Pride_and_Prejudice_as_a_Novel_of_Manners

=**Pride and Prejudice as a Novel of Manners**=

//"Etiquette is the barrier which society draws arounds itself as a protection against offenses the "law" cannot touch--"// --Hints on Etiquette and the Usages of Society, 1836

==A Novel of Manners is: a fictional piece that creates a social word to examine the values, customs, and morals of a manifold civilization. Society is the dominate theme, so the characters are measured by how they fit into this social world.==

As a sub-classification of the Realist Novel, if often shows the clash of an individual's desires and the pressures of the sourrounding environment.

The genre began due to changes in English society in the 19th century. The errosion of the social hierarchy was mainly caused by industrialization, urabanization, and revolutions in transportations and communications. Authors described how the various groups interacted on a day to day basis by discussing codes of conducts. Common subthemes included differences between the city and the countryside, early agrarian culture and industrial order, and between English and American traditions.

It focuses on the acceptance of different manners and morals between men and women. They illustrated and defined various codes of conduct for each gender. Females were concentrated on social behavior, domestic matters and matrimony while men were focused on monetary appearances and politics.

Always try to follow the “Golden Rule.” ["Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"]

__**Qualities of a Victorian Lady:**__

"A lady should be quiet in her manners, natural and unassuming in her language, careful to wound no one’s feelings,but giving generously and freely from the treasures of her pure mind to her friends. Scorning no one openly, she should feel gentle pity for the unfortunate, the inferior and the ignorant, at the same time carrying herself with an innocence and single heartedness which disarms ill nature, and wins respect and love from all." --(Victorian Station)--


 * __Qualities of a Victorian Gentleman:__**

-He acts kindly from the impulse of his kind heart. -He is brave, because, with a conscience void of offence, he has nothing to fear. -He is never embarrassed, for he respects himself and is profoundly conscious of right intentions. -He keeps his honor unstained, and to retain the good opinion of others he neglects no civility. -He respects even the prejudices of men whom he believes are honest. -He opposes without bitterness and yields without admitting defeat. -He is never arrogant, never weak. -He bears himself with dignity, but never haughtily. -Too wise to despise trifles, he is too noble to be mastered by them. -To superiors he is respectful without servility; to equals courteous; to inferiors’ kind. -He carries himself with grace in all places, is easy but never familiar, genteel without affection. -He unites gentleness of manner with firmness of mind. -He commands with mild authority, and asks favors with grace and assurance. ---(Victorian Station)---

__**Examples:**__

//"Oh, certainly. No woman can be really esteemed accomplished who does not also possess a certain something in her air, in her manner of walking, in the tone of her voice, her address and expressions."// (Pride and Prejudice, pg 32 chapter 8)

-This illustrates how a Victorian woman was expected to be publicly presentable and polite at all times. How a woman behaved in front of a group of people was how she was judged.

//"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment."// (Pride and Prejudice, pg 22 chapter 6)

-This shows how marriage should be in the mind of a young Victorian woman. It also shows how marriage lacks romance/love (jump from LOVE to MARRIAGE) and how a woman rushed into marriage (imagination very rapid).

//"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us."// (Pride and Prejudice, pg 15 chapter 5)

-This shows how your opinion of yourself was nothing without others opinions of you. One can conclude that a positive opinion from others was more desired in the Victorian era.

//"Mr. Bennet's property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed, in default of heirs male, on a distant relation..."// (Pride and Prejudice, pg 21 chapter 7)

- Here, Victorian customs further create an isolated world for the upper class by making it desirable for a woman to marry within their immediate family. This would keep land inherited through their progeny and maintain their wealth.

//"She asked her, at different times, how many sisters she had, ...what carriage her father kept, and what had been her mother's maiden name?"// (Pride and Prejudice, pg. 120 chapter 21)

- As a display of power, Lady Catherine is asking a string of rather invasive questions to determine the level of wealth Elizabeth's family comes from. Asking "what carriage her father kept," is comparable to judging a person by their car in today's standards.



Character examples:

Mrs. Bennet Absorbed with the concept of marriage and climbing the ladder of social hierarchy through marriage, Mrs. Bennet becomes one of the key characters in shaping __Pride and Prejudice__ into a novel of manners. She wants only rich husbands for her daughters, which is illustrated in her excitement with merely the idea of a suitor and possible husband for each of her daughters, her enthusiasm only increasing with her daughters' prospective husband's wealth.

Jane Bennet Jane also shapes __Pride and Prejudice__ into a novel of manners, although quite differently than her mother. She always knows what to say in certain social situations, never being disrespectful and always looking at both sides of the situation, becoming the "ideal lady" that women of the time aspired to be.

Mr. Collins Polite almost to a fault, Mr. Collins understands that social interactions are what will raise him up on the ladder of social hierarchy, causing him to flatter wealthy or important individuals incessantly, and to point out connections such as the one between himself and Mr. Darcy in order to raise awareness about his relations with Lady Catherine. He greatly prides himself on his close connection with Lady Catherine and her daughter, and continually parrots her views or opinions on subjects or refers to times when he has been within her home (and how grand it is) or her comments on his home when she has come to visit.

Charlotte Charlotte and Mrs. Bennet have very similar views on marriage, they both believe that a woman should marry in order to increase her status in life, and whether or not love should come along with the marriage as well is unimportant. Her marriage to Mr. Collins, although lacking in love, raised her social standing and wealth well above those which she had as a single woman. Charlotte organizes her new home in such a way that she barely ever crosses paths with her husband. In this manner, she gains wealth and social standing while not having to deal with her obsequious husband very often.

"In the Victorian era there were etiquette laws that dictated a person's actions in every imaginable situation. The laws were unwritten, but understood by the upper social class. Following these social rules would put a person in good social standing with his or her peers and would give them a good reputation." (Victorian Etiquette and Rules of Propriety)

__**Works Cited:**__

-http://www.victorianstation.com/lifestylemenu.htm -http://www.ladiesofreenacting.com/Victorianetiquette.html -http://www.victorianbazaar.com/introduction.html