Essay Question - Pride and Prejudice

Write about characterisation in Chapter 11 of Pride and Prejudice

Chapter 11 of Pride and Prejudice focuses on alternative methods of delving into the characters of Mr Darcy, Elizabeth and Miss Bingley in particular. Austen uses methods of describing their personality and the way they act and interact with others. Austen combines the narrator opinion with Elizabeth's view of people so she is powerful in being linked with the narrator's judgement.

The chapter focuses on showing how Mr Darcy acts and how people act towards him and around him. Miss Bingley is a prime example of a woman who is obsessed with securing Darcy as a husband and pays him a lot of attention which he finds off-putting, which also shows Darcy is not attention seeking. 'Miss Bingley's eyes were instantly turned towards Darcy,' this shows Miss Bingley knows what she wants and tries her best to get it. There is also the idea that Miss Bingley will copy Darcy in order to obtain his affections, 'Darcy took up a book; Miss Bingley did the same,' this also shows how Austen has tried to show how Darcy is the leader and Miss Bingley the follower, or copier. Miss Bingley can also be seen to be quite a shallow, fake character. 'Exhausted by the attempt to be amused,' this shows she tries to be the same as Darcy and fake her personality, however it can be argued that as the narrator is infused with Elizabeth's personality the portrayal of Miss Bingley may be biased and inaccurate. Miss Bingley is also ignored by the other characters in the book, 'No one made any reply,' this shows the other characters perhaps did not enjoy her presence and found her irritating, Darcy in particular.

The contrast between Darcy's view of Elizabeth and Miss Bingley is interesting as Darcy appears to have no concern for Miss Bingley, 'but Darcy, at whom it was aimed, was still inflexibly studious,' this shows that Darcy felt nothing for Miss Bingley and did not care she was leaving. However when Elizabeth leaves, 'Darcy looked up,' this shows he has feelings for her and obviously cared about her presence. There is also a theme of how he has no control of his feelings, 'unconciously closed his book,' this shows he did not even have to acknowledge his own emotions for Elizabeth, they forced him to act.

During the conversation between Elizabeth and Darcy there is in depth conversation as Austen feels there no need to write the name of the speaker as there is a sense of unity and flirtation as the conversation flows. During their conversation, Elizabeth shows she is in control of Darcy in a sense as she unconsciously allows him to changes his mind when on the subject of 'vanity and pride.' 'But pride -,' this shows he pauses, as if he was going to say something else but re-evaluates his opinion. During their conversation Miss Bingley's jealousy is shown, 'Your examination of Mr Darcy is over, I presume,' this shows she feels uncomfortable with Mr Darcy and Elizabeth's conversation as she shows a bitter attitude. It can be seen that there is a mild flirtation between Elizabeth and Darcy as they repeat and perhaps mock each other in a teasing way. They both repeat 'and yours' which also gives the idea of marriage as their is the idea of 'yours.' Finally there is a sense of self-awareness from Darcy as he realises he may be focusing on Elizabeth a little too much, 'He began to feel the danger of paying Elizabeth too much attention.'

Overall Austen uses a variety of techniques to form characterisation. The idea of characterisation is centered around Darcy in this chapter as the way characters act, particularly Miss Bingley, depend majorly on Darcy's actions.