STUDY GUIDE · JANE AUSTEN · 1813
Pride and Prejudice,
first impressions revised.
Elizabeth Bennet prides herself on reading people well, and the novel tests that confidence. These questions follow how judgments are formed, defended, and corrected.
A study guide from Nevel Trade Inc. · Last reviewed
About 7 h 50 min to read. Reading time for each chapter →
- AUTHOR
- Jane Austen
- FIRST PUBLISHED
- 1813, in three volumes
- TEXT USED HERE
- Project Gutenberg eBook #1342
How to use this guide
Spoilers ahead: the overview, character notes, and themes discuss the ending. If you are still reading, go straight to the chapter questions and stop at the chapters you have finished.
Choose one question, answer in your own words, and find a short passage that supports your claim. Explain how the wording supports it, then look for a detail that complicates your answer. Use the essay exercise after finishing the novel.
A note on chapter numbers.
The novel first appeared in three volumes, and some editions still restart the chapter count in each one. The Project Gutenberg text quoted here, and the one Parlor opens, numbers the chapters 1 to 61 straight through. Volume I is Chapters 1–23, Volume II is Chapters 24–42, and Volume III is Chapters 43–61.
Watch how people decide about each other.
Almost every important event in this novel starts with someone forming an opinion on too little evidence: at a dance, from a story told by a charming stranger, or from a single letter. As you read, notice what each judgment rests on, who repeats it, and what it takes to change it.
The story in brief
The arrival of wealthy Charles Bingley gives Mrs. Bennet hopes of a marriage for one of her five daughters. Jane and Bingley grow close, while Elizabeth takes a dislike to his proud friend Darcy. Wickham’s account of mistreatment strengthens her prejudice against Darcy, and Charlotte’s acceptance of Mr. Collins forces Elizabeth to confront a view of marriage unlike her own.
Elizabeth refuses Darcy’s first proposal. His subsequent letter challenges her understanding of Wickham and Jane’s separation from Bingley. A visit to Pemberley offers further evidence of Darcy’s character. When Lydia runs away with Wickham, Darcy privately helps arrange their marriage. Elizabeth learns of his intervention, resists Lady Catherine’s attempt to dictate her future, and accepts Darcy’s renewed proposal. Jane and Bingley also marry; the closing chapter follows the altered family relationships.
Characters and relationships
- Elizabeth and Darcy
- Two confident judges of character who must reconsider themselves as well as each other. Attraction develops alongside changes in conduct.
- Jane and Bingley
- An affectionate pair separated partly by other people’s interpretations. Jane’s reserve and Bingley’s willingness to be guided make their feelings vulnerable to interference.
- Charlotte and Mr. Collins
- A marriage that secures Charlotte a home. Collins is also the heir to Longbourn under the estate’s entail, which makes the Bennet daughters’ financial prospects uncertain.
- Wickham and Lydia
- His charm conceals his conduct; her enthusiasm overlooks its consequences. Their elopement brings the family’s worries about reputation and money together.
- The Bennet parents
- Mrs. Bennet anxiously pursues marriages; Mr. Bennet often retreats into mockery. Ask when each recognizes a real problem and when each makes it worse.
- Lady Catherine and the Gardiners
- Contrasting models of influence. Lady Catherine asserts rank and entitlement; Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle offer practical assistance and measured advice.
Themes to test against the text
Judgment and self-knowledge
Elizabeth’s intelligence does not protect her from enjoying a story that flatters her. Compare her reception of Wickham in Chapter 16 with her rereading of Darcy’s letter in Chapter 36. What changes is her way of weighing evidence, as well as her opinion.
Marriage and economic security
Charlotte’s decision in Chapter 22 and Elizabeth’s refusal in Chapter 19 reveal different tolerances for risk and compromise. Explain the pressure of the entail without assuming that the novel endorses every marriage made under that pressure.
Rank and conduct
Darcy’s standing cannot make his first proposal considerate, and the Gardiners’ connections to trade do not prevent them from behaving generously. Compare Chapters 34, 43, and 52: which actions earn respect that social position alone cannot?
Meryton and Netherfield
VOLUME I · CHAPTERS 1–23
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” After you meet Mrs. Bennet, read the sentence again. Who actually wants what?
Look at: Chapter 1.At the Meryton assembly, Darcy says of Elizabeth, “She is tolerable: but not handsome enough to tempt me.” How does Elizabeth respond in public? How much of what she believes about Darcy later can be traced back to this moment?
Look at: Chapter 3.Mary Bennet says, “Vanity and pride are different things,” and explains the difference. Apply her distinction to Darcy, then to Elizabeth. Does it hold up?
Look at: Chapter 5.Darcy admits, “My good opinion once lost is lost for ever,” and Elizabeth replies that “Implacable resentment is a shade in a character.” Could the line describe Elizabeth as well as Darcy?
Look at: Chapter 11.Wickham tells Elizabeth how Darcy wronged him, and she believes him almost at once. What makes his story persuasive? What in the scene should have made her more careful?
Look at: Chapter 16.Charlotte Lucas says “Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,” and later, accepting Mr. Collins, “I am not romantic, you know.” Is her choice a failure, a compromise, or a sensible decision? How much room does the novel give her to explain herself?
Look at: Chapter 6; Chapter 22.“An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth,” says Mr. Bennet when she refuses Mr. Collins. Is he being a good father in this scene? Return to this question after Lydia’s elopement.
Look at: Chapter 20.
Hunsford and the letter
VOLUME II · CHAPTERS 24–42
Darcy’s first proposal begins, “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed.” What in the way he proposes insults Elizabeth even as he declares his love?
Look at: Chapter 34.Elizabeth tells Darcy that his declaration spared her any concern she “might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.” List her charges against him. Which does his letter answer, and which does it leave standing?
Look at: Chapter 34, then Darcy’s letter in Chapter 35.Elizabeth reads the letter twice, and the second reading changes her mind. What makes the difference? Why was she unable to take it in the first time?
Look at: Chapter 36.
Pemberley and after
VOLUME III · CHAPTERS 43–61
Seeing Pemberley, Elizabeth thinks “that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!” Is this the turning point in her feelings, a joke at her own expense, or both? What does the housekeeper’s account of Darcy add?
Look at: Chapter 43.Lydia’s elopement threatens every one of her sisters. Why is one sister’s conduct the whole family’s problem in this world? Who in the novel sees that most clearly?
Look at: Chapters 46–47.Lady Catherine demands that Elizabeth promise never to accept Darcy. Elizabeth answers, “I am only resolved to act in that manner, which will, in my own opinion, constitute my happiness.” Compare her view of happiness with Charlotte’s.
Look at: Chapter 56; Chapter 6.In the second proposal scene, Darcy says, “I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle.” What has each of them learned since Hunsford? Is the change equal on both sides?
Look at: Chapter 58.
Across the whole novel
FOR ESSAYS AND FINAL DISCUSSIONS
Mr. Bennet asks, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?” Is this the novel’s own attitude? Find a place where laughing at people stops being harmless.
Start at: Chapter 57.Which character is proud, and which is prejudiced? Argue that each quality belongs to both Darcy and Elizabeth.
Money is everywhere in this novel: incomes, the entail on Longbourn, dowries, debts. Choose one character and explain how money limits the choices open to them.
TRY IT HERE · NO ACCOUNT NEEDED
“How despicably have I acted!”
From Chapter 36, Project Gutenberg eBook #1342. The example answers are editorial, written for this guide.
“How despicably have I acted!” she cried. “I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameless distrust. How humiliating is this discovery! Yet, how just a humiliation!”
Before you look at the example answer
- What does Elizabeth accuse herself of? Name more than one thing.
- Why does she call the humiliation “just”?
- What had she been proud of, and how is that connected to her mistake?
See one possible interpretation
Elizabeth is not only sorry that she misjudged Wickham and Darcy. She is ashamed that the quality she was proudest of, her discernment, is the one that failed. She had looked down on Jane’s readiness to think well of people and treated her own suspicion as a sign of cleverness. The humiliation feels “just” because it strikes the exact thing she valued herself for.
The passage does not show that she now thinks well of Darcy. It is about how she has judged, not yet about whom she loves.
Compare a claim with a supported explanation
A claim that needs more support: “Here Elizabeth realizes she is in love with Darcy.” Love appears in the next lines only as a comparison: “Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly.”
A more supported explanation: “Elizabeth recognizes that her pride in her own judgment made her misjudgment possible.” This connects “prided myself on my discernment,” her “vanity,” and the word “just.”
These are examples, not scores. Other interpretations can be reasonable when the passage supports them.
Build an essay: how does Elizabeth learn to judge?
Follow one belief about Darcy from Chapter 16 through Chapters 35–36 to Chapter 43. For each stage, separate what Elizabeth knows from what she assumes. A useful thesis explains the change in her method, rather than simply saying that her first impression was wrong. Address a complication: Darcy’s letter corrects some of her charges, but does not make the insulting first proposal courteous.
READ IT WITH SOMEONE TO TALK TO
Discuss Pride and Prejudice in Parlor.
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About this guide
Quotations come from Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Project Gutenberg eBook #1342, which is in the public domain in the United States. The questions and example answers were written for Parlor Study by Nevel Trade Inc.
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