王晓越

【Abstract】Pride and Prejudice, published in 1813, is the most influential work of British female writer Jane Austen (1775-1817). By analyzing Jane Austens representative novel, Pride and Prejudice, we are convinced by the excellent humor and irony used in it. Irony in Pride and Prejudice is mainly embodied in Austens verbal irony, situational irony and dramatic irony. Under the perspective of stylistics, this paper analyzes dialogues, descriptive and commentary language and the arrangement of the whole plots of Austens Pride and Prejudice to show how the different tones of humor and irony are reflected in the novel. This paper also focuses on the significance in portraying the characteristics of the roles and theme performance of humor and irony used in Pride and Prejudice, which help us to appreciate the satire literature.

【Key words】 humor and irony; verbal irony; situational irony; dramatic irony

Pride and Prejudice

Introduction: Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born in Hampshire, a country priest family located in Hants. She was a beautiful, talented middle class woman with extraordinary temperament and good cultivation. Pride and Prejudice, similar to her other novels, is written in gentle or Horacian satire. The main object of Austens satire in the novel is the mercenary and the ignorance of the people, a common criticism of the 18th century. The tone of the novel is light, satirical and vivid. In this great book, the author deeply elaborates her point about love and marriage. The most remarkable character of Austens work is the accurate descriptions of the details of daily life with the ironic tone. As W. F. Pollock (1860) said “Miss Austen never attempts to describe a scene or a class of society with which she was not herself thoroughly acquainted. The conversations of ladies with ladies, or of ladies and gentlemen together, are given, but no instance occurs of a scene in which men only are present.”Austen focuses on daily life of middle-class with humor. She observes every small matters and every ordinary person in

her own life. When we read Pride and Prejudice we can feel the dialogues humorous and fanny .

Chapter I The Definition of Irony and Humor

According to A glossary of literary terms by Abrams and Hartman, verbal irony is a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. Dramatic irony is the device of giving the spectator an item of information that at least one of the characters in the narrative is unaware of (at least consciously), thus placing the spectator a step ahead of at least one of the characters. Situational irony is a relatively modern use of the term, and describes a sharp discrepancy between the expected result and actual results in a certain situation. In the following part, this paper will discuss the three types of irony in command of descriptive and commentary language and the whole plot in Pride and Prejudice.

Chapter II Analysis on the Humor and Irony in Pride and Prejudice

Under the perspective of stylistics, this paper analyzes dialogues, the persons character and the arrangement of the whole plots of Austens Pride and Prejudice to show how the tone of humor and irony is reflected in the novel.

2.1 Analysis on the Verbal Irony in Pride and Prejudice

Dialogues and commentary sentences in Austens Pride and Prejudice are very important to display the characteristics of the roles, also show the verbal irony through the repetition pronouns and the sentence length.

In a conversation, the choice of the pronouns could produce specific stylistic effect For instance:

“Oh! you mean Jane, I suppose, because he danced with her twice. To be sure that DID seem as if he admired her—indeed I rather believe he DID—I heard something about it—but I hardly know what—something about Mr. Robinson.”

From the selection, we could see that the speaker Mrs. Bennet always emphasizes “I”. Mrs. Bennet is the kind of woman who crazily wants her daughters to get married. Therefore, when a rich man danced with her daughter twice which has not been experienced by any other girl in that night, she must be proud and wants to show off. Through the repetition of the usage of “I”, the author satirizes the arrogant, shallow and vainglorious woman.

In order to analyze the verbal irony, focusing the length of the sentences is also an efficient way. Here is an example:

“What is his name?”

“Bingley.”

“Is he married or single?”

“Oh! single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? how can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

“Is that his design in settling here?”

“Design! nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

From the dialogue, we could judge Mr. Bennet just says 23 words while Mrs. Bennet says 165 words. Mrs.Bennet, as the uncivilized countrywomen in England and a housewife without economic capacity or support. As for Mrs. Bennet, all the mission of her husband is to take her and her daughters to balls. It looks like she has no specific expectations for marriage except money, status, and beauty.

2.2 Analysis on the Situational Irony of Pride and Prejudice

In Pride and Prejudice, there are a lot of interesting situational ironies highlightly reflected in the book. In this work Darcy and Elizabeths marriage was erected as an mold of marriage: in the beginning the two mutually feel hate because of misunderstandings. After a series of events, they are ultimately deeply in love and go into the marriage hall. This romance of the hero and heroine in novels is a contrast with first-sight love used in other novels, which is the irony compared with the traditional romance novels.

2.3 Analysis on the Dramatic Irony of Pride and Prejudice

According to the plot before, the readers know the background the roles in the novel do not know, which makes different understandings. For example, when Darcy was gradually attracted by Elizabeth and liked her, but Elizabeth knew little about that who still thought Darcy was an arrogant man, but the reader knows the whole things. This is an interesting scene which undoubtedly show the dramatic irony of the novel, but also give readers a sense of pleasure.

ChapterⅢ The Significance of the Irony and Humor Used in Pride and Prejudice

The novel shapes unique personalities of the roles for us, each of the them are vivid. Through analysis, it is not difficult to find it is the skillful use of irony that makes the roles prominent and outstanding. In the novel, through the verbal irony and situational irony, Mrs. Bennet is described as “moody, superficial and snobbish”.The role is so impressive and successful that we readers could think of the image of Mrs. Bennet when it comes to “snobbish”.

The theme of Pride and Prejudice is to criticize the marriage concept of pursuing money and status.Novel begins with “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife ” When the readers read this sentence may think that a rich man always want to look for a mate. However, when we readers read “Such a bachelor ... people always see him as his own” ,we find the novel is described in the next is that single women always want to look for rich men.

References:

[1]Jane Austen.Pride and prejudice.Central complication & Translation Press.Beijing,2012:2-5:21-24.

[2]Joanna.Thomborrow.Wareing Shan.Patterns in Language:An Introduction to Languange and Literary Style.London and New York:Poutledge,2000.

[3]Geoffery N Leech.Short M H.Style in fiction:A linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose.Beijing:The Commercial Press,2001.

[4]Prnion,F.B.A Jane Companion.London:Macmillan Education Ltd,1973.

[5]Eugene A.Nida.Toward a Science of Translating.Guangxi Normal University,2002.

[6]Kachru,B.B.The other tongue:English across cultures.Urbana and Chicago:University of Illinois Press,1992.

[7]Lawrence Venuti.The Translators Invisibility:A History of Translation.Beijing:The Commercial Press,2004.

[8]Schuttleworth and Cowie.Dictionary of Translation Studies.Beijing:The Commercial Press,2004.

[9]Smith,L.E..Reading in English as an international language.Oxford:Pergamon Press,1983.

[10]Wei,Aiyun.Attitudinal study on Chinese English.Master Degree Thesis:Guangxi Normal University,2002.

[11]Hong Zhao.A Relevance-theoretic Approach to Verbal Irony:A Case Study of Ironic Utterances in Pride and Prejudice[J].Journal of Pragmatics,2010,431.

[12]Attardo,Salvatore.Linguistic Theory of Humo[J].Mouton de Gruyter,1994.

[13]David Daiches,Introduction to Pride and Prejudice[J].Modern Library,New York,1950.