Laughter in Austen
"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 de
Lydia's apparent exemption from all restraint becomes a focus in the coach returning to Longbourn. Lydia's "wild volatility" is attributable to her parents. And when Darcy later defends himself by pointing out that "the wisest and best of men, nay, the wisest and best of their actions, may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke. Bennet on news of Lydia's elopement: "Let me advise you. "Elizabeth is a defender of banter as a means of proving the worth of a person or idea. Bennet, for example, employs his wit as an assertion of superiority required by his sense of defeat: "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" No less subversive is Lydia's laughter, however different her loud buffoonery is from her father's cool satire. Serious as her action is, however, Lydia has no sense of guilt. "She has come round practically to repeating Darcy's own view on the subject of wit. Lydia's laughter is excessive and silly, and beyond this, her hyperboles ("Aye," "Lord,"), her grammatical failures ("Kitty and me were to spend the day there"), and her constant inattention to the decorum required of the occasion (as when she interrupts Mr. Bennet that he arranges beforehand "such little elegant compliments as may be adapted to ordinary occasions. " 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.
Common topics in this essay:
Jane Austen,
Miss Bingley's,
Miss Bennet,
Bennet Lydia's,
Aye Lord,
Darcy Elizabeth,
Lydia Wickham,
Mary Bennet,
Pride Prejudice,
Harriet Forster,
darcy elizabeth,
attitudes towards laughter,
lydia's laughter,
pride prejudice,
attitudes towards,
piece fun,
darcy's own,
view humor,
towards laughter,
jane austen,
mary bennet,
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