Student Question
What are some examples of caricature in Pride and Prejudice?
Quick answer:
To summarize, Jane Austen's characters are not caricatures because they portray reality and not exaggerations of it. Each character has a complex mental and moral state, rather than simply being a ridiculous exaggeration.
I would actually strongly hesitate to call any of Jane Austen's characters caricatures. A caricature is an exaggeration that makes something ludicrous. While some of Austen's characters certainly are ludicrous for the sake of humor, they are actually not false exaggerations, or imitations. All of her characters, even the ludicrous ones, have a depth of "moral and mental qualities." Even Sir Walter Scott stated, after having read Pride and Prejudice for the third time, that Austen "had a talent for describing the involvement, and feelings, and characters of ordinary life" (Jane Austen's Art and her Literary Reputation, Pemberley.com). It is even recorded that he declared that Austen's characters are people everyone will meet in their parlor at least once.
There is a great deal of truth to what Scott said, and it can be seen in Austen's subtle characterizations. For instance, though Mr. Collins may be ridiculous because...
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he has no mind of his own and worshipsLady Catherine, he also has a great deal of pride in his job as a clergyman. He also has moral standing that we especially see when he writes the letter giving his condolences and advice on Lydia's fallen state. Since Mr. Collins actually does have a more complex mental and moral state other than just being ridiculous, he cannot be seen as a caricature.
Even Mrs. Bennet cannot be seen as a caricature because, even though she
prattles on about marrying her daughters and worries about the estate's
entailment and prattles on about her nerves, she is actually quite devastated
when she learns of Lydia's betrayal to her family. She refuses to leave her
room because of the state she is in. Scott is correct, women like Mrs. Bennet
truly do exist.
Wickham's character is also not an exaggeration. There truly are men who appear
to be very kind and noble, but are actually very conniving, caring only about
their own personal gain and ready to exploit anyone for that purpose.
Furthermore, the very polarity of his character alone proves that his character
is far deeper than a caricature.
Even the Bingley sisters are not exaggerations. There truly are materialistic,
malicious, gossipy women in the world. Caroline Bingley is especially a
portrayal of reality in the way that the she is depicted as trying to attract
Darcy and teasing him about his attraction to Elizabeth.
Hence, because Austen's characters are not exaggerations but portrayals of real
life, they cannot be called caricatures and one has to look at her more subtle
characterization techniques in order to analyze this clearly.