S. P. Dutta, M.A.

(English), ACIB (London)

395 Ramakrishna Palli (Mission Palli): Sonarpur : Kolkata 700 150
Voice: 9883494021`
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The plot of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Austen, owing to her novels being novels of characters, often faces criticism from authors like
Divers Hand ( Jane Austen : A Depreciation ) who complain of Austen’s ‘thin plot, unfashionably
cut, and by turning, relining and trimming made to do duty for five or six novels ; a dozen or so
stock characters – these are Miss Austen’s materials…. It is true that she cannot tell a story, but it
is equally true that she does not want to. Her interest is not in the happenings, but in humours.”
True that Austen has a plan to expose the humours of pride and prejudice and then effect a
chatharsis of the same through the two central characters of her novel; still, she has done this
through a well-organised course of events which ultimately have no loose end dangling. It is often
said that the plot of Pride and Prejudice is too neat to be plausible. While not disputing the
argument entirely, we would simply revise it and say that it is both neat and plausible. This is
because Austen has told her story without sacrificing causality, the most important ingredient of a
good plot. A good plot, says Aristotle, must have a good beginning, a good middle, not muddle,
and a good end. The plot of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice conforms to the Aristotelian doctrine.

The main plot of the novel centres round the relationship between a eligible bachelor of good
fortune and a graceful girl that is primarily rocked by the bachelor’s pride and the bride’s
prejudice but that finally ends in a happy union. This eligible bachelor is Darcy who comes to a
small country village, Netherfield where the bride, Elizabeth, one the five daughters of her
parents lives with the whole family. The otherwise simple plot becomes complicated owing to the
presence of two bachelors and two marriageable girls who are siblings.

The obstacles to a smooth resolution of the Darcy - Elizabeth relationship are both external and
internal. The external obstacles are numerous. The first one is the lower economic status of the
girls’ family. Both Bingley and Darcy have to overcome their prejudice of marrying into a lower
middle class family. Secondly, the attitude of Mrs. Bennet is indecent adding to the repulsion of
the would-be grooms. The third external obstacle is the elopement of Lydia with Wickham,
involving the family in a scandal that would make it difficult both for Darcy and Bingley to marry
into a family, sharing the social stigma. The stratagems of Darcy and Caroline who do their best
to keep Bingley away from Jane further complicate the situation. Elizabeth’s sense and sensibility
is in a muddle. Caroline’s plan to thwart Darcy’s interest in Elizabeth with a view to getting her
daughter married to him makes the tangle more intricate.

More important than these external hindrances are the internal obstacles issuing forth from the
nature of the major characters. Darcy is too haughty and outwardly repellant, and deceives others
by his appearance. He dismays Elizabeth by his remarks: She is tolerable, but not handsome
enough to tempt me.” This attitude of Darcy hurts Elizabeth’s feminine vanity and makes her
strongly prejudiced against Darcy. She develops an attitude of hostility towards Darcy too
quickly. Later, when Charlotte Lucas tells her that she would find Darcy an agreeable man, she
says: “ Heaven forbid! That would be the greatest misfortune of all ! – to find a man agreeable
whom one is determined to hate ! – Do not wish me such an evil.” Darcy is also found unduly
motivated to frustrate the union of Jane and Bingley. Bingley and Jane are too malleable, and
hence they give chances to others to interfere with their affairs.
All these obstacles are finally overcome. Darcy shakes off his ill-bred pride, and prejudice against
the so-called socially inferior persons, and Elizabeth shakes off her prejudice, issuing from her
pride, against Darcy when she discovers Darcy to be a man of generous nature, particularly when
she learns that her family has been saved from a social scandal by him. The novel ends in a happy
resolution to the satisfaction of all.

This mainframe of the plot has been achieved by dint of a superb structural skill. The plot is not a
drab one, without complications. In fact, Austen’s technique is like the one found in
Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night. The plays begin with separation and discord
and end in union and concord. The same technique is followed by Jane Austen in Pride and
Prejudice. Mary Lascelles in her work Jane Austen and Her Art (1939) points out this technique
of what she calls divergence and convergence. Shortly after they meet, Elizabeth and Darcy
begin to diverge because of their innate pride and prejudice. This divergent trend is spurred more
by Elizabeth than by Darcy because while Darcy quickly realizes that he should establish a
rapprochement with the fascinating girl, Elizabeth is obdurate(adamant, unbending). Her feelings
have already been hurt by Darcy’s arrogant (egotistical) remarks at the dance, and now she feels
that he has held Bingley a virtual prisoner in London, away from Jane. Wickham’s wicked tale
about Darcy inflates her hostility towards the man, and when she learns that he is a relative of
Lady Catherine de Bourgh, whom she detests, her aversion towards Darcy gains in strength. This
divergent movement continues for quite some time before taking a U turn.

This turn begins with Elizabeth receiving a letter from Darcy. The letter, first of all, indicates that
Darcy has overcome his arrogance, which he displayed in the dancing scene. Secondly, it
initiates Elizabeth’s revaluation of the situations and affairs including the Jane-Bingley
relationship and Wickham’s story. This revaluation becomes complete when they meet at
Pemberley, but even now there is no radical change in her mind. She is not so mollified as to rush
into a marriage with Darcy at the moment, but she begins to discover that the man, contrary to her
first impression, has enough good qualities in him. This movement of convergence is not fast
and smooth. The elopement of Lydia with Wickham blocks the path. The scandal is potent
enough to thwart the marriage/marital prospects of Jane and Elizabeth, and a dark pall falls on the
scene. However, the good Darcy secretly busies himself with the salvage operations, and it is only
a matter of time for the suspense to vanish. The cloud being cleared, the two couples are united
forever.

The plot is thus clear, neat and simple, and symmetrical as well. The symmetry of the plot is
noticeable in the movement of the plot through a series of balancing events or incidents. The
novel can be divided into three parts. The first part occurs largely at Longbourn and Netherfield
Park; the locale of the second part is Rosings Park; and the third part is enacted first at
Pemberley and then at Longbourn. Numerous balancing events occur at various stages of the
novel. The arrival of Bingley that takes place in the beginning in an atmosphere of optimism is set
off by the arrival of Darcy that takes place near the end in an atmosphere of gloom. The novel
opens with parties and balls, and closes with marriages . Again, there are two balancing surprise
marriages – of Charlotte in the beginning and of Lydia towards the end. Like Darcy who finds
himself in placed in strange circumstances, Elizabeth feels uncomfortable near the end at
Hunsford and at Pemberley. In the earlier stage, Darcy interferes with Jane’s love affair with a
negative attitude; in the later stage, he involves himself in the satisfactory resolution of the crisis
generated by Lydia’s elopement with Wickham. Further, Elizabeth meets Lady Catherine twice –
first at Rosings Park and then at Longbourn. Through such balanced acts, Austen achieves a
symmetrical plot. As a matter of fact, the symmetry is so neat that critics often tend to call it
implausible. They think that everything is pre-arranged, and plot is built up like a plain structure
built with bricks kept in the warehouse. The movement of the plot nowhere creates tension, and
even if there is any, it is diffused smoothly. For example, they point out the resolution of the crisis
generated by the Lydia-Wickham affair. It appears that as the novelist must get Elizabeth married
to Darcy that she engages him in a philanthropic mission. Again Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth that
dispels the cloud in her soul seems to be a sudden development, not conforming to the law of
probability and necessity. All this is true, but not yet true. Austen has her own technique, and she
has contrived her plot in a particular design. As a matter of fact, Jane’s skill in the construction of
the plot is evident in her making each event, each slight incident, each conversation and each
speech indispensable to the plot. Her scope is not vast. The action is confined to three or four
families, to a dozen characters, to locales not incommunicably distant. And these limitations Jane
deliberately imposed upon herself in order to give her novel a symmetrical plot and produce a
unity of impression. Austen has to be judged by her own standard, as Coleridge wants
Shakespeare to be judged by the bard’s. And here Austen, a self-schooled girl, producing at the
age of twenty-one a novel that tickles aged brains even today is a marvel, receiving from the
readers and the critics alike appreciation (accolades) that soars higher with the passage of time.

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