"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." What we read is just the opposite; a single woman must be in want of a man with a good fortune. In this first line of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice we are at once introduced to language rich with satire. The comic tendencies displayed in the novel's language introduce a theme very important to the novel-the character's laughter and their attitudes towards laughter as an index to their morality and social philosophy.
             Beginning with Darcy's opinion, expressed early in the novel, that Miss Bennet "smiled too much," attitudes towards laughter divide the characters. Most obviously Darcy, all "grave propriety," is opposed to Elizabeth, who has a "lively, playful disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous." We tend to consider Elizabeth's position the normative-more closely aligned with modern theories of humor. She laughs at hypocrisy, vanity, pretension, the gap between statement and action, and between theory and practice. On the other hand, Darcy takes a conservative attitude toward laughter. His taciturn disposition and unwillingness to be the butt of mirth are clearly described. He tells those assembled in the Netherfield drawing room that "it has been the study of his life to avoid those weaknesses which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule." But the deficiencies of this view, evident enough in Darcy's own demeanor, are revealed in the parodies of it which appear in the novel. Everywhere in Pride and Prejudice, pompous gravity is laughed out of existence. In the absurdly formal utterances of a Mary Bennet or a Mr. Collins (neither of whom is ever known to laugh), Austen demonstrates that a total lack of humor has effects the reverse of what a situation demands. One example of this is in Mr. Coll...