Jane Austen is basically a humorist. She find zest in this world through laughter. Her laughter arises out of human folly which is so common in our life e.g., Darcy says, “the wisest and the best of men-nay, the wisest and best of their action may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object is a joke.”
In reply, Elizabeth says, “follies and nonsense whims and inconsistencies, do divert me. I laugh at them whenever I can.” We know that Elizabeth is the mouthpiece of Jane Austen of all her novels. Pride and Prejudice make us laugh the most. It’s full of an atmosphere of sunshine and hilarity. Jane Austen creates humour through characters as well as situations. The main source of humour in the novel is Mr. Collins. He is a ridiculous character without himself knowing it. Then Mrs Bennet who is always nervous, is also a rich source of humour.
No doubt, she is a gross fool. Her only aim in life is to get her daughters married. The following sentences in the novel about Mrs Bennet are a fine example of Jane Austen’s humour. “Mrs. Bennet was a woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper” …. The business of her life was to get her daughters married. Some other characters like lady Catherine Mary and Lydia also have certain humorous qualities. Even Elizabeth is touched by the comic spirit. Of all the situations in the novel perhaps the most humorous Mr. Collins proposal to Elizabeth. Elizabeth knows that he has not proposed to her out of love.
So, she rightly rejects him. When Jane is jilted by Bingley, Mr. Bennet tears Elizabeth that this might happen with has too. One important point to be noted is that Jane Austen’s humour is never malicious. It may be mischievous at times.
She does not hate even the most ridiculous of her creations. At the same time she is seldom able to resist the use of her favourite weapons of irony, humour and satire. She never intends to wound deeply while using these weapons. She has no mind to bring about any reformation. She only wants to create pleasure in the minds of the readers and she is quite successful in it.
Jane Austen’s humour is often too delicate and gentle to be noticed by the superficial readers . It requires the sympathy of Jane Austen herself with her characters to note it.
Her father was a clergyman without being neglected or poor, and a very respectable man though his name was Richard and he had never been handsome. When Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice laments that after her husband’s death she will become destitute he consoles her; “My dear, “(says her husband)” do not give way to such gloomy thoughts.
Let us look for better things. Let us flatter ourselves that I may be the survivor.”
Sometimes, even when Jane Austen speaks in a direct statement about a character, she is capable of drawing an exact picture of the (comic) character before us (without unlike Dickens, caricaturing it) such that we feel exhilarated with the delectable manner of narration as much as with the visual picture before us.
“Mr Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been the society-the greatest part of his life having been spent under the guidance of an illiterate and miserly father-and though he belonged to one of the universities he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance.
The subjects in which his father had brought him up and given him originally great humility of manner but it was now a good deal counteracted by the self-conceit of a weak head, living in retirement, and the consequential feelings of early and unexpected prosperity.
A fortunate chance had recommended him to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself of his authority as a clergyman, and his rights as a rector made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.”
Mrs. Bennet is a great source of humour in the novel Pride and Prejudice. One typical example is her foolish expression of exultation on the elopement of Lydia. Instead of feeling ashamed or finding the moment an occasion for humiliation, she gives went to her great pleasure at the prospects of Lydia marrying Wickham: My dear, dear Lydia !” she cried: “This is delightful indeed: She will be married! I shall be her again.
She will be married a sixteen! My good, kind brother! I knew how it would be I know he would manage everything. How I long to see her! And to see dear Wickham too! But the clothes, the wedding clothes! will write to my sister Gardiner about them directly.
Lizzy, my dear, run down to your father, and ask him how much he will give her. Stay-stay, I will go myself. Ring the bell, Kitty, for Hill. I will put on my things in a moment. My dear, dear Lydia ! How merry we shall be together when we meet !” the situation is ironic also. Thus Jane Austen is capable of presenting all kinds of humor (the humor of incident or situation and humor of character, in particular) and even blending them.
Apart from humour and irony which are there in various shades of love and marriages in Pride and Prejudice, there is hidden satire in the money-minuteness and worship of wealth or mammon among all the major characters. Social and economic status is given too high a place and sometimes even morality is sacrificed and therein lies the satire. Mrs Bennet cares more for her daughter’s marriage than for the question of morality involved in it.
There can hardly be more absurd reasons to be given even by a gross fool than those given by Mr. Collins, to as reproduced below and we should be glad with Charles Lamb who said, “I love the fools”). “My reasons for marrying are, first, that I think it a right thing for every clergyman in easy circumstances (like myself) to see the example of matrimony is his parish.
Secondly, that I am convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness, and thirdly, which perhaps I ought to have mentioned earlier, that it is the particular advice and recommendation of the very noble lady whom I have the honour of calling patroness.
Twice has she condescended to give me her opinion (unasked too!). On this subject; and it was but the very Saturday night before I left Hunsfordbetween our pools at quadrille, while Mrs Jenkinson was arranging Miss de Bourgh’s footstool, that she said, Mr. Collins, you must marry. A clergyman like you must marry.
Choose properly, choose a gentlewoman for my sake; and for you own, let her be an active, useful sort of person, not brought up high, but able to make a small income go a good way. This is my advice. Find such a woman as soon as you can, bring her to Hunsford, and I will visit her.”
How amusing is Mr. Collins character in Pride and Prejudice can be further studied from the letter he wrote to Mr. Bennet as he learnt about the elopement of Lydia with Wickham “My Dear Sir,
No arguments shall be wanting on misfortune, or that may comfort you under a circumstance that must be of all others most afflicting to a parent’s mind. The death of your daughter would have been a blessing in comparison of this. And it is the more to be lamented because there is reason to suppose, as my dear Charlotte informs me, for the consolation of yourself and Mrs Bennet, I am inclined to think that her own disposition must be naturally bad, or she could not be guilty of such an enormity at so early an age.
However that may be, you are grievously to be pitied, in which opinion I am not only joined by Mrs Collins, but likewise by Lady Catherine and her daughter, to whom I have related the affair. They agree with me in apprehending that this false step in one daughter will be injurious to the fortunes of all the others, for who, as Lady Catherine herself condescendingly says, will connect themselves with such a family. And this consideration leads me moreover to reflect with augmented satisfaction on a certain event of last November, for had it been otherwise,
I must have been involved in all your sorrow and disgrace. Let me advise you then, my dear sir, to console yourself as much as possible, to throw off your unworthy child from your affection for ever, and leave her to reap the fruits of her own heinous offence. Apart from Mr. Collins and Mrs Bennet, even Catherine de Bourgh to some extent adds to the general atmosphere of hilarity and sunshine in the novel.
Studied closely, even Mr. Bennet and the younger Bennet daughters (especially Lydia) are highly humorous characters and offer several hilarious situations. In the end, we can have a look at the most humorous (and absurd) letter she wrote to Harriet after her elopement. She has taken the matter just as fun, as if it had no moral or ethical implications, “My Dear Harriet, You will laugh when you know where I am gone, and I cannot help laughing myself at your surprise tomorrow morning as soon as I am missed.
I am going to Gretna Green, and if you cannot guess with who, I shall think you a simpleton, for there is but one man in the world I love, and he is an angel. I should never be happy without his, so think it no harm to be off. You need not send them word at Longbourn of my going, if you do not like it, for it will make the surprise the greater when I write to them and sing my name, Lydia Wickham.
What a good joke it will be ! I can hardly write for laughing. Pray to make my excuses to Pratt, for not keeping my engagement and dancing with him tonight. Tell him I hope he will excuse me when he knows all, and tell we meet, with great pleasure. I shall send for my clothes when I get to Longbourn; but I wish you would tell Sally to mend a great slit in my worked Muslim gown before they are packed up. Good-bye. Give my love to Colonel Forster, I hope you will drink to our good journey. Your affectionate friend,
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