Letters of Love and Life in _Pride and Prejudice_

Based on discussions in class so far over Pride and Prejudice, I don't think guys really understand just how wholly marvelous Mr. Darcy is to us ladies. Tall, dark, handsome, witty, well-read, mysterious, filthy rich and a good dancer?? Really, this is perfection we are dealing with. If I had been approached by Mr. Darcy in the woods with a four-page letter detailing his private life, I definitely would have swooned, or at least had a much more positive reaction than Lizzy did. I've found myself wishing a lot reading this book that letters were still "a thing", because they were so much more personal than most communication these days, and so I was interested in class today when we were talking about epistolaries. I've read Pride and Prejudice a few times and seen the BBC adaptations an actually unreal amount of times, and I've always just taken the letters for granted, but I thought it would be interesting to look more into the technical, functional purpose of letters in the novel.

The epistolary novel is defined by a novel that is comprised of a series of documents, which includes diary entries and other formats, but usually is through letters. In epistolaries, the letters play crucial roles in turns of events in the plot, and also serve the purpose of giving a more intimate view of a character by conveying their thoughts without the interference of a third-person, narrator's point of view ("Epistolary novel"). Based on this definition, I wanted to evaluate to what extent Pride and Prejudice could be defined as an epistolary. 

There is the obvious difference - Pride and Prejudice isn't really comprised of a series of documents, it is primarily narration with letters interspersed. However, the letters function in this novel as a force heavily impacting the plot. The first time we see a letter, it serves to introduce us to the character of Mr. Collins: "The disagreement subsisting between yourself and my late honoured father, always gave me much uneasiness, and since I have had the misfortune to lose him, I have frequently wished to heal the breach" (Austen 55). The letter here acts as as a natural segue that is realistic to how such social exchanges were at the time period, but also clearly reveals Mr. Collins' motivations and general tone of communicating with others that instantly tells the reader a lot through implication of his character without extensive description. 

This latter purpose of revealing the character's ways of thinking is also seen later on in a letter to Lizzy from Jane after her negative experience with Miss Bingley in London: "But, my dear sister, though the event has proved you right, do not think me obstinate if I still assert, that, considering what her behaviour was, my confidence was as natural as your suspicion" (Austen 132). Here we clearly see Jane's ability to automatically consider everyone's perspective in a situation and justify the actions and feelings of each, which tells the reader a lot more about Jane as a person than pure description could provide. This also serves as a source for the reader to learn of plot advancements occurring in a different place than where the main character (Lizzy) is. 

Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, 1995.

But perhaps the most important letter in what we have read of the novel so far (though it is by far the most important letter in the novel), is the one Mr. Darcy hands Lizzy in the tree grove after his catastrophic attempt at a marriage proposal. In terms of influencing the plot, it does so extremely, being what ultimately influences Lizzy to start changing her opinion of Mr. Darcy, and revealing Mr. Wickham's deception:

 "But every line proved more clearly that the affair, which she had believed it impossible that any contrivance could so represent, as to render Mr. Darcy's conduct in it less than infamous, was capable of a turn which must make him entirely blameless throughout the whole" (Austen 182). 

Because Lizzy's change of opinion about Mr. Darcy (along with some change on his part too) was necessary for the plot to advance toward their ultimate betrothal, her reaction to hearing his side of the story was of utmost importance, and the letter serves perfectly to reveal this. It also established the truth about Mr. Darcy from Mr. Darcy himself - so far all we really know of his character is his cryptic dialogue in conversation and the varying accounts of him from other characters. This back-and-forth banter about Mr. Darcy makes it a little difficult to always know what to believe about him, and so the letter serves a further purpose of making Mr. Darcy's actions and feelings believable because we are hearing them firsthand: "I must now mention a circumstance which I would wish to forget myself, and which no obligation less than the present should induce me to unfold to any human being" (Austen 179). This first serves to grab the reader's attention (ooo, juicy secret!) but then consequently makes the reader want to take Darcy's side, which is crucial for his development as a character.

So I guess you could classify Pride and Prejudice as a quasi-epistolary novel - though letters do not serve as the primary format of the novel, they do serve huge roles that I didn't even realize of creating shifts in the plot as well as giving an up-close view of the characters by allowing the reader to "hear" their inner thoughts. 

Works Cited:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 19898. Print.

"Epistolary novel". Wikipedia. 1 Oct 2013. 11 Oct. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_novel>.