Analyzing a Scene from Pride and Prejudice - Part One

Let's take a look at the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice, which consists of a conversation between Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet.

The chapter contains a total of 1,028 words, most of which is dialogue between the two main characters.

The first line of the novel is justifiably famous.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

I don't know what it is about this line that I love so much. It's succinct, only 23 words, and yet it summarizes the entire theme of the novel: the mercenary search for a mate. Maybe it's also the pulse of the words, the rhythm that trips off the tongue. "It is a TRUTH, universally ACKNOWLEDGED, that a single MAN, in possession of a good FORTUNE, must be in WANT of a WIFE." It is a pleasing mix of unstressed and stressed syllables, that pulls you in with the timeless themes that it implies, men and women, fortune, desire, and marriage. I adore the alliteration at the end of "want" and "wife".

If the first line tells us the theme, the second line of the novel shows us the style. Understated, witty, with a hint of bite.

"However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters."

It is a brilliant inversion - instead of a woman becoming the property of a man, it is the man who, insensible of his feelings or desires, somehow becomes the property of the women. In a single sentence, Jane Austen skewers both the self-centered, shallow-mindedness of a rural community and the social mores of her time.

If the first two sentences of Pride and Prejudice establish the theme and set the tone for the novel, the scene that follows is a master class in characterization. In just a brief conversational exchange we meet Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and learn about their characters, their family, their financial situation, their relationship with each other and with their daughters.

Here's some data:

Opening scene between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet

Number of Mr. Bennet's lines - 15 (including one line where he says nothing, but his silence still feels like a part of the conversation).

Number of Mrs. Bennet's lines - 15

Words spoken by Mr. Bennet - 263

Words spoken by Mrs. Bennet - 431

Ratio of words spoken by Mr. Bennet to Mrs. Bennet - 61%

Already, this is useful information. Mrs Bennet is far more loquacious than Mr. Bennet, who could more properly be described as laconic.

Using python's NLTK module, I did some very basic analysis of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's conversation. First, I extracted all their quotes into two separate lists of words. Then, I filtered out the most common 2000 words in English (based on Brown's corpus of English words). Finally, I looked at the words that were unique to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, as well as the words they shared. Here is the terrible python code I used to accomplish this.

Words that Mr. Bennet used that Mrs. Bennet did not use include: affect, assure, chooses, consent, consideration, dare, depend, engage, glad, hearty, ignorant, mention, mistake, objection, quickness, recommend, scrupulous, settling, silly, sisters, surely, throw, whichever.

I think these words illustrate his character well. Many of these words focus on thought and contemplation - "consideration", "ignorant", "quickness", "scrupulous", "silly", "recommend". Mr. Bennet cares about intelligence, wit, and good judgement.

Words that Mrs. Bennet used that her husband did not include: abuse, ah, chaise, comers, compassion, cried, daughters, delight, delighted, establishment, extraordinary, flatter, fortune, good-humoured, grown-up, impatiently, Jane, Lucas, Lydia, Michaelmas, Morris, Mrs., Netherfield, nonsense, possession, preference, pretend, servants, suffer, tiresome, vexing.

Many of these words are names - "Jane", "Lucas", "Lydia", "Morris", "Netherfield". Others, such as "chaise", "servants", "possession", "fortune", suggest an interest in wealth and status, both of which Mrs. Bennet cares about greatly.

The shared words are helpful too: Bennet, Bingley, dear, handsome, Lizzy, marrying, Mr, neighbourhood, nerves. This represents the shared topic of conversation - Mr. Bingley and how his arrival in the neighborhood will affect the Bennets.

In part two of this analysis, we'll take a look at the detailed back and forth of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet's conversation, and how their character comes across in their brief exchange.