Jane Austen begins her novel, Pride and Prejudice, with one of the most famous lines in literary history, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" (1). These opening lines reveal the nature of the setting that the central Bennett characters' live in. The community weighs heavy importance on shared opinions and knowledge in Meryton. The community of Meryton develops their views based on what is spread throughout Meryton by gossip and conversations. Pride and Prejudice is mostly narrated through the conversations of its' characters, who are sometimes truthful, and other times unreliable. It is among the tight-knit, gossipy community of Meryton that Mr. Darcy meets Elizabeth Bennett, and catapults the story into a maze of misjudgments, and wrong impressions.
[...] Darcy's inability to mesh with the philosophy of conversation in the community, makes the information he has not spoken dangerous. Darcy indirectly allows the community and the Bennett household to be seduced by Wickham, because did not want to engage in the Victorian past time of chatter, and banter. Austen writes that Darcy understands his misjudgment, “that I might have prevented it! I who knew what he was. had I explained some part of it only some part of what I learnt, to my own family! [...]
[...] Darcy's family pride stopping him from announcing the truth, and Elizabeth's already prominent prejudice against Mr. Darcy. By speaking these words to Elizabeth he allows the nature of the gossip driven town to do the rest, and Elizabeth is able to convert everyone against Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth exposes Mr. Darcy openly acknowledged and publicly canvassed; and every body was pleased to think how much they had always disliked Mr. Darcy before they had known anything of the matter” (136). Mr. [...]
[...] Long has just been here, and she told me all about it'” This reveals the character of the society that the Bennet's live in, and the reader receives the information like the characters in the novel do, through gossip and chatter. The importance of gossip and conversation is further highlighted when Elizabeth forms her opinion of strong dislike towards Mr. Darcy, for she judges him based on what she overheard him saying, as opposed to some harmful action he did to her. [...]
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