Luu 1 Dialectical Journal Name: Christina Luu Text: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Note-Taking (Quotes) Include:

direct quotations; examples of literary devices; fragments of quotes; lists; descriptions of images. Look for significant or intriguing quotes. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters. P a g e # This is the first sentence of the novel, and probably the most famous and lasting. However, in my perspective, to consider it a well-acknowledged universal truth may perhaps be a stretch on Austens part for 21st century American society anyway. This quote acts as a foreshadowing or introduction to what the entire novel is centered around. But what the quote does not explicitly state, or is left for us to interpret, is that the reverse is also implied. A single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. And likewise, a single woman is in want of a man in possession of a good fortune. The second sentence alludes to the arriving Mr. Bingley, who is sought after by the neighborhoods girls. Mr. Bennet is teasing his wife. I chuckled when I read this, so even though it may not be significant in particular, it stood out to me. It is amusing to me because through their dialogue, I get a better sense of the familys mood and relation to one another and a better character sketch of the father. Mr. Bennet comes off as an easy-going, witty person who enjoys messing with his wife. No double-entendre intended. Mr. Bennet seems to love Elizabeth the most, out of his five daughters. What struck my amusement is that he was able to openly single out Lizzy as his favorite, with no regard to any of the others. In our current day culture, parents seem to be more cautious in making their children think that they are all loved equally. However, 17th century England may have a different culture of its own. I wonder if the girls knew who their parents favored, and if they are Date: March 5, 2012 Class: AP English Lit 12 Period 5 Note-Making (Analysis) Include: summaries of quotes; judgments; conclusions; thoughts; feelings; comparisons; inferences; questions; definitions.

You and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves, which perhaps will be still better; for, as you are as handsome as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of the party.

I will send a few lines by you to assure him of my hearty consent to his marrying which ever he chooses of the girls; though I must throw in a good word for my little Lizzy. 2

Luu 2 jealous or do not care about the matter.

The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased

She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me.

With your good sense, to be honestly blind to the follies and nonsense of others! Affectation of candour is common enoughone meets it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or designto take the good of everybodys character and make it still better, and say nothing of the badbelongs to you alone. Bingley had never met with pleasanter people or prettier girls in his life everybody had been most kind and attentive to himDarcy, on the contrary, had seen a collection of people in whom there was little beauty and no fashion, for none of whom he had felt the smallest interestMiss Bennet he acknowledged to be pretty, but she

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Proud! This is the first mention of the word in the novel about being proud or having pride. I was ecstatic to finally see its relevance in the novel! Okay, that was a bit of an overstatement. So I discovered, to no surprise, that Mr. Darcy is the epitome of pride, according to the people of the party. He is rich, and he is handsome, but he was still detestable because of his unflattering character, his prideful disposition. However, in my opinion, practicality would allow us to assume that the girls would still want to marry him if he had shown any interest in them, simply because money and connections seemed to be the overbearing factor of marriage during these times. Mr. Bingley tells Darcy to dance with Elizabeth, but he denies and says that Elizabeth is not attractive enough to get him in the mood. This is probably one of the first character interaction we see between Darcy and Elizabeth, however I feel that this will soon change erratically as he will be attracted by her character. Character seems to outweigh looks in this novel In Elizabeths description of Jane, we see a better character sketch of Jane. She seems to be completely honest and thinks good will of everyone. She is calm, friendly, polite, and quiet. This contrasts immensely with Elizabeth, it seems, who is sharp-tongued, witty (like her father, which might explain why she is his favorite), and practical. I prefer Elizabeths character because shes more dynamic. Just as I previously contrasted Elizabeth and Jane, I see a stark contrast between Bingley and Darcy. Bingley and Jane are friendly, agreeable people who think the world is made of gumdrops and rainbows. Darcy and Elizabeth are more cynical of people. Even Jane, with her incomparable beauty, a universal truth acknowledged, could still be criticized by

Luu 3 smiled too much. Darcy. He still managed to find something negative to say about such a perfect lady. Smiling too much is bad. Who could be a worthy match for him? Is he too superficial and materialistic? Elizabeth justifies her dislike for Darcys pride when Miss Lucas tried to defend him. This was a little ah-ha moment for me because I realize that Mr. Darcy is not the only one who has pride. Elizabeth does too, and the title of the book goes both ways. It was initially clear that Elizabeth was prejudiced against Darcy because of his pride, but now we also see that Darcy is also prejudiced (of lower social classes) and Elizabeth also embodies pride. I predict that these similar traits will ironically bring them together. Mary Bennets words of wisdom. We havent heard much of her, but when she does speak, she sounds quite profound. According to Wikipedia, vanity is the excessive belief in ones own abilities or attractiveness to others. Pride refers to an inflated sense of ones personal status or accomplishments. From what Mary says, I think she may be implying that people should not be able to determine someones pride, but someones vanity instead. Charlottes words seemed a bit ludicrous at first to me, but as I thought more about it, she does have a point. Even if we take years and years to get to know our partner before engaging to marriage, there is always still the possibility of argument and dissatisfaction. We cannot guarantee that the person we know today will be the same person we love twenty years down the road. This also tells us about the way Charlotte approaches life. She sees marriage as an engagement of chance, a gamble, a business deal, not one of love. This may be foreshadowing something :3 Ooh-la-la. Mr. Darcy finally admits that he has fallen for Elizabeth. I think it was her strong character and independent mind that moved him. At this point, I wonder if Elizabeth has changed her mind even in the slightest about Mr. Darcy. Miss Bingley is obviously jealous of

I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine.

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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 should have others think of us.

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Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always contrive to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.

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Miss Bingley immediately fixed her eyes on his face, and desired he would tell her what lady had the credit of inspiring such reflections. Mr. Darcy replied with great intrepidity, Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

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Luu 4 Mr. Darcys new affections for Elizabeth. This just made me happy. How will Darcy try to woo her now? This is the most ridiculous, selfish thing Ive ever heard a mother say to her daughter. She wants her daughter to get sick so she can advance her chances with Mr. Bingley. This just gives us more insight into the type of person Mrs. Bennet is. How can Mr. Bennet tolerate such a person? Thank goodness her daughters have so much greater morals. I have nothing further to say. Very dislikeable. Here, a little about the character of Miss Bingley is revealed through her rude commentary on Elizabeths appearance upon entering their house. She has the same politeness and civility like her brother, but underneath Miss Bingley seems almost bitter towards Elizabeth. Is she always like this or is it only towards Elizabeth? Continuing onto page 36, I noticed that Darcy didnt really seem to notice Elizabeths filthiness, and instead complimented the brilliance of her eyes. Darcy hardly ever seems to appreciate anything, so it made me think if Darcy was starting to hold some sort of favoritism toward Elizabeth. Darcy seems to pay so much attention on what a woman SHOULD be (as mentioned on page 39); it seems a little strange that he doesnt seem to notice how unlady-like Elizabeth is. Could this be hinting some sort of future affection? Here, this excerpt describes the character of Lydia, who is, in my opinion, a very important character in the sense that she adds contrast to the Bennet daughters. Lydia seems to be the wild one, always running around chasing after men, where the other daughters seem more reserved by nature. Lydia also is a favorite of Mrs. Bennet, which makes sense since their personalities are so similar. Mrs. Bennet is always eager to marry her daughters to some wealthy young man, and Lydia goes out and tries to find such a man. Perhaps it is because

No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to rain; and then you must stay all night. 26

When dinner was over, she returned directly to Jane, and Miss Bingley began abusing her as soon as she was out of the room. Her manners were pronounced to be very bad indeed, -a mixture of pride and impertinence: she had no conversation, no style, no taste, no beauty. Mrs. Hurst thought the same 30

Lydia was a stout, well-grown girl of fifteen, with a fine complexion and goodhumoured countenance; a favourite with her mother, whose affection had brought her into public at an early age. 40

Luu 5 Lydia is one of the younger daughters, and being younger she probably isnt as mature as her elder siblings. However, Mary and Kitty are also quite young, but they dont seem to act like how Lydia does. Also, Lydia is fifteen, and I dont really feel its normal for a fifteen year old to act like that. Maybe it IS personality. Here, Jane Austin further portrays to the reader the character and personality of Mrs. Bennet. Once again, she drops everything negative about someone if they would just marry a daughter of hers. Its almost amusing to see how extreme she is, able to not only forgive, but to think highly of Mr. Darcy despite his arrogant personality. Personally, I find Mrs. Bennet the comedic element in the story. It also almost seems as if Austin wants us to see that Mrs. Bennet symbolizes economic marriage, where marriage is solely based on establishment and connections. Whereas, people like Mr. Bingley and Jane, by showing their interest in each other, despite Janes lowly connections, symbolize marriage that is entirely based on love. This is possibly my favorite line in the entire book thus far. Here, its has almost a climatic feel when Mrs. Bennet decides to bring Elizabeth to her father. At first, I started getting this Ooooh, shes gonna get it feeling, but I ended up chuckling to myself after reading his response. Again, Mr. Bennets pure intellectual wit adds some comical relief in the book. At the same time, it seems to additionally exemplify the difference between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Mr. Bennet sees that Mr. Collins personality does NOT appeal to Elizabeth, thus would not result in a marriage on happiness. On the contrary, Mrs. Bennet is still intent on Elizabeth marrying Mr. Collins, interested only in getting her daughters married to perhaps better connections. Again, it seems as if Austin wanted to show us some sort of contrast in material versus happiness.

Mrs. Bennet treasured up the hint, and trusted that she might soon have two daughters married; and the man whom she could not bear to speak of the day before was now high in her good graces.

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An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.

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