He starts talking. He tells her the summary of the story that heknew Darcy since his child hood. They grew up together. His father was the steward مشرف– like a manager- of the estate مقاطعةof the Darcy's family. He told her that he is almost the same age as Darcy. Th ey grew up together. Wickham is the son of the steward; Darcy is the son of land ownerالمالك. There was some social class difference between them. They were good friends to certain extent. So, the Darcy's father promised Wickham's father that he will give him certain job when he finishes his education in the estate. He promised him to get the living of Pemberley = to work on the estate- he told her that Darcy's father all the time liked him very much and Darcy was very jealousغيور. The jealousy was so strong that when Darcy's father died, Darcy did something very mean, dishonest غير امينthat he did not give him the living, did not give him the job. Wickham had to work as an officer in the army as it was the only job available متاحto him.
On the surface of the story of Wickham it appears to be true. It sometimes happens. There is nothing incredibleلا يصدق about the events. He seems to tell her the truth as he tells her that he is the son of the steward. He did not tell her that he is the son of a great man, of a higher social class like Darcy. He is not ashamed toخجلان tell her this. He did not try to hide this fact about him. But he is very open. He had to give her certain elements of truth about things that could she find out about it if they are proven or are disproven. There are certain elements that could not be proven يثبتfor example, when he says that Darcy is always jealous of him, of the attention that the father was given to Wickham. Darcy is proud. He is not denying لا ينكرthat he is proud. Jane Austin is not denying there. He is a bit reservedمتحفظ. He does not like to dance. He does not like to talk to people whom he does not know. It is not easy for him to socialize يتفاعل مع المجتمعwith people.
There will be a dancing ball in Netherfield. Wickham did not go, but everybody is talking nicely about him. He is universally admiredيعجب ب, universally liked by every body. This is the opposite of Darcy as he is universally disliked.
Wickham said a lie that has some elements of truth. There are certain elements in his story that could not be proved. Another element of truth is that he asked her if she likes Darcy or not. He is very cunning خبيثand slide.
He speaks of three pride that Darcy has. He has family pride, filial pride= he was very proud of his father and he has brotherly pride. He has a sister- Miss Darcy. He is very proud of his sister.
When Wickham talks about brotherly pride, filial pride بنوىand family pride of Darcy, he keeps mingling يخلطtruth with lies. This is not 100% a lie- there are certain facts about it. It is true that his father was a steward, that Darcy has all these types of pride. All this is true. Wickham was promised the living of Pemberley and he did not get it- this is also true. There are many facts in the story. He was promised the living and he did not get it. the untruth mainly lies on the motive of Darcy, why did he do this? Why did he break the promise of his father?
Wickham is accusing Darcy very serious accusationاتهام. This is something very demeaning, very unhonorable. All the time, he asks her not to describe this action of Darcy is something meanوضيع. He pretends not being able to hear this about Darcy as he is the son of a man who did many good things to him. He can not say anything bad about him because he likes his father very much. All the time, he does not say a single bad word against Darcy except the pride- he tells her that all Darcy's family is proud- like Lady Catherine De Bourgh- who is his aunt-
Darcy prevent him his living but his motiveدافع was not being jealousغيور. There is another motive that we are going to discover that will turn everything upside down. The whole story is not like this. Wickham should have been punished for his deed. He was only prevented منع عنهthe living as what he did made him unfit to be a man of religion. He does not have any morals. He is supposed to be a clergy man. He is seducing يخدعyoung women, behaving in disgraceful حقير- وضيعmanner. He tried to seduce Darcy's sister to elopeيهرب with him.
Wickham is playing on Elizabeth's prejudiceتحامل against Darcy. She is very ready to believe anything negative about him. The cunning مخادعWickham knows this so well. He was manipulating Elizabeth- to move her as he likes. He was making use of the prejudice of Elizabeth against Darcy. He was making use of the fact that Elizabeth will not go to Darcy to talk to him and he was sure that Darcy will not like to speak to Elizabeth and tell her about this story because his pride will stop him.
The story is built on a certain way that the readers would believe Wickham, to believe that Darcy was abusingيسئ الى him, breaking his father's promiseخلف وعده. Elizabeth believes this. Many things happen make us believe this.
Wickham's character will turn out against our expectations توقعاتand shock صدمةus by appearing to be something different. This is what we mean by ironic character. This description does not fit لا يناسبwith any other character.
Elizabeth is very much affected by the words of Darcy because she is prejudiced against him.
Irony of situations- situational irony:
There are a number of situations that are related to the story, other situations in the novel that has this irony.
Elizabeth tells this story to Jane- the one who is ready to believe anything about anybody. She tells her that a person like Darcy who is proud, would never do such a demeaning thing. His pride would not let him do such a disgraceful مهينthing. She can not believe it. Her impressionانطباع tells her that there must be some misunderstanding. She can never believe this about Darcy. She tells Elizabeth that she is going to ask Bingley. Bingley tells her that he does not know the details. He only knows that there is some quarrel صراعand misunderstanding between Darcy and Wickham. He tells her that he is ready to vouch Darcy's sincerityإخلاص as he knows him for many years. He never knows anything dishonorable غير شريفabout Darcy. He knows that Wickham has a bad reputationسمعة. He heard certain rumors اشاعاتabout his reputation. When Jane takes the story from Bingley and goes back to Elizabeth telling her that Darcy can never do such a thing. Yet Elizabeth is not convinced depending on the fact that Bingley did not live with Wickham and Darcy during their childhood. Elizabeth goes with this story to Charlotte. He tells her the story. Charlotte tells her that she will never believe that Darcy would do this. He would not do a thing that would be a wound to his proud.
This is irony here. The clever smart, intelligent Elizabeth is the one who is most deceived ينخدعby the appearance of Wickham and the appearance of the meaning of his story. She accepts the story without questioning it. She is even defending Wickham. She is so prejudice against Darcy. This prejudice blinded عمىher. She could not see the truth because of being prejudiced against Darcy whereas the two other women- Jane and Charlotte who are less smart and less intelligentذكى, but they could see the truth. They were not as blinded by prejudice against Darcy as she was.
There is an irony here; the most intelligent of the group is the one who is trapped and deceived. She goes in the trapيقع في الفخ that Wickham made her. She is deceivedيخدع by his story. Charlotte and Jane who are not intelligent questioned the story. They can not accept the story like this. They did not believe it. Elizabeth accepts the story as full truth.
It is the major situational irony in the novel.
There are many irony of situation in the novel. This situation relatesله علاقة ب to the main three characters in the novel. It is something that affects the whole plot of the whole novel, so, this situational irony is the most important one.
Jane Austin is a miniatureمهتم بالتفاصيل- she is a realistواقعى. She is giving us a moral lesson. She is showing us indirectly that if some one becomes so prejudice against someone, he may fall into a trap and will have misunderstanding as his prejudice is going to blind him from seeing the truth clearly.
One aim of using irony is to teach the audience a moral اخلاقىlesson in an indirect way.
She believed Wickham's story because she was prejudice and because Wickham was very cunningمخادع. He was sprinkling some elements of truth on his story. He was telling a lie, but he was sprinkling some truth on it so that the lie would be more credible or more believable.
There are some elements on the part of Elizabeth and on the part of Wickham that made her believe his story. It was a very well constructed مبنيlie كذبةand she was prejudice.
· There is another irony of situation- the conversation between Mrs. Bennet and Lady Lucas that they were having during the ball at Netherfield. This situation is ironic. There are two mothers talking about the marriage of their daughters. Mrs. Bennet expectsتتوقع that two of her daughters to get married within the next two months- Jane to Bingley- Elizabeth to Collins. It turns out that Charlotte is the one is going to be the first daughter to get married to Collins. This is irony.
There is irony when there is a difference between appearance and reality- humor- comedy is one aspect of irony. Irony does not always have comedy.
Sometimes irony can be humors, sometimes not.
There is nothing humors in Wickham telling an untrue غير حقيقىversion of his story to Elizabeth. It causes misunderstanding.
So irony can have a number of effects including humor or comedy.
Verbal Irony:
The very good example of verbal irony is the first two sentences of the novel- the beginning of chapter 1 .
It is not irony of situation, not irony of character but the words have certain meanings.
Verbal= some thing related to words and sentences. if we have certain words or sentences that have two meanings- they can be understood as something superficial سطحىand they have a hidden مخفىmeaning, then these words or sentences are verbal irony because they mean something else than what appears on the surface.
IT IS A TRUTH universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
This is ironic. It causes humor. The sentence means that every single man is in need of a wife. This is the apparent meaning. If we think about it deeply, we will discover that this is not true. May be a rich and a single man would not think of a wife.
We discover that it is just a technique used by Jane Austin to make us know the character of Mrs. Bennet. This is the way she thinks- and the other mothers in the novel- think about finding a rich husband to her daughter. It also causes comedy. It is like a joke. There is a tool of comedy in it. It is like a humiliation اذلالof characters. It does not have to be as it appears.
Here we do not have a situation or character. We only have words that have more than one meaning= the apparent one that is to be a general view of humanity about single rich men who want to get married- it is like a rule, but the deeper meaning is totally different. The deeperأعمق meaning is that Jane Austin is criticizing the way of marriage. She is making يسخر of the character of Mrs. Bennet. She wants the reader to have this comic effect and to show that the tone throughout the novel is going to be comic. Apparentlyظاهريا it is about a general rule of human nature.
This is n example of verbal irony. There are many examples in the novel. It may be one word that can have more than one meaning.
Irony could have elements of humor. It can cause us to laugh. It is one of the uses of irony. It can have comic effect.
Irony can cause misunderstanding and complication تعقيدin the plot.
Irony can be used as an indirect method of giving a moral lesson.
The general meaning of irony is the contrast between appearance and reality.
Chapter 16
We have the supper meeting at the Bennets ' house. During this supper the conversation between Wickham and Elizabeth takes place and she gets this untrue version of the story.
There are other officers. Mrs. Collins is also attending the supper. The daughters never leave the officers to talk to Collins. It is Mrs. Bennet herself who talks to him. She is very curious. She wants to know the news to thee it next day to everybody else. Collins main topic موضوعof conversation is Lady Catherine. In his conversation with Mrs. Bennet he is the mixture مزيجof servilityعبودية- اذلال and self importance. He is mentioning the name of Lady Catherine every minute- not body is perfect like her. He is foolish and stupid. The conversation reflects the character of the two conversersالمتحدث.
The other characters were playing cards. It is one of the activities they have at the evening. They were having a lottery يا نصيبprize.
Lydia is very much interested in Wickham. She left him to talk to Elizabeth because she was interested in something more important- the lottery prizes and the other officers. It is another example of the limited scope مجال- نطاق محدودof the novel. It is either a supper, a ball. People are just talking, dancing or playing cards, playing the piano, having lottery prizes. It is a very limited range of social activities that are repeated يكررon an on in the novel.
After a supper, we have another event- a dancing ball. It is another example of a limited scope that we have in the novel.
Wickham is invited by Bingley. But Wickham he was the only one who was absent. He did not want to see Darcy.
Elizabeth danced with Darcy twice. He was so nice with her. He was trying to be polite. He has changed. She can never see this because she is still prejudice. She has even become more prejudice after hearing the story of Wickham.
The suppers and the balls are occasionsمناسبات for the plot to be developed. Jane Austin wants action to develop; she wants us to have complicationتعقيد and developing plot through certain occasions and events. We have balls and suppers where people can talk and we can have things to happen.
A very important event is the طلب زواج of Collins to Elizabeth. He is not romantic. He is just discussing a business deal. He tries to tell her reasons why he wants to get married. Elizabeth rejected him.
Her refusal رفضshows us Elizabeth's character, Collins' character and the reaction of the father and the mother of her rejection. The mother is really angry with Elizabeth. The father is on her side. He does not want her to marry this sillyسخيف man.
The father and Elizabeth think of marriage in a different way. The father, as well as Elizabeth, thinks that marriage should be built on mutual متبادلrespect, love and feeling between the couplets. This is what Elizabeth believes and her father defends her.
It is something related to Jane Austin herself. She did not get married. She had a love story that was not very successful because her lover died. She had other proposal, but she did not need to marry without love.
So, there are many aspects of Jane Austin's character represented in Elizabeth. She would not marry a man whom she does not love and respect. The father seems to be a very understanding father who defends his daughter. He does not want to force his daughter to marry a man without love. The other on the other hand is very materialistic. She cares about money. She thinks that Collins is a good husband for her and she can not expect a better husband. She has a materialistic point of view as she has no money to give to her daughter.
Jane Austin shows that many characters in society have these economicمادى bases about everything. Everything is changed into money terms.
The father tells Elizabeth that he will never talk to her if she marries Collins.