3 Lessons from Pride and Prejudice

3 things this masterpiece has taught me

If you’ve been following me even for a short amount of time, you probably know that Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite stories. (And that’s not just because I’m a girl. C.S. Lewis loved Jane Austen’s books too!)

There is so much depth to Pride and Prejudice and perhaps someday I’ll write a more detailed post about it, but for this week I’m just going to highlight 3 lessons that this book has taught me:

1. It’s possible to write quiet, beautiful stories when the world around you is going crazy. Jane Austen wrote the first draft of Pride and Prejudice while the French Revolution was raging just across the Channel. England was anticipating war! After the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte became the next threat to England. Pride and Prejudice was published two years before the Battle of Waterloo and the final overthrow of Napoleon.

2. Learn how to write midpoints well! The midpoint is like the climax of the first half of a story. It usually changes the course of the story forever. Midpoints are part of the secret to getting readers to turn pages faster and faster as the story approaches the climax. The midpoint of Pride and Prejudice is a stroke of pure genius well worth studying.

3. Give every character in your story an answer to your story’s thematic question. The theme of Pride and Prejudice is marriage. The thematic question is “What makes a good marriage?” Every single character in the story has an answer to that question that causes them to behave in different ways. Using this technique is a brilliant way of exploring a theme in depth and of highlighting your own answer to the story’s thematic question. Ultimately, your answer to the thematic question will become your story’s message.

4. Bonus lesson: Don’t marry someone like Mr Collins. Or someone like Mrs Bennet. Just don’t do it!