Explore how chapter 56 in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ fits into the overall scheme of the text Essay

What social comments do you think Jane Austen is making in this chapter? Pride and Prejudice was written by Jane Austen in 1813. The novel describes and exaggerates the life in which in Austen lived. The title Pride and Prejudice refers to the ways in which Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy first view each other. The story involves the lives of many different classes and how they interact with each other; it is also informing us of the way certain types of people were treated in those days. Near the end of the novel, Lady Catherine de Burgh comes to visit Elizabeth to try and persuade her not to marry Darcy. I will explore this chapter to find out what social comments Austen tries to make throughout the novel about the world she lived in. Chapter 56 is a summary of the whole novel. Lady Catherine has come to see Elizabeth to make her withdraw her acceptance of marriage to her nephew, Mr. Darcy. Lizzy is shocked by these accusations, as she has heard nothing of the sort, so wonders where Lady Catherine heard the rumours. She is the type of person who thinks that everybody’s business is her own because she is of the higher class. It has been planned since Darcy and Lady Catherine’s daughter were born that they were to be wed and now she hears of Darcy proposing to another lady has outraged her. That is why she has come to visit Elizabeth to stop her marrying Darcy. From the moment lady Catherine arrived she was very rude and not welcoming. She says things such as, ‘you have a very small park here,’ and ‘this must be a most inconvenient sitting room.’ As soon as she entered the Bennet’s home she made no effort on being civil or polite to their family. If Elizabeth were to behave in this manner when she was at Rosing’s it wouldn’t have been tolerated in the slightest. The only reason Lady Catherine gets away with it is because she is a lady and very rich and of the higher class. Anyone who was below her would put up with her behaviour because it was not his or her place in those days to accuse her of being impolite. Jane Austen grew up in this world where the rich people were almost the celebrities of the day. In our world famous people have the money, the expensive cars and clothes and a celebrity status, where the public would stop and look at them and always aspire to be like them. In Austen’s time it was very much the same but the lower classes and even middle were always looking up to the higher classes and admiring them. This is why people with the money could be as rude and stuck up to people as they wanted because in the end they were the ones with the power and the money to do what they wanted. Lady Catherine’s reason for visiting Elizabeth was not what the family had thought. Elizabeth expected a letter from Charlotte yet no letter was given. Instead Lady Catherine remarked upon a, ‘prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn.’ Again she is not really being as polite as she could have been about the garden. From this point Elizabeth realised that she wanted to be alone. She had realised that Catherine was again being very rude and stuck up and so made no effort to talk to her. Lady Catherine begins with, ‘ your own heart, your own conscience, must tell you why I come.’ Elizabeth doesn’t have any idea what she is talking about. Lady Catherine talks about her conscience, which is showing that Lizzy is to feel guilty about whatever she has been accused of. She tells Lizzy that rumours have reached her that her and Mr. Darcy were to be engaged and says ‘though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood,’ Lady Catherine cannot comprehend this idea, to think that a middle class person such as Miss Bennet, who has no real connections, would even consider accepting an offer of this sort. Lady Catherine does not hold back on her true feelings about the subject and as Elizabeth has been brought up in the proper manner she has to respect her. Elizabeth soon becomes tired of her picking at everything that is wrong with her and her family and is not rude but stands up for herself. She asks Lady Catherine if the only reason they should not wed is because she wants him to marry her daughter, then what is there to stop her? She replies with ‘ honour, decorum, prudence, nay, interest, forbid it.’ This is the long list that she has against Lizzy. The social points she is trying to make is that in those days if a family were to have such a disgrace as Lydia’s elopement then no man should be interested in them, rich men such as Bingley and Darcy should marry same class or higher and that there were some very snooty people who would disagree with the association of certain families! They don’t have a lot of land so are not as wealthy and high class.families like this always tried to marry higher up. Need to put in that Bennett’s don’t have a lot of land or money so lady Catherine looks down. Not too sure how to say this fits in with the rest of the book or how the chapter does? Bit stuck but will be done properly when handed in; in neat it’s a promise