For the pre-seminar task for 3/24/09:
Pick one of the motifs from the notes and then identify how it is used in Jane Austen's novel. Write at least 2-3 paragraphs, informally, about your thoughts on Austen's use of the motif.
Is it effective?
Does it serve its original purpose or is it being used ironically?
What type of setting is it used in?
ETC.
This needs to be completed by this week-end.
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To help brainstorm some of the motifs, I think the one that we talked about most in class that really stuck with me was the mention of marriage as a common theme (I believe Phil is to be credited with the first mention of this). I think the marriage theme really goes hand in hand with figuring out what the characters' different reasons are for marrying: money, security, love, etc. and it really helps show more of the characters' personalities throughout the novel.
ReplyDeleteI think a motif that was talked about enough for me to remember it was tradition. Tradition played a huge role in the whole story. If Mrs. Bennet hadn't had been so old-fashioned then it wouldn't have been such a big deal to marry her daughters off. She made her life's work into marrying her daughters, and she even admitted that it was her life's business.
ReplyDeleteMarriage was such a big tradition that as soon as the Bennet girls were old enough to be even thinking about marriage, their mother wanted to marry them off. Mrs.Bennet had strong traditions that she wanted to pass through on to her daughters. This was one of the motifs in Pride and Prejudice.
Well I was completely confused about what exactly a motif is. So to claify, It's a concept or ideal or even saying that repeats throughout the work, forming and symbolizing the theme of the story. So it isn't actually a theme, right? Well if I'm correct, then courtship or social awareness are great motifs! I mean, the courting of Charles and Jane led to the theme of marriage for love and not just for security and reputation's sake. Also, the social awareness of Mr. Darcy plagues his judgement, resulting in his prejudice and Elizabeth's conviction of disgust for him, forms her proud inability to think of him as good. Well, I think that's right. So, Mr. Bruno, is our paper a standard 5 paragraph essay addressing those questions, or a 2-3 paragraph statement addressing them?
ReplyDeleteSo a motif is like a theme’s sidekick. A sub-theme if you will. Does that mean that what you percept as a motif depends what you have a theme?
ReplyDeleteI think that one motif that pride was one of the most common motifs presented. Many of Elizabeth and Darcy’s action’s were motivated by it, the family freaked about their image when Lydia ran off, Mr. Collins and his Lady Catherine.
I suppose that pride and image/societal expectations are major motifs appearing in Pride and Prejudice.
Portia- that was a really cute way of describing a motif, as a theme's sidekick.
ReplyDeleteObviously there a few motifs present throughout Pride and Prejudice. I think the one that stuck with me the most was social status. I feel that the different social classes provided an underlying conflict throughout the entire novel. It initially defined the characters, but as the novel progressed, we were able to see a few of the characters let go of their socially based prejudices. Also, there were different expectations for members of the different social classes, which I think in turn dictated many of the character's actions in the start of the novel, and added to their prejudices against one another.
I think that the most prominent motif in Pride and Prejudice is marriage. From the opening chapter of the book Mrs. Bennet is immediately talking about marriage. She is really happy with the fact that such a wealthy young man, Mr. Bingley, has moved into Netherfield. She immediately brings up how good it would be for one of their daughters to marry him. Her reasons are not because of his good character because she has never met him. Instead she is thinking about how wealthy and high in society they would be due to this marriage.
ReplyDeletethis is the common idea of the purpose of marriage at this time. Elizabeth, however, feels that this should not be why people get married. Though any marriage would be beneficial to the Bennet girls due to their lack of inheritance, she feels that she should marry for love. She could have had a perfectly acceptable marriage to Mr. Collins and inherited the house that she already lived in. However, she reject his proposal because she did not love him. She rejected almost every norm of society at the time and was actually way ahead of her time. It was not acceptable for women to really make their own decisions and marriage was for security, not love. Elizabeth defied these expectations and was very passionate about her decisions.
Like Andy, I found marriage to be a motif used in Jane Austen’s novel. Pride and Prejudice told the story of several marriages, each with its own defining principles. The relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Mr. Bingley, and several others differ in more ways than one. The differences are apparent through the characters of the individuals involved in the pair and their reasons for uniting. For example, much is to be said about Elizabeth’s character for not settling for a marriage of security, rather seeking a marriage of love. Similarly, much is to be said about Mrs. Bennet’s character for desperately wanting each of her daughters to marry as soon as possible despite the choice of the husband. In addition, the road to becoming a couple defines the personalities of the various characters. I found the motif to be both effective and serving of its original purpose. It is used in a realistic setting, for the marriages of today’s life are diverse and exist for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are all pretty close to the definition of a motif. The easiest way to think of a motif is the incomplete version of the theme. What this means is while a theme is a complete sentence, a motif is the core of that theme. So, where a theme for Pride and Prejudice could be "marriage is a journey that begins before the ceremony," the core of the sentence is "marriage." You would then track every instance of marriage in the novel and see if the uses of marriage bear out your theme.
ReplyDeleteThat just made my life so much easier, just from that explanation. Thank you, Mr. B.
ReplyDeleteThere are many motifs to Pride and Prejudice, the title itself is a motif. But what I love is how everyone is so tied to the ideas of marriage, love, money, security, and courtship.Why settle on just a few of those ideals? The relationships among the characters, alone, is a motif.
And if you mean the original purpose of the title? "First Impressions"? That is definitely a motif, it almost screams it. The whole novel is wrapped around Elizabeth and Darcy, and how they evolve from those first impressions.
I think that the main motif in Pride and Prejudice is love. Pride and Prejudice contains one of the most cherished love stories in all English literature, Darcy and Elizabeth's courtship. As in any good love story, they must overcome many stumbling blocks, beginning with the many flaws in each of their characters, aka Pride and Prejudice.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth's pride makes her misjudge Darcy because of a poor first impression, while Darcy's prejudice against Elizabeth's poor social standing blinds him, for a time, to her the many great things that make her up. Jane Austen gives the reader countless smaller problems to help the reader realize how great the love between Elizabeth and Darcy is, including Lady Catherine's attempt to control her nephew, Miss Bingley's snobbery, Mrs. Bennet's need for her daughter's to marry for security, and Wickham's deceit.
I know we talked about a lot of the motifs during the seminar we had in class. We talked about themes such as "love", "class/status",
ReplyDelete"pride", "prejudice", etc. I like the theme of status becuase I felt that it connected a lot of things in the book together. If you look at the characters such as Darcy, Mr. Collins, Wickham, Charles and his sister, they all are deeply integrated into the whole idea of class. However, they all took different approaches to it. Mr. Collins was very snobbish and was constantly trying to show himself off. Darcy and Charles were uncaring about the boundaries of class and feel in love with people that were below them. Charle's sister on the other hand despised those who were not her equal. Wickham was very desperate and needed someone to raise his status.
Hm...I wrote my paper on "courtship" so I guess I'll talk about that. Courtship is defined by the relationship between the people involved, which (AND LET ME RELATE THIS BACK TO THE HUNTER'S IN THE SNOW THEME!) sometimes are merely symbiotic relationships without love, charity or empathy. For instance, I do not think that Miss Lucas is really loving up on Mr. Collins, but she marries him to benefit herself. However, some relationships are built on love, charity, or empathy. For instance, I believe Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's relationship to be built on AT LEAST empathy, though they don't completely understand each other, they make an effort to appease each other's wishes. Bingley and Jane's relationship is clearly built on love.
ReplyDeleteMarriage really does hold true to a motif of this novel. Any conflict throughout the novel can be traced to some component of marriage. It is effective because all of the societal beliefs and customs can be based upon these aspects. Social class plays a part in marriage, marrying in order to keep the family money, a tear and bringing together of families and friends, etc. I do not think the book would be a strong without marriage because it would not make for effective reasoning behind the way the society worked at the time of the setting. If you were to take out the element of marriage, then the book would not be that much of a book, after all love is only one aspect of marriage.
ReplyDelete