Pride and Prejudice: Irony

Pride and Prejudice: Irony
One of the most prominent features of the literary style of Jane Austen is her frequent use of irony. In Pride and Prejudice she investigates social relationships in the limited society of a country with an ironic and often humorous eye.
General Irony
Irony in the themes of ‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’:-  The title of the novel, which refers to those failings of the main characters that initially prevent them from accepting each other, contains a strain of hidden irony. Jane Austen subtly introduces an inversion in the thematic foibles (‘pride’ and ‘prejudice’) and the characters they belong to. This very inversion is another example of Austen's use of irony. It is Darcy who is supposed to have the pride and Elizabeth who is supposed to have the prejudice. But in her misunderstandings with Darcy, she accuses him of excessive pride, while he accuses her of prejudice.
Irony in the very first line: -  The reader is invited to laugh at the ironies of human perception and expectations from the very first line of the novel: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” Read ironically, this sentence is turned on its head to mean: “Everyone who knows a single rich man will pursue him with ambitions to be his wife.” This is irony, which allows the author to communicate more than the literal or expected meanings of her language.
Mr. Bennet’s irony
Mr. Bennet’s intentional irony: -  Mr. Bennet, the intelligent, detached father of the Bennet sisters is an interesting study in the novel’s use of irony. His own sense of irony is very well defined, and he enjoys laughing at his wife’s and his family’s follies.
His ironical comments at the expense of his wife range from the gently mocking: “You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves… They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these twenty years at least” and the subtle and indirect: “Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose” to the harsh and direct:“ This is a parade which does one good; it gives such an elegance to misfortune! Another day I will do the same; I will sit in my library, in my night cap and powdering gown, and give as much trouble as I can, - or, perhaps, I may defer it, till Kitty runs away”.
But Mr. Bennet's conscious use of irony serves no useful purpose. It neither serves to shame his wife, who fails to detect the vein of sarcasm underlying all his comments, nor does it educate his younger daughters or make them see how improper their behaviour is.
Mr. Bennet’s unintentional irony: -  This is why the plot of the novel seems to show, through Mr. Bennet, the limitations of sitting back and observing irony as a response to human experience. Trapped in a bad marriage, Mr. Bennet makes life endurable for himself by assuming the pose of an ironic passive spectator of life, who has long ago abandoned his roles as a husband and a father. And this ironic detachment on the part of Mr. Bennet is closely linked to his abdication from responsibility.
His most spectacular abandonment of duty comes in connection with Lydia’s proposal to go to Brighton. “Lydia will never be easy till she has exposed herself in some public place” says Mr. Bennet, “and we can never expect her to do it with so little expense or inconvenience to her family as under the present circumstances.” His statement, seen in retrospect, is even more ironic than he meant it to be. Lydia did, in fact, end up exposing her family. And the expense and inconvenience, which he claimed would be little, turns out to be enormous.
Elizabeth's irony
Elizabeth’s intentional use of irony: -  On the other hand, Elizabeth’s playful irony is for her both a defense against others whose faults she can perceive, and a weapon which she uses to condemn them for these faults.
In the war against stupidity, she uses irony to skewer the negative traits she is quick to find in people. She targets Mr. Collins’ self-importance and his sycophantic behaviour towards Lady Catherine De Bourgh: “They…were indebted to Mr. Collins for the knowledge of what carriages went along, and how often especially Miss De Bourgh drove by in her phaeton, which he never failed coming to inform them of, though it happened almost every day.” Mr. Collins, of course, was too blinded by his self-importance and his infatuation with Lady Catherine’s power and wealth to see that Elizabeth was really not at all indebted to him, and in fact her irritation and contempt of him increased with this behaviour.
Similarly, she criticizes the contrast between Wickham’s duplicity and Darcy’s honesty to Jane: “There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.”
She does not even spare Bingley, accusing him of over-compliance in his reliance on Darcy: “Elizabeth longed to observe that Mr. Bingley had been a most delightful friend; so easily guided that his worth was invaluable”.
She criticizes Mr. Darcy’s lack of social graces to his face: “I have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our minds. We are both of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room”. And she does not spare him in Bingley’s drawing room when she says to him: "I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect. He owns it himself without disguise." The irony, of course, is that by accusing him of owning that he has no defect, she is actually accusing him of a grave defect: arrogance.
Elizabeth response at Charlotte’s marriage – unintentionally ironic: -  Yet, Elizabeth’s own behaviour towards Wickham is unknowingly tinged with irony. Perhaps the worst instance of Elizabeth’s stubborn belief in Wickham’s character is her serene acceptance of his defection to the moneyed Miss King. Ironically enough, just a few months ago, she had expressed shock at Charlotte’s decision to marry Mr. Collins for very similar reasons, and in fact, had partially estranged herself from Charlotte because of what she thought were Charlotte’s mercenary and shallow motives.
In her letter to Mrs. Gardiner, she says of Wickham: “handsome young men must have something to live on, as well as the plain”. Contrast this to her very different response when Charlotte herself said much the same thing to her: “[Elizabeth] could not have supposed it possible that when called into action, [Charlotte] would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte, the wife of Mr. Collins, was a most humiliating picture! – And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem….” This seeming inconsistency on her part reeks of hypocrisy, but the truth is that Elizabeth is simply less clear-sighted in the case of Wickham than she is with Charlotte.
The irony of the difference in her response to Charlotte’s engagement and her own subsequent leniency towards materialism is further underlined by the reaction that the first sight of Pemberley arouses in her ("at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!"). Later, she tells Jane “…I hardly knew when it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley.” People have differed on how ironically this statement by Elizabeth, supposedly dating the beginning of her love for Darcy, should be taken. But however ironically she meant it herself, it cannot be denied that her regard for Darcy received a great impetus when she saw his beautiful house.
Darcy’s irony
Darcy is not as humourless and sober as he appears on the surface. He may not laugh, but in his own way he is as attuned to irony and incongruity as Elizabeth is. Their conversation shows that his wit can be as ready as Elizabeth’s. For example, when Miss Bingley accuses Elizabeth of being ‘one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex, by undervaluing their own,' Mr. Darcy’s ironic response that “there is meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation”indicates that he sees through Miss Bingley’s own attempt to “recommend” herself to him by “undervaluing” Elizabeth.
Mrs. Bennet’s irony
Mrs. Bennet is a minefield of unintentional irony. Her ill-natured, materialistic and narrow-minded view of the world is revealed in her foolish comments, such as the one she made about Bingley to Elizabeth on her return from Hunsford "Well, my comfort is, I am sure Jane will die of a broken heart, and then he will be sorry for what he has done.''
Other such comments abound. But in the final resolution of Mrs. Bennet’s deepest wishes for her daughters’ marriages, there lies still more irony. Even though it is the business of her life to get them married, she has only succeeded in ruining their prospects. If her daughters’ futures were left entirely up to her, her improper management of them would have ended up making them ineligible for any respectable suitors. In fact, it is Mr. Darcy who moves behind the scenes and secretly arranges the marriage of all the three Bennet girls. Thus Darcy, who she despises, and who in turn despises her, is the one who is ultimately responsible for her exultation at the end. This, then, is the greatest irony of all.
Jane Austen’s irony in the social context
Finally, the author’s most devastating use of irony in the book is in her attacks on community and on society, such as on the Meryton society. She uses irony as a social tool to direct the reader's gaze to some of the human imperfections that threaten the virtues of her culture.
Independent of any character, she uses irony in the narrative parts for some of her sharpest judgments. Through the Meryton community’s reaction to Lydia’s marriage with Wickham: (“the good-natured wishes for her well-doing, which had proceeded before, from all the spiteful old ladies of Meryton, lost but little of their spirit in this change of circumstances, because with such an husband, her misery was considered certain.”), Austen attacks society’s practice of taking pleasure in others’ ills, and the mean-spirited gossip-mongers that inhabit society.
Austen also pokes fun at society’s practice of suddenly becoming enamoured with a man because of his wealth without knowing his true nature. For instance, upon Darcy's entrance to a dance in chapter 3, Austen writes that “the report was in general circulation within five minutes...of his having ten thousand a year.” She adds that “the ladies declared that he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley” – obviously his wealth recommended his countenance to them. That they retract their approval so fast when they realize that he pays no attention to them is no less ironic.
A striking feature of the irony in Pride and Prejudice is that it is mixed with unmistakable strains of cynicism. This ‘black’ irony is very much in evidence throughout the book. For example, in the following statements
Elizabeth on Bingley: “Is not general incivility the very essence of love?”
Mr. Collins to Elizabeth: “Your portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the efforts of your loveliness and amiable qualifications.”
Charlotte Lucas on marriage: “If a woman conceals her affection … from the object of it, she may lose the opportunity of fixing him. … In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.”
The cynicism of all this is striking – especially the suggestions that human attachments spring largely from selfish motives, and that women who do not feign affection for men are likely to be left on the shelf.
Thus, irony is employed by Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice as the lens through which society and human nature are viewed. She uses irony not only to create humour and make her books more enjoyable, but also to make veiled, bitter observations about the world around her. And this is why this novel is as relevant in our times as it was in hers, perhaps more – for in her hands irony is an extremely effective device for moral evaluation that exposes those defects in her society which still prevail in ours today.