Letters in Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice Essay -- Jane Austen Prid

Letters play a very important role in ‘Pride and Prejudice’. They can tie the story together because letters provide information which we would not have found out from the dialogue between the characters. We can also find out extra background information which can help with the reader’s understanding of characters, the plot and the novel in general. Letters can reveal character’s personalities and how they feel about the other characters in the novel, for example Miss Bingley’s feelings about Jane. Letters are used as a dramatic device in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ to further the plot, link the story and to inform the readers of the character’s personalities. Letters are also an extremely important part of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ because at the time when the novel was written, letters were the only way of communicating other than through word of mouth. Letters can be used to deliver good and bad news at any time. They did not have telephones so a letter would be the most appropriate way of keeping touch with friends and family. Jane and Elizabeth are two of the main characters in the novel and they write to each other frequently during their visits away from each other. The sisters share some parts of their personalities. Both are caring, loving and considerate towards other people, but Jane is extremely loving and she does not want to judge any of the other characters in the novel before she has heard the entire story. This is because she does not want to think badly of anyone. We know this from Jane’s letter to Elizabeth regarding the actions of Miss Bingley and Miss Hurst in London. ‘If I were not afraid of judging harshly, I should be almost tempted to say, that there is a strong appearance of duplicity in all thi... ...Cited Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Norwalk: The Easton Press, 2008. Internet Sources Consulted "Psychological Growth in Pride and Prejudice | MSS Research." MSS Research. MSS Research, n.d. Web. 02 May 2015. Marcus, Mordecai. â€Å"A Major Thematic Pattern in Pride and Prejudice.† Nineteenth-Century Fiction 16.2 (Dec. 1961): 274-279. JSTOR. Web. 02 May 2015. Stovel, Bruce. ‘A Contrariety of Emotion’: Jane Austen’s Ambivalent Lovers in Pride and Prejudice.† The International Fiction Review 14.1 (Winter 1987): 27-33. Literature Resource Center. Web. 02 May 2015. Weinsheimer, Joel. â€Å"Change and the Hierarchy of Marriages in Pride and Prejudice.† ELH 39.3 (Sept. 1972): 404-419. JSTOR. Web. 02 May 2015. Wiesenfarth, Joseph. â€Å"The Case of Pride and Prejudice.† Studies in the Novel 16.3 (Fall 1984): 261–73. Literature Resource Center. Web. 02 May 2015.