In Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, set in the Regency Period, dance performs several important functions.  Dance patterns emulate courtship rituals, marking dance as a microcosm for courtship and marriage – two main themes of the novel.  The Regency period propagated the belief that no ingredient was more essentialContinue Reading

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s most famous novel, is filled with many different minor characters. Some seem superfluous, but others bring life to certain scenes and help to advance the plot. Certain plot-lines in the story actually revolve around minor characters and the plot could not truly be complete withoutContinue Reading

One of the main themes in Pride and Prejudice is that of marriage and its close relation with money and social status. The novel’s oft-quoted opening sentence: “It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” showsContinue Reading

Fitzwilliam Darcy, generally referred to as Mr. Darcy, is one of the two central characters in Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. He is an archetype of the aloof romantic hero, and a romantic interest of Elizabeth Bennet, the novel’s protagonist. The story’s narration is almost exclusively from Elizabeth BennetContinue Reading

The second daughter in the Bennet family, and the most intelligent and quick-witted, Elizabeth is the protagonist of Jane Austen’s  Pride and Prejudice and one of the most well-known female characters in English literature. Her admirable qualities are numerous—she is lovely, clever, and, in a novel defined by dialogue, sheContinue Reading

The society that Jane Austen presents in Pride & Prejudice is concerned with reputation and appearance. First written in 1797 under the title First Impressions, it was later revised and published as Pride and Prejudice in 1813. The theme of judgment runs throughout the novel as prejudging people is a favoutiteContinue Reading