Irony in the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".(pg.1) The first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is perhaps the most famous opening of all English comedies concerning social manners. It encapsulates the ambitions of the empty headed Mrs. Bennet, and her desire to find a good match for each of her five daughters from the middle-class young men …

…powerful influence over social life. The weapon that Jane Austen employs against its suffocating effects is that of irony which is all the more telling for its gentle mockery. At a time when women had no political or financial individuality, she shows how the powerless can influence and migrate the more soul-destroying aspects of female impotence. It must be remembered that Austen wrote solely from personal experience, and this authenticity makes her insights perennially valid.