The Role of Letters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

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Research Essay Kahlon I
Research Essay

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Discuss the Function and Importance of Letter in Pride and Prejudice.
In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the scenario of ‘Regency society’
has been discussed by the author. In the 18th century era, the letters were the prime way of
conveying messages and sending information to people living far away. Thus, Austen’s
majority of work often featured the use of letters, especially contemporary novels. Letters are
one of the widely used dramatic devices for furthering the plot, assisting in the disclosure of
the characters in the play, and description of the theme in the story (Rinaldi, et.al, 202). Pride
and Prejudice also outlined the use of letters for telling some part of the story. This part will
discuss the importance and significance of using letters in the entire genre of Jane Austen i.e.,
‘Pride and Prejudice.’
Despite the fact that 'Pride and Prejudice' matches nowhere to the epistolary novel
style, the author has used many letters in the novel. The purpose of using letters is to make
things simple to understand for the readers. The author has effectively communicated the
information and his ideas that would have taken more words if explained narratively. In the
novel, Austen has employed letters to showcase the relationships between the novel
characters, their personalities, and the plot of the story (Bamman, et.al, 30). Austen has made
proper use of the letters in order to allow her various characters in the novel to speak beyond
the margins of the dialogues, thereby distinguishing themselves from others. The significance
of the letter in Pride and Prejudice has been expressed in the line “The arrival of letters was
the first grand object of every morning’s impatience. Through the letters, whatever of good
or bad was to be told would be communicated, and every succeeding day was expected to
bring some news of importance” (Austen, 6).
Throughout the genre, letters could be seen as a useful instrument for relating the plot
to the characters. This is because the reactions of the characters need not to be controlled as
the senders are not present before the readers. In addition to this, the author can easily delay

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the information in order to suit the purpose of the scene. In total, there were six or seven
letters that were discussed in the novel. Letters have played a crucial role in revealing the
characters. This is evident in the two letters written by Mr. Collins to Mr. Bennet. The first
letter has been described as one of the “masterpieces of pompous condescension” (Austen,
43). In this piece, Mr. Collins has given snobbish, conceited, and complacent picture of him
and stated his arrival. The letter anticipates his role in the novel. Jane Austen has used his
later letters like a plot device, wherein she tried to express Collins’s concern about how Mr.
Bennet must behave with Lydia (Austen, 47).
Austen has also used letters as an instrument of furthering the story’s plot. The letter
by Mr. Collins gave a clear idea of the law of entailment which states that in the absence of a
rightful heir, the ancestral property must be handed over to the closest relative which was Mr.
Collins. In addition to this, his other letter retailing the rumours that Elizabeth will soon get
engaged to Darcy also highlights the same (Austen, 90). The same was done unobtrusively
and naturally with Mrs. Gardiner’s letter sent to Elizabeth, wherein she revealed the role
played by Darcy in fixing the wedding of Wickham and Lydia. On the other hand,
Elizabeth’s letter to Mrs. Gardiner also played a crucial role in the story as she revealed the
relationship between Wickham and Lydia (Austen, 216). This way Austen has used the letter
in extending the plot of the story.
In the novel, Jane wrote a letter to Lizzy while she was distressed and needed help.
Jane expressed her concerns about not meeting Mr. Bingley in London and also that he might
be avoiding her deliberately. Through the letter, she explained about Lydia’s elopement to
Elizabeth. Through the letter, Austen tried to show Jane was the elder sister and hence, she
was portrayed as more dominant and responsible. This was shown in the line “Shall I own
that I long for your return?” (Austen, 193). The author tried to bring more understanding of

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Jane’s character by making use of the letter as an instrument. Austen has shown a different
side of Jane’s behaviour in the novel.
Jane Austen used the letter to manoeuvre readers’ journey through love, affection, and
high society life. The usage of letters in the novel demonstrated dispositions of the characters
and their social status. This can be seen from the lines “Soon after their return, a letter was
delivered to Miss Bennet; it came from Netherfield. The envelope contained a sheet of
elegant, little, hot-pressed paper, well covered with a lady’s fair, flowing hand” (Austen, 82).
The use of adjectives, such as ‘elegant’ and ‘hot-pressed’ paper clearly reflect the wealth of
Miss Bingley. One thing that was quite unnatural about the novel was that the primary
protagonist i.e., Elizabeth hadn’t written even a single letter in the whole novel. However,
there have been many mentions in the novel about her thinking about writing letters.
From the whole novel, the significance of the letter as the prime mode of
communication could be realised. Jane Austen used letters to reflect and outline many
important aspects including interaction among characters residing in distant places and
advancement in the story plot. They also bridged the physical and emotional gap between the
characters (Brown, et.al, 22). The letters have acted as dramatic devices which have helped
the author in mounting and releasing pressure in different scenes. Overall, letters in the novel
helped Austen to demonstrate female expressions in the time when women had no or very
little freedom to express their opinions and views.

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Work Cited
Austen, Jane. Pride and prejudice. Bantam Classics, 1981.
Bamman, David, Ted Underwood, and Noah A. Smith. "A bayesian mixed effects model of
literary character." Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Association for
Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers). Vol. 1. 2014.
Brown, Julia Prewitt. Jane Austen's novels: social change and literary form. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.
Rinaldi, Sergio, Fabio Della Rossa, and Pietro Landi. "A mathematical model of “Pride and
Prejudice”." Nonlinear Dynamics in Psychology and Life Sciences 18 (2014): 199-
211.