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【Abstract】 The use of Irony in Pride and Prejudice is typical, especially in portraying figures. In this essay, the author will discuss Austin’s handling of irony from such three aspects as the subordinate figures, main characters and the relationship between characters. With the analysis of irony, one can further understand and apprehend the artistic effects of the whole work.
【Key words】irony; subordinate figures; round figure
1. Introduction
E.M.Forster once categories figures of all novels into “flat figures” and “round figures” according to the unification and diversification of their characters. D.W.Hartin called them “caricature” and “sketch figures” respectively from the viewpoint of characterization. By dint of their classification, we will approach to the characters in Pride and Prejudice. As Jane Austin’s masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, is of great literary value and in this novel, Austin describes a narrow range of society and events that she knew well from her own experience. The description of the characters in it showed Austin’s outstanding literary skills in handling irony, which greatly enhanced the artistic effects of the whole work.
2. Ironic Subordinate Figures
In every novel of Austin, there always appear some subordinate figures that have simplistic characters and are mocked by the narrator. These figures are the author’s artistic generalization of the people with quality defect or morality defect in the reality. They can be divided into three categories. The first group includes people with pure quality defects. They are mainly unqualified parents and often make foolish figures for their single-mindedness and vulgarity. Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice belongs to this group. Like Quixote, she is full of illusions and lacks sense of reality. The only meaningful thing in her life is to marry her daughters to rich men. She openly expresses her one-sidedness and eccentricity obdurately and adds comic atmosphere to the plot. The narrator merely gives them ridicule and tolerant smile, allowing her to display herself as much as she likes. The second group is provided with both quality and morality defects. They are foolish or bigoted, selfish and greedy. They may do something disadvantageous to the main characters for a period of time, but except to enrich the plot their deeds cannot bring any substantial harm. Collins is a vivid model of this kind. He is ridiculed and attacked by the narrator and gets an embarrassing end. The third group has more moral defects than quality defects. According to Richard Simpson, it is the development of the first two groups, and also belongs to “the clowns” that are “more humble morally than intellectually” (Richard Simpson 1979). These figures become the negative roles because of certain hurt they bring to the leading roles. Although they are in the opposite position to the main characters, their negative characters are seldom fully displayed. So they are actually representatives of certain bad deeds. John is such a youth with clear misdeeds. He gets more attack than ridicule from the narrator.
When shaping the characters of Mrs. Bennet and Collins, the use of irony is obvious and sufficient. The author emphasizes the features in their characters clearly and ironically and then she lets them show themselves one by one. Sometimes, irony is contained in the introduction of their features, such as the introduction of Mrs. Bennet in the first chapter: “Her mind was less difficult to be developed. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married.” (Jane Austin 2001) Sometimes, the irony is revealed through the exhibition of the characters’ words and deeds, which produces the distance between their seriously displayed abnormal behavior and the normal mode of thinking of the readers. Different from Mrs. Bennet, Collins, the subjectivist, lives in the illusion of being self-conceited. He is blindly confident and affected and acts the role of his own imagination, which appears amusing, contrasted with his obsequiousness to Lady Catherine de Bough. He claimed to marry a daughter of the Bennets so as to compensate their loss for his inheriting their estate. He first settled his choice on Jane, but after Mrs. Bennet hint to him that “Jane is likely to be very soon engaged”, he had only to “change from Jane to Elizabeth―and it was soon done―done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire.” The address of Collins to Elizabeth becomes the universally appreciated of English novel. Before Elizabeth could put in a word, he had stated his reasons for marrying, one of which is unexpectedly for “the particular advice and recommendation of Lady Catherine de Bough.” (Jane Austin 2001) The address of Collins is so pious and methodical like preaching that it appears boring and vomiting, and meantime his vulgarity is shown without reservation.
The comic is far from over. In the breakfast room, Collins met with Mrs. Bennet. Though refused by Elizabeth, he resolutely thought it is for “her modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character.” Then, “they even congratulated with each other in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection.” (Jane Austin 2001)This is really the excellent comic contrast between the illusion and reality.
As to John, besides ironical words, the narrator makes a striking contrast between his outward appearance and his innermost heart, between his verbalism and his behavior and between his comportment when his trick worked and his end when his trick was disclosed. The narrator arranges a process for his disclosure of the nature. For the narrator and the reader, it is not difficult to see through his nature, but in Elizabeth’s eye, he is so perfect and only when she has been cheated for so long did she realize his abjection. It is a kind of irony produced by the mental contrast of “The specters see the chess game better than the players” (ZhuHong 1985) and it lends comic to the novel.
3. Ironic Round Figures
Focusing on “round figures”, Austin adopts different method to create the main characters. In a word, she shows the development of the figures’ characters as well as their eccentricity, misconception and self-contradiction. Elizabeth is the heroin in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austin endowed the “most loved figure” sufficient ironical color. Elizabeth is certainly the most extraordinary “sensible figure” of the book. She is intelligent, lively and full of dignity of personality, but she still could not escape the influence of “truth universally acknowledged”, and attended the ball consciously, being snubbed by Darcy. This is the irony of her not avoiding the vulgarity. Then cheated by John, she turned down the proposal of Darcy and reproached him plausibly and volubly, which is the irony of her absurdity because of “falling into prejudice”. Next, she experienced the winding process of overcoming her prejudice. At last, she dissipated the prejudice and married Darcy when Darcy proposed her again. The process and the end sneered at her difficulties of overcoming her prejudice as a “sensible person”. Irony plays an important role in molding the character. Through sneering at her prejudice for not understanding others and even herself again and again, the narrator can completely expose the different aspects of the sense and the prejudice in her character. Further more, the ironical contrast of the character between the earlier phase and the later phase actually shows that the character is renewed in denying itself and advances to the higher level. In this sense, the irony becomes the artistic medium in exposing the character’s form of motion 4. Irony in Relationship between Figures
Besides the individual figures, Austin also adopts the irony in the relationship between characters. Elizabeth’s prejudice and Darcy’s pride bring out the best with each other, while Elizabeth’s sense and Collins’s vulgarity make a striking contrast, which satisfy the readers with great amusement and artistic achievement. Also, Elizabeth’s firmness and Lady Catherine’s peremptoriness add an effect of comedy. These ironical contrasts, to some extent, add colors to the effective portrait of the characters, and therefore the figures’ characters become more brilliant and vivid.
5.Conclusion
To be brief, those ironic figures in Pride and Prejudice effectively deepen the theme of this novel and show Austin at her best. As pointed out above, the novel succeeds in portraying all kinds of figures ironically, which deserves our further appreciation and study.
References
[1]Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice [M] Beijing: YiLi People’s Press, 2001
[2]朱虹. 奧斯丁研究[M]. 北京：中国文联出版公司，1985
[3]Richard Simpson. Critics on Jane Austin [M]. London，1979
【Key words】irony; subordinate figures; round figure
1. Introduction
E.M.Forster once categories figures of all novels into “flat figures” and “round figures” according to the unification and diversification of their characters. D.W.Hartin called them “caricature” and “sketch figures” respectively from the viewpoint of characterization. By dint of their classification, we will approach to the characters in Pride and Prejudice. As Jane Austin’s masterpiece, Pride and Prejudice, is of great literary value and in this novel, Austin describes a narrow range of society and events that she knew well from her own experience. The description of the characters in it showed Austin’s outstanding literary skills in handling irony, which greatly enhanced the artistic effects of the whole work.
2. Ironic Subordinate Figures
In every novel of Austin, there always appear some subordinate figures that have simplistic characters and are mocked by the narrator. These figures are the author’s artistic generalization of the people with quality defect or morality defect in the reality. They can be divided into three categories. The first group includes people with pure quality defects. They are mainly unqualified parents and often make foolish figures for their single-mindedness and vulgarity. Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice belongs to this group. Like Quixote, she is full of illusions and lacks sense of reality. The only meaningful thing in her life is to marry her daughters to rich men. She openly expresses her one-sidedness and eccentricity obdurately and adds comic atmosphere to the plot. The narrator merely gives them ridicule and tolerant smile, allowing her to display herself as much as she likes. The second group is provided with both quality and morality defects. They are foolish or bigoted, selfish and greedy. They may do something disadvantageous to the main characters for a period of time, but except to enrich the plot their deeds cannot bring any substantial harm. Collins is a vivid model of this kind. He is ridiculed and attacked by the narrator and gets an embarrassing end. The third group has more moral defects than quality defects. According to Richard Simpson, it is the development of the first two groups, and also belongs to “the clowns” that are “more humble morally than intellectually” (Richard Simpson 1979). These figures become the negative roles because of certain hurt they bring to the leading roles. Although they are in the opposite position to the main characters, their negative characters are seldom fully displayed. So they are actually representatives of certain bad deeds. John is such a youth with clear misdeeds. He gets more attack than ridicule from the narrator.
When shaping the characters of Mrs. Bennet and Collins, the use of irony is obvious and sufficient. The author emphasizes the features in their characters clearly and ironically and then she lets them show themselves one by one. Sometimes, irony is contained in the introduction of their features, such as the introduction of Mrs. Bennet in the first chapter: “Her mind was less difficult to be developed. She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married.” (Jane Austin 2001) Sometimes, the irony is revealed through the exhibition of the characters’ words and deeds, which produces the distance between their seriously displayed abnormal behavior and the normal mode of thinking of the readers. Different from Mrs. Bennet, Collins, the subjectivist, lives in the illusion of being self-conceited. He is blindly confident and affected and acts the role of his own imagination, which appears amusing, contrasted with his obsequiousness to Lady Catherine de Bough. He claimed to marry a daughter of the Bennets so as to compensate their loss for his inheriting their estate. He first settled his choice on Jane, but after Mrs. Bennet hint to him that “Jane is likely to be very soon engaged”, he had only to “change from Jane to Elizabeth―and it was soon done―done while Mrs. Bennet was stirring the fire.” The address of Collins to Elizabeth becomes the universally appreciated of English novel. Before Elizabeth could put in a word, he had stated his reasons for marrying, one of which is unexpectedly for “the particular advice and recommendation of Lady Catherine de Bough.” (Jane Austin 2001) The address of Collins is so pious and methodical like preaching that it appears boring and vomiting, and meantime his vulgarity is shown without reservation.
The comic is far from over. In the breakfast room, Collins met with Mrs. Bennet. Though refused by Elizabeth, he resolutely thought it is for “her modesty and the genuine delicacy of her character.” Then, “they even congratulated with each other in warm terms on the happy prospect of their nearer connection.” (Jane Austin 2001)This is really the excellent comic contrast between the illusion and reality.
As to John, besides ironical words, the narrator makes a striking contrast between his outward appearance and his innermost heart, between his verbalism and his behavior and between his comportment when his trick worked and his end when his trick was disclosed. The narrator arranges a process for his disclosure of the nature. For the narrator and the reader, it is not difficult to see through his nature, but in Elizabeth’s eye, he is so perfect and only when she has been cheated for so long did she realize his abjection. It is a kind of irony produced by the mental contrast of “The specters see the chess game better than the players” (ZhuHong 1985) and it lends comic to the novel.
3. Ironic Round Figures
Focusing on “round figures”, Austin adopts different method to create the main characters. In a word, she shows the development of the figures’ characters as well as their eccentricity, misconception and self-contradiction. Elizabeth is the heroin in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austin endowed the “most loved figure” sufficient ironical color. Elizabeth is certainly the most extraordinary “sensible figure” of the book. She is intelligent, lively and full of dignity of personality, but she still could not escape the influence of “truth universally acknowledged”, and attended the ball consciously, being snubbed by Darcy. This is the irony of her not avoiding the vulgarity. Then cheated by John, she turned down the proposal of Darcy and reproached him plausibly and volubly, which is the irony of her absurdity because of “falling into prejudice”. Next, she experienced the winding process of overcoming her prejudice. At last, she dissipated the prejudice and married Darcy when Darcy proposed her again. The process and the end sneered at her difficulties of overcoming her prejudice as a “sensible person”. Irony plays an important role in molding the character. Through sneering at her prejudice for not understanding others and even herself again and again, the narrator can completely expose the different aspects of the sense and the prejudice in her character. Further more, the ironical contrast of the character between the earlier phase and the later phase actually shows that the character is renewed in denying itself and advances to the higher level. In this sense, the irony becomes the artistic medium in exposing the character’s form of motion 4. Irony in Relationship between Figures
Besides the individual figures, Austin also adopts the irony in the relationship between characters. Elizabeth’s prejudice and Darcy’s pride bring out the best with each other, while Elizabeth’s sense and Collins’s vulgarity make a striking contrast, which satisfy the readers with great amusement and artistic achievement. Also, Elizabeth’s firmness and Lady Catherine’s peremptoriness add an effect of comedy. These ironical contrasts, to some extent, add colors to the effective portrait of the characters, and therefore the figures’ characters become more brilliant and vivid.
5.Conclusion
To be brief, those ironic figures in Pride and Prejudice effectively deepen the theme of this novel and show Austin at her best. As pointed out above, the novel succeeds in portraying all kinds of figures ironically, which deserves our further appreciation and study.
References
[1]Jane Austin. Pride and Prejudice [M] Beijing: YiLi People’s Press, 2001
[2]朱虹. 奧斯丁研究[M]. 北京：中国文联出版公司，1985
[3]Richard Simpson. Critics on Jane Austin [M]. London，1979