The Romantic Comedy Model

Jane Austen's popular novel Pride and Prejudice is an inversion of the classic love-at-first-sight cliche: Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet meet at a ball. Darcy isn't amused; Elizabeth detests him immediately. Only after a slew of misunderstandings and a triumphant victory over pride and prejudices, do the two of them finally fall in love. Austen paints a detailed portrait of society in her place and time. She brings into sharp focus the limited world of the English landed gentry and merchant class in the Georgian period at the start of the 19th century – targeting the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of her contemporaries with wit and irony. Yet, she also shows a great deal of empathy for the desperate situation of women whose only chance in life was to marry well. Austin, a clergyman's daughter, faced this dilemma herself. She never married. Jane, her widowed mother and her sister lived in strained circumstances. Finally, she found security in her brother's home, where she could write, though she was not known as an author until after her death. Her charming works have provided the blueprint for many of today's romantic comedies, rivaled only by Shakespeare's plays as a source of popular entertainment. This unique achievement is testimony to how well she mastered superbly entertaining her readers.