady de Bourg has not one, but several crews. This elevates him in his own eyes. Distinctive feature Mr. Collins is the need to flatter everyone who is significantly higher than him. He, without hesitation, tells the following about himself: “I have more than once observed to Lady Catherine, that her charming daughter seemed born to be a duchess, and that the most elevated rank... would be adorned by her.”

All of the above allows us to assert that Collins embodied both tendencies characteristic of English snobbery - groveling before superiors and a sense of self-superiority in relation to everyone else.

Interestingly, the name Collins became a household name in English, the same as the name Dombey or Pickwick. Collins is pomposity, pomposity, sycophancy, intoxication with title and position. The image of Collins is characterized by significantly greater social content than the other characters discussed above. In this regard, humor here ultimately acquires a satirical sound.

Lady Catherine de Bourgh perfectly complements and sets off Collins,

which appears on the pages of the novel twice. Elizabeth meets-

with her when he comes to visit the Collinses. She is struck by the unceremonious

Monstrousness of the mistress of the estate: she considers herself entitled to question

Collins and Elizabeth about any details of their private life, including

hang around and give advice on how to run a household, etc. Another time

Lady de Bourg herself comes to the Bennet house. Now she's pouring on

Elizabeth is a real stream of abuse. She called the rumor about a possible

the rumor of her nephew, Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth a vile invention, for-

thereby using threats and insults against Elizabeth and her

relatives. The authoritative and peremptory tone of her speech, the choice itself

words like the upstart, retentions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune testify not only to hostility towards Elizabeth, but also to the rudeness and unceremoniousness of this high-born lady.

The images of the heroes of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” bear traces of the influence of those mores and the morality that were dominant among the provincial classes of England at that time. We still see images of Osten’s heroes today, recognizing their speech or manner of behavior in people around us and acquaintances.

2. 3 The influence of the social environment on the formation of the characters of the heroes of the novel “Pride and Prejudice”

Whichever strong personality was not a person, the social environment dictates its own principles and rules. Based on the degree of activity of the speakers and their role during the conversation, the reader can get an idea of ​​the social affiliation of the interlocutors, the essence of the relationship between them, since each person’s speech reflects his social consciousness. The topics of conversation are usually determined by the interlocutors, who in the novel represent the social “tops”. They have a “monopoly” in the conversation. Those who are dependent on their whim and favor due to their “low” origin adapt to these people. In conversations, they learn to “keep their distance.” .

Those who have a sense of pride and self-esteem do not stoop to ingratiation and flattery. But their relatively low social position often condemns them to the role of passive listeners or, conversely, forces them to speak when they want to remain silent.

In the psychologically and socially conditioned speech of the heroes, Austen highlights another important mental and spiritual phenomenon: their desire for self-affirmation. It is expressed, first of all, in the straightforward statements of the heroes about themselves and their affairs. In the speeches of people, not only those who are accustomed to the consciousness of their social superiority (Mr. Bingley and Darcy), but also those who grew up in an atmosphere of social humiliation (Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet), self-characterization is repeated more than once, full of complacency and exaggerated assessment of your personality. Miss Bingley’s review of local society is indicative: “They go out of their way to show off! There is so much insignificance and at the same time complacency in these people.”

Those same characters who, by their position in society, are above ordinary provincials, emphasize this difference at every opportunity. Among not very rich provincials, Darcy clearly feels like a person of the highest rank: “Mr. Darcy,” we read in the novel, “danced once each with Mrs. Hearst and Miss Bingley and did not want to be introduced to the other ladies.” Simply because he considers it beneath his dignity.

Darcy’s behavior outrages the entire local audience, his pride, pompousness and sense of self-superiority are clearly reflected in his next dialogue with Bingley, when he replies: “...Your sisters are invited, and besides them, there is not a single woman in the hall with whom you cannot dance.” It would be a real punishment for me." Although Darcy and Bingley come from the same environment, despite the established mentality of this “top of society,” their behavior is radically different, it’s just a phenomenon, how can they be so radically opposed to provincial society! If Mr Bingley finds interesting society girls without an inheritance, has sincere feelings for Jane, then Darcy challenges everyone present; he considers it humiliating to dance with Elizabeth only due to social and property prejudices.

Along with those who relentlessly follow social prejudices and the general opinion that they belong to a lower social class, there is also the exact opposite image of Elizabeth Bennet. She directly points out to people their shortcomings, ridicules them, cutting off all their principles and foundations.

Throughout the novel, class differentiation is evident, and all vices are attributed to origin, which to some extent is naturally true, but, on the other hand, a lot depends on how a person develops himself, what conclusions he is able to draw from the events that have occurred .

In the novel “Pride and Prejudice,” through the prism of the relationships between the Bennet, Bingley, Darcy, Collins, and Lucas families, we can observe traditions and morals typical of Austen’s contemporaries and judge the life of the English province. The main problems are problems of a material nature, against the background of which we evaluate the behavior of the characters, analyze their actions, their motives.

Re-reading “Pride and Prejudice”, you think more and more about the subtext, about what Austen did not lay out on the surface, veiling the motives of her characters’ behavior. And the understanding that behind the words and actions of the characters is an established mentality, a way of thinking, and certain spiritual values ​​is becoming more and more clear between the lines.

3. Stylistic means of revealing characters in Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”

A study of Jane Austen's stylistic mastery shows that her extraordinary talent allowed her to create a work that, both in theme and in its entire structure, is a great and important event in the development of English realistic prose. Jane Austen's skillful stylistic skill creates a very vivid, very reliable picture of the morals, way of life, and life of a small provincial society.

N.M. Demurova noted that Jane Austen significantly expanded

la and enriched the method of “humors” characteristic of classicism, rejecting

having abandoned the division of heroes into villains, victims and reasoners.

Having thus noted Austen's characteristic realistic vision

characters, N.M. Demurova showed how it is embodied in the novel on

stylistic level. She, for example, believes that one of the innovative

one of J. Austin's techniques was the use of improperly direct re-

For example, Elizabeth’s initially hostile attitude towards Darcy gradually transforms into completely different feelings, and her internal and improperly direct speech, intertwined with the author’s narration, allows us to trace all the shades of this evolution. Thus, Elizabeth’s first reaction to everything she saw at Pemberley was expressed in her internal remark “And of this place,” she thought, “I might have been mistress!” This involuntary regret is replaced by a phrase in which she reminds herself: “...that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them." Her speech here indicates not so much regret about a missed opportunity in the past, but rather the complete impossibility for her of marrying such a snob who would not allow her to accept her relatives. But then, listening to Darcy's housekeeper, looking at his portrait, she begins to understand the scale of his personality. Each phrase in her internal monologue, marked with an exclamation mark, reveals her inner excitement, a gradual change in her assessments: “What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people"s happiness were in his guardianship! How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! How much of good or evil must be done by him!” .

Widely using improperly direct speech, Jane Austen

allows you to see the inner world of heroes in their most moments

strong emotional experiences and emotions. So, a series of short questions

corporal and exclamatory sentences spoken by Elizabeth

"to myself" after an unexpected meeting with Darcy at Pemberley, wonderful

conveys her excitement at this moment: “Her coming there was the

most unfortunate, the most ill-judged thing in the world! How strange must it

appear to him! In what a disgraceful light might it not strike so vain a man! It

might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again! Oh!

Why did she come? Or, why did he thus come a day before he was expected?

Austen was new not only in the multifaceted portraits she created of ordinary people against the backdrop of a social environment known to her down to the smallest manifestations, but also in the very language of her novel, an artistic system unique in its originality. The novelist's style has not yet been subjected to comprehensive analysis.

Unlike her predecessors and contemporaries, Austen strives, as far as possible, for an objective interpretation of life, preferring their direct depiction to stories about people, and this is one of the peculiar features of her style. The artist reveals the human essence mainly through the depiction of verbal communication between people. A very significant feature of Jane Austen’s poetics was noticed by T.A. Amelina. She writes: “The artist reveals the human essence mainly through the depiction of verbal communication between people, that is, direct and dialogical speech.”

“Well, listen, my dear,” continued Mrs. Bennet. - Netherfield, according to Mrs. Long, was taken by a very rich young man from the North of England.

What's his name?

Is he married or single?

Single, dear, that's the point, single! A young bachelor with an income of four or five thousand a year! Isn't it a good opportunity for our girls?

How so? Does this have anything to do with them?

“Dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “you are simply unbearable today.” Of course, you understand that I mean his marriage to one of them.”

Austen's dialogue reveals the characters, individual life experiences, culture, and way of thinking of each character; it reflects the contradictions and dialectical processes of private life. By forcing the characters to talk about the subject of their mental, business, and everyday interests, the writer always penetrates into the most intimate motives hidden in the depths of the objective conditioning of statements. The psychologically determined speech of Austen's heroes is always reproduced as a manifestation of their historically determined consciousness. Thus, the entire social background and the depicted social phenomena appear with great artistic power and specificity.

“Isn’t it true, what a wonderful entertainment this is for young people, Mr. Darcy! Really, could there be anything more enjoyable than dancing? I find that dancing is one of the highest achievements of a civilized society.

Quite right, sir. And at the same time, they are very common in a society untouched by civilization. Every savage can dance." .

Jane Austen, without any special authorial pressure, using mainly the means of linguistic characterization, which always includes vocabulary, syntactic structure, style, and intonation individual for each character’s speech, achieves a comprehensive disclosure of the characters. The individualization of the language of the characters serves in Austen at the same time as a means of its typification, with the help of which she characterizes people of a certain social appearance, mentality, psychology, exposing socially determined human vices.

For example, Mr. Collins. The base essence of his nature makes itself felt most of all during the most difficult period for the Bennet family: during the flight of Lydia with Wickham. Collins sends them a letter of “condolence.” The lexical composition of this letter is represented by sublime literary vocabulary: respectable family, present distress of the bitterest kind, the death as a blessing, augmented satisfaction, involved in disgrace, etc., behind which is hidden hypocritical sympathy in the grief that befell the respectable family, as well as and a great deal of schadenfreude and self-satisfaction in the knowledge that, having been rejected by Elizabeth and married to Charlotte Lucas, he was now freed from having to share the shame of the Bennet family. .

The statements of heroes who strive to enrich themselves with reading and have a balanced character and the ability to think logically are distinguished by their harmony and completeness. This is typical of Mr. Darcy's speech, Elizabeth Bennet. The speech of heroes who think inconsistently and do not feel the need for enlightenment is as disordered and confused as their thoughts. This is the speech of Mrs. Bennet and Lydia Bennet.

The comic character - Mrs. Bennet - is a very impulsive and impatient creature. The essence of her character is perfectly revealed by each of her remarks. The lexical and syntactic composition of her dialogue is always simple: words from everyday use, abrupt exclamations and interrogative sentences that reveal the heroine’s vanity, her ineradicable curiosity: “Well, Jane, who is it from?” What is it about? What does he say? Well, Jane, make haste and tell us, make haste, my Love."

In depicting the character of Mrs. Bennet, J. Austen effectively uses

uses the dramatization of the narrative, i.e., it gives the opportunity to self-

statements to the character. For example, she calls Darcy

disagreeable, i.e. an unpleasant subject, and remains sincere in his

dislike for him: “I am quite sorry Lizzy, that you should be forced to have

that disagreeable man all to yourself; but I hope you won't mind. It is all for

Jane sake." But at the end of the same chapter it breaks through in a flood

enthusiastic cries: “...Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it? And is it

really true? Oh my sweetest Lizzy! How rich and how great you will be!

What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! Jane's is nothing

to it – at all. I am so pleased - so happy." These exclamations are not

less sincere than what she said about Darcy earlier, although

they are opposite in meaning. This change of assessments in the speech part

Mrs. Bennet creates a visible image of a truly comic heroine.

But there are characters in the novel who are not outlined in soft comic terms.

our strokes, but truly satirical. Unlike the main characters

mana, who are constantly learning to better understand themselves and each other,

who sincerely experience their mistakes and shortcomings, comically

Chinese and, in particular, satirical characters do not undergo any

changes in its development.

In “Pride and Prejudice” the following compositional techniques are used:

principles of a realistic novel, as a complex system of characters,

a complex subjective organization of the text, in which the dominant role belongs to the impersonal narration, but where each character, not only the main one, but also the secondary one, thanks to dramatization, the inclusion of improperly direct speech, gets the opportunity to express himself as if independently.

For the first time in the history of English literature, works of prose are marked by such an obvious predominance of indirect means of characterizing reality. The main functions of indirect analysis and generalization of phenomena are assigned to dialogue, which in this case became the basis of poetics. It is not for nothing that Jane Austen is called a master of dialogue, because through direct speech, peculiarities of expressions and phrases, and the semantics of sentences, the author paints for us the life that was so close and familiar to her.

CONCLUSIONS

Drawing parallels between the work of Jane Austen and her biography, our study deeply reveals the influence of the province in which the writer grew up on the formation of her worldview and creativity, and also revealed the correspondence between the content of her novel “Pride and Prejudice” and the events that took place in her life Osten herself. Therefore, it is natural that the actions in the novel “Pride and Prejudice” develop among provincial English families. In the images of her heroes you can see individual character traits of the people around her.

The study analyzed the image of provincial England of the late 18th - early 19th centuries as a key element of the artistic space in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”. The writer chose the artistic space in which she lived. Thus, the novel achieves a realistic depiction of the morals, way of life and life of a small provincial society. By focusing on the ordinary, the everyday, Austen reveals to us with all authenticity the life of her generation. Thus, the entire social background and the depicted social phenomena appear with great artistic power and specificity. The image of the province in the novel is seen as an important characteristic of the lifestyle and morality of the English provincial nobles. Based on the above, it follows that the novel is of historical value, since it is a kind of encyclopedia of provincial life in England at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.

Having examined in the work the mental priorities and stereotypes of the provincial English environment, we can draw a conclusion about the social and property differences that dominated within the class of provincial nobles in England at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. Due to the fact that the characters in the novel are viewed from the angle of property interests, we can highlight the following: characteristic features provincial heroes as limited interests, pomposity, unprincipledness, sycophancy, selfishness, self-interest, immorality. The novel clearly outlines the range of problems that plague the society of English provincials and aptly notes their shortcomings, among which snobbery stands out most clearly.

The images of the heroes of the novel “Pride and Prejudice” bear traces of the influence of those mores and the morality that were dominant among the provincial classes of England at that time. Thus, we can talk about the influence of the social environment on the character of the characters in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”.

An analysis of the mechanism of functioning of stylistic devices showed that with their help, Jane Austen was able to create living, full-blooded characters of the heroes of the novel “Pride and Prejudice.” For example, one of J. Austin's innovative techniques was the use of improperly direct speech. For the first time in English literature, the dialogue developed by Austen, which reveals the behavior of the characters, their psychology, and moral character, becomes the basis of poetics, a means of expressing the author’s point of view.

The analysis of the image of the province in Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” is a voluminous and meaningful, constructive and logically consistent philological research work, the results of which can subsequently be used to write a thesis.

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At the end of the 18th century, the twenty-year-old daughter of a pastor from Hampshire began to write her new novel"First impressions." This girl's name was Jane Austen. And the novel, published only 17 years later under the new title “Pride and Prejudice,” later became one of the most famous works in English and world literature.

The girl from Hampshire was distinguished by her sober mind and mocking disposition. The heaps of troubles and ghosts, as well as the storms of passions that dominated the romantic literature of that time, seemed implausible to her. And the moralizing novels of the mid-18th century seemed simply outdated and ridiculous to her. Apparently, at the behest of her soul, she began to write only about what she knew: about modest village life with rare holidays and boring everyday life, few inhabitants and rare guests, whose arrival was always an event. The keen eyes of Jane Austen saw that behind the established provincial life, subject to the unshakable rules of etiquette and strict morality, many conflicts and sometimes real dramas were hidden.

She follows these principles in her most famous novel. We can say that it talks about a large family of a poor landowner, numbering five daughters of marriageable age. About the commotion caused in established village life by the arrival of two young people, potential suitors. Visits, balls, mother's tricks - all this is reflected in the novel.

But we can say that the novel is about something else. It is about the souls of the main characters, who move towards love, casting aside pride (let’s not forget that in Christianity, pride is one of the deadly sins) and prejudice.

The first meeting of heroes. The visiting aristocrat Darcy finds the artless village society funny. And to the offer to dance with one of the village young ladies, he responds with a dismissive refusal. Elizabeth’s pride, having accidentally heard Darcy’s words, suffers. After his words, she begins to be prejudiced towards all his words and actions. And Darcy’s soul is gradually overcome by a feeling of love, which he resists with all his might. But unable to resist, he confesses his love to Elizabeth. The scene of his explanation with the girl is one of the most powerful scenes in the novel. In it, Jane Austen most subtly conveyed love, contrary to reason, despite prejudices, Darcy's bewilderment because of this feeling, his sober view of Elizabeth and her family, and, nevertheless, love. His confession is mixed with bitterness; while confessing his love, he says that he should not have loved.

It is not surprising that Darcy receives a decisive refusal; moreover, Elizabeth accuses him of unseemly acts. And only later does she realize that part of her accusations were caused by the slander of their mutual friend Wickham.

While reading this book, I wondered what attracted the proud family aristocrat to the provincial girl? Naturalness, harmony of his nature and liveliness of character. Apparently, he lacked these qualities in his usual circle.

And Elizabeth overcame her prejudices when she met Darcy at his family estate, Pemberley. There she recognized the new Darcy, whom the servants spoke of as the best person in the world. It is obvious that he also has a living soul. But due to his upbringing and the views accepted in society, he put on the mask of a proud aristocrat, and only his love for Elizabeth helped him take it off.

But by simultaneously depicting secular and rural society, the writer shows that high society is not so different from provincial society.

The main character's younger sister, the frivolous Lydia, covered herself in shame by running away with the treacherous Wickham. But the aristocrat Georgiana almost committed the same reckless act. And Darcy, because of prejudices, did not want publicity, contributed to Wickham’s impunity.

Elizabeth's mother is tactless, her entire mind is occupied only by thoughts about the future marriage of her daughters. But Lady Catherine, Darcy’s aunt, is also tactless, believing that, due to her position, the whole world is obliged to obey her orders.

Under the skillful hand of Miss Austen, a series of minor characters turn into the most expressive figures, every image of her novel is remembered. The heroine's sisters: busy with constant self-improvement (speaking modern language, just boring) Mary, spineless Kitty, frivolous Lydia, shy aristocrat, Darcy's sister, Georgiana. Mr. Bennet, hiding from worries in the library, Elizabeth's cousin Collins, whose name has become a common noun in the English language synonymous with a pompous message, and, finally, Wickham, whose amiable appearance hid a vile essence, all of them are distinguished by both character and speech.

This novel is one of my favorite works. For me, he became a kind of standard. Purity and elegance of style, brightness and liveliness of characteristics, subtle understanding of mental life, individuality, clarity of composition, peculiarities of the language of each character, all this combination creates an extremely holistic harmonious picture. Darcy and Elizabeth cannot be imagined as historical characters; they are perceived as our contemporaries. Reading this amazing novel, I look into myself and learn to “read from the heart” and test feelings with my mind.

Jane Austen's novels are often considered "women's" literature. As the best example of the genre, perhaps, since its main characters are always women, there is a love story in the center, it is related to women's literature and attention to detail. But, of course, to romance novels, filling the shelves, the works of the writer cannot be counted. For this they are too complex and polysemantic, despite their apparent simplicity.

With her subtle psychologism and mocking realism, Jane Austen was far ahead of her time and will forever remain in the history of world literature.

LITERARY STUDIES

UDC 81’42:82-3

A.A.Paliy*

STYLISTIC MEANS OF REVEALING CHARACTER IN JANE AUSTEN'S NOVEL “PRIDE AND PREJUDICE”

Keywords: author's strategy, English novel, "Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen, genre, genre originality, classicism, literary criticism, indirect speech, character image, realism, stylistic devices, style, artistic method, ethical and aesthetic ideal.

The article highlights three plot lines of the novel: lyric-dramatic, comedic-satirical, and adventurous-punctual. The mechanism of functioning of stylistic devices, thanks to which the living, full-blooded characters of Jane Austen's heroes are created, is analyzed in detail. Conclusions are drawn about the system of ethical values ​​that they embody and about the role of the writer in the development of a realistic novel.

In this article 3 main lines of the plot (lyrical-dramatic, comic and satirical, adventuresome-picaresque) are singled out. The mechanism of different stylistic devices functioning is analyzed at great length. Owing to these stylistic expressive means the images of Jane Austen"s lively, full-blooded characters are created. In conclusion the article contains the inferences about the system of the ethical values ​​which Jane Austen"s characters embody and about the role of Jane Austen in the formation of the realistic novel.

Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen's most popular novel, known to millions of readers around the world. The critical literature devoted to its analysis is also enormous. Among the authors of books and articles are such famous literary scholars as D. Cecil, M. Butler, A. Brown, M. Masefield, M. Kennedy, J. Kaestner, N.M. Demurova, T.A. Amelina and many others.

* Paliy Anna Abramovna, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Omsk State Pedagogical University

D. Cecil believes that Jane Austen correlates her heroes with three basic standards of behavior: virtue, common sense and taste. Virtue is perceived in its Christian interpretation. Common sense refers to the desire to achieve something better in this inevitably imperfect world. Jane Austen believed that what a person lives for is more important than how he lives. Culture and the external signs of its manifestation can make a person’s existence much happier. D. Cecil, therefore, believes that the ideal of Jane Austen is a person who is not only virtuous and prudent, but also well-mannered.

M. Masefield, among the most important problems of the novel, highlights D. Austen's desire to ridicule and condemn snobbery, especially its extremes, embodied in the image of Lady Catherine de Bourg. M. Masefield believes that the genre specificity of this novel is determined by the combination of comedy with the romance genre, where an unusually attractive heroine rises above all the characters. J. Kaestner considers it a great success, a sign of the increased skill of the writer, that minor characters She becomes more defined, clearer, more accurately written out.

N.M. Demurova noted that Jane Austen significantly expanded and enriched the method of “humors” characteristic of classicism, abandoning the division of heroes into villains, victims and reasoners. Having thus noted Austen’s characteristic realistic vision of characters, N.M. Demurova showed how it is embodied in the novel at the stylistic level. She, for example, believes that one of J. Austen’s innovative techniques was the use of improperly direct speech. A very significant feature of Jane Austen’s poetics was noticed by T.A. Amelina. She writes: “The artist revealed the human essence

expresses itself mainly through the depiction of verbal communication between people, that is, direct and dialogical speech.”

Thus, critics, when characterizing the characters in the novel, pay attention to the social motivation of the characters’ behavior and relationships and pay considerable attention to the stylistic techniques that Jane Austen used, but the mechanism of operation of these techniques needs a more specific and detailed consideration.

Analysis of the means used by the writer to create images of her characters is the main task of this article. Its solution will determine the nature of Jane Austen's ethical and aesthetic ideal.

All plot lines of the novel converge around two main characters

Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy. The initial opinion about them may be largely influenced by the title of the novel “Pride and Prejudice.” That is, it may seem that each of them embodies one of these traits: Darcy - pride, Elizabeth - prejudice against him - a rich, arrogant man accustomed to the servility of others. In reality, each of them is equally characterized by pride and long-term prejudice against each other.

The character of Elizabeth Bennet is revealed gradually through the complex system of relationships of the heroine with her parents, sisters, friends, with those who wish her happiness and her ill-wishers, and finally, with those men who were candidates for her hand. Despite the impersonality of the narrative, the author’s attitude towards her expresses itself in what traits of her character stand out first of all: a sense of humor, a lively, cheerful disposition. Having heard Darcy’s first, unflattering opinion of her, Elizabeth “told the story, however, with great spirit among her

friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition which delighted in anything ridiculous” Here the epithets lively (full of life and spirit), playful (full of fun, fond of play) to the noun disposition (one's nature or temper) perform a characterological function. Their positive connotations are an indirect confirmation of the author’s approving attitude towards the heroine. In Elizabeth’s speech, the words “laugh, laugh” actually appear many times: “I dearly love a laugh... Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can,” she says about herself.

But in Elizabeth's character there was no frivolity, a thoughtless pursuit of entertainment, characteristic of her younger sister Lydia. Her mindset can be called analytical. She thinks a lot and seriously, observing the morals of the people around her. The monotony and monotony of the family's daily life made any trip that promised a change of impressions, the opportunity to meet new people, so desirable. So, the offer of her aunt, Mrs. Gardiner, to go with them on a big trip, perhaps to the romantic Lake District, causes outright delight (“What delight! What felicity!”).

In the composition of “Pride and Prejudice,” the chronotope of the road not only contributes to the development of the plot, enlivening it with new events and characters. Its main function here is to show the evolution of the characters of the main characters, gradual development relationships between them. So, during Elizabeth's trip to the Collinses, Darcy's first explanation with her occurs. During a trip with her aunt, her fate is decided: after visiting Darcy's house, she begins to change her opinion about him, gets rid of prejudice against him, and begins to understand that she could love him.

But no matter how much the reader learns about the heroine through the author’s comments and characteristics, the main thing is that Elizabeth herself speaks about herself. This

the main thing is never mentioned, but it is present in her every action and every remark. This is the main thing - pride, or rather self-esteem and real fearlessness. Elizabeth herself is not rich; after the death of her father, they may be deprived of their house, the owner of which will be Reverend Collins. Under such circumstances, not getting married means dooming yourself to a miserable existence. It would seem that one should rejoice at Collins's proposal, but Elizabeth indignantly rejects it. Her reaction to Darcy's proposal may seem even more incredible. A rich, influential man, with whom marriage is the pipe dream of many brides, proposes to her, Elizabeth Bennet. Instead of accepting such a flattering offer, Elizabeth, in the harshest form, accuses Darcy of humiliating her dignity, insulting her sister, and insulting Wickham. In order to become her chosen one, it is not enough to occupy a high position in society; it is much more important to always behave as befits a noble person. Time must pass before Elizabeth can better understand Darcy’s character and appreciate his merits.

Darcy also has his own pride. As soon as he appears on the pages of the novel, all the characters and readers become aware of the amount of his income - 10,000 pounds a year, a colossal amount for that time. He immediately makes a certain impression on those around him: a proud, arrogant person. And although he himself, trying to explain his behavior, talks about his isolation and inability to easily get along with people, Elizabeth is not convinced. The fact is that almost simultaneously with Darcy, Wickham is introduced into the cast of characters, acting as Darcy’s antipode. If no one hears almost a word from Darcy, then Wickham easily enters into conversation. He has a pleasant, attractive appearance, and he knows how to be a very entertaining conversationalist. Having barely met Elizabeth, he tells her

the story of his life, in which Darcy played the most unseemly role, in his words. Thus, all circumstances are not in Darcy's favor, and further development The plot seems unpredictable. The rebuke that Elizabeth gives to Darcy should seem to mark the end of their acquaintance. But the main plot intrigue lies precisely in the fact that Elizabeth’s refusal only gives impetus to a new development in their relationship.

The refusal Darcy received was a difficult test for his pride. A man of an aristocratic upbringing, he did not betray the feelings raging within him. Given his restraint, the most natural way of expressing emotions was not direct dialogue with his chosen one, but correspondence with her.

The development of Elizabeth's feelings for Darcy appears before the reader in all its complexity and inconsistency: from hostility to doubts, then to regret about her judgments about him, finally to admiration, to the understanding that meeting him is the main event of her life. The complexity of the heroine’s emotional experiences is also matched by a complex system of stylistic means of expression. Here is the author's commentary, which conveys to the reader the confusion of her feelings (a flutter of spirits). Here are details of the interior and landscape that allow Elizabeth to see Darcy in a new light: “She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.” The feeling that gripped Elizabeth at the sight of the beauty surrounding her is expressed by one adjective - delighted. "Elizabeth was delighted" is the key phrase describing her state of mind during her visit to Pemberley. She is admired by the impeccable taste of the owner, who managed not to disturb the natural beauty of the landscape. She gives her no less pleasure to the interior decoration of the house - not glaring luxury, but genuine

elegance. His housekeeper's enthusiastic review of Darcy becomes another revelation for Elizabeth. Finally, the courageous beauty of his appearance in the portrait, which both Elizabeth and her uncle and aunt admire, is in harmony with the beauty of everything that surrounds him.

All these external impressions gradually transform Elizabeth’s initially hostile attitude towards Darcy into completely different feelings, and her internal and improperly direct speech, intertwined with the author’s narration, allows us to trace all the shades of this evolution. Thus, Elizabeth’s first reaction to everything she saw at Pemberley was expressed in her internal remark “And of this place,” she thought, “I might have been mistress!” This involuntary regret is replaced by a phrase in which she reminds herself: “...that could never be; my uncle and aunt would have been lost to me; I should not have been allowed to invite them." The form of the subjunctive mood with the perfect infinitive indicates here not so much regret about a missed opportunity in the past, but rather the complete impossibility for her of marrying such a snob who would not allow her to accept her relatives. But then, listening to Darcy's housekeeper, looking at his portrait, she begins to understand the scale of his personality. Each phrase in her internal monologue, marked with an exclamation mark, reveals her inner excitement, a gradual change in her assessments: “What praise is more valuable than the praise of an intelligent servant? As a brother, a landlord, a master, she considered how many people"s happiness were in his guardianship! How much of pleasure or pain it was in his power to bestow! How much of good or evil must be done by him!” .

And yet the main result of her thoughts is different. Unexpectedly for herself, she begins to understand how harmoniously they complement

each other. At the end of the novel, Darcy’s words about what the meeting with Elizabeth meant in his life will be consonant with her thoughts. But his first statement had an arrogant and contemptuous tone: “I am in no humor of present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” Later, in the moments of his first confession, first confident of her consent, then stunned by her refusal, he directly speaks of all his fears regarding their possible union:

“These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I, with greater policy, concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination; by reason, by reflection, by everything. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence... Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?” .

In his speech there is a non-union enumeration of homogeneous prepositional objects (by reason, by reflection, by everything), the use of conditional and subjunctive moods (might have been suppressed, had I concealed, could you expect), a parallel construction in two interrogative sentences following one after another ( Could you expect me to rejoice... To congratulate myself...) create a growing effect, thanks to which his resentment and irritation find expression. Darcy's love is perhaps the main psychological mystery of this novel. There is nothing rational in his feelings, although he is undoubtedly a reasonable and insightful person. As he himself speaks about his love for the first time: “In vain have I struggled.” It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Some researchers (for example, M. Pouvy), classifying the novel as a realistic work, consider its end to be purely romantic.

skim. It’s too incredible (not like in life) that Elizabeth’s fate turns out happily. But perhaps Jane Austen’s psychologism and the authenticity of her characters are manifested in the fact that she portrays Darcy’s love as a passion that is not subject to reason and calculation (and therefore possible). Darcy’s path towards Elizabeth is a path of getting rid of prejudice and arrogance, from vanity, pride and self-confidence to a sharply self-critical assessment of his character: “I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle... I was spoiled by my parents, who, though good themselves ... allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own... You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous.” His self-esteem comes through in this conversation with Elizabeth. The repetition of the word selfish, the italics of the words right, child, wish, parallel constructions (I was taught, I was given, I was spoiled) and enumeration reveal his excited, confessional mood, his gratitude to Elizabeth, whose love made him different.

So, from many observations, meetings, impressions in the souls of Elizabeth and Darcy, a new image each other. The fullness of life that each of them finds in the other creates the overall major key of the entire work. And, besides, throughout the novel, the dramatic vicissitudes of their relationship are intertwined with comic scenes.

Comic characters constantly enliven the narrative. The first of them is Mrs. Bennet. The mother of five adult daughters, all she thinks about is how to get them married. There are many obstacles to this, and not the least of them is the stupidity and vulgarity of Mrs. Bennet herself. Mrs. Bennet is a very impulsive and impatient creature.

The essence of her character is perfectly revealed by each of her remarks. The lexico-syntactic composition of her dialogue is always simple: words from everyday use, abrupt exclamations and interrogative sentences that reveal the heroine’s vanity, her ineradicable curiosity: “Well, Jane, who is it from?” What is it about? What does he say? Well, Jane, make haste and tell us, make haste, my Love."

In depicting the character of Mrs. Bennet, J. Austen effectively uses the dramatization of the narrative, that is, he gives the character the opportunity to express himself. For example, in chapter 59 she calls Darcy disagreeable, that is, an unpleasant subject, and remains sincere in her dislike for him: “I am quite sorry Lizzy, that you should be forced to have that disagreeable man all to yourself; but I hope you won't mind. It is all for Jane's sake." But at the end of the same chapter she breaks out in a stream of enthusiastic cries: "...Mr. Darcy! Who would have thought it? And is it really true? Oh , my sweetest Lizzy! How rich and how great you will be! What pin-money, what jewels, what carriages you will have! I am so pleased - so happy." These exclamations are no less sincere than what she said about Darcy earlier, although they are directly opposite in meaning. This change of assessment in Mrs. Bennet's speech part creates a visible image of a truly comic heroine.

But there are characters in the novel who are outlined not with soft comic touches, but with genuine satire. Unlike the main characters of the novel, who are constantly learning to better understand themselves and each other, who sincerely experience their delusions and shortcomings, comic and, especially, satirical characters do not undergo any changes in their development.

The first of them is Mr. Collins, whose name has become a household name in English literature. Collins is presented as a smug fool on his first visit to the Bennett house. He is unbearably pompous and

verbose. He endlessly praises his own merits and the advantages of his position, the main one of which is the patronage of the wealthy aristocrat Lady Catherine de Bourg. Having never seen him, only by the tone of his letter, eloquent, verbose, Elizabeth determined the character of its author in one word - pompous. She will have to make sure that there was something worse in him - the ability to basely worship the powerful of this world and the ability to humiliate those who were lower than him in wealth and position. The base essence of his nature makes itself felt most of all during the most difficult period for the Bennet family: during the flight of Lydia with Wickham. Collins sends them a letter of “condolence.” The lexical composition of this letter is represented by sublime literary vocabulary: respectable family, present distress of the bitterest kind, the death as a blessing, augmented satisfaction, involved in disgrace, etc., behind which is hidden hypocritical sympathy in the grief that befell the respectable family, as well as and a great deal of schadenfreude and self-satisfaction in the knowledge that, having been rejected by Elizabeth and married to Charlotte Lucas, he was now freed from having to share the shame of the Bennet family.

Thus, the author's strategy can be defined here as the desire to create the image of a character such as Mr. Collins based on the self-disclosure of his character, because in all cases, Collins’s own statements and actions become the main means of characterizing the various properties of his nature: hypocrisy, lackey humiliation and limitations.

Collins is perfectly complemented and shaded by Lady Catherine de Bourg, who appears on the pages of the novel twice. Elizabeth meets her when she comes to visit the Collinses. She is struck by the impudence of the mistress of the estate: she considers herself entitled to question the Collinses and Elizabeth about any details of their private life, including

to hang around and give advice on how to run a household, etc. Another time, Lady de Bourg herself comes to the Bennett house. Now she is pouring out real torrents of abuse at Elizabeth. She called the rumor about the possible engagement of her nephew, Mr. Darcy, and Elizabeth a vile invention, then launched threats and insults against Elizabeth and her relatives. The authoritative and peremptory tone of her speech, the very choice of words like the upstart, retentions of a young woman without family, connections, or fortune testifies not only to her dislike for Elizabeth, but also to the rudeness and unceremoniousness of this high-born lady. However, ironically, it was she who became the unwitting accomplice in the marriage of her nephew and Elizabeth. Upon learning of her conversation with Elizabeth, Darcy realized that Elizabeth loved him and would accept his proposal. So evil punished itself, and if we can talk about the influence of Ben Jonson’s ideas on D. Austen, then it was reflected in this: evil in her novel is defeated due to internal reasons and contradictions.

In addition to the lyrical-dramatic plot line, represented by the images of the main characters, in addition to its comedic-satirical beginning, the bearers of which are Mrs. Bennet, Reverend Collins and Lady de Bourg, the novel also has an adventurous and picaresque component, represented by such heroes as Wickham and Lydia Bennet . By themselves, as individuals, they are quite ordinary and do not represent anything. Lydia thinks only about fans and a quick marriage, and running away with Wickham is the result of her latest hobby. Wickham seems more significant than her, he

An attractive young man, an interesting conversationalist. But the difference between what he says about himself and who he really is is very striking. The fact that, escaping from the regiment, he drags Lydia along with him, reveals not so much the depravity of his nature as his inability to foresee the consequences of his actions. The advance itself

The turno-punctual episode associated with these two characters adds significant tension to the plot. Not only Lydia’s honor is at stake, but also that of the entire Bennet family and the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. Thanks to Darcy, the episode gets a happy ending, because in wonderful world Jane Austen's heroes have no place for evil and dishonesty.

Among the most important stylistic devices of Jane Austen is, first of all, irony, which was already mentioned in connection with the characteristics of the characters. The ironic effect is created both with the help of grammatical means (for example, the use of the subjunctive mood) and by means of vocabulary, when the spoken words are directly opposite in meaning to what is meant. Thus, Mr. Bennet is ironic when he says that, admiring his three sons-in-law, he singles out Wickham as his favorite (“Wickham, perhaps, is my favorite”), while he has nothing but antipathy for Wickham.

The author’s comment at the beginning of chapter 61 is also ironic: “Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters." The happiest day in the life of the mother, Mrs. Bennet, is called the day when she “got rid of” her two most worthy daughters. The dictionary definition of the phrasal predicate get rid (to make a person free from - get rid of) to some extent contrasts in meaning with the words happy day (a day of pleasure - happy day), this is how the author expresses his ironic attitude towards Mrs. Bennet’s maternal aspirations.

Jane Austen also widely uses indirect speech, which allows you to see the heroine’s inner world in moments of her most powerful emotional experiences and emotions. Thus, a series of short interrogative and exclamatory sentences pronounced by the heroine

“to herself” after an unexpected meeting with Darcy at Pemberley, perfectly conveys her excitement at that moment: “Her coming there was the most unfortunate, the most ill-judged thing in the world! How strange must it appear to him! In what a disgraceful light might it not strike so vain a man! It might seem as if she had purposely thrown herself in his way again! Oh! Why did she come? Or, why did he thus come a day before he was expected?” .

The lexical composition of the author's speech is determined by commonly used or neutral vocabulary. Even to convey strong emotional tension, the writer does not resort to any sophisticated techniques, but very skillfully uses the superlative degree of comparison of adjectives. Thus, the changed opinion about Wickham is expressed in a simple phrase: “Everybody declared that he was the wickedest young man in the world.”

The nervous state in which Elizabeth and Jane were awaiting news of Lydia is conveyed through a metaphorical epithet: “Every day at Longbourn was now a day of anxiety; but the most anxious part of each was when the post was expected.”

Adjectives in superlatives characterize the state of the characters in the happiest moments of their lives: “...the liveliest emotion; ...the happiest creature in the world; ...the happiest, wisest, and most reasonable end!” - all this is about Jane Bennet after Mr. Bingley proposed to her. If Bingley was everyone’s favorite, then the attitude of those around him towards Darcy was more difficult; epithets also help to understand all his shades and changes. First, Austin describes everyone's admiration for him: “A fine figure of a man... much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he looked at with great admiration...” But Darcy's reserved behavior, which everyone takes for arrogance, very soon arouses hostility towards him. Now your attitude towards him is

is reflected in a gradually increasing flow of enumerations of all kinds of negative qualities:

“...He looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend."

This list uses constructions with an infinitive (to be proud, to be above his company) and a gerund (above being pleased, from having a ... countenance, being unworthy), as well as epithets with a negative connotation (forbidding, disagreeable, unworthy) . This first impression of Darcy very soon turned into a persistent negative attitude towards him both from the entire provincial society and from Elizabeth and her family in particular. It took many events, meetings, explanations before Elizabeth saw and learned true essence his nature.

The size of sentences plays an important stylistic role in the novel: from short remarks in dialogues and sentences of medium length that form the author's commentary to very large sentences, sometimes occupying an entire paragraph. One such example is an excerpt from Jane’s letter to Elizabeth about the unsuccessful search for Lydia and Wickham: “By this time, my dearest sister, you have received my hurried letter; I wish this may be more intelligible, but though not confined for time, my head is so bewildered that I cannot answer for being coherent... Imprudent as a marriage between Mr. Wickham and our poor Lydia would be, we are now anxious to be assured it has taken place, for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland." In this fragment, the author strings together a series of complex words (that I cannot answer

for being coherent, imprudent as a marriage ... would be; for there is but too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland) and complex sentences (By this time, my dearest sister, you have received my hurried letter; I wish this may be more intelligible...) to create something retrospective , then speculative (a marriage between Mr. W and Lydia would be), then a synchronous depiction of events and feelings (my head is so bewildered, there is too much reason to fear they are not gone to Scotland), as well as for conveying feverish states thoughts and actions (my head is so bewildered; I cannot answer for being coherent). Complex constructions turn out to be necessary and adequate to the entire complex range of feelings experienced by Jane.

One of the climaxes of the novel is the evening at the Bennet house, when Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth's hand from her father. It seems that all the diversity of J. Austen's stylistic techniques is concentrated on these pages. Here is the dramatization of the narrative: Darcy’s whispered words “Go to your father; “he wants you in the library,” Elizabeth’s dialogue with her father, which uses a build-up effect: “Lizzy,” he said, “what are you doing? Are you out of your feelings, to be accepting this man? Have not you always hated him?" . Here are parallel constructions, the stylistically colored use of the subjunctive mood and italics in Elizabeth’s indirect speech: “...But he was going to be made unhappy, and that it should be through her means; that she, his favorite child, should be distressing him by her choice, should be filling him with fears and regrets in disposing of her, was a wretched reflection.” This convergence of stylistic devices creates the effect of enormous emotional tension and complete authenticity of what is happening.

Jane Austen's skillful stylistic skill creates a very vivid, very reliable picture of the morals, everyday life, and life of a child.

provincial society. It was inhabited by quite ordinary people. Only a few of them had a developed mind, independence of judgment and nobility. But it was they who filled this novel with such a joyful acceptance of life, such optimism, which never sounded with such force in any subsequent work by J. Austin.

In this novel, the system of ethical values ​​(sincerity, benevolence, rejection of class arrogance, self-esteem) that Jane Austen's heroes embody is finally formed. Her ethical ideal also finds equal artistic expression: impeccable stylistic mastery is combined with the skillful use of the genre possibilities of the novel.

“Pride and Prejudice” uses such compositional principles of a realistic novel as a complex system of characters, the significant role of the chronotope in the development of the plot, as well as portrait and landscape sketches in their characterological and aesthetic functions, and finally, the complex subjective organization of the text, in which the dominant role belongs to impersonal narration, but where each character, not only the main one, but also the secondary one, thanks to dramatization, the inclusion of improperly direct speech and intexts, gets the opportunity to express himself as if independently.

Thus, in the novel “Pride and Prejudice”, 25-30 years before the release of the first novels of Dickens, the recognized founder and classic of English critical realism, the characteristic features of this artistic method were already appearing.

References

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2. Demurova N.M. Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” // Austen J. Pride and Prejudice. - M.: Progress, 1961.

3. Austen J. Pride and Prejudice. - M., 1961.

4. Cecil D. A Portrait of Jane Austen. - London, Constable, 1979.

5. Kestner J. Jane Austen. Spatial Structure of Thematic Variations. -Salzburg, IESL, 1974.

6. Masefield M. Women Novelists from Fanny Burney to George Eliot.

London, Y.N. & Watson, 1967.

7. Poovey M. The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer. Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley and Jane Austen. -Chicago and L. - UCP, 1985. - Pp. xxii+288.