Plot

Plot-Construction of Pride and Prejudice Summary In contrast to the simplicity of her style, Jane Austens plots are unexpectedly complex. She is not content to simply draw two or three characters in isolation. She prefers a family, with their many friends and acquaintances and she tries within her limited range to make things as difficult as possible. Outline1 SETTINGS OF HER NOVELS2 PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN SENSE AND SENSIBILITY3 PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN EMMA4 PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE5 JANE AUSTENS COMEDY OF MANNERS IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE6 THE UNITY OF TONE SETTINGS OF HER NOVELS Jane Austens field of study is man. She is, therefore, more preoccupied with human nature than nature in the nineteenth century usage of the word. The background and the scenery of the provincial town is rich in its beauty and grandeur. But there is no attempt to look into the spirit of this country. Thus although, she has some sense of locality yet she does not paint an English community like the other writers of her time. She rather avoids those very elements of the population in which the local flavour, the breath of the soil is most pronounced. She is further incapable of evoking a scene or a landscape and cannot conjure up the spirit of Bath as Emile Bronte could conjure up the spirit of the Moorlands or Hardy that of Wessex. All this, one may say, would be fatal to her dramatic quality of construction. In all her novels, we see only a limited range of human society. Most of her characters are the kind of people she knew intimately, the landed gentry, the upper class, the lower edge of the nobility, the lower clergy, the officer corps of the military. Her novels exclude the lower classes-both the industrial masses of the big cities and the agricultural labourers in the countryside. Three or four families in the country village is the very thing to work on. She does not show any of the great agonies or darker side of human experience. There is no hunger, poverty, misery or terrible vices and very little of the spiritual sphere of experience. Nor do we see any political dimension or even discussions regarding major political happenings in any of her novels. Nature too, is rarely described and her characters are usually presented indoors with an occasional expedition or picnic thrown in. According to Andrew H. Wright, the novels of Jane Austen can be considered on three levels of meaning: first, the purely local-illustrative of country life among the upper middle-classes at the end of eighteenth century in Southern England. Second, they can be taken as broad allegories in which Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and a number of other virtues and defects are set forth in narrative form and commented on in this way. Third is the ironic level whereby the incidents, situations and characters in a novel imply something more than what they seem. PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN SENSE AND SENSIBILITY It is one of Austens simplest novels. The story deals with two sisters Elinor -the heroine represents a woman of sense, while Marianne, her foolish foil represents a woman of sensibility. The first volume of the book has a symmetrical pattern and a clear parallel is drawn between the two romances-Edward Ferrars and Elinor, John Willoughby and Marianne. True to Elinors cool, sensible nature the relationship between Edward Farrars is conducted on the level of the mind, with both displaying hardly an emotion. The theme of sense is thus exemplified through their relationship. On the other hand Willoughby who enters Mariannes life as a true romantic hero having carried her home when she sprained her ankle, exemplifies the theme of sensibility in his relationship with Marianne. While the moral seems to illustrate the superiority of sense over sensibility there is an ironic twist in the plot whereby Elinor and Marianne virtually interchange their positions PLOT-CONSTRUCTION IN EMMA The plot of Emma can be said to have an inward and an outward movement. The inward deal with Emmas self-deception- with what she thinks is happening while the outward deals with what actually is happening and this brings to light her mistakes. It is through a series of humiliations and self reproach that Emma finally awakens to self-knowledge. The readers enjoyment stems from an awareness that Emma is wrong. From chapter 1 to 15, Emma thinks that Mr. Elton is in love with Harriet only to discover to her horror that Elton loves her. From chapter 18 to 30, Emma thinks herself to be in love with Frank and Jane Fairfax to be associated with Mr. Dixon. From chapter 31 to 46, Emma is convinced that Harriet and Frank Churchill are interested in one another. Towards the end of the novel, from chapter 46, Emmas theories about Frank and Harriet are about Jane Faifax and Dixon are destroyed and she has to face the possibility of Mr. Knightley being in love with Harriet. It is only after Knightleys proposals in the shrubbery that what is happening and what Emma thinks is happening converge and Emmas progress from self-delusion to knowledge is complete. The Boat by Alistair Macleod EssayThe first minor eprisode is the Jane-Bingley relationship. It can be treated as an independent event, but Jane Austen has woven it well with the main theme. Jane and Elizabeth are sisters who share each others secrets, hopes and fears and it is the simplest connection. But on the strength of Darcys regard, Bingley has the firmest reliance, and of his judgment the highest opinion, and so when Darcy suspected that Jane did not love Bingley as fervently as Bingley loved her, and found that her family had all vulgar manners and shallow tastes, he readily engaged in the office of pointing out to him the certain evils of such a choice. This was one of the very important reasons of Elizabeths strong prejudice, and thus it is connected with the main theme. The Wickham-Lydia eprisode and the Collins-Charolette relationship is equally well connected with it. While Elizabeth has developed a prejudice against Darcy, she is strongly attracted towards Wickham and it is very long before she knows what his real character is. One of the two strong charges she levels against Darcy is the ruining of Wickhams prospects. Darcy reveals the truth to her later, but because of her silence on this point, she cannot stop her sisters elopement and the slander on her family. It is this catastrophe, however, that brings Darcy closest to her because it is his love for her that he finds out the fugitives and makes a successful effort to bring about a marriage between Lydia and Wickham, neglecting the thought of the loss to him. Mr. Collins proposes to her, and later marries her best friend Charolette. All the threads are thus connected. Wickham and Charolette also serve as a comment on Elizabeth and Darcy. The Darcy-Elizabeth couple is flanked on one side by the unexceptionable Bingley and Jane, it is flanked on the other by Charolette and Wickham. The last two have the cleverness of the two main characters, but they are time-servers. The structure is therefore, most cleverly unifying. The precision, simplicity and symmetry of Pride and Prejudice evoke instinctive appreciation. So well it is constructed that the action proceeds logically from exposition, complication and climax to the denouncement and finally the resolution. The sub-plots are also thematically unified. The theme of love and marriage is exemplified through the plot and the sub-plots. Jane Austen uses the dramatic narrative mode and irony so effectively to build her complex plot that it would not be amiss to say that she is the most perfect dramatist who never wrote a play. Furthermore, all Jane Austen plots are characterized by a unity of tone and are compact and well- knit. There are no loose ands anywhere, no event conceived outside the actual plot and nothing usually hampers the progress of the story. JANE AUSTENS COMEDY OF MANNERS IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE The wisest and the best of men-nay, the wisest and best of their actions may he rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke. Certainly, he replied Elizabeth-there are such people, but I hope I am not one of them. I hope I never ridicule that is wiser or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh at them whenever I can. This brief dialogue between Darcy and Elizabeth throws distinct light upon Jane Austens purpose and programme in her novels. For once it be supposed that Miss Bennets point of view is but a projection of her creators. Her intention in these novels is to present a comedy of manners to present the follies and vices of men and to expose them to general ridicule by employing the devices of comedy, parody, burlesque, irony, wit, satire, each one of them as is suitable for the occasion and need. THE UNITY OF TONE Hence, her plots are characterized by a singular unity of tone and she often achieves it by focusing our attention at it from more than one angle. In Pride and Prejudice alone the unity of plot has been achieved from as many as three angles. We can view the novel first, as Elizabeth Bennet sees everything; secondly, by assigning to Elizabeth and Darcy a prominent place into the novel and by centering the higher and nobler comedy around these two figures; and thirdly by making the whole story a study in Pride pride of place and responsibility in some, pride in the form of social snobbery in others and also either a perverted pride or the lack of pride in the rest. However, the unity is therefore very essential in imparting coherence and shape to her design. Thus, the structure of Jane Austens novel is perfect and is ideally suited for the material she wanted to embody and the outlook she wished to present.