Plot Overview.

The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor of
Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet
household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters—from oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth,
Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—and Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them all married. After Mr. Bennet pays a
social visit to Mr. Bingley, the Bennets attend a ball at which Mr. Bingley is present. He is taken with
Jane and spends much of the evening dancing with her. His close friend, Mr. Darcy, is less pleased
with the evening and haughtily refuses to dance with Elizabeth, which makes everyone view him as
arrogant and obnoxious.

At social functions over subsequent weeks, however, Mr. Darcy finds himself increasingly attracted to
Elizabeth’s charm and intelligence. Jane’s friendship with Mr. Bingley also continues to burgeon, and
Jane pays a visit to the Bingley mansion. On her journey to the house she is caught in a downpour and
catches ill, forcing her to stay at Netherfield for several days. In order to tend to Jane, Elizabeth hikes
through muddy fields and arrives with a spattered dress, much to the disdain of the snobbish Miss
Bingley, Charles Bingley’s sister. Miss Bingley’s spite only increases when she notices that Darcy,
whom she is pursuing, pays quite a bit of attention to Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth and Jane return home, they find Mr. Collins visiting their household. Mr. Collins is a
young clergyman who stands to inherit Mr. Bennet’s property, which has been “entailed,” meaning
that it can only be passed down to male heirs. Mr. Collins is a pompous fool, though he is quite
enthralled by the Bennet girls. Shortly after his arrival, he makes a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth.
She turns him down, wounding his pride. Meanwhile, the Bennet girls have become friendly with
militia officers stationed in a nearby town. Among them is Wickham, a handsome young soldier who is
friendly toward Elizabeth and tells her how Darcy cruelly cheated him out of an inheritance.

At the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield and return to London, much to
Jane’s dismay. A further shock arrives with the news that Mr. Collins has become engaged to Charlotte
Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend and the poor daughter of a local knight. Charlotte explains to Elizabeth
that she is getting older and needs the match for financial reasons. Charlotte and Mr. Collins get
married and Elizabeth promises to visit them at their new home. As winter progresses, Jane visits the
city to see friends (hoping also that she might see Mr. Bingley). However, Miss Bingley visits her and
behaves rudely, while Mr. Bingley fails to visit her at all. The marriage prospects for the Bennet girls
appear bleak.
That spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte, who now lives near the home of Mr. Collins’s patron, Lady
Catherine de Bourgh, who is also Darcy’s aunt. Darcy calls on Lady Catherine and encounters
Elizabeth, whose presence leads him to make a number of visits to the Collins’s home, where she is
staying. One day, he makes a shocking proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth quickly refuses. She tells
Darcy that she considers him arrogant and unpleasant, then scolds him for steering Bingley away from
Jane and disinheriting Wickham. Darcy leaves her but shortly thereafter delivers a letter to her. In this
letter, he admits that he urged Bingley to distance himself from Jane, but claims he did so only
because he thought their romance was not serious. As for Wickham, he informs Elizabeth that the
young officer is a liar and that the real cause of their disagreement was Wickham’s attempt to elope
with his young sister, Georgiana Darcy.

This letter causes Elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about Darcy. She returns home and acts coldly
toward Wickham. The militia is leaving town, which makes the younger, rather man-crazy Bennet girls
distraught. Lydia manages to obtain permission from her father to spend the summer with an old
colonel in Brighton, where Wickham’s regiment will be stationed. With the arrival of June, Elizabeth
goes on another journey, this time with the Gardiners, who are relatives of the Bennets. The trip takes
her to the North and eventually to the neighborhood of Pemberley, Darcy’s estate. She visits
Pemberley, after making sure that Darcy is away, and delights in the building and grounds, while
hearing from Darcy’s servants that he is a wonderful, generous master. Suddenly, Darcy arrives and
behaves cordially toward her. Making no mention of his proposal, he entertains the Gardiners and
invites Elizabeth to meet his sister.

Shortly thereafter, however, a letter arrives from home, telling Elizabeth that Lydia has eloped with
Wickham and that the couple is nowhere to be found, which suggests that they may be living together
out of wedlock. Fearful of the disgrace such a situation would bring on her entire family, Elizabeth
hastens home. Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Bennet go off to search for Lydia, but Mr. Bennet eventually
returns home empty-handed. Just when all hope seems lost, a letter comes from Mr. Gardiner saying
that the couple has been found and that Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia in exchange for an
annual income. The Bennets are convinced that Mr. Gardiner has paid off Wickham, but Elizabeth
learns that the source of the money, and of her family’s salvation, was none other than Darcy.

Now married, Wickham and Lydia return to Longbourn briefly, where Mr. Bennet treats them coldly.
They then depart for Wickham’s new assignment in the North of England. Shortly thereafter, Bingley
returns to Netherfield and resumes his courtship of Jane. Darcy goes to stay with him and pays visits
to the Bennets but makes no mention of his desire to marry Elizabeth. Bingley, on the other hand,
presses his suit and proposes to Jane, to the delight of everyone but Bingley’s haughty sister. While
the family celebrates, Lady Catherine de Bourgh pays a visit to Longbourn. She corners Elizabeth and
says that she has heard that Darcy, her nephew, is planning to marry her. Since she considers a Bennet
an unsuitable match for a Darcy, Lady Catherine demands that Elizabeth promise to refuse him.
Elizabeth spiritedly refuses, saying she is not engaged to Darcy, but she will not promise anything
against her own happiness. A little later, Elizabeth and Darcy go out walking together and he tells her
that his feelings have not altered since the spring. She tenderly accepts his proposal, and both Jane
and Elizabeth are married.

Who is prideful and who is prejudiced?

Jane Austen used the pairing of two key words for the titles of both Pride and Prejudice and another
of her novels, Sense and Sensibility. She had originally planned to call Pride and Prejudice “First
Impressions.” The two key words she ended up highlighting in the final title are very important to the
novel’s central themes and ideas. Their meanings were slightly different at the time Austen was
writing. Pride or being proud was usually not a positive trait. Whereas today people tend to speak of
being proud of hard work or some sort of accomplishment, in Austen’s time, being proud usually
meant someone thought he or she was better than other people or was not open to interacting with
different kinds of people. Prejudice tended to mean having a set idea about someone that was based
on assumptions or preconceptions, rather than a person’s actual actions and characters. Today,
prejudice may mean making judgments about someone based on, for example, their race or religion.
But in Austen’s time, prejudice was usually more about basing judgments on reputation, gossip, or
misunderstood actions.

Austen’s novel shows that almost anyone is capable of being prideful and prejudiced. While these
qualities are more or less universal, individuals who are able to rethink their initial judgments are the
ones who are most likely to lead happy lives. For example, Mr. Darcy is the character who is most
obviously proud and prejudiced. On the one hand, his pride is understandable due to his wealth and
high social position. He is used to being treated as a social superior and an authority figure, and social
codes of behavior ensure that he is treated with respect by characters of lower social position.
However, Darcy’s pride is conspicuous, and he makes it clear that he sees himself as superior to the
other characters he interacts with. When he says, for example, “There is not another woman in the
room, whom it would not be a punishment for me to stand up [dance] with,” he indicates that he
does not find the women at the ball attractive or sophisticated enough to meet his high standards.
Bingley, on the other hand, while also very wealthy and in a good social position, is much more warm
and open when he meets new people.

Darcy also shows prejudice and is very quick to make judgments about the people he meets. He does
not keep these judgments to himself and is willing to influence those around him. For example, he
admits to Elizabeth that he has tried to end the relationship between Jane and Bingley, stating, “I
have done everything in my power to separate my friend from your sister.” He later explains in his
letter that he did not think Jane actually loved Bingley. This shows that he assumes his observation of
Jane was accurate and that he did not consider whether the assumptions he was making about her
feelings were accurate.

As a result of Darcy’s display of pride early in the novel, the Bennet families and their neighbors
become prejudiced against him. Although he behaves badly by refusing to dance with Elizabeth and
not being friendlier, he does not actually harm anyone. This single interaction is not enough to truly
reveal his character. Nonetheless, the bad impression he makes leads many other characters to make
up their minds about who he is. For example, Mrs. Bennet calls him “a most disagreeable, horrid
man.” Even much more intelligent characters like Elizabeth are shown to put too much emphasis on
the ideas they first formed. When Wickham later tells Elizabeth the story of how he has been
mistreated by Darcy, she believes him because he describes Darcy in a way that agrees with her
prejudiced opinion of him.

Elizabeth’s misplaced trust in Wickham shows how prejudice influences her in two ways. By the time
Wickham tells her the story of his past, she is already negatively prejudiced against Darcy. Elizabeth is
also prejudiced in favor of Wickham. Wickham is handsome, charming, and easy to get along with.
Even though she is intelligent and not easily fooled, Elizabeth gets distracted by his external qualities
and does not show good judgment in understanding who Wickham truly is. This kind of positive
prejudice occurs throughout the novel. For example, Mr. Collins assumes that everything Lady
Catherine does is intelligent and in good taste because he is prejudiced by her wealth and social
position. He cannot form a clear assessment of what her behavior is actually like.

Both Elizabeth and Darcy must overcome feelings of pride and prejudice to realize their love for one
another. Darcy actually does this first, and it is not an easy process for him. When he first proposes to
Elizabeth, he makes it clear that his pride led him to struggle against his attraction to her. He did not
want to fall in love with her because he was embarrassed by her family. However, he cannot help it.
As he explains, “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed.” He lets go of
being prideful and prejudiced in order to propose to her.

Elizabeth is much more stubborn in overcoming her prejudice. Because she is also proud, and does not
like to be treated as inferior, she is offended when Darcy says insulting things about her family when
he proposes to her. She is also still prejudiced by the way she believes Darcy has treated Jane and
Wickham. Elizabeth does not start to rethink her assumptions until Darcy explains what actually
happened between himself and Wickham. Once her prejudice has been challenged, she becomes
more open to wondering if she might have been wrong about Darcy. When she visits Pemberley, she
hears different perspectives about who Darcy is and sees a new side of him. This change in her
understanding is completed when Darcy helps her family after Lydia’s elopement. By bribing Wickham
to marry Lydia and protect her reputation, Darcy shows his integrity and generosity. Elizabeth realizes
that her prideful and prejudiced attitude has led her to be totally mistaken about the characters of
both men.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Elizabeth Bennet:
is a spontaneous, hit everyone is flawless. She knows the ‘impropriety’ of her father and is aware
that it springs from the unhappiness of his life with his wife. She also perceives the fickleness of her
mother’s temper and her crass social behavior. Even to the point of being saucy and blunt at times,
Elizabeth is not afraid to speak her mind.

Throughout the novel, Elizabeth’s encounters with Darcy are a battle of adult minds. Elizabeth’s
speeches, crackling with irony, filled with pep, and displaying vibrant humor, exert a magnetic pull
on Darcy. He recognizes that she is a woman endowed with sense and sensibility, radically different
from most young females that he knows. He is particularly impressed with her poise; she is not
intimidated by the upper class or overawed by the arrogant Darcy.

Elizabeth’s main flaw is an exaggerated prejudice. Her first negative impression of Darcy at the
Netherfield ball, Wickham’s tall story about him, and Darcy’s influencing Bingley against Jane fuel
her prejudice. She spends most of the novel truly disliking her future husband. When Darcy
proposes to her the first time, she does not even give the offer serious thought before turning the
man down. Fortunately, Darcy is determined and does not give up on Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is an honest individual, both to others and to herself. Once she realizes the truth about
Darcy, she admits her incorrect prejudice against him and regrets her previous rejection of him. In
fact, she even admits to herself that she is in love with Darcy, but she is realistic enough to think
that she no longer stands a chance with him. When she learns that Darcy has saved Lydia from
disgrace, she swallows her remaining pride and states her appreciation to Darcy. His response is to
ask for her hand in marriage once again. This time, a much wiser Elizabeth eagerly accepts.

In the novel, Elizabeth Bennet proves that she is a woman both particular to her age and society
and yet different from it. Like her mother, Elizabeth is sometimes prone to outspoken speeches and
impulsive actions; yet, she never disregards the propriety which the age insisted upon for women.
Her keen intelligence, her good sense, and her unconventional charm make Elizabeth an
unforgettable character.

Fitzwilliam Darcy
While Elizabeth is the symbol of prejudice in the novel, Darcy embodies the element of pride, which
is clearly established in him from the very beginning of the book. His arrogant ways make him
unpopular and misunderstood, even though he is envied for his good looks and wealth. Elizabeth
takes a particular disliking to him for his haughty rudeness when he initially says that he is not
interested in her at the ball. When she learns that he has advised

Bingley not to pursue a relationship with Jane, she is further incensed at the man. It is not
surprising, therefore, that when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he is turned down, especially since his
offer was made in a haughty and condescending manner. Elizabeth’s refusal jolts his pride and sets
him on a course of self realization.

When Elizabeth visits Pemberley, she discovers a different side of Darcy. She is impressed with the
taste and refinement of his home. He is obviously a cultured and intelligent man. From the
housekeeper, she also learns that he is a generous landlord, a kind master, and a devoted brother.
Later in the novel, it is revealed that he is the only son of aristocratic

parents and that at a very early age he had to take up family responsibilities which made him
independent and conceited.

Darcy’s love for Elizabeth is clearly a conflict for him between head and heart. He thinks he should
not love her because of her lower social position and her crass family; but his heart is attracted to
her beauty, her sensibility, her independence, and her vivacity. When he proposes to her the first
time, he is sure that she will accept. Because of her rejection, Darcy undergoes a metamorphosis
from an insolvent aristocrat to a kind, down-to-earth soul. Out of his love for Elizabeth, he silently
rescues Lydia by "buying" her marriage to Wickham. Later, he is even kind and courteous to her
parents. In summary, Darcy becomes the perfect picture of a thoroughbred gentleman and the ideal
husband for Elizabeth.

THEMES

Basic Themes

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a classic comedy of manners that satirizes 18th-century society
and, particularly, the expectations placed on women of the era. The novel, which follows the romantic
entanglements of the Bennet sisters, includes themes of love, class, and, as one might guess, pride
and prejudice. These are all covered with Austen’s signature wit, including the literary device of free
indirect discourse that permits a particular style of in-depth, sometimes satirical narration.

Love and Marriage

As one might expect from a romantic comedy, love (and marriage) is a central theme to Pride and
Prejudice. In particular, the novel focuses on the different ways love may grow or disappear, and
whether or not society has room for romantic love and marriage to go together. We see love at first
sight (Jane and Bingley), love that grows (Elizabeth and Darcy), and infatuation that fades (Lydia and
Wickham) or has faded (Mr. and Mrs. Bennet). Throughout the story, it becomes apparent that the
novel is arguing that love based on genuine compatibility is the ideal.

Marriages of convenience are presented in a negative light: Charlotte marries the obnoxious Mr.
Collins out of economic pragmatism and admits as much, while Lady Catherine’s imperious attempts
at forcing her nephew Darcy to marry her daughter to consolidate estates are presented as outdated,
unfair, and, ultimately, an unsuccessful power grab.

Like several of Austen’s novels, Pride and Prejudice also cautions against infatuation with overly
charming people. Wickham’s smooth manner easily charms Elizabeth, but he turns out to be deceitful
and selfish and not a good romantic prospect for her. Real love is found in compatibility of character:
Jane and Bingley are well-suited because of their absolute kindness, and Elizabeth and Darcy come to
realize that both are strong-willed but kind and intelligent. Ultimately, the novel is a strong
recommendation of love as a basis for marriage, something that was not always the case in its era.

Major Themes
The pivotal theme is that marriage is important to individuals and society. Throughout the novel, the
author describes the various types of marriages and reasons behind them. Marriage out of economic
compulsions can be seen in Charlotte’s marriage to Collins. Marriage due to sensual pleasure can be
seen in Lydia’s marriage. The marriage of Jane and Elizabeth are the outcome of true love between
well-matched persons.

Another major theme is that pride and prejudice both stand in the way of relationships, as embodied
in the persons of Darcy and Elizabeth respectively. Pride narrows the vision of a person and causes
one to underestimate other mortals. Prejudice blinds the vision and leads to false perceptions about
others. Darcy’s pride and Elizabeth’s prejudice come in the way of understanding each other and keep
them apart. Only when Darcy becomes more humble and Elizabeth becomes more accepting can they
relate to one another and find happiness together.

Minor Themes
A minor theme found in the novel is appearance versus reality, with Austen stressing that a person
cannot be judged by his/her outer being. During the course of the book, several characters are not
properly judged, for good conduct does not necessarily mean good character, just as a pretty face
does not indicate a pure soul.

Another theme stressed by the author is that in order to display good sense, a vitally important
characteristic, a person must possess intelligence, sensitivity, and responsibility. Each of the major
characters in the novel is judged against these three important criteria.

MOOD
 The mood throughout the novel is formal and realistic to its nineteenth century setting.
Even though it is a novel about love and marriage, it is not romantic and emotional, but
realistic and practical.

Art of Characterization :
Introduction:

Jane Austen’s real talent is discovered a lot of through her fantastic capability for characterization.
Like shakespeare, she presents her characters honestly and realistically. She is sensitive to each
little meaning of manner and behavior and any deviation from the quality. The range of her
characters is slim and she reach herself to the aristocracy within the country-side. Servants,
laborers and yeomanry seldom seem and even aristocracy is hardly touched upon. once she deals
with aristocracy, she satirizes them like lady Catherine in P&P.

No repeatition:
Despite such a slim range. Not a single character has been repeated in any of her six books. The
arrogance of the Vicar, Mr. Collins in P&P is not like that of mr. Elton, the Vicar in Emma. Similarly,
there's a good distinction between the commonness of Mrs. Bennet which of Mrs. Jennings.
historiographer declares that her characters macaulay commonplace, ‘Yet they're all as absolutely
discriminated from one another as if they were the most eccentric of personalities.’

State totally different psychological habits and emotions of Darcy, Elizabeth, Jane, Mrs. Bennet.

Her characters – individualized yet universal:

Jane Austen has therefore comprehensive and looking out a view of human nature that she invests
them with a universal character. Her characters are universal varieties. Thus, when Mr. Darcy says, ‘I
have been selfish all my life in practice but not in principle’ he confesses the weakness of high minded
dominating males in all ages and climate. Wickham represents all pleasant-looking however
ungenerous, unprincipled and insincere flirts. Mr. Bennet is a typical distrustful father. These qualities
of Austen’s characters build them universal and personal.
 Realistic portrayal of her characters:.
Her characters impress US as real men and ladies since they're drawn to perfection. they're never
idealised. Even her most virtuous characters have faults. Jane Bennet, being a virtuous and sweet-
nature lady, never thinks unwell of others. This makes her lack proper judgment. Elizabeth, herself is a
typical heroine. She has faults of self-importance and prejudice. Her mother, at a such a high level of
responsibility as a mother, exhibits commonness and indecorous manners. Darcy and lady Catherine’s
manners reflect aristocracy thus realistically. The tendency with Jane Austen Jane Austen depicts her
characters imparts slightly of realism and volume to them.

Her characters are three-dimensional:

Her world of reality is never disturbed for all its romances, elopements and dejection because
of the convincing reality of her characters. Her characters are three-dimensional portraying
various human traits. Collins doesn’t commit suicide when her proposal is rejected by
Elizabeth, but settles down with Charlotte. Darcy shows his unexpected trait after his
proposal is rejected. The psychological and realistic portrayal of her characters is what makes
them according to David Ceil, ‘Three-dimensional’. The characters come alive in flesh and
blood as it were because of their realistic portrayal. Jane Austen reveals her characters
dramatically through their conversations, their actions, and their letters or gradually through
a variety of point of view and this adds to their three-dimensional effects.

Characters revealed through conversations:

She makes very careful use of conversations. Thus, the dialogue between Elizabeth not only reveals
effectively the antagonism between the two of them, but also the intelligence of the both. Collins and
Lydia are revealed through their letters. And we learn of Elizabeth Bennet, the most striking of Jane
Austen’s heroines through her speech and actions and the remarks of such people as Mr. Darcy, her
father and Miss Bingley. Thus, in the first chapter of P&P the vulgarity and stupidity of Mrs. Bennet
and the sarcastic humour of Mr. Bennet have already been revealed in their dialogues. The characters
of Austen frequently gossip with one another about other characters. This makes the plot even more
gripping, realistic and touching.

Revealed through comparison and contrast:

Lady Catharine balances with Mrs. Bennet. Wickham serves a contrast while Bingley a foil to Darcy.
Elizabeth with Jane. In P&P, Elizabeth echoes Austen’s own sense of humor and ironic wit and the
ability to laugh at whims and inconsistencies, but it is preposterous to assume that Jane Austen
herself suffered from such prides and prejudices. The sympathy and partial identification help Jane
Austen in delineating the character faithfully.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND
A general knowledge of the social and cultural setting in which a novel is written is important, for
most novels mirror the customs and values of a particular society, often criticizing it. The
Hertfordshire country town where the greater part of the novel is set is Longbourn, only a mile from
the market town of Meryton and 24 miles from London. The neighborhood around the Bennets is
large, for they dine with twenty-four different families, only three of which are named. The Bennet’s
society is drawn largely from Meryton (which is the mother’s background) rather than from the
country (which is the father’s), for she is more sociable than her husband. Mrs. Bennet, however, is
without social ambition except for her desire to have her daughters marry rich men.

Pride and Prejudice is, thus, set among the rural middle and upper classes who are landowners. None
of the major characters works, for these moneyed classes live entirely on their income from rents and
inheritances. There are, however, petty distinctions among the landed classes, determined by the
amount of wealth possessed by the members. For instance, Miss Bengali and her sister look down on
the Bennets because they are not as wealthy. Class distinctions in Jane Austen’s time were in fact very
rigid. The land-owning aristocracy belonged to the highest rung of the social ladder, and all power was
in their hands. Next in rank came the gentry. The new, prosperous industrialists and traders (like Mr.
Gardiner) were gradually rising as a class, but had still not won the right to vote. The lowest in English
society were the workers and laborers.

For the women of the time, life was largely restricted to the home and the family. For the poor and
the lower-class women, there was ample work in the home and in the fields to keep them busy. But
for the ladies of the landed upper-classes, life was one big round of dances, dinners, cards, and visits
to friends and relatives. They were not required to do any household work. "Ladies," thus, lived a life
of ease and leisure, mainly concerned with society, children, and marriage. By the nineteenth century,
the upper classes no longer arranged marriages. Instead, a girl was introduced to society (and eligible
bachelors) at a reception hosted by a married woman who had herself been presented. Generally, a
girl "came out" only after her elder sister was married. (No wonder Lady Catherine is shocked when
she hears that all of Elizabeth’s sisters have started dating before she is wed.)

Women’s education in the nineteenth century was restricted to the daughters of a few families of the
upper classes. In most cases, it was thought to be a waste of time to educate girls. Rich and noble
families (like that of Lady Catherine de Bourgh) engaged governesses for educating their daughters or
sent them away to boarding school, but most women were self-educated at home.
Traveling in Jane Austen’s time was accomplished in horse-drawn carriages, and a family’s social
status was determined by its kind of carriage. Because carriages were slow, travel was limited.
Communication of mail and news was also slow, and there were no daily newspapers. As a result, the
outside world does not play a part in Austen’s novels. Instead, she turns her attention in entirety to
the things she knew: family and values.

THE LITERARY BACKGROUND

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice appeared on the English literary scene in 1813. The author had
worked on its realistic style and content for more than fifteen years, for she was a perfectionist in her
approach to writing. Her first novel was unlike any of the hundreds of others written at the time,
which were mainly Romantic (filled with emotion and passionate) or Gothic (filled with horror).
Austen was the first novelist to portray realistic characters by using the direct method of telling a
story in which dialogue and comment take an important place. She used the method to dissect the
hypocrisy of individuals and the society in which they played their games of love and courtship.

From the beginning, Austen’s literature centered on character studies, where a person’s common
sense (or lack of it) was developed in detail. The chosen setting was always limited to a small social
group of the upper classes and composed of a few families. Family life was always central to her
works. Her novels also portrayed traditional values and a belief in rationality, responsibility, and
restraint. But she often viewed the human condition, with its many weaknesses, through humor,
irony, and sarcasm, with her undesirable characters portrayed as ignorant, proud, or silly human
beings, not evil villains.