What Methods Are Employed by Austen in Chapters 3 and 4 in 'Pride and Prejudice'?

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What methods are employed by Austen in chapters 3 and 4 in ‘Pride and Prejudice’? Throughout chapters 3 and 4 of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Austen uses free indirect discourse, satire, character and intimate conversations. How successful these methods are can be evaluated. In chapter 3 of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, the integrity of both the community as whole and specific characters are called into question. Characters are also created throughout the chapter. The frivolous nature of the community is suggested by Austen in chapter 3. For instance, Sir William is said to have thought Mr Bingley to be ‘young, wonderfully handsome ... and meant to be at the next assembly with a large party’. Lady Lucas recounts this to some of the more eager Bennet daughters; and then the narrator comments that ‘to be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love’. On stating that dancing is a ‘certain step to falling in love’, the narrator can clearly be seen to satirize, and take on the persona of characters who would anticipate ‘the next assembly’ – namely Sir William, Lady Lucas, Mrs Bennett, Lydia and Catherine. This use of free indirect discourse highlights, that to believe that dancing alone would provoke initial feelings of love, hints at a lack of discernment. Furthermore, the disposition of the community is again emphasised at the ball, at which, Mr Darcy is first introduced. Initially, the ‘attention of the room’ is captured by Darcy’s ‘handsome features’, and ‘ten thousand a year’ income. However, he is ‘looked upon with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust’. Darcy is discovered to be ‘proud’: possessing a ‘most forbidding, disagreeable countenance’, which even ‘not all his large estate in Derbyshire’, could help forgive. The authorial intervention which conveys such a turning in tide of Darcy’s popularity, displays the irony
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