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Jane Austen 's Pride And Prejudice

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Social norms are the unwritten rules of society, which serve as a blueprint on how one should act. In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this idea is supported by the opening statement, as it creates the perception of social protocols having a role in how individuals are supposed to act. In addition, it allows for the characters to follow the societal standards, as well as to go against them. In the statement, Austen has declared that the main subject of the novel will be courtship and marriage, along with establishing the tone of the novel and preparing the reader for an occurrence of either a man in search of a wife, or a woman in pursuit of a husband. In essence, it sets the stage for the entire novel and serves as an important reflection with its prominent as well as reverse meaning. The beginning of a text, helps establish the subject of a novel and exposes the reader’s mind to the narratives veiled in its content. Austen’s opening sentence, “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” (Austen 1), establishes different aspects of the novel, such as its ironic tone. The meaning intended in this sentence and revealed over the course of the novel is the opposite of its surface meaning. In the statement, the use of the words, ‘truth universally acknowledged’, implies that the intended issue would be of an important principle or of a serious moral, however it is neither. The irony, stems from the

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