Questions and answers novel pride and prejudice

Thinking Activity: Pride and prejudice:

Pride and prejudice by June Austen: 

    

1) Which version of the novel is more appealing? Novel or film (adaptation)? Why?

 

Ans, Most of the time books are better than movies. Books can let you imagine the setting or events happening in the story. They are also more detailed than movies because movies sometimes leave out some important details.

In some movies, they switch up the characters because in the book they are different and totally the opposite.

When we read a book, we tend to visualise the characters a certain way and in movies, they don’t look the way we want them to. It disappoints us in many ways. I’ve read books before that have a plot twist at the end and in the movie it never happens.

 

Books are portable and can be read online as well, anytime. When reading books, we get more knowledge and it helps us improve our vocabulary. Characters are described much better and with more detail.

One important thing that books do have and movies don’t is that they provide more background information than a movie does.

Novel better than Movie:

Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation Pride & Prejudice had more differences from the Jane Austen novel than just changing the time period, making the film more realistic and romantic in the process. Starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfayden as Mr Darcy, the film was a major departure from the previous, more faithful, BBC miniseries that aired ten years prior. Joe Wright took a more romantic approach to the novel, grounded in realism, that turned Pride & Prejudice into a critical success for blending traditional period-film traits with a modern approach. Wright collaborated with Keira Knightley again after Pride & Prejudice with another critically acclaimed adaptation, Anna Karenina.

The adaptation stripped down the Pride & Prejudice subplots to focus on the romance between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, compressing the novel into 127 minutes — a sharp contrast from the sprawling, six-hour miniseries that came before. Keira Knightley's Elizabeth Bennet was younger than her BBC predecessor played by Jennifer Ehle and significantly feistier than Elizabeth's portrayal in the book, much like Knightley's similar performance as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Knightley's modern interpretation of the character and Joe Wright's stunningly-shot film pushed Pride & Prejudice out of the stereotypically perfect Regency-era world, and into one that was visually distinct.

2) Character of Elizabeth:

Ans, The twenty-year-old Elizabeth, sometimes Lizzie, sometimes Eliza, is a most attractive young woman. Not only is she beautiful, with eyes that made her irresistible to Mr Darcy, but she has an exceptional personality. She is high spirited but self-controlled, always guided by her good sense, which few of the other female characters in the novel have. She is self-assured, outspoken, and assertive, but never rude or aggressive.

Elizabeth’s assertiveness and outspokenness would have shocked the readers of the novel when it first came out. Although Jane Austen is criticized for creating characters that reaffirm the expectations about female stereotypes it is clear that the character of Elizabeth Bennet challenges the expected gender norms of her time, particularly when compared with the other females in Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth is willing to express her opinions wherever she is, without fear, and has the confidence openly to challenge the views of those of superior social standing. On her first meeting with Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Lady Catherine interrogates her and is surprised by the open, frank replies of the twenty-year-old.

Her rejection of marriage on the basis of economic gain and insisting on happiness in marriage, which could only happen by marrying for love, is something those around her – even her father – do not understand, so far away from societal expectations is that idea.

Throughout the novel, Elizabeth is faced with many challenges pertaining to her sex and social rank, within a British patriarchy and perhaps, in creating Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen has given us English literature’s first feminist.

Elizabeth’s conversational skills and sparkling wit are divisive. They often act to her disadvantage, such as bringing on Lady Catherine’s disapproval, but they are also partly responsible for Mr Darcy’s admiration. Lady Catherine is appalled by the willingness of someone so young to give her opinion so freely, and Mr Darcy is impressed by her confidence in doing so as well as with the good sense of her opinions on all matters.

In Elizabeth Benett, Jane Austen has given the world an immortal fictional character, one that we can almost mistake for a real person, in the same way as Shakespeare and Dickens did with some of their characters.

3) Character of Mr Darcy: 

Ans, The son of a wealthy, well-established family and the master of the great estate of Pemberley, Darcy is Elizabeth’s male counterpart. The narrator relates Elizabeth’s point of view of events more often than Darcy’s, so Elizabeth often seems a more sympathetic figure. The reader eventually realises, however, that Darcy is her ideal match. Intelligent and forthright, he too has a tendency to judge too hastily and harshly, and his high birth and wealth make him overly proud and overly conscious of his social status. Indeed, his haughtiness makes him initially bungle his courtship. When he proposes to her, for instance, he dwells more on how unsuitable a match she is than on her charms, beauty, or anything else complimentary.

Elizabeth's rejection of his advances builds a kind of humility in Darcy. Darcy demonstrates his continued devotion to Elizabeth, in spite of his distaste for her low connections, when he rescues Lydia and the entire Bennet family from disgrace, and when he goes against the wishes of his haughty aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by continuing to pursue Elizabeth. Darcy proves himself worthy of Elizabeth, and she ends up repenting her earlier, overly harsh judgment of him.

4) Give illustrations of the society of that time. (Jane Austen's presentation): 

Ans, Jane Austen depicts a society which, for all its seeming privileges (pleasant houses, endless hours of leisure), closely monitors behaviour. Her heroines in particular discover in the course of the novel that individual happiness cannot exist separately from our responsibilities to others.

Learning the social rules:

One of the reasons Austen’s world charms us is because it appears to follow stricter rules than our own, setting limits on behaviour. There are precise forms of introduction and address, conventions for ‘coming out into society (meaning a young girl’s official entry into society and therefore her marriageability), for paying and returning social visits, even for mixing with different social ranks. Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion are sensitive to questions of social status and can all be seen extending the definition of polite society to include previously excluded members of the professional and merchant classes and the navy. Above all, relations between young men and women are carefully monitored. One reason dance scenes are so prominent in Austen’s novels is that the dance floor was, in her time, the best opportunity for identifying romantic partners and for advancing a courtship, for testing relations between the sexes. 

Pride and Prejudice unfold as a series of public or semi-public events – assemblies, balls, supper parties, country-house gatherings – each one followed by anxious reviews shared by two people in private as they analyse its events. Charlotte Lucas and Elizabeth Bennet, Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, Elizabeth and Mrs Gardiner are discovered reading the behaviour of others, interpreting motives and intentions. In all her novels Austen portrays a society that closely restricts mental and physical space, particularly for women, who are allowed little solitude or independence. Many of the crucial events of an Austen plot take place indoors or in the confining presence of a number of people.

Letters: 

We know that Austen wrote the first version of Pride and Prejudice in the 1790s, almost 20 years before it was eventually published. This early date is important and may have left deep traces on the novel, among them its use of letters. Pride and Prejudice are filled with letters: as many as 42 are mentioned, and there is considerable emphasis on reading and re-reading letters. Many 1790s novels were actually written completely in letter form (epistolary fiction), as an exchange of letters between characters. Novels in letters take on a particular structure, openly inviting interpretation as characters engage in reading one another’s behaviour (literally reading it off the surface of their letters). This openness to debate and interpretation, whatever its deeper structural origin, is written large across the pages of Pride and Prejudice.

5,  If you were a director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of the movie?

Ans,  If I am a writer or screenplay writer, I change the love story of the film because love is the main theme of the film, and every person sees a different perspective of the Film and its story. that's why I change the love story of the film.

6) Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters?

Ans, Here, I would like to compare Hollywood Actors with Bollywood Actors: 

Elizabeth:- Alia Bhatt

Mr, Darcy:-Mohsin Khan

Mr, Bingley:- Varun Dhawan

Jane:- Shraddha Kapoor

Mr, Collins:- Tiger Shroff

Wickham:- Sidhart Malhotra

7) Write a note on a scene you liked the most: 

Ans,

DARCY’S FIRST PROPOSAL 

I know it failed, I know. But this is still one of my favourite scenes in the movie. Let’s start with the location: the garden, the rain, the running. Top tier. Then, there’s Darcy, out of breath with simp eyes. He does this god awful job of proposing, Lizzie yells at him about Wickham and breaking up Bingley and Jane, Darcy yells back at her because he’s sad now, Lizzie delivers a devastating blow, and then they stop. Now that they’ve gotten out all of the stuff that was lingering between them, all that’s left to do is kiss. They don’t, but they totally thought about it.

8) Compare the narrative strategy of novel and Movie: 

Ans, Pride & Prejudice was written by British author Jane Austen and published in 1813. The main character is Elizabeth Bennett and the story follows Elizabeth and her family as they deal with issues such as marriage, social class, and misunderstandings. The Bennett family consists of Elizabeth, her mother, her father, and her four unmarried sisters. The Bennett family is of the landed gentry, they have money but are not insanely rich. The novel is also a love story between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, although they initially dislike each other when they meet. They get off on the wrong foot, Elizabeth’s pride keeps her from seeing Mr Darcy as anything except the negative first impression she initially had of him. While Mr Darcy’s prejudice towards Elizabeth’s lower social class blinds him to her many good qualities. Other plotlines include Mr Bingley (Mr Darcy’s good friend) wanting to marry Elizabeth’s older sister Jane, but encountering obstacles because of differences in social class and her you the book has family, friendship, and an unconventional love story. This is probably Austen’s most famous novel and is considered to be a classic.

The 2005 movie starred Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett and Matthew Macfadyen. The movie was filmed in England and was marketed towards a mainstream audience. Originally, the movie was going to be very true to the book. All the dialogue was kept the same and almost the entire movie was going to be from the perspective of Elizabeth (like the book). In the end, the dialogue in the film varied between being exactly the same as the book in some scenes, while most scenes had altered dialogue. This was done to help a modern audience better connect with the movie and the characters. The movie also features scenes from the perspective of Mr Darcy, these are additional and not in the book. This was done to show Darcy as more human as well as to show the genuine closeness of his friendship with the character of Mr Bingley. The movie was well-received by critics, with Keira Knightley being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and was a success at the box office. Austen fans and British viewers of the film had divided opinions.

The movie has other differences than just the dialogue. In the movie, Elizabeth keeps secrets from her family and grows apart from her older sister Jane. This is different from the book, while Elizabeth does become frustrated with events related to her family, she never keeps secrets from them. She also confides in her sister after difficult events, they never grow apart. The movie also portrays Mr Bennett as a warmer, more sympathetic father than he is in the book. His role in the family misfortunes, caused by him spending money on the wrong things, is downplayed. His relationship with his wife is much more loving in the movie. However, the movie also makes the Bennetts look poorer than they were in the book. Elizabeth also comes across as much more bold and impatient in the movie, she never yells at her parents in the book.