Discussion Topic
Authorial intrusion in Pride and Prejudice
Summary:
Authorial intrusion in Pride and Prejudice occurs when Jane Austen directly addresses the readers, offering her own commentary and insights on the characters and events. This technique allows Austen to convey her views on societal norms and the behaviors of her characters, adding depth and a critical perspective to the narrative.
What is authorial intervention in Pride and Prejudice?
A popular literary tool of writers from the nineteenth century, particularly Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo, and O. Henry in the latter part of the century, authorial intrusion in the injection of the writers into their texts as they depart from the narration of the literary work and address the reader, thereby establishing a one-on-one relationship between writer and reader. Thus, authorial intrusion causes the reader to become an active, rather than passive, participant in the narrative and, at the time of the intrusion, the main focus of the attention of the author.
Examples of authorial intrusion are Dickens's use of direct address to the reader--"And, now, dear reader....." or his injection of just himself as in the opening chapter of Oliver Twist:
Although I am not disposed to maintain that the being born in a workhouse, is in itself the most fortunate and enviable circumstance....I do mean to say...
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that in this particular instance....
In his Notre Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre
Dame), Victor Hugo has passages on the beauty of the Gothic
architecture in which he intrudes in his efforts to preserve it.
O. Henry, too, uses authorial intrusion, but humorously, or with
sentimentality. For instance, in "The Gift of the Magi," he writes in his final
paragraph,
The Magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger....But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts, these two were the wisest....They are the Magi.
Finally, in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Austen opens with authorial intrusion, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." And, in another chapter Austen comments,
It was a rational scheme, to be sure! but from what the report of their engagement could originate, Elizabeth was at a loss to imagine; (Ch. 57)
Happy for all her maternal feelings was the day on which Mrs. Bennet got rid of her two most deserving daughters....I wish I could say, for the sake of her family....
Organized societies of families and communities are an integral part of Jane Austen, and she projects this idea of organized groups in various pages of the novel.
References
How does the first line of Pride and Prejudice exemplify authorial intrusion?
Authorial intrusion describes when an author sort of steps away from the story to address the audience directly. It has the effect of making the reader less of an outsider to the story and establishes something more like a one-to-one relationship between author and reader. It lessens the distance between the two. The 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," is so famous, in part, because of its irony. Austen infuses such irony throughout the entirety of the novel, and she uses it to help us understand that she does not agree with such a statement.
Further, this kind of irony allows us to ascertain that she takes serious issue with the way the marriage market, in general, works. Consider the choice of someone like Charlotte Lucas: she can either marry an idiot or run the risk that she will become a burden and embarrassment to her family. Therefore, one could read this line as an example of authorial intrusion because Austen is using irony to show the reader that she disagrees with a statement such as this as well as alerting us to the fact that this text will vigorously employ irony to skewer common attitudes about everything from marriage to women's reading.