Chapters 5-13

Board Talk Wrap Up What do we know about the characters and how? Discuss your board at your table with this question in mind.

Character and Theme Categorize/Group these characters. What themes is Austen setting up through her characters?

Plot Stasis, then Disruption: what disrupts stasis in Chapter 1? How does Austen “thicken” the plot by increasing the stakes in Chapters 1-4?

The Entailment of Longbourn Austen introduces the entailment in Ch. 7. “Mr. Bennet’s property consisted almost entirely in an estate of two thousand a year, which, unfortunately for his daughters, was entailed in default of heirs male, on a distant relations…”

What is an entailment? From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) Entail \En*tail"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Entailed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Entailing}.] [OE. entailen to carve, OF. entailler. See {Entail}, n.] 1. To settle or fix inalienably on a person or thing, or on a person and his descendants or a certain line of descendants; -- said especially of an estate; to bestow as an heritage.

Where does the idea come from? Entailment is like the succession to the throne in the British Monarchy. The succession is based on the concept of male primogeniture, which means that men inherit over women.

What is the purpose? To legally preserve large properties intact over generations.

What are the implications? Any man inherits before a woman.

To Consider: What opportunities were there for women to work? (What kinds of jobs were available to the gentlewoman whose skills were needlework, piano, singing, and dancing?) What would happen to the Bennet girls if their father died and they were unmarried? To what degree is Mrs. Bennet’s obsession with wealthy suitors understandable and acceptable? Why does Austen introduce the entail in Ch. 7?

Pride vs Vanity Mary Bennet on pride and vanity: “Pride is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed, that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us” (Ch. 5)

Who is proud? Who is vain? Find evidence. What do Elizabeth and Darcy each think of pride? (Chapter 11)