Discuss
Pride and Prejudice as a Domestic Novel/Social Novel.
A domestic novel is a piece of
art where greatness is a matter of treatment. A good novelist, taking a very
ordinary theme with limited possibilities of development might invest it with
universal significance. Love and marriage are the pivots of life and the
society exists in small family units. Thus the most significant and formative
human experiences are usually had in the small family sphere. A novelist can
portray a meaningful picture of life by using these experiences as his material.
In order to provide depth, there
is nothing philosophic in it, nothing overtly romantic to save it from being
mundane and earthy, and no crime or suspense to make it exciting. Its
characters are all pedestrian, the homely people given to a narrow range of
interests. The common theme of this type of novel is love and marriage and the
different stresses and strains of married life.
Jane Austen has correctly been
described as a writer of domestic novel. She simply confesses that for her two
or three families in a country village are enough to work with. It is evident
in Pride and Prejudice which deals with the domestic life and ambitions of the
Bennets, the Lucases, the Bingleys and the Darcey’s with scattered references
to a few other families. These are all middle class people while the Darcy’s
and the Bingley’s are comparatively prosperous. The usual tension of working
life and the tension of earning money are absent in their life. They are
engaged in giving dinners, paying visits and arranging Balls; the ladies and
gentlemen play cards and indulge in idle gossip. They often visit the natural
scenic places and healthy resorts. In Pride and Prejudice the balls place at Meryton,
at Netherfield and at Rosings and besides, Elizabeth visits to the Hunsford
personage.
