Pride and Prejudice Analysis Assignment:
Please choose one (1) of the following prompts:
Write a 3-5 page, typed, double spaced essay in APA format
Assignment #1
Theme: One of the novel’s themes revolves around the importance of environment and upbringing on the development of young people’s character and morality. Your response should include a discussion of one Bennet character AND one character from another family in the novel.
Look for examples involving a variety of characters and really explore and analyze the message Austen is giving the reader.
Assignment #2
Theme: One of the novel’s themes revolves around the importance of etiquette and decorum. As you explore this theme, keep in mind that etiquette, while usually thought of as a positive trait, can sometimes get in the way of the characters’ actions and feelings.
Look for examples where etiquette and decorum influence the plot – where it benefits characters, and also where it creates conflict.
Assignment #3
Tone: By using a narrative which frequently adopts the tone and vocabulary of Elizabeth, Austen invites the reader to follow events from Lizzy’s viewpoint, sharing her joys, her pains, her prejudices, and her misconceptions.
Find some particularly compelling examples of Lizzy’s voice, and discuss Austen’s tone (toward her character or in regard to the subject). You may also wish to find examples where Austen’s perspective changes to that of another character to serve as a counterpoint.
Assignment #4
Literary Analysis: You may pick any topic, scene, or character(s) of interest in the novel and explore it from whatever approach you wish – the world is your oyster.
You may want to choose your topic of interest first, and then decide which concept best fits your topic.
Assignment #5
The ideas in Pride and Prejudice may have stemmed from the ideals promoted in the French Revolution: According to the view of University of London’s Professor Isabel Armstrong, the novel is the story of how the French Revolution could have been avoided.
The marriage of the two Bennet girls to men far above their own social stature represents a shift in thinking for the nineteenth-century English audience. Without bloodshed or war, Austen’s characters deny the old social code, and there are no tragic consequences (which is not to say that there is not unhappiness and social clashing in the novel). But the characters resolve their differences peacefully, bending their own positions to allow for the other person’s point of view?