kris' dissertation chpater 5 data analysis

Chapter 5 Data Analysis (Total 81 PERs)


Chapter 5 provides the data analysis of ironical performative speech acts through

echoic groupings to show character construction of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. The

analysis attests to our argument that the 81 ironical performative speech acts depict

characterization through phases of echoic grouping dominance. The three echoic

groupings have been designated into three phases according to the novel’s plot through

the echoic grouping dominance: disagreement, neutral, and agreement (see Figure 5.1 for

echoic grouping dominance phases).

The first section of this chapter will describe the evidence for determining the echoic

grouping dominance phases. Echoic grouping dominance phases provide a way to

illustrate the characterization of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth according to their echoic

allusions. All ironical performative speech acts between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are

analyzed, in addition to other adjacent utterances to elucidate the characterization of Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth. The data analysis is carried out according to each phase, starting

with the disagreement dominant phase of characterization, and consecutively followed by

the neutral dominant phase, and the agreement dominant phase. The analysis is structured

according to the conversational themes found in each phase, with the conversations in

order within each premise of the phase.

Each phase contains premises which include thematic dialogues, and the analysis is

conducted based upon the thematic flow of characterization. Therefore, it is necessary to

note that the themes are primarily in chronological order of the plot except for one. This

dialogue is from Chapter 10 of the novel (found in section 5.2.2.2 in the Rejection

dialogue), and is placed with the dialogue from Chapter 8 due to their similar topics

within the same premise, Opposition. The disagreement dominant phase contains four

premises, the neutral dominant phase contains three premises, and the agreement

dominant phase has two premises. Searle’s (2001b) [1979] and Austin’s (2002) [1962]

felicity conditions from speech act theory (refer to section 2.2 for felicity conditions) and

echoic allusions from echoic theory (Wilson & Sperber, 2012) (see section 2.4.2 for

echoic theory) are the foundation of the data analysis, and a combination of incongruity

theory and superiority theory (refer to section 2.4.3 for the incongruity and superiority

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theories) supports the analysis to explicate verbal irony throughout the characterization.

The analysis also offers evidence for how Elizabeth’s feminist views impact Mr. Darcy’s

moral character, proving a catalyst for their characterization.

5.1 Phases of Characterization

Pride and Prejudice is divided into three volumes by Austen, but this study

designates the plot into three echoic grouping dominance phases and disregards the

original volumes for division. From the three echoic groupings, we are able to identify

the three phases of characterization in Pride and Prejudice based on the dominant

grouping found within a particular section of the plot. The graph (Figure 5.1) on data

collection shows the 157 ironical speech acts fall in line with the disagreement, neutral

and agreement dominant phases expressed through echoic groupings of verbal irony to

show how both Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s characters have been constructed throughout

the novel. They use echoic allusions, either in a direct reference echoing each other’s

thoughts or an inexplicit echo of a societal norm; through these allusions Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth construct each other’s and their own characters over the course of three phases:

disagreement dominant phase, neutral dominant phase, and agreement dominant phase

(refer to Figure 5.1).

Table 5.1 below provides a breakdown of the number of ironical utterances

designated as disagreement, neutral, or agreement based upon their echoic allusions

throughout each phase. This table represents how the echoic grouping dominance phases

were determined. The disagreement dominant phase clearly has a majority of

disagreement ironical utterances, and the agreement dominant phase also has only

agreement ironical utterances. The neutral dominant phase has the least prominent echoic

grouping dominance, however as explained the neutral dominant phase is neutral due to

the mixture of disagreement and apprehension between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth,

highlighting two major transitions in their characterization at the beginning and end of

the phase.

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Table 5.1 Counts by Echoic Grouping Classification and Phase

Disagreement Utterance

Neutral Utterance

Agreement Utterance

Disagreement Dominant Phase 54 15 0

Neutral Dominant Phase 35 36 3

Agreement Dominant Phase 0 0 14

0

5

10

15

20

25

3 6 8 9 10 11 18 31 32 34 46 54 58 60

157 Verbal Ironies

Chapters

Disagreement

Neutral

Agreement

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

Figure 5.1 Echoic Grouping Dominance Phases

The first phase is the disagreement dominant phase of characterization, for 54 of the

total 69 ironical utterances are disagreement utterances, where there are only 15 neutral

ironical utterances, and zero agreement ironical utterances (see Table 5.1). The second

phase is the neutral dominant phase of characterization, because of the 74 ironical

utterances, 36 are designated as neutral compared to 35 disagreement, and 3 agreement

ironical utterances (see Table 5.1). Although the transition from disagreement dominant

phase to the neutral dominant phase begins at the end of Chapter 11 of the novel, in order

for a clearer division, Chapter 18 is considered to be the beginning of the neutral

dominant phase (see Figure 5.1). The second phase is neutral due to the apprehension

between the two protagonists. The third phase, agreement dominant phase of

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characterization, is comprised solely of agreement ironical utterances as the

characterization of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth has been fully developed and the two

characters are no longer in opposition and now hold romantic sentiments for each other

(see Table 5.1). For clarification, the disagreement dominant phase occurs in the start of

the novel beginning in Chapter 1 through Chapter 17, the neutral dominant phase occurs

through Chapters 18-45, and the agreement dominant phase occurs through Chapter 46 to

the end of the novel in Chapter 61, according to the data collection (see Appendices A, B,

C). The three phases of characterization are unequal in length, reflecting the character

development within each phase.

All 81 ironical performative speech acts are analyzed through incongruity (e.g.

Norrick, 2003) and superiority theories (Morreall, 2009) based on the modified speech

act theory (see sections 2.2 and 3.1.1 for speech act theory and its modification) and

echoic theory of verbal irony (see section 2.4.2 for echoic theory) to illuminate the

ongoing character developments of both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. The ironical

performative utterances between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are of great importance to the

plotline and character developments. They show the characterization stemming from

social constructions of the novel. Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s character developments are

revealed through their ironical performative speech acts, rendering performative speech

acts the most significant type for the character development according to the plot. To

illustrate the insufficiency of the other four types of speech acts for character

construction, we provide examples from the data to show their deficiency to construct

identity. While we acknowledge that these four types of speech acts may reflect a

person’s character or identity, they do not actively construct identity like performative

speech acts do.

ASR06.01 “Indeed, sir, I have not the least intention of dancing” (Austen, 2003: 27).

In this speech act, there is no direct character identity construction occurring, but

rather Elizabeth is asserting what she does not intend to do, proclaiming a truth to

describe what is already in existence, although it may still be construed as ironical. In

addition, the directional fit of an assertive speech act is words-to-world, which

describes something preexisting in the world (see section 2.2.2 for directional fit).

Therefore, an assertive cannot function to bring something into existence as a

performative.

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DIR10.06 “No, no; stay where you are” (Austen, 2003: 52). This speech act is

simply giving an order or request from the S, directing/requesting the H(s) to do

something and does not construct the character of an entity. A directive speech act

has a world-to-words directional fit, in which it proposes for some circumstance to

change in the world. However, a directive is not able to create a change in the world

when uttered and cannot directly work for character construction.

COM31.03 “You shall hear then” (Austen, 2003: 170). This commissive commits the

S to some future action, and can be taken as a threat or promise depending upon the

circumstances. The directional fit of a commissive is also world-to-words, which is

also an attempt to bring about a change into the world. Like a directive, a COM does

not have the power to simultaneously bring the circumstances into existence. Due to

the directional fit, a commissive is not adequately definitive to construct character

identity.

It is crucial to note that according to speech act theory, directives and commissives do not

necessarily construct the identity of a character, as they are meant to propose some

change upon the world according to the words’ design, although this change may never

manifest. This is opposed to performative speech acts, which bring things into existence

simultaneously when they are spoken (see section 2.2.2 for Searle’s speech act theory and

3.1.1 for performative speech acts).

EXP10.01 “Good-bye” (Austen, 2003: 52). An expressive is an utterance which

simply expresses an attitude or signifies a feeling toward something, such as in

EXP10.01 which good-bye signifies a quick dismissal and gratitude upon departure.

Unlike the other categories of speech acts, an expressive lacks directional fit. It does

not propose any change upon the world, rendering an expressive meager to support

character construction.

These examples provide the explanation of why these four types of speech acts are

inadequate and thus performative speech acts are vital to construct character and are the

main focus of this study. The frequency of ironical speech acts in Figure 5.1 illustrates the

shifts from the disagreement dominant phase at the start of the novel, to the neutral

dominant phase that begins in Chapter 18, and eventually to the agreement dominant

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phase that begins in Chapter 46, where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are no longer at odds

with each other and the characters have been fully developed to finalize the novel.

5.2 Disagreement Dominant Phase: Society and Its Members (47

Total PERs)

The first phase of characterization for analysis is designated as the disagreement

dominant phase, which begins in Chapter 1 of the novel through Chapter 17. According

to this research, in the disagreement dominant phase disagreement saturates many of Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth’s conversations, providing instances for character construction often

seen through their opposing views regarding societal norms. The disagreement dominant

phase is depicted with ironical utterances from Chapters 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Within the

disagreement dominant phase, there are four premises which explain the basis of the

dialogue themes, and each premise contains two thematic dialogues. This marks the

initial chapters of the novel when Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth first meet and their

interactions are mostly unpleasant, for they attack each other through the ironical

performative utterances to construct each other’s character as well as their own. The story

begins with Elizabeth being slighted by Mr. Darcy at a public ball, much to her

humiliation. She finds Mr. Darcy’s self-importance to be distasteful, and she determines

to do everything in her power to point out his flawed character. She uses a range of tactics

to expose his faults, and many of her criticisms are voiced indirectly. Although Elizabeth

has “a lively, playful disposition” (Austen, 2003: 14), her judgments of Mr. Darcy in this

phase are critical. Her opponent, Mr. Darcy, is equally adept at the use of verbal irony to

defend himself, illustrated in the analysis of their ironical conversations.

In the disagreement dominant phase, both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are forming

judgments of each other using critical irony (for an explanation of critical and friendly

irony, see section 2.3). Mr. Darcy provokes Elizabeth through his criticism of her

attributes, claiming that her appearance is insufficient for his approval to be a dance

partner. After this initial encounter, she tries to vindicate herself, therefore inspiring Mr.

Darcy to expose more of his character by his own means. Elizabeth’s instigations against

Mr. Darcy are not inaccurate as he sees no possibility of attempting to fully defend

himself against them; however Elizabeth is certain that he conceals aspects of his

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character. Try as she might to motivate him to divulge his character, Mr. Darcy does not

often take the opportunity to redress her opinions, and thus she fails to uncover his

character until the end of the novel. Up to the end of the disagreement dominant phase,

Elizabeth’s construction of Mr. Darcy’s character is a result of his responses to her

conjectures against him. Mr. Darcy identifies Elizabeth’s attempts to incite him and

displays his snide view of her finding pleasure at singling him out for ridicule. Elizabeth

exerts her moral stance on societal views over the other characters in the novel, such as

her mother and Caroline who seek material goods in marriage, but she especially seeks to

convey to Mr. Darcy that her own moral character is above his despite his higher social

station and greater wealth.

Note that in this study, the disagreement dominant phase analysis will draw attention

to many instances of verbal irony as the plot of the story makes the first phase the most

prolific for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s characterization because there are 47 ironical

performative speech acts. Therefore, in accordance with Butler’s concept of performative

speech acts as an illocutionary force there are numerous examples of character

construction (refer to section 3.1.1 for performative speech acts and characterization).

The ironical performative speech acts move in accordance with the character

development in this section (Chapters 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11), as seen in Figure 4.2. Both

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are highly critical of each other’s views of their society, using

verbal irony to echo these preconceptions of character. As we will explain in the

dialogues below, Elizabeth specifically uses ironical performative speech acts to criticize

Mr. Darcy’s fixation on social standing and express her opinion that his social views are

narrow. Mr. Darcy vehemently displays his personal judgments of disagreement with

Elizabeth and begins the discord between the two characters when he employs verbal

irony to slight Elizabeth, and thus the battle of wits is initiated.

5.2.1 Provocation: 3 PERs

5.2.1.1 Initial Meeting

In Chapter 3 of Pride and Prejudice, as seen through the echoic lens, Mr. Darcy

helps to construct Elizabeth’s character through his verbal irony. In this section, the

analysis will mainly follow a thematic task to characterize Elizabeth under Mr. Darcy’s

scrutiny, which is reflective of his own character. This section also serves to feature the

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initial character construction and the plot design surrounding those character

developments. The scene brings to the reader’s attention Elizabeth’s first encounter with

Mr. Darcy during a ball held in Meryton. In this scene, Mr. Bingley tries to convince his

friend, Mr. Darcy, to share in his mirth by provoking him to take a dance partner. Mr.

Bingley indicates Elizabeth, who is sitting within earshot of the conversation, and, as

illustrated, Mr. Darcy begins his relationship with Elizabeth in an ironical tone:

“[T]here is one of her [Jane’s] sisters sitting down just behind you, who is very

pretty, and I dare say very agreeable. Do let me ask my partner to introduce

you.” (Mr. Bingley)

(DIR03.01) “Which do you mean?” and turning round he looked for a moment

at Elizabeth, till catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said: (Mr.

Darcy)

(PER03.01) “She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me .” (Mr.

Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 13)

The illocutionary act in DIR03.01 takes the form of a question, which serves to try and

receive information from the H. However, this utterance’s illocutionary act is

pragmatically insincere, as the S does not truthfully require the H to convey any further

information; the evidence follows in the narration where the S, after asking the question

immediately eyes the subject in query. Mr. Darcy’s utterance is an immediate echo of Mr.

Bingley’s reference to Elizabeth, and Mr. Darcy is alluding to an expectation that Mr.

Bingley holds, specifically that there is a pretty young lady whom Mr. Darcy has not yet

noticed and could be taken as a dance partner. Mr. Darcy’s dissociative attitude surfaces

in this speech act—an attitude which is decidedly disinterested and disengaged, and the

initial impression of his character is imprinted on Elizabeth through his speech acts.

Mr. Darcy’s verbal and non-verbal cues, such as obtaining eye contact with

Elizabeth, show that he is aware Elizabeth could hear him. He was speaking to Mr.

Bingley, but his statement PER03.01 was aimed at Elizabeth, telling her that although she

was not an established interlocutor in the conversation, she was the ironical utterance’s

target. Thereafter, whatever he says will be construed by his intended H (Elizabeth) and

bring cause to an appropriate perlocutionary effect. The ironical dissociation goes a step

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further when Mr. Darcy, now receiving both the attention of Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth in

conversation utters PER03.01. At the same time, the S lacks authoritative judgment to

make such a claim, thus performative speech acts for this kind of identity construction

prove to be a better classification. The speech act centers on the literal proposition where

the S brings about a state upon the subject, deeming her “tolerable” and “not handsome

enough.” This act is performative because the subject is an agent who can represent

herself according to her own terms; additionally, another observer, Mr. Bingley, has

represented her more positively than Mr. Darcy’s depiction and in essence her identity is

made through those distinctions.

Mr. Darcy’s opinionated remark upon her appearance is a challenge to the H’s

expectations for uptake; he breaks from the H’s anticipations to present his dissociative

attitude of disapproval of her attributes shown through his verbal irony. According to

echoic theory, the utterance is an ironical understatement, as it agrees to some extent that

Elizabeth has qualifying features for beauty but it serves to echo that previous distinction

with an explicitly critical attitude. Thus, Mr. Darcy’s first performative speech act

imposes upon Elizabeth a bias regarding her physical features, ironically claiming that

her beauty is insufficient for him to seek her out as a dance partner. Under superiority

theory to examine Mr. Darcy, this analysis finds Mr. Darcy’s ironical performative speech

act to draw a delineating conclusion upon Elizabeth, for it is constructed not only with

pride as fault but also to implement his power as a male to authoritatively make such

productions. A woman’s opposition to such a man is obvious, as no one would desire to

be singled out in such a way without a proper reason for dissenting views. Elizabeth had

no prior introduction, and she is seated as a bystander; her unfamiliar personage would

have challenged Mr. Darcy to expand his horizons. Instead, he flees the target by

distancing himself from his so-called inferiors, and Mr. Bingley perpetuates Mr. Darcy’s

commanding stance by making no further moves to argue against his reasoning.

Mr. Darcy’s verbal irony in PER03.01 is evident through the incongruity in

figurative and literal meanings. He claims Elizabeth is “tolerable” yet he clearly displays

his own “intolerable” attitude toward her, and this juxtaposition reveals his ironical claim

regarding Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy deems himself above Mr. Bingley and “he [is] discovered

to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased” (Austen, 2003: 12). His

irony hinges on his superiority to claim that someone like Elizabeth is sufficient in beauty

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for Mr. Bingley, but certainly not enough to please his pride. Characterization begins with

this initial interaction. Mr. Darcy is voicing his negative opinion of Elizabeth, which

works to mold her character as potentially unattractive. Mr. Darcy is also giving

Elizabeth an initial understanding of the type of man he is.

Characterization is furthermore apparent in the development of Mr. Darcy’s

posturing himself as an arrogant man. He represents himself and his gender through

ironical performative speech acts, which could be construed to demean or intimidate

females. In the conversation between Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy, Mr. Darcy gives a clear

example of such a performance aiming for Elizabeth to be the intended H:

(PER03.02) “I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies

who are slighted by other men.” (Mr. Darcy)

(ASR03.01) “You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you

are wasting your time with me.” (Mr. Darcy)

Mr. Bingley followed his advice. Mr. Darcy walked off; and Elizabeth remained

with no very cordial feelings toward him.

(Austen, 2003: 13-14)

These statements are spoken to Mr. Bingley in the presence of Elizabeth, who has just

earlier taken a position within conversational distance from Mr. Darcy. The narrative

indicates that Mr. Darcy is responding to Mr. Bingley, but for a brief moment Mr. Darcy

catches Elizabeth’s attention via eye contact (Austen, 2003: 13). With this nonverbal cue,

Elizabeth is brought into the conversation as the intended H and the object of his verbal

irony, thus eliciting this relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth as a site for the

provocation of irony to happen. In PER03.02, Mr. Darcy’s statement proves to be ironical

according to incongruity theory through the juxtaposition of reality and his statement

claiming Elizabeth is “slighted” by other men; she has not been slighted by the other men

present, but rather Elizabeth has been intentionally “slighted” by Mr. Darcy, revealing the

duality in his statement that creates verbal irony. In truth, there is a shortage of male

dance partners, and Elizabeth sat down for two dances (Austen, 2003: 13). Mr. Darcy’s

ironical utterance illustrates the pride in his character; figuratively, Mr. Darcy offended

Elizabeth, claiming that she had been slighted by other men at the ball, which is sarcastic.

As such, he is dismissing Mr. Bingley’s suggestion by deflecting the truth of the situation,

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providing the incongruity in his irony to explicate he has no interest in Elizabeth.

In ASR03.01 Mr. Darcy’s advice to tell Mr. Bingley that he could not conceivably be

convinced to dance with Elizabeth, could be interpreted ironically if one considers that

the statement was indirectly for Elizabeth to understand that you in fact means Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is within earshot, and Mr. Darcy has confirmed her attention by meeting eyes;

his statement is an allusion to the fact that he intends to refrain from social interaction

with her at this event, as he believes her to be beneath his stature. Mr. Darcy ironically

understates that Elizabeth is wasting her time if she is waiting for an invitation from him

to bring about distinction against her worthiness. The verbal irony is given away when

clearly Elizabeth is not waiting for an invitation to dance from Mr. Darcy and simply

hears the conversation, and she immediately passes judgment on Mr. Darcy’s character,

perceiving him to be an arrogant man.

In PER03.02, Mr. Darcy’s words conceal contempt he has for Elizabeth, over whom

he takes a superior social stance by drawing boundaries. Elizabeth is viewed as a

character capable of committing herself to personal representations, so Mr. Darcy’s

statement takes a derogatory color. Not only does he purport to take priority over Mr.

Bingley, by virtue of his superior wealth, but also he expands his personal importance to

encase innocent and unacquainted female bystanders. Although the ironical performative

speech acts are putting forth statements regarding Elizabeth, they simultaneously work to

build Elizabeth’s perception of Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy makes Elizabeth out to be a woman

whose social standing is beneath his own. However, the conjecture is also constructing

Mr. Darcy’s own character, from his speech acts and behavior toward Elizabeth in a

public social setting. Before the ball was over, “his character is decided. He was the

proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never

come there again” (Austen, 2003: 13). This dialogue marks the beginning of the

disagreement dominant phase, where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are immediately on poor

terms even before an official introduction.

Elizabeth is not technically an interlocutor in the conversation, so she has no

opportunity with which to construct Mr. Darcy’s character. Mr. Darcy, however,

immediately begins to pass judgment upon Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy’s opinionated criticism

of Elizabeth constructs her identity as an inferior female from a lower social standing. At

the same time, he also portrays himself to be superior, vain and haughty by criticizing

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Elizabeth’s appearance. He breaks down any former depiction of him as a gentleman

when he first arrived (Austen, 2003: 12) and creates the image of a harsh man who is

unwilling to adhere to expected social behavior when people, especially women, of a

lower class are present.

5.2.1.2 Retaliation

In this dialogue, Elizabeth’s ironical performative speech act works to construct Mr.

Darcy’s character from their first encounter at the Meryton ball. Her ironical performative

speech act will be examined through the incongruity and superiority theories to illustrate

the echo alluding to her scrutiny of Mr. Darcy’s moral character, which reflects her own

nature. This dialogue takes place at the Bennet’s home, Longbourn. Mr. Bingley’s party

and the Lucases have gathered there to visit the Bennet family. Mr. Darcy is engaged in

conversation with Sir William Lucas when Elizabeth approaches, and Sir Lucas promptly

encourages Mr. Darcy to dance with Elizabeth. To remain polite in the presence of Sir

Lucas, Mr. Darcy also invited her to dance, but Elizabeth refuses.

(PER06.01) “Mr. Darcy is all politeness," said Elizabeth, smiling. (Elizabeth)

“He is, indeed; but, considering the inducement, my dear Miss Eliza, we cannot

wonder at his complaisance—for who would object to such a partner? (Sir

Lucas)

(Austen, 2003: 27)

In PER06.01, Elizabeth’s verbal irony is aimed at Mr. Darcy’s invitation to dance. Her

animosity toward Mr. Darcy is evident through the ironical courteous demeanor she must

express in the presence of others. Through her ironical tones intended for Mr. Darcy to

comprehend, Elizabeth conveys to him she is not beguiled by his attempt. Elizabeth,

cognizant of Mr. Darcy’s lack of sentiments of her, was determined to keep her distance

from him (Austen, 2003: 24). After the Meryton ball, Elizabeth and her family resent Mr.

Darcy for slighting Elizabeth, and they find him so unpleasant that Mrs. Bennet warns

Elizabeth to not dance with him (Austen, 2003: 21). PER06.01 echoes Elizabeth’s

perception of Mr. Darcy’s superior character as ungentlemanly. PER06.01 is an

overstatement, ironically alluding to Mr. Darcy’s polite behavior in the presence of Sir

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Lucas. Mr. Darcy’s politeness is merely for propriety, from Elizabeth’s perspective. Her

allusion to Mr. Darcy’s character in PER06.01 reflects the opinion that he exhibits

behavior for the sake of decorum. Sir Lucas’s reaction confirms he does not understand

Elizabeth’s verbal irony intended only for Mr. Darcy’s uptake. The intended meaning of

PER06.01 conveys her disbelief in Mr. Darcy’s polite manner, but Sir Lucas as the

uninitiated H does not construe the irony in her statement, illustrated in his sincere

response to the literal meaning of PER06.01, indicating Mr. Darcy was indeed polite

because he could not object to being her dance partner (Austen, 2003: 27).

In the present encounter, Mr. Darcy is exhibiting politeness toward Elizabeth,

although prior to this Mr. Darcy expressed contempt for her, disparaging her

disqualifying attributes. The incongruity in Elizabeth’s utterance PER06.01 reveals her

thoughts of Mr. Darcy, and provides the foundation for his character construction. She

believes Mr. Darcy to be of ignoble character for his conceited outlook and judgmental

forethought. The performativity of PER06.01 constructs Mr. Darcy’s character through

Elizabeth’s observations of him. Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Darcy is founded on his

initial behavior towards her in Meryton, where he portrayed himself above others. This

first interaction set the tone for Elizabeth’s future evaluation of Mr. Darcy, for she

believed at the onset that his ungentlemanly behavior showed a lack of moral character.

Elizabeth expresses an ironical view of Mr. Darcy. She knows that his request to

dance was not made with sincerity, and believes his opinions of her to be unfavorable.

Based on incongruity theory, the verbal irony arises from the realized opposition in her

utterance as figurative meaning is intended to convey that Mr. Darcy is not polite. Mr.

Darcy’s character construction occurs through the incongruity in Elizabeth’s ironical

statement PER06.01. Despite his first impression of Elizabeth at the Meryton ball, Mr.

Darcy becomes intrigued with Elizabeth. Elizabeth is unaware of Mr. Darcy’s growing

intrigue in her, however, and rebukes him. In her perception of Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth

maintains her own morality and despises Mr. Darcy’s discriminatory nature.

Elizabeth’s moral stance is fueled by her dislike for Mr. Darcy. She admits that had

he not injured her own pride, she might have engendered a more positive assessment of

his character (Austen, 2003: 21). From the tenets of superiority theory, Elizabeth’s own

decorum, which conceals the figurative meaning of PER06.01, is an attempt to claim her

dominance over Mr. Darcy in terms of moral character. Elizabeth believes her own

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morality may influence Mr. Darcy’s haughty behavior during their encounters. Her

ironical performative speech act invocates how ill-mannered Mr. Darcy is in order to

show her disapproval of his moral standards. Her refusal to dance with Mr. Darcy at Sir

Lucas’s request is her mode of retaliation against Mr. Darcy for his initial rejection of her.

Refusal is a method for maintaining the upper hand, for through refusing his request the

power shifted from Mr. Darcy to Elizabeth as she affirmed her manifest independence.

The irony is apparent through the infelicity in her utterance, as Elizabeth believes Mr.

Darcy to be discourteous and judgmental, yet she tells Sir Lucas that he is “all

politeness,” meant to be cynical. The purpose for Elizabeth’s irony in PER06.01 is to

reveal to Mr. Darcy her perceptions of his moral character, and emphasize his deficiency

in character toward others whom he believes are inferior in social class and manners.

This dialogue is characteristic of the disagreement dominant phase of

characterization due to the continuation of negative attitudes and critical perceptions

between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. These features of the dialogue form the character

constructions of both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. The power of PER06.01 as a performative

utterance constructs Mr. Darcy’s character according to Elizabeth’s opinions and moral

stance, and the incongruity inherent in verbal irony cues the readership and Mr. Darcy in

on the figurative meaning of her utterance. In addition to forming Mr. Darcy’s identity,

Elizabeth’s verbal irony works to reflect her own character as proud in resistance to Mr.

Darcy’s prejudice against her because she is a woman, making her inferior to him in

society. The first premise of the disagreement dominant phase only includes 3 ironical

performative speech acts because Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are in the initial stages of

characterization. Elizabeth does not wish to speak to Mr. Darcy, and thus there are fewer

performative speech acts between the two due to lack of conversation.

5.2.2 Opposition: 7 PERs

5.2.2.1 Gender Views

This dialogue is found within Chapter 8 of the novel, when Elizabeth is visiting

Netherfield to look after Jane, who had fallen ill. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy construct each

other’s character identity through ironical performative utterances based on their echoic

allusions of gender views. During a discussion, Mr. Bingley remarks that he is impressed

to see nearly all young ladies are accomplished. Mr. Darcy argues that many women are

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undeserving of the title “accomplished” for basic skills such as sewing do not qualify as

outstanding, because common skills do not set a woman apart from others as truly

accomplished. Elizabeth retorts, ironically ridiculing Mr. Darcy for his high expectations

of an accomplished woman.

(PER08.01) “Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend a great deal in

your idea of an accomplished woman.” (Elizabeth)

(PER08.02) “Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 39)

In PER08.01, Elizabeth’s verbal irony is an allusion to Mr. Darcy’s character, particularly

on his conceit. Mr. Darcy’s requirements for an accomplished woman are not easily

attainable, still he is determined to claim that a woman must hold all of qualities he

deems necessary. Mr. Darcy claims that he hardly knows more than “half a dozen”

women who he considers accomplished. Elizabeth’s retort in PER08.01 is a sardonic

insinuation that Mr. Darcy does not have a realistic comprehension in his understanding

of an accomplished woman. The irony is located in the disaccord between Elizabeth’s

beliefs regarding Mr. Darcy’s ideals of an accomplished woman and what is stated in her

literal utterance. On the surface, PER08.01 claims that Mr. Darcy must understand what

an accomplished woman is. Her irony, revealed in the perlocutionary act for Mr. Darcy’s

uptake, is mocking Mr. Darcy for his own determination that he holds a superior stance to

claim who can be considered accomplished. His boldness in handing down judgments on

the accomplishments of women in one sweeping assessment illustrates the proud

estimation in which he holds himself. Elizabeth is constructing Mr. Darcy’s character to

reflect her perceptions of him, as arrogant and unable to relate to those who are not of the

same social standing as he.

Superiority theory enlightens Elizabeth’s intended meaning, which is to allude that

he has a biased understanding of what it means to be an accomplished woman. Due to his

higher social station, Mr. Darcy places unrealistic expectations upon all women, and

these expectations are especially inaccessible by women whose families do not possess

some amount of wealth to ensure a proper education. Mr. Darcy retorts to Elizabeth’s

criticism with a direct quotation in PER 08.02, where he wishes to emphasize his opinion,

therefore echoing a quotation of Elizabeth’s statement, claiming that he “comprehends a

15


great deal” regarding accomplished women and their standards for achievement. Mr.

Darcy intends to emphasize that he does in fact understand what qualities are necessary

for an accomplished woman by quoting Elizabeth, offering a prime example of an echo in

the analysis. His ironical performative speech act echoes a direct quotation to defy

Elizabeth by throwing her words of mockery back at her (Austen, 2003: 39). Through the

lens of superiority theory, Mr. Darcy affirms his perceived higher stance by adamantly

defending his narrow judgment of who are considered accomplished women in society.

Mr. Darcy and Caroline protest against Mr. Bingley’s assumption, claiming a woman

must attain many achievements in order to be considered accomplished, such as poetry,

language, and other fine arts (Austen, 2003: 39). Mr. Darcy adds that “to all this she must

yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive

reading” (Austen, 2003: 39). Caroline plays Mr. Darcy’s “faithful assistant” by agreeing

with his own discernment of what a woman must achieve to be considered accomplished,

and Elizabeth mocks them for their high expectations, retorting to Mr. Darcy’s argument:

(PER08.03) “I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished

women.” (Elizabeth)

(PER08.04) “I rather wonder now at your knowing any .” (Elizabeth)

(DIR08.01) “Are you so severe upon your own sex as to doubt the possibility of

all this?” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER08.05) “I never saw such a woman. I never saw such capacity, and taste,

and application, and elegance, as you describe united.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 39)

Elizabeth’s irony in PER08.03 is meant for Mr. Darcy, echoing his prior admission to

only knowing half a dozen accomplished women to mock his biased beliefs.

Undoubtedly, she disagrees with Mr. Darcy’s high standards for female achievement,

alluding that no woman is able to meet his criteria for accomplishment. PER08.03

contains the duality when Elizabeth says to Mr. Darcy that she is no longer surprised. The

duality of the utterance reveals her verbal irony because she was not surprised at Mr.

Darcy’s standards but she declares she is “no longer surprised” to stress the incongruence

in her perlocutionary act intended for the H’s (Mr. Darcy’s) uptake. Elizabeth knows Mr.

Darcy considers himself superior to others, and that his criteria are based upon his

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notions of societal norms for women with a higher social station. The stress of the word

“only” complements Elizabeth’s sardonic surprise, as she would rather not expect Mr.

Darcy to know accomplished women because his standards are decidedly critical, and the

vocal cues (i.e. italicized words in conversations) imply beyond the literal meaning of the

utterance, highlighting the duality. Elizabeth states she is surprised he knew as many as

six accomplished women, if any accomplished woman at all. “Only” is incongruent with

her figurative meaning hidden in her literal utterance, and thus reveals the infelicity in the

utterance.

PER08.03 and PER08.04 can be explained through Elizabeth’s ironic banter, which

conceals benevolent intentions through a critical exterior (see section 2.4.3.3 on the

banter principle). Elizabeth’s figurative meaning to Mr. Darcy in PER08.03 is that she

does not approve of Mr. Darcy’s standards of women’s achievement, and indicates that he

holds unrealistic expectations of women. “I rather wonder now at your knowing any”

carries on Elizabeth’s intentional irony by exclaiming her “surprise” that Mr. Darcy has

managed to meet any accomplished women at all. The verbal irony is an overstatement,

revealed in her figurative meaning—that she does not expect him to know any women he

can deem accomplished. The irony is an echo of Mr. Darcy’s self-imposed superiority to

others. Elizabeth’s banter through irony functions to create a sense of awareness in Mr.

Darcy of his impractical standards for women. PER08.04 ironically entails that Mr. Darcy

cannot know any women who are accomplished in all of these areas. The juxtaposition of

figurative and literal meanings reveals her allusion to the reality in the utterance.

Elizabeth is using women as scapegoats in her irony to highlight Mr. Darcy’s own

prejudiced view of societal expectations for women.

Mr. Darcy responds with DIR08.01, a question to Elizabeth’s comments PER08.03

and PER08.04. In DIR08.01, Mr. Darcy wonders at Elizabeth’s assessment of women,

incongruously echoing her “severity” in PER08.03 and PER08.04. The incongruity in Mr.

Darcy’s question lies in the fact that Elizabeth is challenging Mr. Darcy’s severe

standards for women. On the surface he asks why Elizabeth is so “severe” upon her own

sex; however he figuratively conveys that he is the severe one who rightfully places harsh

judgments on women in society, accentuating his verbal irony. His response to Elizabeth

is rhetorical irony as he affirms his stance on the education of women in spite of his

awareness of its severity. Elizabeth’s response to Mr. Darcy epitomizes her feminist

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stance in contrast to his societal outlooks, representative of a male-dominated society.

In PER08.05, on the surface Elizabeth claims she has never met a woman who

embodies all of the qualities Mr. Darcy and Caroline have deemed obligatory. Elizabeth’s

mockery is illustrated through the incongruity of PER08.05, in words “as you describe

united” which allude to Mr. Darcy’s severe standards for women’s education, and reveal

her real attitude that his criteria are harsh. Elizabeth ironically claims to have seen no

woman who holds all of these qualities “united” to emphasize that a woman may have

these characteristics but would still be unable to live up to Mr. Darcy’s criteria. By

refuting Mr. Darcy’s criteria for accomplished women, she outrightly challenges him that

she is nowhere near what he considers an accomplished woman, showing her resolute

willfulness in character. In turn, she implies that she will not be judged by his standards.

PER08.05 is indicative of Elizabeth’s feminist position in regards to her society, and Mr.

Darcy is symbolic of society’s critical standards for women. Elizabeth’s irony is critical

of Mr. Darcy’s own principles, as his pride and prejudice hinder him from flexibility in

determining who is worthy of his praise. The incongruity in the layers of Elizabeth’s

ironical utterance lies in claiming she has never seen a woman who meets these criteria;

she is displaying that she is in fact not severe and rather compassionate, indicating Mr.

Darcy to be the severe one.

Superiority theory explains Elizabeth’s verbal irony in her three utterances

(PER08.03, PER08.04, and PER08.05) because she uses irony at the expense of women.

Similar to the Socratic Method (see section 2.4.3.3 for Socratic irony), Elizabeth

denounces women, including herself, in order to entice Mr. Darcy to reveal his own

arrogance. By denying what he claims regarding accomplished women, Elizabeth entices

Mr. Darcy to accuse her of being too severe upon women, a confession which illuminates

his own severity. Women are the object of Elizabeth’s irony, and her denigration of

women serves the purpose to illustrate the inconceivability of Mr. Darcy’s expectations

for women of his time. His criteria are discriminatory against women who are from a

lower social standing, as the opportunity to become accomplished in all areas of fine arts

may not be available to those women without substantial means. Elizabeth’s self-

deprecating irony (see section 2.5 for the functions of irony) includes herself as one of

these women who cannot be considered accomplished. Her ironical utterance serves to

voice her own opinion by placing herself lower with these other women, and she

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undeniably reveals her irony to disapprove of how severely women are evaluated in

society. Through verbal irony, Elizabeth exposes Mr. Darcy’s haughtiness in holding

everyone to his own standards of judgment. She portrays his character to be exceedingly

proud, and insinuates that he places himself far above others for their inequalities in

wealth, education and social standing, therefore he is also prejudiced. In this dialogue,

her covert irony brings to light Mr. Darcy’s character flaws in her attempt to point out his

own faults to him.

Elizabeth disapproves of Mr. Darcy’s ideals of an accomplished woman, overstating

her surprise that he has met any women he can deem accomplished. His response is

rhetorical irony aimed at Elizabeth’s criticism of his unrealistic standards highlights his

empathy; he is beginning to be able to relate to Elizabeth’s feminist perspective on

women’s lack of education, but he purposefully refuses to express sympathy towards her

plight because of his pride. His recognition of her opposing point of view is indicative of

the small positive influence Elizabeth is beginning to exert over his moral character in the

early stages of the disagreement dominant phase.

5.2.2.2 Rejection

This dialogue takes place in Chapter 10 of the novel, and continues with Mr. Darcy

attempting to charm Elizabeth by ironically indicating that Elizabeth must “seize such an

opportunity of dancing a reel” with him (Austen, 2003: 50). Mr. Darcy’s arrogance takes

over because he believes she will not refuse him. However, Elizabeth, knowing his

character to be overconfident, retorts with more irony to challenge Mr. Darcy in public, in

the same way he humiliated her during their first encounter at the Meryton ball.

Elizabeth’s following reactions are pinpointing her feminist perspective in contrast to Mr.

Darcy’s prejudiced views of gender norms within Regency England.

(DIR10.04) “Do not you feel a great inclination, Miss Bennet, to seize such an

opportunity of dancing a reel?” (Mr. Darcy)

She smiled, but made no answer. He repeated the question, with some surprise

at her silence.

(ASR10.01) “Oh!” said she, “I heard you before, but I could not immediately

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determine what to say in reply.” (Elizabeth)

(ASR10.02) “You wanted me, I know, to say 'Yes,' that you might have the

pleasure of despising my taste,” (Elizabeth)

(PER 10.10) “but I always delight in overthrowing those kind of schemes, and

cheating a person of their premeditated contempt.”

(COM10.01) “I have, therefore, made up my mind to tell you, that I do not want

to dance a reel at all.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 50)

To interpret the verbal irony in the interaction between the two characters to further

construct their identities, Elizabeth is not only stating her opinion but also developing her

character and bringing that opinion into existence concurrently. She is affirming her

feelings in parallel and her utterances are thus speech acts performing identity

construction. She is making it clear to Mr. Darcy that his comments are not worth

answering right away. PER10.10, a performative speech act exemplifies her views of Mr.

Darcy’s character and her own personality. PER10.10 illustrates a defensive maneuver by

cutting Mr. Darcy down from his high horse. Superiority theory helps the readership

comprehend Elizabeth’s PER10.10 that is built on her previous ironies that she did not

know how to reply to Mr. Darcy’s request to dance, yet she ironically states that she knew

what he wanted her to say. Therefore these ironical utterances in turn entice her supposed

superior, Mr. Darcy, to fall into her blame, according to superiority theory’s emphasis of

Socratic irony (see section 2.4.3.3 for superiority theory). She feigns that she does not

know how to reply to a dance invitation from a male figure of high social standing. She

then outrightly points out Mr. Darcy’s snide schemes with his supposed superior forefront

to “despise” anyone inferior to him.

In this dialogue, Elizabeth is specifically constructing Mr. Darcy’s character through

her ironical utterance PER10.10. Her verbal irony further imposes upon Mr. Darcy a

superior nature, by professing that she knew he expected her to accept his invitation to

dance. She also explicitly states that Mr. Darcy only wanted to dance with her to relish in

his own distaste for her company, tarnishing his self-supposed image as a gentleman. She

specifically aims her ironical criticisms at his pride—a characteristic she believes is a

fault that Mr. Darcy holds a superior belief. Elizabeth is criticizing Mr. Darcy with

20


ironical statements stressing his character flaws. PER10.10 shows that Elizabeth is also

aware of her own ironical nature when she admits she “delights in overthrowing” Mr.

Darcy’s schemes, and “cheating a person of their premeditated contempt.” Her rhetorical

irony is an overstatement, for her insinuation is shown clearly through her own character

construction that she is a witty, lighthearted and independent thinker not afraid to give her

own opinions to a male role in a higher social class.

In other words, Elizabeth is mindful in this dialogue that she is the target of Mr.

Darcy’s verbal irony ridiculing her by implying that any woman must desire to dance

with him and could not refuse him, because he always carries this conceited nature.

Through echoic account the irony can be seen specifically pertaining to their opposing

views on societal norms in the setting of the disagreement dominant phase. In PER10.10

Elizabeth is alluding to her mocking attitude towards Mr. Darcy’s invitation to dance. Her

smile is nonverbal communication in that her first reaction was a smile and no immediate

reply. Elizabeth’s smile is ironic in and of itself. She knows that Mr. Darcy wants her to

say yes, although she soon replies that she did not know how to answer him. Her brief

moment of silence was intended to have Mr. Darcy repeat his request, exercising her

perceived power over him for making him wait. Therefore, her statement is ironical in

PER10.10 because she portrays herself as hesitant while she is in truth determined in her

response.

The way Elizabeth carries out her verbal irony by claiming her independence shows

her feminist view through an echoic allusion regarding her opinion of women’s role in the

setting of Regency-era England. Elizabeth’s irony places an emphasis on gender equality

and demonstrates her alternative view of her society. Her mockery not only criticizes Mr.

Darcy’s beliefs, but proffers a perspective for him. It is evident that no woman had ever

spoken to him with such frankness as Elizabeth had, and her atypical character started to

have a profound effect upon him to eventually alter his views and improve his moral

character. The oppositional function of irony (see section 2.5 for functions of irony) is

frequently observed in Elizabeth’s ironical utterances, as her aim is to make Mr. Darcy

contemplate his ideologies from an outside perspective.

(DIR10.05) “—and now despise me if you dare.” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.11) “Indeed I do not dare.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 50)

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Her intentional irony can be seen challenging Mr. Darcy when she continues with a

sardonic “dare” to him, implying through irony that she believes his reason for inviting

her to dance was only to provide an opportunity to despise her. The direct challenge of,

“despise me if you dare” in DIR10.05 echoes a specific thought alluding to how Mr.

Darcy despises her for her disqualifying beauty at Meryton ball when the two characters

first met (Austen, 2003: 13). DIR10.05 also echoes Elizabeth’s previous statement of

rejection to Mr. Darcy, in which she ironically claimed he was “all politeness” (Austen,

2003: 27). Her reasons for rejection are to avoid being despised by Mr. Darcy. She then

ironically dares Mr. Darcy to “despise” her after advocating her independence. In a sense,

she still invites him to continue with the proposal, at his own risk. She specifically tells

Mr. Darcy to continue if he dares, with the resolution of challenging him and ending his

proud charade. Elizabeth proves that she is not afraid to show her bold character and

confront Mr. Darcy’s views on how a woman should behave at the time in society, as well

as his views on how she should behave according to her lower social standing. She shows

her independence through rejecting his dance proposal, proving she is not bound by

societal norms. Elizabeth’s character struggle against social dictate is apparent, and Mr.

Darcy’s obstinate, proud nature is also well observed in the disagreement dominant phase

of their characterization.

Mr. Darcy’s response to Elizabeth in PER10.11 shows his conflicted attitude towards

her; he sees her as inferior, and does indeed despise her social standing and others who

are inferior to himself. However, he cannot despise her because he has become bewitched

by her, and in his thoughts he claims “were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he

should be in some danger” (Austen, 2003: 51). PER10.11 reveals Mr. Darcy’s inner

struggle going on within himself regarding his partiality for Elizabeth. Despite a desire to

dislike Elizabeth, he is unable to despise her although he is grateful for her inferiority lest

he be inclined to fall in love with her. Mr. Darcy’s irony used in PER10.11 is ironical

more so for himself than directed at Elizabeth. He is confused by his own outlook and

thus expresses his dissociative attitude towards Elizabeth’s comment in DIR10.05. He is

refuting her belief that he does despise her, revealing the irony in PER10.11 that Mr.

Darcy wanted to despise Elizabeth but found her too charming (Austen, 2003: 51).

Mr. Darcy’s character is developing, and his ideals are changing, which can be seen

22


in the dialogue’s last ironical utterance PER10.11. He replies to Elizabeth that he does not

dare to despise her; this utterance is relaying to the reader that Elizabeth has become

more appealing to him, yet he would like to continue despising her as he has before due

to her lower social standing. He has yet to relinquish his superiority complex which keeps

him from being able to consider having real feelings for Elizabeth. His thoughts reveal

that the only thing keeping him from entertaining more romantic sentiments for her is the

fact that she is inferior, a detail which Mr. Darcy cannot accept in a woman of interest.

Mr. Darcy continually constructs Elizabeth’s character by making both direct and indirect

references to her lower social standing as well as other personality traits he finds

insufficient or inferior to his own. Despite her inferior standing compared to Mr. Darcy,

he is beginning to become amused by their character developments. He is not accustomed

to a woman who boldly speaks her mind, especially to criticize him. Mr. Darcy’s

changing attitude towards Elizabeth shows that he believes her to be an exceptional

woman, one that he could love were it not for their class discrepancy. Mr. Darcy begins to

see a new Elizabeth, and the reader also sees Elizabeth through his eyes and understands

that she is having a profound effect on his rigid personality.

In this dialogue one can see how Mr. Darcy is slightly affected by Elizabeth’s

worldviews on gender roles and social class. She not only rejects him, but ridicules him

in the process by proving he cannot get the best of her. Elizabeth expected Mr. Darcy to

be displeased when she refused his invitation to dance, yet he was unaffected by her

sharpness; in fact, her behavior only worked to make him more enamored with her.

Despite Mr. Darcy’s growing admiration of Elizabeth, she remains certain that her

perception of his nature is correct and therefore her feelings for Mr. Darcy have not

changed. However, Elizabeth does not merely aim to mock Mr. Darcy with her ironical

utterances but wants him to see the error of his rationale, and most importantly his

judgmental nature. In this premise, 7 performative speech acts represent Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy’s characterization, highlighting Elizabeth’s boldness to challenge Mr. Darcy

for his moral character.

5.2.3 Character Contrast: 16 PERs

5.2.3.1 Judgment

This dialogue, taken from Chapter 9, is set at Netherfield, when Mrs. Bennet visits

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Jane and Elizabeth. During a conversation amongst the party, Elizabeth ridicules Mr.

Bingley’s simple character using verbal irony to provide a contrast to Mr. Darcy’s more

complex character. The interaction between Mr. Bingley and Elizabeth in Mr. Darcy’s

presence provides a prime example of character comparison through verbal irony. Mr.

Bingley claims to Elizabeth that he is determined and that whatever he does “is done in a

hurry” (Austen, 2003: 42). Elizabeth responds:

(PER09.01) “That is exactly what I should have supposed of you,” said

Elizabeth. (Elizabeth)

“You begin to comprehend me, do you?” cried he, turning towards her. (Mr.

Bingley)

(PER09.02) “Oh! yes—I understand you perfectly.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 42)

In PER09.01 and PER09.02, Elizabeth is mocking Mr. Bingley through her ironical

attack on Mr. Darcy, therefore constructing both Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Bingley’s

characters. She considers Mr. Bingley easy to comprehend, but her irony is found in the

incongruence of her use of “you” to Mr. Bingley when she is referencing Mr. Darcy as

well. According to this analysis, Elizabeth uses Mr. Bingley as a contrast to Mr. Darcy,

and therefore her utterances which are spoken to Mr. Bingley have an intended meaning

to aim for Mr. Darcy’s uptake for character comparison. Through her ironical utterances

PER09.01 and PER09.02, Elizabeth is conveying that she can see past Mr. Darcy’s

amiable demeanor on the surface, and grasp his true character. For example when Mr.

Darcy displayed himself as a gentleman in front of Sir Lucas at Longbourn, Elizabeth

believes that Mr. Darcy’s invitation to dance with her was polite merely for the sake of

propriety in public considering his first slight against her in Meryton (Austen, 2003: 27).

Utterance PER09.01 is an allusion to Mr. Bingley’s statement that he would quickly

change his mind and follow through with determination, and reveals that she deems his

character easily comprehendible; the literal meaning of PER09.01 conceals her reference

to Mr. Darcy’s more complicated character for comparison. Elizabeth, when stating that

she understands Mr. Bingley “perfectly,” means that she does not understand Mr. Darcy

24


due to his complex character.

PER09.02 is an echoic allusion to character comparison of Mr. Darcy and Mr.

Bingley to illustrate how Mr. Bingley is simple, figuratively highlighting Mr. Darcy’s

intricate character. Elizabeth indicates her ability to understand Mr. Bingley’s motivations

in the literal meaning of PER09.02, ironically alluding to her lack of understanding Mr.

Darcy. In addition to this more immediate echo, Elizabeth also alludes to her own ideals

that she believes a person’s character to be important, and understanding characters is

considered a necessary condition for a relationship (Austen, 2003: 23). The dualities of

her figurative references to Mr. Darcy and literal mention of Mr. Bingley’s character

create the irony in both PER09.01 and PER09.02. The incongruity is to accentuate Mr.

Darcy’s intricate character, conveying that she can see through simple characters such as

Mr. Bingley but Mr. Darcy’s character is not easily understood because it is enigmatic.

Unaware that Elizabeth is figuratively referring to Mr. Darcy in her statement, Mr.

Bingley replies to the literal meaning of her utterances.

Mr. Bingley’s question in response to Elizabeth’s utterance PER09.01 reveals his

ignorance to her irony. From the lens of superiority theory, Elizabeth asserts her

intelligence through her “quickness” (Austen, 2003: 7) to ridicule others, in the present

case Mr. Bingley. According to superiority theory, she employs Socratic irony, from

Socrates’s questioning of supposed superior parties in order to entice them to reveal their

own faults. By having Mr. Bingley admit his character is simple and easily seen through,

her verbal irony escapes possible criticism by initiated H(s). Elizabeth induces Mr.

Bingley to reveal his character flaws openly through verbal irony. She mocks Mr. Bingley

to conceal her intended meaning that she does not understand Mr. Darcy’s character. Mr.

Bingley does not perceive the irony in Elizabeth’s utterance, for by being compared with

Mr. Darcy, he believes she attempted to sincerely compliment him, but claims he cannot

see it as such.

“I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am

afraid is pitiful.” (Mr. Bingley)

(PER09.03) “That is as it happens.” (Elizabeth)

(PER09.04) “It does not follow that a deep, intricate character is more or less

estimable than such a one as yours.” (Elizabeth)

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(Austen 2003: 42)

In PER09.03, Elizabeth consents to Mr. Bingley that he is “easily seen through” to further

mock him. However in PER09.04 she sardonically reassures Mr. Bingley that despite his

permeable character, he is not less admirable than a person with an opaque character. This

is an allusion to Mr. Darcy’s character for character comparison, revealing her opinion

regarding Mr. Darcy’s moral character, namely that it is not “estimable.” Her verbal irony

in PER09.04 is an understatement when examined through echoic theory (see section

2.4.2 on echoic theory). The incongruity lies within her understated allusion to Mr.

Darcy’s intricate character. The illocutionary act of PER09.04 is to convey her opinion

and construct Mr. Darcy’s character as “intricate.” From the H’s uptake intended by the S,

Elizabeth, the perlocution lies in the incongruity she induces through an echoic allusion.

Elizabeth’s literal meaning in PER09.04 belies the figurative meaning, which is that

while pointing out Mr. Bingley’s simple character, he is held in higher regard than Mr.

Darcy, who has a more intricate character.

In PER09.04, Elizabeth’s banter is analyzed through superiority theory to show her

irony (see section 2.4.3.3 for a discussion of the banter principle). Her critique of Mr.

Bingley’s character is not sincere, but rather meant to ironically assess Mr. Darcy’s

character. Using a parallel contrast of Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley, she ridicules Mr.

Bingley as the object of her irony to covertly remark on Mr. Darcy’s moral character.

Elizabeth does not find fault in Mr. Bingley other than his simple mind (Austen, 2003:

16). She figuratively states that Mr. Darcy’s character is not as admirable as Mr.

Bingley’s, although Elizabeth regards Mr. Darcy’s character as more interesting

compared to Mr. Bingley’s. Elizabeth’s mother and Mr. Bingley do not perceive her

intentional irony, and Mrs. Bennet is mortified at Elizabeth’s display of boldness for

openly commenting on Mr. Bingley’s character, of whom they are fond.

“Lizzy,” cried her mother, “remember where you are, and do not run on in the

wild manner that you are suffered to do at home.” (Mrs. Bennet)

“I did not know before,” continued Bingley immediately, “that you were a

studier of character. It must be an amusing study.” (Mr. Bingley)

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(PER09.05) “Yes, but intricate characters are the most amusing .” (Elizabeth)

(PER09.06) “They have at least that advantage.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 42)

Mrs. Bennet’s and Mr. Bingley’s responses indicate they do not comprehend Elizabeth’s

irony. The perlocutionary act reveals the incongruity where Elizabeth is seemingly

commenting on Mr. Bingley’s character but covertly judging Mr. Darcy’s intricate

character as being advantageous. Indirectly, the illocutionary act therefore is intended to

convey Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Darcy’s character. In this dialogue, Elizabeth’s

irony is meant for herself and the reader, not intended for anyone other than Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Bingley appreciates Elizabeth’s keenness for studying the characters of those around

her, and remarks that it must be an interesting pastime for her. Elizabeth responds in

PER09.05 with an echoic allusion to Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy’s character comparison.

Her exceptional wisdom shows through her verbal irony to covertly pass judgment on Mr.

Bingley’s character, although it is seen as praise to others. She is not only constructing

Mr. Bingley as simple-minded but also alluding to her own wittiness inherent in her

character for the reader. In PER09.05, the incongruity explicates her allusion to Mr.

Darcy’s complex character, opposed to Mr. Bingley’s simple character; Elizabeth finds

Mr. Darcy more amusing because his character is more intricate.

PER09.06 is an extension of PER09.05, further juxtaposing Mr. Darcy and Mr.

Bingley’s characters. PER09.06 is also an echo of Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Darcy

and Mr. Bingley. She specifically stresses that Mr. Darcy’s only advantage is his amusing

character, a reference to her irony in PER09.04 that Mr. Bingley is not less estimable

because his character is simple. By claiming that intricate characters are “the most”

amusing, the irony is insinuating she is also an interesting, multifaceted person. She is

covertly indicating that Mr. Bingley does not have the advantage, as she sees him a

simpleton while Mr. Darcy who is complicated in nature is more intriguing to her. To

deduce, her judgments about other characters’ traits begin to reflect her own personality

at the same time. The duality of the irony in PER09.06 is realized through the

incongruities in that although Elizabeth refers to the word “they” to mean amusing

characters she is clandestinely referring to Mr. Darcy. She is referencing her opinion that

Mr. Darcy’s moral character has few merits other than his ability to provide Elizabeth

27


with amusement, shown in his wit through irony. Elizabeth’s comparison and contrast of

Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy work to form Mr. Darcy’s character as she believes Mr. Darcy

lacks a moral character in comparison with others such as herself and Mr. Bingley.

In this dialogue, although Elizabeth is constructing Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Bingley’s

characters through verbal irony, she is more importantly contrasting them with herself to

highlight her own character as she perceives it to be. Mr. Darcy’s retort to Elizabeth

asserts that she must not find much amusement because there are not many intricate

characters for her to study whilst residing in the country (Austen, 2003: 42). He suggests

that the country folk are less diverse than people from the city. Elizabeth refutes Mr.

Darcy’s opinion with her own, claiming “people themselves alter so much, that there is

something new to be observed in them for ever” (Austen, 2003: 43). Elizabeth’s comment

on the characters of people from the country is a foreshadowing of Mr. Darcy’s and her

own character development throughout the novel, for both she and Mr. Darcy will “alter”

themselves as the plot continues.

Mrs. Bennet boasts of Jane in front of Mr. Bingley, and tells a short anecdote of how

she thought Jane came close to receiving a marriage proposal when she was only fifteen,

but after the young man wrote her a poem the brief romance was over (Austen, 2003: 44).

Elizabeth interposes her mother’s conversation with irony to ridicule her, because she is

embarrassed by her mother’s behavior in front of Mr. Bingley, his family, and Mr. Darcy

(Austen, 2003: 43). Elizabeth cuts the story short to silence her mother, sarcastically

stating, “and so ended his affection” (Austen, 2003: 44). She facetiously exclaims that

she wonders who first began using poetry as a way to deflect romance, because Mrs.

Bennet told the story in such a way that the romance ended after the man wrote Jane

“some verses” of poetry (Austen, 2003: 44). Mr. Darcy sardonically contradicts

Elizabeth, arguing he believes poetry engenders romance and love.

(DIR09.01) “I wonder who first discovered the efficacy of poetry in driving

away love!” (Elizabeth)

(ASR09.03) “I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love [.]” (Mr.

Darcy)

“Of a fine, stout, healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong

already.” (Elizabeth)

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(PER09.07) “But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced

that one good sonnet will starve it entirely away.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 44)

Elizabeth’s reply in PER09.07 is witty, with irony to ridicule both Mr. Darcy and her

mother. She is echoing her mother’s assumption that her daughters can marry men whom

they do not love, and vice versa. Through her verbal irony Elizabeth confirms her

superior emotional beliefs over Mrs. Bennet’s for what constitutes a suitable match for

marriage. In this dialogue, Elizabeth displays her own character through her verbal

ironies, portraying herself as witty to the readership. Her ironical performative utterances

increase as she continues her interaction with Mr. Darcy in the company of friends and

family, thus necessitating the construction of his character through verbal irony as a stark

contrast to Mr. Bingley.

5.2.3.2 Humility and Pride

This dialogue takes place in Chapter 10, when Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are both in

the company of Mr. Bingley at Netherfield. The same setting also occurs as in the first

conversational analysis (section 5.2.3.1 for the Judgment dialogue), this section will

continue to discuss how the verbal irony of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth constructs their

characters, especially Elizabeth, including her feminist perspectives. Elizabeth’s

perception of Mr. Darcy from their first encounter is still present—she believes him

unjustifiable and cold, lacking moral character. Mr. Darcy does not hold Elizabeth in high

esteem either, as she is of a lower social class and therefore dismissible in his eyes.

This scene begins with a conversation between Mr. Bingley’s sister, Caroline, and

Mr. Darcy, where Caroline continues to fawn over Mr. Darcy, complimenting him on his

writing. Mr. Darcy appears unaffected by Caroline’s doting, when Mr. Bingley enters the

conversation telling Caroline that her compliments for Mr. Darcy are insufficient. Upon

Caroline’s criticism of Mr. Bingley’s poor writing, Mr. Bingley admits that his writing is

inadequate because he thinks quicker than he is able to write down his thoughts.

Elizabeth compliments Mr. Bingley for his modesty:

(PER10.01) “Your humility, Mr. Bingley,” said Elizabeth, “must disarm

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reproof.” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.02) “Nothing is more deceitful,” said Mr. Darcy, “than the appearance

of humility.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER10.03) “It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect

boast.” (Mr. Darcy)

“And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?” (Mr.

Bingley)

(Austen, 2003: 47)

In PER10.01, Elizabeth compliments Mr. Bingley. This compliment seemingly directed at

Mr. Bingley is figuratively an underhanded slight directed at Mr. Darcy, because she

believes he lacks humility. Elizabeth’s praising of Mr. Bingley in order to criticize Mr.

Darcy is an evasive ironical utterance, for by praising Mr. Bingley’s humility she

provides Mr. Darcy a perspective from which to examine his own proud character.

Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Bingley’s humble character presents a contrast to Mr.

Darcy’s conceit, sardonically accentuating the differences in the two men.

Elizabeth’s tactics in PER10.01 serve as an interpretation of contrasting Mr.

Bingley’s inferior characteristics with Mr. Darcy’s supposedly superior characteristics.

Elizabeth’s verbal irony works to atone for Mr. Bingley’s faults; therefore she dissociates

these remarks from illocutions of disguised praise to create a perlocutionary effect of

opposition against Caroline and Mr. Darcy’s criticisms upon Mr. Bingley. Her intended H

is Mr. Darcy alone. In this ironical utterance, PER10.01, Elizabeth is contradicting Mr.

Bingley’s account that his own writing is quite poor compared to Mr. Darcy’s, which Mr.

Bingley means to be a compliment to Mr. Darcy. In this analysis, Mr. Darcy perceives the

perlocutionary act intended for him by Elizabeth, and goes on to ironically criticize

humility as a covert way of boasting, and gives examples of Mr. Bingley’s humble

boasting.

Mr. Darcy identifies himself as the index of Elizabeth’s judgmental claims and

responds with critical irony through a dissociative attitude. His response in PER10.02

allows Austen’s intentional use of irony to become apparent for her readership, proving

that Mr. Darcy does construe Elizabeth’s ironical criticism that is directed towards him

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and understands Elizabeth is complimenting Mr. Bingley’s humility as a guise. Elizabeth

is seemingly praising Mr. Bingley and constructing Mr. Bingley’s character to be humble.

However, her intended meaning in PER10.01 is to be critical of Mr. Darcy for his

formidable pride. Mr. Darcy’s reply in PER10.03 deflects Elizabeth’s ironical criticism

towards him; instead he criticizes Mr. Bingley as a modest braggart. In PER 10.03, Mr.

Darcy uses intentional irony to satirize humility as humble boasting, inexplicitly

ridiculing Mr. Bingley to show off his pride and superior sense. Mr. Darcy believes his

pride is superior to Mr. Bingley’s supposedly feigned humility. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

both attempt to exert their wit in order to claim superiority over the other. Elizabeth

challenges Mr. Darcy’s criticism of Mr. Bingley with her own perspective of moral

superiority by scornfully alluding that Mr. Darcy has imposed upon Mr. Bingley a flawed

character of “rashness” and “obstinacy.”

(PER10.04) “You have only proved by this,” cried Elizabeth, “that Mr. Bingley

did not do justice to his own disposition.” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.05) “You have shown him off now much more than he did himself.”

(Elizabeth)

. . . .

(DIR10.01) “Would Mr. Darcy then consider the rashness of your original

intentions as atoned for by your obstinacy in adhering to it?” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.06) “You expect me to account for opinions which you choose to call

mine, but which I have never acknowledged.” (Mr. Darcy)

“Allowing the case, however, to stand according to your representation, you

must remember, Miss Bennet, that the friend who is supposed to desire his

return to the house, and the delay of his plan, has merely desired it, asked it

without offering one argument in favour of its propriety.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 48-49)

Elizabeth cynically defends Mr. Bingley in PER10.04 and PER10.05 as a way to

admonish Mr. Darcy. She claims that in his attempt to denounce Mr. Bingley’s humble

boasting nature, Mr. Darcy has made Mr. Bingley to be loftier than Mr. Bingley tried to

make himself appear. Her defiance of Mr. Darcy continues their battle of wits, making a

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mockery of Mr. Bingley through irony as a way to counter-thrust against each other. Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth simultaneously assert their superiority over Mr. Bingley and over

each other. She replies directly to Mr. Bingley, while her illocutions are intended for Mr.

Darcy as the H of her irony to indicate her rebuttal is focused towards Mr. Darcy. In these

utterances, Elizabeth retorts to Mr. Darcy with her reproach of Mr. Bingley, intended to

cynically replicate how Mr. Darcy criticizes his friend Mr. Bingley.

In this part of the dialogue, Elizabeth disapproves of Mr. Darcy’s opinion of Mr.

Bingley’s willingness to change his mind at a friend’s request. PER10.06 is a portrayal of

Elizabeth’s character, claiming that she is being judgmental of Mr. Darcy and giving

opinions which he has not even expressed, according to Mr. Darcy. Through the echoic

account, PER10.06 is an echoic allusion to Elizabeth’s opinionated character, specifically

stressing the word “opinions” to convey his feeling that she has already given many

opinions regarding Mr. Bingley’s character on the surface. Mr. Darcy is rhetorical as he

quickly points out these harsh judgments about Mr. Bingley’s fickleness to be Elizabeth’s

own opinions, not his. Applying superiority theory, Mr. Darcy is placing the supposedly

superior verbal ironist Elizabeth into his trap. He does not approve of Mr. Bingley’s

fickleness in decision-making; however, he provokes Elizabeth to vocalize these

judgments of Mr. Bingley. Mr. Darcy iterates these “opinions” are not his, obviously

expecting Elizabeth to take the blame. His echoic irony expresses his dissociative attitude

towards Elizabeth’s judgment of him, constructing her character as judgmental and

opinionated.

PER10.06 takes on the evasive or distancing function of irony because Mr. Darcy

seeks to deny that he holds this perception of Mr. Bingley; while he did not directly

articulate he believes Mr. Bingley was rash and obstinate, as Elizabeth says, his previous

criticisms of Mr. Bingley indicate that he believes Mr. Bingley to make decisions without

consideration, shown through his examples. Mr. Darcy is constructing Elizabeth’s

character as presumptuous for challenging him. His sense of superiority is clearly shown

through his verbal irony, particularly because she is of a lower social class and Mr. Darcy

is not accustomed to women, women of a lower social class especially, speaking to him

in the manner which Elizabeth does. She is bold to provoke him with accusatory remarks,

covertly disguised by irony. Only Mr. Darcy was able to detect the purpose of her verbal

irony in her assessment of Mr. Bingley’s character. Both Elizabeth’s and Mr. Darcy’s wit

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and innovative nature shown through their characterization is the primary way they

communicate with each other, reinforcing their own community through verbal irony.

Elizabeth continues her ironical attack upon Mr. Darcy’s character, although she no

longer employs Mr. Bingley as the object of her irony. She further imposes opinions upon

Mr. Darcy by emphasizing what she perceives to be egregious flaws in his character,

claiming he does not give preference to his friends.

(PER10.07) “To yield readily—easily—to the persuasion of a friend is no merit

with you.” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.08) “To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding

of either.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER10.09) “You appear to me, Mr. Darcy, to allow nothing for the influence of

friendship and affection.” (Elizabeth)

A regard for the requester would often make one readily yield to a request,

without waiting for arguments to reason one into it.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 49)

PER10.07 is identified as an ironical performative speech act and Elizabeth uses the

utterance to build up her perception of Mr. Darcy’s character. Elizabeth’s utterance

PER10.07 continues to implicitly challenge Mr. Darcy’s character as being inflexible and

harsh. She is using covert irony, challenging Mr. Darcy’s values for friendship. Using

superiority theory to interpret her irony, Elizabeth questions Mr. Darcy’s moral character

as he appears to be superior to everyone else for his much higher social station. However,

Elizabeth believes herself to be morally superior to Mr. Darcy, acting as a mentor to

provide a perspective which would allow Mr. Darcy to see himself as she has been

constructing his character—as a stoic, rigid person who hardly sees merits in friends.

PER10.07 is an overstatement cynically echoing Mr. Darcy’s proud, unfeeling character

that does not allow for the “persuasion” of a friend, which Elizabeth believes a character

flaw.

The incongruity is found within Elizabeth’s echoic allusion, which juxtaposes the

figurative and literal meanings of PER10.07. Elizabeth’s figurative meaning conveys Mr.

Darcy finds Mr. Bingley’s character flawed for his willingness to submit to the will of a

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friend, although she literally states that Mr. Darcy would find no merit in doing this for a

friend. She is seemingly contrasting Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley’s characters through her

verbal irony. Her intended illocution in PER10.07 is to construct Mr. Darcy’s character

using an implicit performative speech act. In PER10.08, Mr. Darcy, reciprocating

Elizabeth’s irony, wryly accused Mr. Bingley of having no conviction, and acting on a

mere whim in order to contrast Mr. Bingley’s character with his own to display his

distinguished proud personality.

In PER10.08, Mr. Darcy echoes his opinion that Mr. Bingley does not have good

judgment, found in the conversation of women’s achievement where Mr. Darcy criticized

Mr. Bingley for his naïve belief that “all” young ladies were accomplished (Austen, 2003:

39). Mr. Darcy’s irony finds Mr. Bingley as the object, to point out their differences in

contrast to Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Darcy’s and Mr. Bingley’s characters. His

echoic allusion in PER10.08 reveals the incongruity in his utterance. He is constructing

his own character to be superior to Mr. Bingley’s, again using Mr. Bingley as the

scapegoat of his verbal irony. Both Elizabeth’s and Mr. Darcy’s irony can be explicated

according to superiority theory, as they use Mr. Bingley as the object of irony to argue

their points of view in terms of character qualities. After this comment, readers will

understand Mr. Darcy to be not only haughty but also stubborn in his vain attempt to

prove his opinion on a particular debated point. In this dialogue, his desire to be correct

and prove a point means criticizing the actions of a friend he believes to be weak.

Elizabeth, through performative speech acts shows her opinions of Mr. Darcy, and thus

exposes Mr. Darcy’s character faults.

In PER10.09, Elizabeth finalizes the dialogue by reiterating her stance regarding Mr.

Darcy’s moral character. She cynically claims Mr. Darcy “appears” to have no tolerance

for his friends to exert an influence on him. Through echoic theory, this is an ironical

overstatement. Elizabeth’s echo in PER10.09 alludes to the discrepancy in Mr. Darcy’s

comment upon Mr. Bingley’s character. Elizabeth is conveying through her figurative

meaning that Mr. Darcy does not hold his friends in high esteem so as to allow him to be

flexible. She is constructing Mr. Darcy’s character as detached and lacking empathy,

characteristics which can to be attributed to his arrogance. In this premise, Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy continually find themselves holding conflicted opinions over different social

concerns. They each attempt to criticize the other indirectly by ridiculing Mr. Bingley to

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affirm their opposing opinions. Specifically, a character comparison of Mr. Bingley and

Mr. Darcy aids in the construction of Mr. Darcy’s character from Elizabeth’s morally

superior perspective. The increase in number of performative speech acts in this premise

to 16 represents the ongoing characterization of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth as they are

interacting more often through verbal irony.

5.2.4 Societal Disparity: 21 PERs

5.2.4.1 Social Exclusion

At this point in the disagreement dominant phase, Elizabeth has made several

attempts to provoke Mr. Darcy with her ironical jabs of how she perceives his character,

which is based upon their first encounter at the Meryton ball. In this dialogue, Elizabeth

is found constructing Mr. Darcy’s character with her ironical utterances, but one key

difference in this performative speech act and other speech acts analyzed before is that

this utterance is not directly constructing his character by putting forth her opinion of his

nature. The relevance of the echoic irony is not only found within the dialogue itself, but

also found in what one may call a shared knowledge between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

regarding the key differences in Caroline and Elizabeth.

This dialogue picks up in the last scene of Chapter 10, when members of the party

are enjoying a stroll at Netherfield. Caroline and Mr. Darcy are walking together, and she

begins to tease Mr. Darcy about marrying Elizabeth. Caroline became jealous of

Elizabeth while watching Mr. Darcy invite Elizabeth to dance with him. Caroline makes a

sarcastic remark about having a portrait made of Elizabeth when she and Mr. Darcy are

married, and how a painter would have difficulty in depicting her “beautiful eyes”

(Austen, 2003: 51). Mr. Darcy responds by saying the beauty of Elizabeth’s eyes would

be easy to capture, but not their lively expression, when they happen upon Elizabeth and

Mrs. Hurst also walking along the lane. This reference to Elizabeth’s beautiful eyes was

Caroline’s attempt to mock Mr. Darcy, because he stated earlier that he had “been

meditating on the very great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes in the face of a pretty

woman can bestow” (Austen, 2003: 27). This statement from Mr. Darcy lets the reader

know he is beginning to have affection for Elizabeth; a much different sentiment can be

seen now than in the beginning where Mr. Darcy insisted that her beauty could not

warrant his attention. At present, Mr. Darcy has become in some way intrigued by

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Elizabeth in her refusal of his invitations to dance, however his character has not

changed. He continues to put on airs of superiority around Elizabeth to constantly remind

her of their differences, and this behavior does not go unnoticed by Elizabeth.

Caroline was concerned she had been overheard, and quickly made conversation,

stating she was unaware that Mrs. Hurst and Elizabeth had planned a walk. Mrs. Hurst

jokingly chided Caroline for neglecting to inform her of the walk with Mr. Darcy; she

then left Elizabeth’s side to join Mr. Darcy and Caroline, leaving Elizabeth alone. When

Mr. Darcy realized there was no room for Elizabeth in the lane, he suggested they move

to the avenue:

“This walk is not wide enough for our party. We had better go into the avenue.”

(Mr. Darcy)

(DIR10.06) “No, no; stay where you are.” (Elizabeth)

(PER10.12) “You are charmingly grouped, and appear to uncommon

advantage.” (Elizabeth)

(ASR10.03) “The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth.”

(Elizabeth)

(EXP10.01) “Good-bye.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 52)

Mr. Darcy’s kind gesture to include Elizabeth was rejected with her banter, ironically

portraying Mr. Darcy’s character in PER10.12. Insisting he belongs with Mr. Bingley’s

sisters due to their higher social standing, Elizabeth purposefully excludes herself from

the group and bids them farewell. PER10.12 is an ironical utterance aimed at Mr. Darcy

and Caroline, building Mr. Darcy’s character based upon an observation regarding the

pairing up of the two. Mr. Darcy pays little attention to Caroline despite her attempts to

gain his affections. It is Elizabeth whom Mr. Darcy finds fascinating. PER10.12 is an

echo which reveals Elizabeth’s real attitude toward Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley’s sisters,

for they are all of a higher social class than she. The juxtaposition of Mr. Darcy, Caroline

and Mrs. Hurst against Elizabeth on the outing is symbolic of the invisible division

between them; Elizabeth is of a lower social standing and therefore does not belong with

the other three. In PER10.12, Elizabeth’s dissociative attitude towards Mr. Darcy is

36


apparent, portraying her cynical views of Mr. Darcy attempting to include Elizabeth

where he believes she does not belong. Her ironical performative speech act is bringing

into existence the notion that the three characters (Mr. Darcy, Caroline and Mrs. Hurst)

are grouped accordingly because all three are of the same social class and therefore hold

the same qualities according to Elizabeth. Thus she is portraying them as all believing

they are superior to her, and this is why they treat her as an outsider. More precisely, she

is creating Mr. Darcy’s character in a comparison to Mrs. Hurst and Caroline, who have

excluded Elizabeth from their company and made no attempt to rectify their

offensiveness.

In the utterance PER10.12, You refers to Mr. Darcy, Caroline and Mrs. Hurst but

more specifically to Mr. Darcy and Caroline, and their connection through a shared social

class. According to Elizabeth’s perception of Mr. Darcy’s character, and reflecting back to

Mr. Darcy’s actual attitude towards Elizabeth’s inferiority, he should be paired with a

woman such as Caroline, who desperately attempts to please him. Despite Elizabeth’s

notion that Mr. Darcy and Caroline are better suited for each other and therefore the

grouping is fitting, Mr. Darcy has continually asked Elizabeth to dance instead of

Caroline. Thus, this is another allusion for the reader which can be inferred from

PER10.12, because Elizabeth is echoing her previous rejections of Mr. Darcy’s

invitations to dance. Elizabeth believes that Caroline and Mr. Darcy suit each other well

due to their similarities in character and social class, both being proud with their superior

social positions in comparison to Elizabeth. She uses verbal irony to construct Mr.

Darcy’s arrogant character and she ironically isolates herself to proclaim her self-

autonomy, challenging and ridiculing social norms. She is seemingly turning down Mr.

Darcy’s suggestion for her to walk with him, Caroline and Mrs. Hurst, but Elizabeth is

also rejecting Mr. Darcy in a larger sense.

What is more ironical in PER10.12 is the last part of the utterance, “and appear to

uncommon advantage.” These words literally express that Caroline, Mrs. Hurst and Mr.

Darcy are an excellent congregation, as the three share the qualities which Elizabeth

despises. She claims that she would spoil the matchup were she to join the other three.

Elizabeth is echoing the shared knowledge between them all that Elizabeth does not

belong with them in the larger sense, for due to their social class differences Elizabeth

will always be considered an outsider despite her presence at social gatherings.

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Elizabeth’s dissociative attitude of social exclusion is apparent; she uses this intentional

irony as an excuse to mask her disinterest in joining the party.

Elizabeth had determined her feelings about Mr. Bingley’s sisters earlier in the story

and also perceived their own dispositions to be near that of Mr. Darcy’s. Elizabeth’s

words and thoughts alert the reader to her acknowledgement of dislike for the two sisters,

revealing her thoughts on the way they treat everyone in a “supercilious” manner, even

Jane whom they appear to have taken a liking to (Austen, 2003: 22). Elizabeth’s

characterization continues as her scorn and contempt for Mr. Darcy cannot be alleviated

by his misplaced attempt at kindness or courtesy. At present, Elizabeth remains convinced

that his request to make room for Elizabeth to join the party is merely to be polite on the

surface.

While the reader is aware that Mr. Darcy’s feelings have begun to change, to

Elizabeth he remains a man unworthy of her attention. Elizabeth’s recent snubbing of Mr.

Darcy (the refusal to dance with him twice and this present refusal to join him and Mr.

Bingley’s sisters on a walk) makes the reader aware of her autonomy and independent

way of thinking. Her fixation on discovering the true characters of people, revealing her

own willful character, is what keeps her intrigued by Mr. Darcy, in spite of her contempt

for the character she perceives him to have. It is clear to the reader that Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth are far more alike than they would admit: both enjoy antagonizing the other and

engaging in banter through verbal irony, whether explicitly or implicitly, to discover and

construct their identities. Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth also remain proud and refuse to

allow their feelings towards the other to be modified. Thus, Mr. Darcy remains off-put

towards Elizabeth and prejudiced because of her social status, and Elizabeth remains

scornful of Mr. Darcy because of his intimidating outlook and the airs he puts on because

of it.

5.2.4.2 Ridicule

This dialogue is found in Chapter 11, where Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are still at

Netherfield with Mr. Bingley and Caroline. This dialogue shows further characterization

of both Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. More specifically, we analyze Elizabeth’s character in

contrast to Caroline’s to show Elizabeth’s feminist nature. Chapter 11 finds Caroline

again the following night attempting to attract Mr. Darcy’s attentions. As the plot

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continues, Caroline begins fawning over Mr. Darcy to get his attention. We will analyze

how this fawning can be compared with Elizabeth’s feminist characteristics and how

Caroline uses a typical style of attracting men in Regency-era England. Elucidating these

comparisons can also help the reader view gender equality and feminist perspectives that

pertain to Elizabeth’s performative speech acts which work to construct her own

character as well as her attempt to mold Mr. Darcy’s moral character. This is where our

conversation begins, with Caroline and Elizabeth discussing whether they can find any

fault with Mr. Darcy’s character, and they temporarily team up to verbally have a go at

Mr. Darcy. Caroline always seeks to play Mr. Darcy’s favorite by pleasing him, saying

what he wants to hear. Elizabeth thus states that Mr. Darcy is not to be teased or laughed

at, advocating that his character is irreproachable due to his social class and that she is

following those social expectations to not mock him. Caroline continues her attention

seeking from Mr. Darcy; she realizes it is ineffective and changes tactics when she sees

Mr. Darcy is paying her no attention and asks Elizabeth for company and conversation,

knowing Mr. Darcy will then pay attention to Elizabeth.

“Teaze calmness of temper and presence of mind! No, no; I feel he may defy us

there. And as to laughter, we will not expose ourselves, if you please, by

attempting to laugh without a subject. Mr. Darcy may hug himself.” (Caroline)

(PER11.01) “Mr. Darcy is not to be laughed at!” cried Elizabeth. (Elizabeth)

(PER11.02) “That is an uncommon advantage, and uncommon I hope it will

continue, for it would be a great loss to me to have many such acquaintance .”

(Elizabeth)

(PER 11.03) “I dearly love a laugh.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 56)

PER11.01 notes that the allusion to a character to demonstrate the personality and

behaviors of another is performative. As Worthen notes the performative speech act is “a

specific vision of social order” from where the identities of the characters themselves are

constructed and become existent (1998: 1097). PER11.01 can be seen through the echoic

theory of verbal irony, because Elizabeth is postulating for Mr. Darcy that he is not to be

laughed at, which echoes Mr. Darcy’s conception of social class and appropriate behavior

39


towards someone of his social standing. However, Elizabeth is being ironical as this

statement is quite infelicitous due to Elizabeth’s true feelings regarding Mr. Darcy and his

views on class etiquette. Elizabeth does not adhere to conventional social norms, but she

is caught speaking for Mr. Darcy, as he believes someone of his superior class should not

be laughed at by anyone. Elizabeth insincerely notes how she herself is complying with

the expectations of Regency-era norms. In PER11.02 she ironically states that it would be

a great loss to her to not have the acquaintance of that class. Thus, her irony echoes the

era’s notions of social class and gender stereotypes, as well as parodies this stereotype of

that social stratum by making a rail of it through mockery. The readers can take note how

they may not get the irony in the conversation due to being unaware of the gender norms

in Regency England. PER11.03 continues the thought from PER11.02, emphasizing

Elizabeth’s figurative meaning that she is glad Mr. Darcy is her acquaintance so that she

may ridicule him.

The utterance PER11.02 has different contexts for the uninitiated H (Caroline)

versus the initiated (Mr. Darcy), leading to Caroline taking a different role in the

conversation, as she is uninitiated to the verbal irony and thus lacks uptake of the

perlocutionary act of the trope intended for Mr. Darcy. Caroline also states that they

cannot laugh at Mr. Darcy’s social- and gender-based superiority. She dotes on Mr. Darcy

in an attempt to get his attention and shows her lack of independence from her societal

entrapment; she tries to win Mr. Darcy’s affections and approval whether her means are

sincere or not. Essentially, she acquiesces to males who are of Mr. Darcy’s demeanor and

social status. In contrast we can see how Elizabeth’s independence and feminist

perspectives within her character are constructed through verbal irony as she is

simultaneously contrasting herself with Caroline in her utterances PER11.01 and

PER11.02. Elizabeth acts in direct obstinacy to Caroline’s gentrified thinking; Elizabeth

is performing the act of stating that she is neither intimidated by Mr. Darcy nor the

misogynist societal corral that women were confined to at that time. PER11.02 includes a

direct echo of Elizabeth in when she grouped Mr. Darcy, Caroline and Mrs. Hurst

together as having an “uncommon advantage” to reiterate her separation from them

(Austen, 2003: 52). Not only does Elizabeth accentuate their class differences, but

establishes her moral superiority over both Caroline and Mr. Darcy in order to affirm her

dissenting societal outlook.

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Incongruity between the literal and figurative meanings can be analyzed in light of

Elizabeth’s echo of social norms in PER11.01 and PER11.02. Elizabeth’s irony in

PER11.02 is also working to construct Mr. Darcy’s character in a contrasting view to that

held of Mr. Darcy by Caroline. Elizabeth’s literal meaning is that Mr. Darcy is in a

position so that he cannot be ridiculed by others, especially those of a lower station.

However, her figurative meaning conveys her disregard of the social norms of Regency-

era England through parody. She is creating duality in her verbal irony, covertly stating

Mr. Darcy’s character to be less noble than he believes he is, and that he is not above

being ridiculed. The discrepancies in PER11.01 and PER11.02 reveal Elizabeth’s irony,

which can be examined through superiority theory for her seeming inability (due to her

class and female role in society) but figurative capability (due to her wit of verbal irony

and superior moral standards) of ridiculing Mr. Darcy. Her statement cynically reveals

that she “laughed at” Mr. Darcy while her literal meaning states “Mr. Darcy is not to be

laughed at!”

To continue with the plot, it is noted that Mr. Darcy is enthralled with Elizabeth

revealed through her performative speech acts. PER11.01 and PER11.02 have begun to

change his views toward her and construct his character to have a more positive view of

gender roles. Mr. Darcy’s true interest lies in that he is intrigued and smitten with

Elizabeth, so rather than dance the same old dance, he affirms Caroline’s quip by stating

“Miss Bingley has given me credit for more that can be” (Austen, 2003: 56) in order to

continue on with Elizabeth as he is titillated by her. Thus as Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

banter with each other, Mr. Darcy clarifies:

(PER11.04) “The wisest and the best of men—nay, the wisest and best of their

actions—may be rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a

joke.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 56)

Mr. Darcy’s uptake of Elizabeth’s irony is illustrated in the force behind the illocutionary

act in PER11.04. Mr. Darcy states that any person who makes it a goal to ridicule others

may render the wisest and best men ridiculous; however his figurative meaning is masked

in his patronizing assessment of Elizabeth. The perlocutionary act he intends Elizabeth to

construe is despite her efforts, he is above her ridicule, for he considers himself among

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the “wisest and best of men.” He emphasizes their stark contrast from his perspective,

affirming his social outlook regarding her lower social station. The infelicities in

PER11.04 are seen in the very fact that he is jesting as he professes his disdain for such

frivolity. Recall that notions of muted criticism uttered within socially acceptable bounds

display the irony in its function as a distancing mechanism. Hutcheon confers that such

utterances are a detachment on the part of the ironist and carry negative nuances, as it can

suggest a desire for control. The distancing function also works to create a sense of social

cohesion, and to reinforce a sense of social grouping, seen in PER11.04 for Mr. Darcy to

reinforce the norms of a society in which he is superior (Hutcheon, 1992: 230).

Mr. Darcy first states, “The wisest and the best of men” followed by, “may be

rendered ridiculous by a person whose first object in life is a joke.” We can see that Mr.

Darcy is first talking about men, and then refers to how men in particular may be

rendered ridiculous by a person. Secondly, Mr. Darcy is stating “person” in a genderless

case and referring to women in general in that Elizabeth could take the role of the

“person” he is talking of. By leaving the latter part of the statement ambiguously

genderless, Mr. Darcy is creating a distancing mechanism as a function of verbal irony

that is reinforcing the social cohesion of their current gender relationships and norms, i.e.

Regency England. Mr. Darcy’s illocutionary act is directed to construct Elizabeth’s

character through its incongruities revealed through his perlocutionary act for Elizabeth’s

uptake. He is echoing Elizabeth’s irony in PER11.01 and PER11.02 that he could not be

laughed at, by figuratively claiming that Elizabeth could indeed laugh at him because her

goal is to ridicule him. Through echoic theory, PER11.04 is an ironical overstatement of

Elizabeth’s intentions, that her “first object in life is a joke.”

Mr. Darcy is also insincere in his statement because he is one of these men, who

“may be rendered ridiculous” and is in fact prone to being charmed by these

idiosyncrasies of Elizabeth’s humorous undertakings that he proclaims to be above.

According to the echoic account, Mr. Darcy is alluding to his high social stance, showing

his uptake of Elizabeth’s irony. He is addressing her claim in PER11.01 that Mr. Darcy

cannot be laughed at; he can be found through PER11.04 to dissociate himself with her

claim by his own assertion that he can be laughed at because Elizabeth does indeed seize

every opportunity she can to ridicule him. The dissociative attitude also pertains to the

literal meaning of her second utterance PER11.02, that to have too many acquaintances

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such as Mr. Darcy who she is unable to ridicule would be a loss to her because she loves

to laugh. His statement in PER11.04 is a direct challenge to PER11.02 because the irony

in PER11.02 is that in fact Elizabeth would enjoy having more acquaintances such as Mr.

Darcy to ridicule. It is noted that Mr. Darcy is enthralled with Elizabeth, and PER11.01

and PER11.02 have begun to change his views toward her and construct his character to

have a more positive view of gender roles. However we can see that he is still using

verbal irony as a distancing mechanism and is distancing himself to solidify the social

cohesiveness of Regency England’s gender views. The reader unaware of the irony

behind the guise is therefore not privy to what or why their banter is ironical.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy both employ verbal irony as a principal form of character

construction, and their interactions in this dialogue are characterized by banter. Elizabeth

continues in jest, retorting with irony to convey to Mr. Darcy she has understood his jab

at her in PER11.04.

“Certainly," replied Elizabeth—"there are such people” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.05) “but I hope I am not one of them .” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.06) “I hope I never ridicule what is wise and good.” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.07) “Follies and nonsense, whims and inconsistencies, do divert me, I

own, and I laugh at them whenever I can.” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.08) “But these, I suppose, are precisely what you are without.”

(Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 56)

In PER11.05 and PER11.06, Elizabeth uses verbal irony to construct her own character.

The emphasis on the word “them” is a vocal cue to relay that she understands those

people to whom Mr. Darcy was referring is in fact a covert reference to Elizabeth. By

stating she hopes to “never ridicule what is wise and good” she creates the inconsistency

through the dual layers of meaning. Thus, with her statement of hoping that she is not one

of those people, she incongruously denotes she is one of those people and enjoys such

pastimes and amusements. As such, Elizabeth’s uptake of Mr. Darcy’s verbal irony

shapes her responsive echoic ironical utterances, which as a factor of the perlocutionary

act in her uptake in turn hold their own illocutionary force in response to his illocutionary

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act. Those returned illocutionary forces are a form of banter that allude to her societal

views of those who hold a high social standing, an example of how the irony can be seen

through echoic theory. In addition PER11.05 and PER11.06 allude to Mr. Darcy’s prior

ironical utterances, thus eliciting this relationship between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth as a

site for the perlocutionary event of verbal irony to occur.

Literally, in PER11.06 Elizabeth appears to agree that she does not want to ridicule a

person who is “wise and good.” However, by disagreeing with Mr. Darcy’s own character

assessment of himself, the figurative meaning of her utterance echoes Mr. Darcy’s

proclamation of his own wisdom and goodness. The figurative and literal meanings draw

further incongruity in Elizabeth’s hoping. She and Mr. Darcy are both aware that she is

one of those people who loves to ridicule others. As she echoes Mr. Darcy’s assumption

that he is wise and good, she divulges her own opinions that social class and demeanor

are not above ridicule, although Mr. Darcy believes he should not be subjected to

mockery from a woman, especially a woman of lower social standing.

Through verbal irony, Elizabeth affirms her moral character over Mr. Darcy’s. She

ridicules Mr. Darcy to show him the error of his character, that he believes he is above

everyone else, to which he is blind. Mr. Darcy is unaccustomed to Elizabeth’s behavior

towards him, as his station normally warrants a certain amount of regard from others,

especially of lower social standing. In PER11.07, Elizabeth ironically admits that her

attention is regularly given to “follies and nonsense” given her love of ridicule. However,

according to echoic theory of verbal irony this is an ironical understatement. Elizabeth is

not merely diverted by the idiocies of others, but rather actively seeks them out to ridicule

and become the object of her irony. PER11.08 is another ironical performative speech act

that constructs Mr. Darcy’s character. She claims that Mr. Darcy is without “follies and

nonsense, whims and inconsistencies,” meaning he is safe from being ridiculed; yet

incongruously, she is simultaneously ridiculing him by claiming he is aloof and

unyielding. Incongruity theory explicates the reference to Mr. Darcy, as her figurative

meaning is in contrast to her literal meaning. In Elizabeth’s irony, she constructs Mr.

Darcy as characterized by these aspects which can be ridiculed, emphasizing her opinion

that Mr. Darcy is equal to others.

Mr. Darcy responds ironically to Elizabeth that no one may be without these

character flaws. He exerts his superior stance by distancing himself from others in the

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claim that he is above character flaws which “anyone” else may find impossible to avoid.

(PER11.09) “Perhaps that is not possible for anyone.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER11.10) “But it has been the study of my life to avoid those weaknesses

which often expose a strong understanding to ridicule.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER11.11) “Such as vanity and pride.” (Elizabeth)

“Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER11.12) “But pride—where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be

always under good regulation.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003:56)

Through his utterances PER11.09 and PER11.10, Mr. Darcy is reinforcing Elizabeth’s

character portrayal of him, by claiming precisely what she already knows: he is prideful

because believes he is unaffected by the flaws which mar the moral character of others.

His ironical performative utterance PER11.09 reveals through incongruity his opinion

that he is above her ridicule. He does not believe himself to contain these qualities of

“follies and nonsense” which Elizabeth is so fond of mocking. The infelicity is found

between his use of the word “anyone” and his belief that he himself is not subject to the

character flaws that Elizabeth ironically accuses him of having. The incongruity in

PER11.10 reveals Mr. Darcy’s irony, for he believes it is possible for him to be without

those “weaknesses.” His retort continues the banter that Elizabeth began with her own

irony projected towards Mr. Darcy’s character. He continues by claiming that despite the

impossibility to be without some of these character deficiencies, he has determined to

evade any characteristics which may make him a target of ridicule. PER11.10 is overt

irony which ironically conveys that he does not need to “study” in order to be above her

ridicule, because his social station naturally places him beyond those “weaknesses.” He

emphasizes that it “has been the study of my life” to convey to Elizabeth that he is certain

he cannot possess the character flaws she accuses him of having.

Elizabeth’s ironical retort in PER11.11 echoes Mr. Darcy’s first encounter with

Elizabeth at the Meryton ball when Mr. Darcy “vainly” slighted her for her appearance

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and his “pride” compared to Mr. Bingley’s humility for writing at Netherfield (Austen,

2003: 47). Through irony, her intended meaning is to convey she believes these two

“weaknesses” are the prime components of Mr. Darcy’s character. She and Mr. Darcy

engage in banter over his character while Elizabeth attempts to shed light on Mr. Darcy’s

flawed moral character. The incongruity in PER11.11 is found in the implication of the

utterance. She implies that Mr. Darcy does fall prey to vanity and pride, however her

literal meaning does not directly accuse Mr. Darcy of these because she is providing

examples of weaknesses that Mr. Darcy claims he manages to avoid.

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy both battle with their opinions, as they believe themselves

to be superior to the other, albeit in different ways. Elizabeth considers herself morally

superior to Mr. Darcy, while in fact his own social superiority instills in him the prideful

demeanor with which he approaches situations. He agrees with Elizabeth that vanity is a

weakness, indicating that he himself is not vain, however in PER11.12 Mr. Darcy does

admit to his own pride. Mr. Darcy wryly believes pride is not a weakness of his character

due to the superiority of his mind. His irony in PER11.12 is an understatement, because

his literal meaning refers to no person in particular, while figuratively he is referencing

himself as being able to control pride in character and therefore it is not considered a

negative aspect of his character. Mr. Darcy opposes Elizabeth’s opinion through his irony,

affirming his stance that her perceived judgment of him as vain is incorrect, yet what she

considers a character flaw he considers pride as an asset. Mr. Darcy is vehemently

fighting Elizabeth’s construction of his character in this dialogue through his ironic

banter.

Caroline, still present in the dialogue, is uninterested in Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s

banter due to her lack of uptake of their verbal ironies and seeks to end their

conversation, questioning Elizabeth’s assessment of Mr. Darcy’s character. Elizabeth

replies with ironical performative speech acts which construct Mr. Darcy’s character.

“Your examination of Mr. Darcy is over, I presume,” said Miss Bingley; “and

pray what is the result?” (Caroline)

(PER11.13) “I am perfectly convinced by it that Mr. Darcy has no defect.”

(Elizabeth)

(PER11.14) “He owns it himself without disguise.” (Elizabeth)

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(Austen, 2003: 56)

Elizabeth claims to be “perfectly convinced” that Mr. Darcy is unaffected by

character flaws in PER11.13. The incongruity in her utterance lies in its insincerity, for

Elizabeth is not “perfectly convinced” Mr. Darcy does not have a flawed character. In

PER11.14, Elizabeth continues the irony by furthering her argument that Mr. Darcy is

without defects to his character. The irony exudes her perceived superior stance to Mr.

Darcy, and she ridicules him to avow her moral character over his. Through irony,

Elizabeth alludes to Mr. Darcy’s “disguise” of a gentleman. Incongruity theory explicates

the echo in Elizabeth’s verbal irony PER11.14. Irony is found upon the resolution of the

statement, where Elizabeth utters an opinion which contradicts her true opinion of Mr.

Darcy, in that Elizabeth believes Mr. Darcy to put forth an appearance of pride to defend

his flaws and prejudiced character. Elizabeth’s irony effectively constructs Mr. Darcy’s

character to the readership, conveying a figurative meaning which imposes upon Mr.

Darcy a character that does contain defects. The most prominent defects are perceived by

Elizabeth to be his “vanity and pride,” and he disputes her allegation in a display of his

proud nature, owning that he is not subject to “weaknesses.” Elizabeth uses his attempt at

humility to further goad him into admitting faults, for her to continue the attack of

ridicule against Mr. Darcy’s moral character.

Mr. Darcy admits to having faults, in a clear defiance to Elizabeth’s irony in

PER11.13 and PER11.14:

“No,” said Mr. Darcy, “I have made no such pretension. I have faults enough,

but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is,

I believe, too little yielding—certainly too little for the convenience of the

world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of others so soon as I ought, nor their

offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to

move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion

once lost, is lost forever.”

(Austen, 2003: 56-57)

Mr. Darcy defends his position by claiming that Elizabeth imposes her opinion upon him

by stating he had “made no such pretension.” Mr. Darcy is echoing himself from an

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earlier dialogue where he first accuses Elizabeth of claiming false opinions which she

attributes to Mr. Darcy (Austen, 2003: 48). From this candid display of what Mr. Darcy

perceives to be his own flawed moral character is evidence of Elizabeth’s influential

power through her verbal irony. His sincerity in admitting his character flaws elicits an

ironical response from Elizabeth.

(PER11.15) “That is a failing indeed !” cried Elizabeth. (Elizabeth)

(PER11.16) “Implacable resentment is a shade in a character .” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.17) “But you have chosen your fault well.” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.18) “I really cannot laugh at it .” (Elizabeth)

(COM11.01) “You are safe from me.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 57)

In PER11.15 Elizabeth cries that his admission of not being able to forgive those who fall

out of his good graces is certainly a character flaw. Her vocal emphasis on “that” stresses

her agreement of his character faults, yet it has an element of disassociated attitude as if

she was unaware he had any character flaws. PER11.15 is an understatement, for

Elizabeth mockingly voices her agreement with Mr. Darcy, gloating in his confession to

having a fault. In utterances PER11.15 and PER11.16, Elizabeth is affirming her moral

stance, that Mr. Darcy is not superior to everyone else. She mocks his confession in

delight, for he has fallen into her entrapment. Her feigned agreement through covert irony

further expresses her perceptions of his moral character, that she believes him to be

flawed. Through analysis with echoic theory, PER11.16 is an ironical understatement

with the word “shade.” Shade implies a slight character flaw, one of little importance.

Elizabeth’s utterance contains an incongruity which reveals the irony: literally, Elizabeth

means Mr. Darcy only has one, small, character flaw, however her intended meaning is

that Mr. Darcy has only begun to delve into the moral deficiencies of his character. Her

irony is displayed in a patronizing manner of agreement, a characteristic explained

through superiority theory. Elizabeth ridicules Mr. Darcy in order to claim her superior

moral stance, iterating that his admittance of being flawed corroborates her opinion of

Mr. Darcy.

In PER11.17, Elizabeth continues her patronization of Mr. Darcy, using irony to

convey an intended meaning. To Elizabeth, she constructs Mr. Darcy’s character to have a

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blamable flaw. In Elizabeth’s ironic tone, Mr. Darcy has “chosen” his fault, in other

words he has purposefully selected a characteristic which he perceived to be a flaw. In

PER11.17, Elizabeth constructs Mr. Darcy’s character through verbal irony to echo his

own perceptions of himself, and his egotistical nature. Her construction of his character

reflects Mr. Darcy’s belief that he is superior, satirizing his ability to choose what is and

what is not considered a character flaw, reinforcing his irony that his pride was not a

weakness of character, but rather a strength. PER11.18 carries on her ironical tirade of

ridiculing Mr. Darcy. She states that she “cannot laugh” at his character flaw, echoing her

previous admittance to being diverted by “follies and nonsense, whims and

inconsistencies” to laugh at them. Elizabeth cannot literally laugh at Mr. Darcy as he

admits his fault to her, although she may still ridicule him through irony. She mocks Mr.

Darcy, insincerely saying what he would want to hear from her. According to superiority

theory, Elizabeth mocks Mr. Darcy to show him that he is not above ridicule despite his

social status and determination to avoid character flaws. The incongruity in her statement

is that she can in fact mock him; the word laugh is emphasized because she does not

mean she would literally laugh at him. An incongruity exists within PER11.18; the

figurative meaning conveys to Mr. Darcy that his moral character is not above ridicule,

and makes her point to mock him to shape her opinion of his character.

Mr. Darcy retorts with his own opinion that no person can be without some flaw that

cannot be remedied.

“There is, I believe, in every disposition a tendency to some particular evil—a

natural defect, which not even the best education can overcome.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 57)

His admittance to “every disposition” conveys that he is influenced by Elizabeth to admit

that he is not without defects. Elizabeth’s ironical performative utterances grow in

number in this dialogue, and their effect on Mr. Darcy is seen through his sincerity, a

brief lapse from his typical arrogant nature. It is also necessary to point out Mr. Darcy

admits his faults to Elizabeth and she does indeed have a great impact on his moral

character. This part of the dialogue is also observed and worth stressing that Mr. Darcy

constructs his own character without using irony.

However, Elizabeth, dissatisfied with Mr. Darcy’s admitting to his own faults,

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confronts him with further criticism. Because Mr. Darcy has not shown kindness to

Elizabeth, nor his friend Mr. Bingley since she was introduced to him, she intends to

illustrate one of his major character flaws through ridicule.

(PER11.19) “And your defect is to hate everybody .” (Elizabeth)

(PER11.20) “And yours,” he replied with a smile, “is willfully to misunderstand

them.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 57)

Elizabeth uses an ironical overstatement PER11.19 to describe Mr. Darcy having a

character that hates “everybody.” Certainly, Mr. Darcy does not hate every person but

rather Elizabeth is using an overstatement to emphasize Mr. Darcy’s superior nature

overlooking others, even his friends. The irony is revealed through the incongruence in

the statement with her use of “everybody;” specifically she emphasizes that Mr. Darcy

dislikes her. The duality also lies in her verbal irony that he hates “everybody” which is

an echoic allusion because in fact everybody dislikes Mr. Darcy, evidenced in the

assessment of him in Meryton (Austen, 2003: 18). Elizabeth conveys to Mr. Darcy

figuratively that his disposition is not amiable in order to construct his flawed character

further. Elizabeth constructs Mr. Darcy’s character from her own standpoint, echoing her

belief stated in an earlier dialogue that he despises her (Austen, 2003: 50).

Mr. Darcy responds with his own ironical performative utterance in PER11.20, that

Elizabeth purposefully misunderstands everybody. PER11.20 also echoes his prior

assessment that Elizabeth delights in imposing opinions upon Mr. Darcy. Irony is found

within his incongruity, that Elizabeth “willfully” misunderstands people. From Mr.

Darcy’s perspective, Elizabeth holds biased perceptions of him based upon his

judgmental behavior during their first encounter in Meryton. Mr. Darcy’s retort is not as

severe as Elizabeth’s, and through superiority theory PER11.20 is rather like ironic

banter. He is using ironic banter in a seemingly impolite way, although his intention is

benevolent. Mr. Darcy is constructing Elizabeth’s character through his verbal irony in

PER11.20, for her demeanor in comparison to Mr. Bingley and Caroline is strong-willed.

Mr. Darcy notices her independent willfulness, which is one of the qualities he admires in

her character. Mr. Darcy’s changing character is noticeable in the end of this dialogue,

observed in the use of banter in PER11.20. He is beginning to be more affable to

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Elizabeth. His smile lets the readership know he is not angered by Elizabeth’s accusatory

ironical jabs, which are intended to be highly critical of his character. Mr. Darcy’s smile

(Austen, 2003: 57) further concurs the effect of Elizabeth’s ridicule as a form of verbal

irony presented purposely to illustrate the importance of Elizabeth’s true character

endowed by Austen, defying social norms to parody her society.

Although their use of verbal irony has been the primary way the two characters

interact in order to assess each other’s characters, their relationship begins and remains

within a turbulent phase where they often find disagreements against each other’s

character echoing opposing societal views, therefore seen by a third party present in their

conversation unaware of their verbal irony as in “argument” (Austen, 2003: 49). It is their

verbal irony that keeps them intrigued by each other’s character, therefore bringing in

their closeness. The last theme of their conversation in the disagreement dominant phase

finds the ironical performative utterances have increased to 20, the highest number found

among their dialogues within the novel. Elizabeth’s moral standards have a profound

impact on Mr. Darcy. His character has begun to alter according to Elizabeth’s positive

influence through verbal irony, specifically seen in ridicule to highlight Elizabeth’s

adaptable nature and witty character.

As we have discussed from the first several ironical performative speech acts of the

disagreement dominant phase, the novel shows that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have a

tumultuous relationship; they are engrossed and embattled with each other, which is

shown in the witty and critical verbal ironies that they duel and banter about with. Due to

this embattlement, the reader may be prone to seeing ironical allusions and adverse

implications within every conversation illustrated in the disagreement dominant phase of

characterization.

Such a situation however helps the reader visualize the societal norms in that era.

Note how men of means sought women not for their intelligence but for less equitable

reasons and considered such equality in education and literary freedom unsuitable, e.g.

Caroline is painted as a typical woman of the era who fawns over Mr. Darcy in any way

she can to gain his eye, while in contrast we see Elizabeth’s character as unconventional.

To help define what these norms are and bring out the feminist perspectives of the plot,

Mr. Darcy holds both typical and atypical characteristics. This means that he started with

a standard attitude and behavior entrenched in the gentry’s norms, but his views that are

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atypical to the societal and gentry norms are gradually becoming more positively shaped

through Elizabeth’s ironical performative speech acts.

This brings to light the character development seen through a feminist angle. As

Butler (2002) [1990] points out concerning performative speech acts, they have the

ability to define and construct the characters of persons through their performative speech

acts. In this dialogue, Elizabeth is constructing her own ideals of what it means to be a

woman in contrast to the subjugated identity Caroline displays in her actions. Being a

woman is not just genetically inherent as Butler correlates, but is constructed through the

performances a person displays to themselves and society. Butler states that, “genders can

be neither true nor false, neither real nor apparent, neither original nor derive,” (Butler,

2002 [1990]: 140). Hence, Caroline’s actions are highlighting the social constraints of

woman’s roles in Regency England’s society, while Elizabeth’s performative speech acts

characterize and construct her identification with feminist ideals present within the same

society. We can see change through these conflicting views, i.e. Mr. Darcy, whose

character is rather conservative, has changing perceptions impacted by Elizabeth’s

ironical performative speech acts displaying notions of gender equality.

In this last premise, there are a total of 21 performatives, the greatest number of

ironical performative speech acts of all the premises, to indicate the increasing character

constructions of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth through their ironical exchange. The exchange

of verbal ironies between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth excludes the third parties according to

their shared community effect of verbal irony. Irony can be employed in this manner,

which creates a community between people in order to leave out others present, for

example Caroline or Mr. Bingley. It is important to note that when Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth began their relationship from disagreement dominant phase of characterization,

they created their own community of shared wisdom in their characters and witty

exchange. Within their community they may use irony to convey their opinions in such a

way that others outside the community are unaware as to the figurative meanings of their

ironical utterances.

In this sense, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have created their own “community” in

which they are able to use echoic allusions, inside jokes and banter with each other (see

section 2.5 for an explanation of the functions of irony). With their formed community,

irony also adopts the evasive function. As both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are with an

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extended party, they must each use irony to get their points across figuratively without

alerting others to what the figurative meanings of the utterances are. She wants to present

Mr. Darcy’s character to him in a new light, a negative light, so that he may see that the

qualities he considers to be merits are actually seen as flaws in the eyes of others;

however, social rules do not allow her to do so openly, which is why the evasive function

of verbal irony shields Elizabeth.

5.3 Neutral Dominant Phase: Individual Character (24 Total PERs)

The neutral dominant phase of characterization of this study begins the analysis of

ironical performative speech acts starting with Chapter 18 of the novel and ending at

Chapter 45. This section is designated neutral due to the transition in Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth’s characterization. The neutral dominant phase has three premises for the

thematic dialogues; the first premise contains two dialogues, while the second and third

premises each include only one dialogue. In the beginning of this section, the two

characters exhibit a change in tact. Verbal ironies between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are

less dense as these two characters become more civil toward each other and less

quarrelsome. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, in this phase of the novel, are found to engage in

ironic banter although their judgments are clouded by apprehension. However, this

peaceful time in their relationship comes to an end after Elizabeth unravels her findings

about Mr. Darcy’s faulty character from Mr. Wickham. Her discovery of his role in

breaking up Jane and Mr. Bingley is a basis for Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr. Darcy’s

marriage proposal in Chapter 34. This conversation in particular hosts a few ironies,

highlighting both Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s pride and prejudice within their characters.

At the end of the neutral dominant phase of characterization, both Elizabeth and Mr.

Darcy emote fully, holding nothing back with regard to politeness or disguise.

The neutral dominant phase consists mainly of their neutral views of each other’s

character within their ironical performative speech acts when they began to have more

sympathy for each other. Mr. Darcy’s emotions are related to Elizabeth’s character, for

she has a great impact on him. The reader knows Elizabeth is gradually changing Mr.

Darcy’s view regarding the world shown at the end of the disagreement dominant phase.

The two are growing more empathetic of each other, which makes them less

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argumentative and more prone to ironic banter and civility. The uncertainty of their

relationship, a main feature of the neutral dominant phase, is seen in the oscillation from

banter to quarreling. There are 24 ironical performative speech acts found within the

neutral dominant phase, which epitomizes a point in which Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

become fond of each other’s company. The following dialogues are taken from Chapters

18, 31 and 34 of the novel, where the neutral dominant phase takes place.

5.3.1 Assessing Character: 12 PERs

The beginning character change in Mr. Darcy becomes evident through the dearth of

scorn or cruelty in his ironical utterances. Mr. Darcy has developed feelings for Elizabeth

by this time, and in Chapter 18 he openly invites her to dance at Netherfield. This shows

a dramatic change, a key point in the plot taking place in characterization in contrast to

his last request to dance with her at Netherfield and his much earlier snub of Elizabeth for

her disqualifying appearance at the Meryton ball. Elizabeth, who is determined to stay

prejudiced against Mr. Darcy, consents to Mr. Wickham’s foils, and states she could sense

the truth in his looks (Austen, 2003: 33). On the other hand, Mr. Darcy is starting to fall

in love with Elizabeth and ironically, Elizabeth thinks he dislikes her and continues to

keep that echoic allusion alive, as she mentions when she opinionates to herself that Mr.

Darcy cannot possibly like her (Austen, 2003: 50). When Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth to

dance, she is slightly flabbergasted by his inquiry and “without knowing what she did,

she accepted him” (Austen, 2003: 89). Mr. Darcy’s romantic notions for Elizabeth and

Elizabeth’s apprehension aptly illustrate the beginning of the neutral dominant phase of

characterization. This is the setting in which the observations of the conversations

between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth take place.

5.3.1.1 Character Contrast

In this dialogue, Elizabeth has accepted an invitation from Mr. Darcy to dance at the

Netherfield ball, despite her promise to her mother that she would never dance with him

because Mr. Darcy was harshly critical of Elizabeth’s appearance when the two first met

(Austen, 2003: 21). Elizabeth anticipates Mr. Wickham’s presence at the ball, because she

has begun to have romantic feelings for him. She is vexed to find that Mr. Wickham fails

to appear, and she suspects that in one way or another it has to do with Mr. Darcy. Mr.

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Wickham’s absence and Mr. Darcy’s invitation add to Elizabeth’s apprehension. During

the dance both remain silent. Elizabeth imagined that provoking Mr. Darcy to speak with

her would bring him displeasure and thus bring her delight. She attempted to start a

conversation, but Mr. Darcy was not receptive to her comments regarding the dance;

finally, she said “It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy” (Austen, 2003: 90).

Elizabeth ironically informs Mr. Darcy that she has taken her part in the

conversation and that it is his turn to reciprocate. She disassociates herself by making this

mockingly apparent to Mr. Darcy, as if stating to someone unaware of Regency-era

England’s formality that people must engage in conversation in social settings. This is an

effect of not knowing why she accepted the dance, so she returns the attitude as a form of

alleviation. What this means is that she chooses to dance despite her unplanned consent to

do so. In turn, she provokes Mr. Darcy into conversation. It is ironic because it is

inconsistent with the situation they are both faced with in relating to each other, when

seen in the light of their past, the inhibitions become startlingly evident, and thus the

irony much more so. Elizabeth’s mocking attitude intends to prove to Mr. Darcy his own

faults of being unsocial. Mr. Darcy gathers his own witticism by answering with regard to

her allusions of these faults.

Elizabeth, sensing Mr. Darcy’s sardonic attitude, replies that she sometimes likes to

converse while dancing, but that some arrangement of conversation is necessary for it

would be strange to remain silent for a whole half hour.

(PER18.01) “and yet for the advantage of some , conversation ought to be so

arranged, as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible.”

(Elizabeth)

(DIR18.05) “Are you consulting your own feelings in the present case, or do

you imagine that you are gratifying mine?” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 90)

Elizabeth ironically points out that Mr. Darcy is one of the some who lack social

capabilities, a character blemish that she sees in him. Irony in PER18.01 is found within

the incongruity of her statement due to the word “some” although she is figuratively

pinpointing Mr. Darcy. In PER18.01, Elizabeth critically judges Mr. Darcy with

intentional irony to urge him to be social. Her echoic allusion regarding “trouble”

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continues when she recalls Mr. Darcy’s shade in character to be proud due to the fact that

he holds a higher social stance above everyone else. She ironically suggests that it would

be advantageous to some, insinuating Mr. Darcy to gain from a planned-out conversation.

In terms of banter principle, Elizabeth is seen to be impolite on the surface, yet actually

means well to provide Mr. Darcy a perspective to assess his character defects. Mr. Darcy

is challenged to use his wit in his response in DIR18.05. DIR18.05 is seemingly a

question that literally aims to gather an explanation from Elizabeth to either convey her

own beliefs to Mr. Darcy or describe what she believes to be his idea on the matter that

conversation is unnecessary. Because Elizabeth has the tendency to impose upon Mr.

Darcy her own perceptions of his character, Mr. Darcy’s figurative meaning is layered

and seeks to ironically confront her prejudiced view against his character as an emphasis.

However, Mr. Darcy is seen in the neutral dominant phase of characterization to be witty,

using apprehensive banter to convey his irony and remain civil. He appeared to be asking

a question rather than making a character supposition by harshly claiming Elizabeth to be

opinionated when he was confronted with her character comparison in the past. DIR18.05

is an echo of Elizabeth’s usual assignment of opinions to him based on her biased

perception, alluding to the instance when she imposed opinions on him in the

disagreement dominant phase. The location of verbal irony is inspected through the use

of an echoic allusion, enhancing a mockery reminding Elizabeth that she is not only

imposing opinions upon him “in the present case,” for she has done this in the past as

well (Austen, 2003: 48).

Next, Elizabeth’s ironical performative speech acts challenge Mr. Darcy and

simultaneously construct both her own and Mr. Darcy’s characters.

(PER18.02) “Both,” replied Elizabeth archly; “for I have always seen a great

similarity in the turn of our minds.” (Elizabeth)

(PER18.03) “We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to

speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and

be handed down to posterity with all the éclat of a proverb.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 90)

In PER18.02, Elizabeth’s response to Mr. Darcy states that she is speaking on behalf of

them both. The irony in her utterance lies in the duality of the comparison. Elizabeth

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believes her own moral stance to be superior to Mr. Darcy’s, especially after learning of

his history with Mr. Wickham (Austen, 2003: 76-80). She does not believe there is a

“similarity” in her and Mr. Darcy’s minds. Through her ironical performative speech act

in PER18.02, Elizabeth explains on the exterior that she believes she and Mr. Darcy are

similar in the way they think, which is why she felt qualified to conjecture about how he

would want arranged conversation during the dance and speak on his behalf. Elizabeth’s

apprehensive banter works to mock Mr. Darcy because she believes his opinions are quite

different from her own. Her irony, however, is benevolently asserting her views over Mr.

Darcy’s in order to point out the characteristics in him she believes to be flawed.

She further explicates how she considers them to be similar in PER18.03, the

incongruity located in her use of “we,” because she does not place herself together with

Mr. Darcy in terms of moral character. In PER18.02 and PER18.03 Elizabeth can be seen

constructing Mr. Darcy’s character again, and her words attempt to make him to believe

their characters have several similarities. PER18.03 is ironically echoing the current

situation as well as when the two first met in Meryton, being that Mr. Darcy does not

seem inclined to interact with Elizabeth. Thus, she uses the ironical performative speech

act to state why she and Mr. Darcy do not want to speak; she references Mr. Darcy’s

arrogant nature with an ironical overstatement exaggerating that Mr. Darcy cannot speak

unless what he says will astound everyone around him and earn him further respect from

his peers and be remembered for future generations. By also referencing herself, she

continues with her dissociative attitude in PER18.03, meaning she does not believe the

two are similar but rather uses the term we as a way to disguise the figurative meaning

behind the literal meaning. This portrays the evasive function of irony, where Elizabeth

wants to distance herself from the figurative meaning of the utterance so as to conceal the

criticism. Her banter appears critical but means to help Mr. Darcy see his own character

from a new angle. Mr. Darcy responds to Elizabeth’s banter with his own ironical

performative speech acts to further construct both his and Elizabeth’s identities.

(PER18.04) “This is no very striking resemblance of your own character, I am

sure,” said he. (Mr. Darcy)

(PER18.05) “How near it may be to mine , I cannot pretend to say .” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER18.06) “You think it a faithful portrait undoubtedly .” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER18.07) “I must not decide on my own performance.” (Elizabeth)

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(Austen, 2003: 90)

Mr. Darcy’s comprehension of Elizabeth’s ironical utterance is apparent from his

response in PER18.04 and PER18.05. PER18.04 is overt irony, for Mr. Darcy makes it

clear to Elizabeth that he knows she is mocking him by stating that the description does

not bear resemblance to her own character, and that she is overstating their dissimilarities

in character. PER18.04 shows Mr. Darcy’s dissociative attitude toward Elizabeth’s

utterance PER18.03 through his disbelief that she considers their characters to be similar.

His reciprocating banter is examined through superiority theory, as he makes Elizabeth

aware of his understanding to defend his own wit against hers. He also claims he is not in

a position to judge how well the description in PER18.03 describes his own character. In

claiming that he “cannot pretend” to say how her description might reflect his own

character, the duality is revealed in PER18.05—the perlocutionary effect meant for

Elizabeth’s uptake of his intentional irony. At the same time, Mr. Darcy disagrees with

Elizabeth’s portrayal of him as a pompous attention-seeker. He feigns through irony that

he is unable to ascertain how close Elizabeth’s account may be to his true character,

although he is insincere due to his differing opinions of himself. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

are engaged in banter to display their own opinions in a benign way, disguised outwardly

as impolite, according to the banter principle. The banter reflects their evolving

relationship, for the pair is no longer antagonistic from the disagreement dominant phase.

In PER18.04 and PER18.05 we also see irony adopting a distancing function in order for

Mr. Darcy to relay his opinion of Elizabeth’s comments, while not outrightly objecting to

her claims, as this would be socially inappropriate to defend his character in a public

setting

Mr. Darcy continues his witty response to Elizabeth’s accusation with PER18.06.

His irony in PER18.06 figuratively rejects Elizabeth’s reasoning that she has managed to

paint “a faithful portrait” of his character. Through an overstatement, the illocution of

PER18.06 is intended to convey to Elizabeth that he is aware of the fact that she

disapproves of his reluctance to be engaged in conversation during the dance,

constructing Elizabeth’s character as a judgmental person. Mr. Darcy’s utterance is

ironical because he does in fact believe Elizabeth is far more like him than she would

care to admit, because she is also proud and prejudiced, but cannot see her own

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resemblance to him because of her prejudice against him. The perlocutionary act of

PER18.06 is that Mr. Darcy intended for Elizabeth to confess her true opinions of his

character. PER18.06 is also a construction of Elizabeth’s character. Mr. Darcy is alluding

to her own character’s similarity to his in pride and prejudice. His irony is found within

the duality in PER18.06. He claims that Elizabeth believes her depiction is “a faithful

portrait” of him, although the figurative meaning is that he advocates that she believes it

is an accurate portrayal of her own character as well as his, teasing her through banter.

PER18.06 conveys Mr. Darcy’s view that Elizabeth is judgmental of his attitude at the

ball, exposing her shortcomings without having to defend his own character flaw. This

effect is evidently illustrated through superiority theory where his own superior sense is

often seen due to his higher social standing to intimidate others; at times the readership is

also aware of Mr. Darcy’s superior mind and exceptional wit in his rhetorical rejoinder to

counterthrust the other verbal ironist, Elizabeth. His sentiments towards Elizabeth also

make him less hostile, using ironic banter to display his changing character.

Elizabeth contradicts her claim in PER18.03 by stating “I must not decide on my

own performance” in PER18.07 to reveal to Mr. Darcy that she was not actually speaking

for herself in PER18.03, but directing the irony towards Mr. Darcy, thus exposing her

prejudiced view of him by revealing PER18.03 was only a comment upon his character

(Austen, 2003: 90). The literal meaning of PER18.07 is that Elizabeth references her

character portrayal of herself is seemingly similar to Mr. Darcy’s but its figurative

meaning conveys Elizabeth’s divergent character, and her belief that her portrayal of Mr.

Darcy’s character is accurate in that he is unsocial and aloof, believing himself above

others. Mr. Darcy shows through his ironical performative speech acts that the figurative

meaning of Elizabeth’s utterance in PER18.03 has been interpreted as ironical, referring

to her view of his own character, and not her character although she says we. He has

made it evident by refuting Elizabeth that he understands her belief that PER18.03 is an

accurate portrayal of Mr. Darcy’s proud, antisocial character.

In the first part of this dialogue, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are each constructing the

other’s character through ironical performative speech acts, addressing their views of

each other in order to create a new image or portrayal. Both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are

less critical of each other. Verbal irony allows them to communicate more effectively,

albeit evasively, because the irony veils the figurative meaning. Therefore, their

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judgments remain civil when they include themselves in criticism, despite the figurative

meaning to point the finger at each other for personal flaws. Although Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth had previously been growing less antagonistic toward each other, at the end of

the disagreement dominant phase, and the beginning of the neutral dominant phase,

Elizabeth remains somewhat judgmental of Mr. Darcy’s character because she confronts

her feelings of uncertainty about him, which is shown through her displeased attitude as

the two are dancing.

The characterization shows Mr. Darcy’s new cooperative mood, which is more

pleasant than before as he has become increasingly willing to compromise with Elizabeth

due to his growing fondness for her. The significant moment is in his pairing with

Elizabeth in the dance, as normally he would choose a woman of his own station

according to class. Mr. Darcy’s new attitude came as a surprise to Elizabeth, because

Elizabeth’s disconcerting feeling towards him is visible when she is addressed by her

friend Charlotte who claims Elizabeth would find Mr. Darcy “very agreeable,” although

Elizabeth accepted a dance with Mr. Darcy and “fretted over her own want of presence of

mind” (Austen, 2003: 89). This causes her to question whether she could be wrong about

Mr. Darcy’s character after all. This confusion regarding Mr. Darcy continues to display

Elizabeth’s opinionated view of his character. Her confused feelings do not alter her

continuous attempts to construct Mr. Darcy’s character through verbal irony. Mr. Darcy’s

increased sentiments for Elizabeth also aid his more neutral approach to interacting with

her. When the two characters are growing to enjoy each other’s company through the

witty exchange of verbal irony, they are less quarrelsome. He and Elizabeth are no longer

using irony to attack the other’s character but rather to shed light on their characters from

a more neutral perspective.

5.3.1.2 Accusation

The second dialogue from Chapter 18 continues Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s

discussion while the two are dancing. Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth if she often walked to

Meryton with her sisters, and after she responds, she quickly changes the topic to Mr.

Wickham. She is inquisitive about the history between Mr. Darcy and Mr. Wickham, and

thus provokes Mr. Darcy to speak of the man against whom he holds a grudge. Thus far,

Elizabeth has only heard Mr. Wickham’s side to the story of what broke the civil relations

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between himself and Mr. Darcy. This part of the novel is critical to Elizabeth’s

characterization of Mr. Darcy; she allows herself to be blinded by prejudice, although she

accuses Mr. Darcy of having the same fault. Shown in this dialogue is Elizabeth’s

personal conflict: she has begun to possibly like Mr. Darcy and grow fonder of their

banter, but her recent encounter with Mr. Darcy’s main foe, Mr. Wickham, has caused her

to doubt her potential feelings for Mr. Darcy and furthered her confusion over those

feelings for him.

She answered in the affirmative, and, unable to resist the temptation, added,

“When you met us there the other day, we had just been forming a new

acquaintance.”

. . . .

(PER18.08) “Mr. Wickham is blessed with such happy manners as may ensure

his making friends—whether he may be equally capable of retaining them, is

less certain.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER18.09) “He has been so unlucky as to lose your friendship ,” replied

Elizabeth with emphasis, “and in a manner which he is likely to suffer from all

his life.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 90-91)

According to the narrative, Mr. Darcy’s countenance illustrated his strained reaction to

the mention of Mr. Wickham (Austen, 2003: 91). The playful banter between them

immediately subsides with the change in topic to Mr. Wickham, which is a sore point for

Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy responds to Elizabeth with an ironical utterance, alluding to his

relationship with Mr. Wickham. His irony is laced with the incongruity in his understated

opinion that Mr. Wickham is unable to keep friends that he has made. In PER18.08, Mr.

Darcy portrays Mr. Wickham as charming upon meeting him, but insinuates that his

character is thorny. Mr. Darcy’s irony is directed at Mr. Wickham’s character, telling his

side of the dispute between himself and Mr. Wickham. His superiority is flaunted as he

conveys to Elizabeth that he knows Mr. Wickham much better than she does, and

understands the flaws in his character which Elizabeth has yet to witness.

Elizabeth defends Mr. Wickham against Mr. Darcy’s irony in PER18.09,

incongruously claiming that Mr. Wickham was “unlucky” to lose Mr. Darcy as a friend.

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The perlocutionary act in her statement illustrates its incongruity, in that Elizabeth does

not believe that Mr. Wickham is better off being friends with Mr. Darcy after she has

heard Mr. Wickham’s account. Ironically, Elizabeth took an immediate liking to Mr.

Wickham because of his charm, but more importantly because his account of Mr. Darcy

supported her dislike for him. She allowed her prejudice of Mr. Darcy to take hold, and

although she did not know Mr. Wickham well she believed his story of Mr. Darcy, which

was that Mr. Darcy had acted spitefully towards him and contrived to steal wealth from

him, which left him nearly destitute. From this story, he was able to fuel Elizabeth’s

dislike for Mr. Darcy and help confirm her perceptions of Mr. Darcy’s character. She had

begun to entertain possible romantic feelings toward Mr. Darcy, but upon meeting Mr.

Wickham and hearing his fabrication of Mr. Darcy’s character she allowed her feelings of

disdain for Mr. Darcy to grow and once again build up a prejudice against him, which

would only intensify in later chapters. She has no suspicions of Mr. Wickham’s

allegations about Mr. Darcy, but his poisonous words are received well by Elizabeth. Mr.

Darcy’s arrogance is not the only cause of Elizabeth’s dislike; his apparent cruelty (as

illustrated by Mr. Wickham’s story) has created a deeper aversion for Mr. Darcy that

Elizabeth embraces because the finding justifies her resistance to Mr. Darcy.

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth continue with their dialogue after an interruption from Sir

Lucas. Mr. Darcy attempts to start a conversation upon Sir Lucas’s departure, but

Elizabeth rebuffs his effort to speak with her. She ironically mentions that the two were

not speaking before Sir Lucas interrupted, and that she does not wish to continue with her

previous attempt at discourse. Mr. Darcy suggests they discuss books, for both he and

Elizabeth have a passion for reading and he hopes to find common ground with this topic.

However, Elizabeth denies that they could have anything to discuss regarding books.

(ASR18.08) “We have tried two or three subjects already without success, and

what we are to talk of next I cannot imagine.” (Elizabeth)

(DIR18.06) “What think you of books?” said he, smiling. (Mr. Darcy)

(EXP18.02) “Books—oh! no.” (Elizabeth)

(PER18.10) “I am sure we never read the same, or not with the same feelings.”

(Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 91-92)

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In PER18.10, Elizabeth’s irony echoes her character comparison earlier in the

conversation, when she ironically claimed that she and Mr. Darcy were alike in mindset.

Now, she assures Mr. Darcy that they cannot have anything in common, contradicting her

previous literal assessment which drew their characters together in similarity. In

PER18.10 Elizabeth’s irony is derived from the incongruity in her literal reference to

books and her figurative reference to the divergence in her and Mr. Darcy’s characters.

She echoes her belief that she and Mr. Darcy are vastly different in terms of moral

character, meaning her moral stance is higher than Mr. Darcy’s. Her reluctance to engage

in conversation reflects her present conflicted mind. She is uncertain of Mr. Darcy’s

character after Mr. Wickham’s accusation. She immediately changes the subject, referring

to Mr. Darcy’s assessment of his own faults:

“I remember hearing you once say, Mr. Darcy, that you hardly ever forgave, that

your resentment once created was unappeasable.” (Elizabeth)

(PER18.11) “You are very cautious, I suppose, as to its being created .”

(Elizabeth)

“I am,” said he, with a firm voice. (Mr. Darcy)

(DIR18.08) “And never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice?” (Elizabeth)

(PER18.12) “I hope not.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 92)

PER18.11 is an ironical allusion to Mr. Darcy’s “resentment” toward Mr. Wickham. The

incongruity is revealed as the literal meaning belies her intended meaning, in that she

does not suppose Mr. Darcy is “very cautious” to the creating of such strong resentment

against another person. Through verbal irony, Elizabeth reveals to Mr. Darcy what she

believes to be a blight on his character: allowing prejudice to create the resentment

toward a person which may or may not be warranted. Her irony conveys to Mr. Darcy

that her own moral character is superior to his, and at Mr. Darcy’s expense reveals her

conceptions regarding his resentment for Mr. Wickham.

She thus remarks to Mr. Darcy on his personality, not knowing what she is really

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saying. Her thoughts and confusion are confirmed when she found that Mr. Darcy may

not be “less answerable” for Mr. Wickham’s failure to appear (Austen, 2003: 88).

Elizabeth remarks on how she sees Mr. Darcy’s character and asks him of his own

perception of his personality. When Mr. Darcy replies to such questioning, Elizabeth

ironically inquires of Mr. Darcy a rhetorical question. She does not in truth intend for Mr.

Darcy to answer her question, as she has already formed her own opinion. Nevertheless

Mr. Darcy obliges Elizabeth with a response to her inquiry.

Although DIR18.08 is couched in a supposition of an inquiry, it is accusatory by

nature. Elizabeth is using rhetorical irony, echoing the fact that she finds Mr. Darcy to be

blinded by his prejudice, so she needn’t bother asking; she only uses rhetoric to target Mr.

Darcy. In DIR18.08, we observe Elizabeth making a suggestion to Mr. Darcy. The irony

in this statement comes from the contextual fact that Elizabeth’s judgment has already

been determined, therefore she is insincere and her intention is to reiterate with a stronger

illocutionary force accusing Mr. Darcy with a question. The perlocutionary act in

DIR18.08 is to have Mr. Darcy understand she believes his character to be prejudiced.

The incongruity of questioning makes her blame more evident as we can see she is

targeting Mr. Darcy with her verbal irony. At this juncture, Elizabeth shows a prejudice

against Mr. Darcy. When combined with the uneasiness she feels regarding Mr. Darcy’s

appeal to her (or at least the conversations which they share), the simultaneous opposing

sentiments confound her. This conundrum is thus ironic in nature.

We can see through hindsight that Elizabeth already knows Mr. Darcy is blinded by

his prejudice. According to echoic theory, Elizabeth is using this ironical statement to

make an explicit echo of the fact that she already believes Mr. Darcy to be prejudiced, a

fact of which she and Mr. Darcy are already aware. Elizabeth belies this proposition of

obscurity by posing or pretending to ask a question when she has already judged Mr.

Darcy in affectations of her own question and thus could have proffered the question as a

proclamation, especially in regards to the opinions she has already formed.

PER18.12 is a reference to his prejudice towards her and lower social classes of

their society, revealing the infelicity of his words as his “hope” is in contradiction to his

actual prejudice, because Mr. Darcy does not subsequently carry out his proposition of

not being prejudiced. Despite the incongruity in his ironical utterance with the reality of

his character, Mr. Darcy still has prejudice regardless of his “hope” to not have it, which

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is where the irony in PER18.12 can be found. The utterance is actually more of a plea on

Mr. Darcy’s part and that plea displays his own character construction from PER18.12. In

this utterance, PER18.12, we can also see the moral ideals that Elizabeth has influenced

Mr. Darcy’s worldview with and that his behavior and opinions are becoming more in

tune with the initiative that Elizabeth shows. For him to convey to Elizabeth that he

would like to see himself not having prejudice shows an aspect of desire in his character

to not be prejudiced nor be considered as such by Elizabeth or others. If we contend that

the ideals of ironical performative speech acts propose a person’s character by

juxtaposition of the speech acts they portray, we can see that the sum affectation of his

contact with Elizabeth has thus swayed Mr. Darcy to change his views and enlighten his

opinions with awareness of women’s equality.

First, we can see the asymmetry of Mr. Darcy’s character construction in the same

light of hypocrisy regarding his literal statement versus the figurative meaning in his

utterance, which is that although he hopes, his hope is in vain as he has already failed in

that endeavor. This fact shows the echoic allusion to his previously admitted faults,

including prejudice to Elizabeth earlier when he divulged he cannot forget the follies and

vices of others (Austen, 2003: 56). He claims to Elizabeth that he hopes he is not

prejudiced. The echoic irony brings to light a clear indication to his earlier self-

proclaimed prejudice, which shows the contrast between his former character and the

desire to become a better man in Elizabeth’s eyes.

Up to this junction, we see Mr. Darcy’s pride vividly displayed through his actions

toward Elizabeth and his opinions formed in civil discourse. We also see illustrations of

Elizabeth’s prejudice, as some of her actions are fundamental examples of the irony

intended by the very name of the novel itself whose portent is meant to convey the verbal

irony through our protagonists’ pride and prejudice. At the Netherfield ball, we learn

from the text of Elizabeth’s remarks that she wishes to avoid any sort of conversation or

relation with Mr. Darcy that evening. This is because she prejudicially assumes that Mr.

Darcy is the cause of Mr. Wickham’s absence. She also ironically observes the wit of Mr.

Darcy, and her mixed feelings of prejudice that it would be a “misfortune” to find Mr.

Darcy agreeable when she is “determined to hate” (Austen, 2003: 90). Despite her

actions, she indicates that finding him agreeable is a discrepancy that belies the

relationship and heated discussions and opinions they have shared up to that point.

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Elizabeth still has the ironic ability to speak less antagonistically in contrast to her omen

of misfortune and to how their relationship often looks on the exterior.

Sensing the irony in his utterance, Elizabeth replies to PER18.12 with an ironical

utterance in contrast to her earlier sardonic wit by not reiterating in her riposte. Her

ironical retort is patronizing to Mr. Darcy, demonstrating that she thinks he carelessly

forms opinions of others.

(DIR18.09) “It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their

opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 92)

DIR18.09 is cynical due to the manner in which Elizabeth states her utterance, which

intends to direct Mr. Darcy to be sure his opinions reflect the truth before deciding upon

them. Therefore, Elizabeth who is already opinionated against Mr. Darcy and of a

persistent nature herself has reflected her prejudice. She states this to Mr. Darcy to

contend in a manner that he is at fault of not properly judging Mr. Wickham and that Mr.

Darcy is overtly prejudiced against Mr. Wickham without due cause.

Elizabeth is not directly accusing Mr. Darcy but implicitly accusing Mr. Darcy.

When Mr. Darcy asks Elizabeth what her questions are implying, she replies they are in

regard to the illustration of Mr. Darcy’s character. When Mr. Darcy asks her what she

sees, she states she is puzzled by the opinions of others and her own judgment (Austen,

2003: 92). She posits his character is intricate, and the readership should be aware

Elizabeth is echoing her earlier character judgment that he is dissimilar to Mr. Bingley,

who is simple in contrast to Mr. Darcy’s complexity (Austen, 2003: 42). Thus, we can see

both of their hesitations as Elizabeth questions herself in respect to Mr. Darcy, who is

likewise concerned with Elizabeth and her opinion regarding his character. This is

especially seen in light of his previously analyzed utterance “You think it a faithful

portrait undoubtedly,” (Austen, 2003: 90) and he again shows his worry about her

judgment of him.

Elizabeth replies to his intrigue at her opinion of his character with accusatory

intentions, which fulfills the notion that echoic irony is meant for the H’s (Mr. Darcy)

uptake. Despite Elizabeth purposely bringing up Mr. Wickham to criticize Mr. Darcy, the

social norms of the time prevent Mr. Darcy from amenably disputing the truth about Mr.

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Wickham. Mr. Darcy cannot reveal the truth as he is a gentleman; ironically it prevents

him from accurately constructing his own character for her. Through her prejudice,

Elizabeth satirically does not see that on any occasion, Mr. Wickham does not fail to

degrade Mr. Darcy, while Mr. Darcy never contradicts his denigration or returns it. Mr.

Darcy tells Elizabeth to not form her opinion of his character at that point and he

mentions that there is reason to fear (Austen, 2003: 92), that if she does form her opinion

it may be deluded. Mr. Darcy is hinting at Mr. Wickham’s slander, and Elizabeth

disregards this view as her concern is not parallel with Mr. Darcy’s. She is unaware of

Mr. Wickham’s lies and feels the sting of Mr. Darcy’s statement, so she returns the

scathing comment on Mr. Wickham with her own ironical and veiled threat. Elizabeth

warns him: “But if I do not take your likeness now, I may never have another

opportunity” (Austen, 2003: 92). To which Mr. Darcy ironically retorts: “I would by no

means suspend any pleasure of yours” (Austen, 2003: 92).

Mr. Darcy is overstating Elizabeth can feel free to judge him with false prejudice,

showing through verbal irony his pride. He actually does care how Elizabeth sees his

character, but acts apathetically due to his pride and thus ironically utters an incongruity

in illogicality of that fact. The infelicity is firstly revealed as he does indeed care what her

opinion is and ironically turns a callous word to Elizabeth that belies that fact. The

intonation behind his irony comes from the contextual clues that he “coldly” said he

would not deny Elizabeth pleasure (Austen, 2003: 92), which Elizabeth may take for

granted and thus judge Mr. Darcy with prejudice and attribute to his conceited nature.

The coldness in the departing threats between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are

indicative of the characterization changes within the neutral dominant phase. The two

have displayed a wider range of sentiments than in the previous dialogues, and this

oscillation engenders the neutrality in their ironical utterances, ending in a reversal to

differences as each attempts to construct the other’s character according to their current

viewpoints. However, Elizabeth’s present discernment of Mr. Darcy’s character is based

upon her prejudice against him, and thus creates more dissonance between the two.

This exchanging of verbal ironies in a battle of wit is confounded by the prejudices

they have of each other. The pride they cannot let down to see each other in a non-

prejudiced light is in summation an example of irony that runs rampant throughout the

novel’s plot. This is more than hinted to at this ball, as the dance offers an intimate social

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meeting that has certain protocols which aid to illuminate their apprehensions. Elizabeth

and Mr. Darcy both come with inhibitions, his being pride of his social class regarding

attraction to a woman of lower social standing, and hers being prejudicial assessment of

Mr. Darcy’s persona. Those inhibitions have the effect of instituting ironical dialogue,

which is observed in their respective echoes of the other. In the beginning of the neutral

dominant phase of analysis, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have engaged in more apprehensive

banter. However, we see that in the end of the second dialogue of the first premise that

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth began to dispute when the subject of Mr. Wickham was

approached, and thus their conversation became quarrelsome. These fluctuations are the

characteristics of the neutral dominant phase, where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are first

showing increasing civility with their ironical utterances, but at times are inconsistent as

they break this pattern with conflict.

Through the ironical performative speech acts, both Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s

characters are further constructed based on their opinions of each other. Evident from this

dialogue, each perceives the other to be prejudiced and prideful, which Elizabeth

ironically referred to in her attempt to explain why neither of them wanted to speak at the

ball. However, rather than ironical attacks as seen in the disagreement dominant phase of

characterization, the two are resorting to ironic banter in the neutral dominant phase, for

they grow more intrigued with each other. There is also a drop in number of ironical

performative speech acts in this premise to 12 because of Elizabeth’s threat to Mr. Darcy

to not see him afterwards. This creates a dramatic turn in the neutral dominant phase

where Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth do not see each other until they are thrown together again

during Elizabeth’s visit to Charlotte and Mr. Collins.

5.3.2 Civil Banter: 8 PERs

5.3.2.1 Character Comparison

The next dialogue is found in Chapter 31 of the novel, when Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth meet again while Elizabeth visits her friend Charlotte. This dialogue is their

first encounter since the tension during the dance at Netherfield. In this dialogue, Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth have gone back to their light-hearted banter, playfully mocking each

other through irony in the presence of their peers. Mr. Darcy happens upon Elizabeth

playing the piano forte for his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh and others at Lady

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Catherine de Bourgh’s estate. Elizabeth ironically acknowledges Mr. Darcy’s arrival, and

the two characters engage in civil banter. Elizabeth, surprised at Mr. Darcy’s entrance,

asks him if he intended to “frighten” her (Austen, 2003: 170). He replies that she could

not “believe” him to have the motive of “alarming” her (Austen, 2003: 170). He insists

that she does not think he would actually intend to surprise her. The setting is ironic due

to their previous encounter at the Netherfield ball. Elizabeth teasingly alludes to Mr.

Darcy’s judging her, while in response Mr. Darcy conveys that he knows she would

believe him to be watching her for the purpose of judgment. Both Elizabeth and Mr.

Darcy are predisposed to believing the other means to criticize with the initiation of any

interaction due to the mixed sentiment and hesitation from their last meeting. Although

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are fond of enjoying each other’s civil banter within their own

community that their irony developed, this dialogue reflects their apprehension toward

each other after their tension at the Netherfield ball.

(PER31.01) “and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to

know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which

in fact are not your own.” (Mr. Darcy)

. . . .

(PER31.02) “I am particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so able to

expose my real character, in a part of the world where I had hoped to pass

myself off with some degree of credit.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 170)

Mr. Darcy retorts to Elizabeth’s question with his own ironic banter, and begins to

construct her character with his ironical performative speech act. PER31.01 is a sardonic

remark to taunt Elizabeth; the incongruity which illuminates the irony is in the use of the

word “pleasure.” Given the history between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, both are aware that

their entire acquaintance up to this point had not all been pleasure, and their relationship

was mixed with much apprehension and intrigue. Mr. Darcy mocks Elizabeth for her own

frequent use of irony for expressing opinions of others in society. He is echoing the

instances where he called Elizabeth out for portraying him to have opinions that he never

professed (Austen, 2003: 48). He is constructing Elizabeth’s character to be judgmental,

holding a prejudice against Mr. Darcy with little evidence to support her opinions.

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By delving deeper into Mr. Darcy’s allusion to Elizabeth’s imposition of opinions on

him, an echo of their conversations in the past at Netherfield can be found. The echo is

the repetitive pattern that Mr. Darcy insists Elizabeth imposes her own “opinion” on him,

although at the beginning of their acquaintance, their relationship appears to be more

hostile. Mr. Darcy’s retort was more severe in reply to Elizabeth’s judgment of his

inflexible character, which did not allow sympathy for his friend Mr. Bingley’s lack of

conviction. The previous time, he was obstinate and harsh, refuting with his verbal irony

that Elizabeth was claiming “opinions” she chose to call his yet he never acknowledged

(Austen, 2003:48). The same echo is referred to at a more pleasant time seen in the first

premise of the neutral dominant phase, and he has become softened due to his growing

affection for Elizabeth. When challenged by Elizabeth’s criticism for having a character

incapable of holding a conversation, he replies with witty banter carried through his irony

that Elizabeth is consulting her feelings “in the present case,” meaning Elizabeth has been

persistently opinionated about his character flaws (Austen, 2003: 92). Mr. Darcy

continues with this similar echo to the reader and Elizabeth, entailing the message that

Elizabeth is still prejudiced and critical of his character. The echoic allusion can be found

within PER31.01, which recalls Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s conversation about Mr.

Wickham at the Netherfield ball (Austen, 2003: 92). At the end of the Netherfield ball

when the two characters parted, Mr. Darcy realized that Elizabeth had allowed her

prejudice against him to grow after Mr. Wickham’s claim regarding Mr. Darcy’s

character. Mr. Darcy alludes to the fact that Elizabeth permitted herself to be influenced

by Mr. Wickham regarding her opinion of Mr. Darcy, where the dual meaning refers to

her adopting Mr. Wickham’s opinions; therefore Elizabeth was proclaiming Mr.

Wickham’s views of Mr. Darcy that he is exceedingly proud and spiteful (Austen, 2003:

78-80). Mr. Darcy emphasizes her prejudicial views against him based on Mr. Wickham

to convey to Elizabeth that she has not offered a fair assessment of his character because

her judgment is founded on Mr. Darcy’s initial slight of her and Mr. Wickham’s

deleterious account of him. Therefore, in PER31.01, besides Mr. Darcy’s echoic allusion

to insist Elizabeth’s critical “opinions” construct her character as being judgmental and

prejudiced, PER 31.01 specifically refers to Elizabeth’s judgment of him with regard to

Mr. Wickham at Netherfield (Austen, 2003: 48). Although Mr. Darcy’s present echo is

much more benevolent than his original allusion to her pejorative nature, he is echoing

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Elizabeth’s reference of her opinions to criticize his character. Through Mr. Darcy’s

ironic banter, he continues to construct Elizabeth’s character as judgmental, however in

the neutral dominant phase his claims against her character are more civil than earlier in

the plot.

Elizabeth responds to Mr. Darcy with her own banter in PER31.02, which is a

defense against Mr. Darcy’s character portrayal of her as biased. In stating that Mr. Darcy

is able to “expose” her true character, she ironically conveys that Mr. Darcy does not

know her true character, and enjoys making erroneous assessments of her. Her literal

meaning states to the readership and other characters present that she has been caught by

Mr. Darcy, when she had hoped to deceive them by concealing her true character.

However, the incongruity lies in that her figurative meaning is quite different, that Mr.

Darcy is wrong about his perception of her true character. Her inclusion of the words “a

part of the world where [she] had hoped to pass [herself] off with some degree of credit”

(Austen, 2003: 170) alludes to her surprise at meeting Mr. Darcy again, because she did

not expect to encounter him on her trip to visit Charlotte and Mr. Collins. Elizabeth has

been caught off guard by Mr. Darcy’s arrival, and thus reverts to her witty banter to

interact with him. In this dialogue the two are interacting more pleasantly, although a

trace of apprehension remains. She also alludes to Mr. Darcy’s delight in teasing her,

illustrating his character development. Earlier in the novel, Mr. Darcy’s demeanor was

stoic, and his irony was ruthless compared to the present ironic banter. Their irony is

light-hearted, unlike their outlook at the Netherfield ball, meaning their tempers have

leveled.

Elizabeth accuses him of provoking her, and facetiously threatens to reveal things

about his character which would “shock [his] relations to hear” (Austen, 2003: 170). Mr.

Darcy responds to her threat with a reciprocal dare, claiming that Elizabeth’s threat does

not frighten him, and conveying to her that she may proceed.

(COM31.01) “Indeed, Mr. Darcy, it is very ungenerous in you to mention all

that you knew to my disadvantage in Hertfordshire—and, give me leave to say,

very impolitic too—for it is provoking me to retaliate, and such things may

come out, as will shock your relations to hear.” (Elizabeth)

(COM31.02) “I am not afraid of you,” said he, smilingly. (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 170)

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Elizabeth’s irony in COM31.01 is an overstatement, emphasizing that she knows secrets

about Mr. Darcy’s character, alluding to her own ability to reveal his true character. The

commissive speech acts literally commit Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to their threats or

dares, providing an ideal example of Leech’s banter (refer to section 2.4.3.3 for the banter

principle). They are seemingly impolite on the surface, yet the intended meaning is to

tease each other, according to Leech’s banter principle. They feign impoliteness as a way

to show their solidarity, for they are closer in their community now and have a better

understanding of each other’s temperament. The progression to civil banter reveals the

two have forgiven the earlier spat at Netherfield which kept them separated for an

extended period of time. The ironic banter present within this dialogue is representative

of the neutral dominant phase of characterization, for the two are no longer at odds with

each other as they were in the disagreement dominant phase.

Mr. Darcy responds with a smile, revealed through the narrative. His reaction to her

banter at this time highlights the change within Mr. Darcy’s character, for during their last

encounter he responded to Elizabeth “coldly” (Austen, 2003: 92). The effect of

Elizabeth’s verbal irony on him is reflected in his pleasant demeanor, accepting

Elizabeth’s ironical jabs at him. Elizabeth follows through with her ironical threat to

“expose” him to his relatives, and begins her revelation of something “dreadful” to

exaggerate his true character defect. The irony in her banter is to portray Mr. Darcy as an

appalling person for what he did at the Meryton ball; however the development of their

relationship to engage in civil banter reveals that she is just teasing Mr. Darcy for his

previous offenses. She is conveying to him that she has not forgotten his past prideful

behavior and her story is evidence of this.

(COM31.03) “You shall hear then” (Elizabeth)

(DIR31.02) “—but prepare yourself for something very dreadful. The first time

of my ever seeing him in Hertfordshire, you must know, was at a ball”

(Elizabeth)

(DIR31.03) “—and at this ball, what do you think he did?” (Elizabeth)

“He danced only four dances, though gentlemen were scarce; and, to my certain

knowledge, more than one young lady was sitting down in want of a partner.

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Mr. Darcy, you cannot deny the fact.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 170-171)

Elizabeth proceeds to tell the party that Mr. Darcy refused to dance with women who

were in need of a dance partner at the Meryton ball. She teasingly overstates Mr. Darcy’s

misconduct in order to build up the suspense before revealing the truth, which is not

abominable but his behavior would be considered ill-mannered during this time in

Regency England for lack of propriety. He responds with an ironical justification of his

actions.

(PER31.03) “I had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the

assembly beyond my own party.” (Mr. Darcy)

(ASR31.03) “True; and nobody can ever be introduced in a ball-room.”

(Elizabeth)

(PER31.04) “Perhaps,” said Mr. Darcy, “I should have judged better, had I

sought an introduction; but I am ill-qualified to recommend myself to

strangers.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 171)

To defend himself against Elizabeth’s account of his misconduct in Meryton, Mr. Darcy

responds with PER31.03. In PER31.03, Mr. Darcy states in his literal meaning that it is

an “honour” to know Elizabeth now, and he did not have this honor at when the two first

met at the Meryton ball. The incongruity in his utterance is attributed to the fact that at

the time, he would not have considered it an honor to know Elizabeth. He is mentioning

his past behavior and judgment regarding Elizabeth that he preemptively formed before

he had ever spoken to her. The illocutionary act in PER31.03 seeks to convey to Elizabeth

that he would not have felt honored to know her due to pride from his higher social

position, revealing the irony in his utterance through the intended meaning. In PER31.03,

the perlocutionary act for Elizabeth’s uptake is that he is prideful and will defend his

actions because his social class is above reprieve. This echo is shared by Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy, for they are the only two characters who are aware of the figurative meaning

in his statement of defense. He is still reluctant to openly admit to a fault; however his

disposition has become less proud and defensive after Elizabeth’s accusations.

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He manages to gracefully attempt to excuse his behavior while not blatantly

disagreeing with Elizabeth, illustrating his acquiescence to her during their battle of wits.

In the disagreement dominant phase, Mr. Darcy defends his honor against Elizabeth by

any means possible, even if he had to use cruelty and deride his closest friends in order to

riposte. Now in the neutral dominant phase, Mr. Darcy has restrained his pride in light of

his romantic interest in Elizabeth. Elizabeth retorts with an ironical assertive,

acknowledging literally that it was impossible for him to be introduced. The hyperbolic

justification of Mr. Darcy’s behavior provides an ironical utterance that conveys Mr.

Darcy’s excuse is unfounded. When she says “true,” the criticism appears to be harsh,

openly ridiculing Mr. Darcy for his excuse of shyness.

In PER31.04, Mr. Darcy admits that he may have had a different perception of

Elizabeth had he introduced himself to her that night in Meryton, in that the dual meaning

of his utterance conveys to Elizabeth that they both might have held different viewpoints

of each other had they been properly introduced in the beginning. This admission is

reflective of the great impact Elizabeth has had on Mr. Darcy’s moral character.

Previously, his pride would have prevented him from believing, especially admitting, he

could be wrong about his judgment. Mr. Darcy retains his pride, yet does not allow it to

rule his character in such a way as earlier in the disagreement dominant phase. His pride

maintains the defense of his character by claiming he is “ill-qualified” to introduce

himself to strangers, which Elizabeth considers a mocking response from a man who is

clearly well-qualified to introduce himself due to his social station. In fact, further

incongruity lies in his echo of Mr. Bingley in the first dialogue, because Mr. Bingley

initially sought to “introduce” Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth (Austen, 2003: 13). However, Mr.

Darcy rejected Mr. Bingley’s proposition, of which Elizabeth is aware and echoes to tease

him. Thus, Mr. Darcy’s excuse that he cannot recommend himself to strangers is false for

he was not expected to introduce himself to Elizabeth in the beginning. He feigns

intimidation by strangers so that he is unable to approach them to shield his pride from

injury due to Elizabeth’s mocking suggestion that Mr. Darcy behaved without decorum.

Mr. Darcy continues his defense in PER31.05 by comparing himself with others who

are more sociable and converse with ease.

(PER31.05) “I certainly have not the talent which some people possess," said

Mr. Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot

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catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often

see done.” (Mr. Darcy)

(ASR31.05) “My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in

the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same

force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression.” (Elizabeth)

(PER31.06) “But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault—because I

will not take the trouble of practising.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 171)

PER31.05 is ironical due to the duality in meaning, for when Mr. Darcy says “some

people” he is referring to Elizabeth. Specifically, Mr. Darcy’s allusion is to Elizabeth’s

amenable attitude which makes her social compared to Mr. Darcy. His intended meaning,

hidden behind his meager excuse, is that in fact his social station places him above

obligation to socialize and appear amenable to others. Superiority theory explicates his

irony in PER31.05 for he asserts his presumed privilege as a male of higher social class

to act as he sees fit in any social situation, and may disregard social requirements. He is

figuratively constructing his own character as superior to Elizabeth and the others at the

ball in Meryton, illustrating his proud nature. Elizabeth counters Mr. Darcy’s ironical

performative utterance with an analogy to convey to Mr. Darcy that he has control over

his own actions, and there is nobody to blame but himself for his misconduct.

In PER31.06, Elizabeth continues with the analogy through civil banter, informing

Mr. Darcy that any deficiency in his character is his own fault, and cannot be attributed to

any reason other than the fact that he makes no effort to converse and be friendly with

others. In PER31.06, Elizabeth’s duality in meaning reveals her uptake of Mr. Darcy’s

excuses for his inadequate behavior at Meryton ball. She insinuates that his social status

is not a rationale for his disrespect toward others, and he need not hide behind an excuse

when he frequently affirms his high class to avoid social decorum. Elizabeth constructs

both Mr. Darcy’s and her own characters through PER31.06 by admitting her own flaws

and illustrating herself as humble, indicating to Mr. Darcy that he should set aside his

own proud nature. By stating that it is “my own fault,” the perlocutionary act of

PER31.06 of her proposition is incongruous to indicate Mr. Darcy’s own fault for his

uptake of her verbal irony.

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Elizabeth continues her ironical constructive evaluation of Mr. Darcy’s character in

PER31.07 through further analogy using herself as the example.

(PER31.07) “It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other

woman’s of superior execution.” (Elizabeth)

(ASR31.06) “You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much

better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything

wanting.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER31.08) “We neither of us perform to strangers.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 171)

Through her verbal irony in PER31.07, Elizabeth’s figurative meaning conveys that Mr.

Darcy should hold himself accountable for his behavior, because from her perspective he

makes every attempt to justify himself to her accusations. PER31.07 juxtaposes

Elizabeth’s and Mr. Darcy’s characters through a contrast in Elizabeth’s humility and Mr.

Darcy’s pride. By stating that she knows she is “capable” of succeeding in playing the

piano if she were to try, Elizabeth conveys to Mr. Darcy that she believes him capable of

changing his moral character to become more akin to her own. Elizabeth thus constructs

his character from a more positive perspective than in the past, considering him to be

“capable” of reforming his moral character. Elizabeth’s ironic banter is allowing Mr.

Darcy to see himself from a new angle, highlighting the areas in which he can improve

his character to be more benevolent.

Appearing unfazed by her ironical judgments of him, Mr. Darcy compliments

Elizabeth’s piano-playing in response. He defers to her in banter, allowing her victory

over him in the ironical battle of wits which displays their views of each other. In

PER31.08, Mr. Darcy ironically echoes their conversation at the Netherfield ball, when

Elizabeth claimed they had a “similarity” in their minds (Austen, 2003: 90). His use of

“we” and “us” in the ironical performative utterance is simultaneously constructing both

his own and Elizabeth’s characters, reflecting their shared community. Mr. Darcy’s

figurative meaning in PER31.08 conveys that he and Elizabeth are not strangers, for they

now have a better understanding of the other’s character and have grown to enjoy the

ironic banter with each other, the climax of their character development. The incongruity

in PER31.08 lies in his reference to performing to strangers; it figuratively means to

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indicate their closeness. Mr. Darcy stresses his shared community with Elizabeth through

their frequent use of verbal irony. The illocutionary act in PER31.08 ironically conveys

that the two characters are not “strangers” because their verbal ironies have drawn them

closer. The irony within his perlocutionary act intended for Elizabeth’s uptake is that their

personalities are similar despite her attempt to contrast their characters. His allusion

contradicts his earlier statement that Elizabeth was an acquaintance, because he and

Elizabeth are no longer mere acquaintances through the community they have formed.

Mr. Darcy’s insinuation refers to his belief that Elizabeth is more like him than she would

prefer to believe or admit.

The second premise of the neutral dominant phase of characterization illustrates Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth’s altering relationship through their ironic banter, which displays

their growing affections for each other. There are 8 performative speech acts in the

second premise, continuing the decrease from the disagreement dominant phase. The

ironical performative utterances grow fewer and more benevolent in this premise due to

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s past interactions; they have had ample time in the

disagreement dominant phase to form their perceptions of each other’s character, and are

now mainly demonstrating their changing outlooks. The banter oscillates in the neutral

dominant phase, revealed at the end of the previous premise from Chapter 18, and a swift

change from civil banter to outright discord will be shown in the next premise of this

phase, where a catharsis takes place between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in a vital point of

their relationship.

5.3.3 Revelation: 4 PERs

5.3.3.1 Proposal

In this dialogue from Chapter 34, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth encounter a major

turning point in their relationship after Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth. She is taken by

surprise at his outburst, confessing his love for her that he has been fighting for some

time. Elizabeth believes that Mr. Darcy is partially responsible for intentionally

separating Mr. Bingley and Jane, and therefore causing Jane much heartache as she had

grown to care for Mr. Bingley (Austen, 2003: 186). In this final dialogue of the neutral

dominant phase, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy revert from playful banter found in their

previous dialogue to ironical attacks on each other, with a full display of emotion. Mr.

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Darcy’s confession is the catalyst for the drastic turn in the progress of their developed

community through ironic banter; he offends Elizabeth’s pride yet again, a transgression

for which she cannot easily forgive him. Elizabeth displays her independence and

feminist attitude in this dialogue, as she does not conform to the behavior that is expected

of her in society, to accept Mr. Darcy’s hand in marriage. Mr. Darcy is an eligible single

man by any standards of the time, however he allows his arrogance to pervert the

proposal and slights Elizabeth, engendering anger over both his pride and lack of

consideration for Jane’s and Mr. Bingley’s feelings.

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You

must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” (Mr. Darcy)

. . . .

(PER34.01) “The feelings which, you tell me, have long prevented the

acknowledgment of your regard, can have little difficulty in overcoming it after

this explanation.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 185-186)

Elizabeth’s reply to Mr. Darcy’s confession of love and marriage proposal illustrates her

lack of affectation. She uses overt irony as a defense to conceal her injured pride, coldly

rejecting Mr. Darcy’s offer. PER34.01 ironically echoes Mr. Darcy’s pride; she claims

that if he was able to conceal his “regard” for her due to his pride and prejudice against

her social standing, then he should find it easy to allow these “feelings” to forget his

romantic intentions for her. In PER34.01, the perlocutionary act reveals through the

duality in Elizabeth’s verbal irony that Mr. Darcy has prevented the acknowledgment of

his love for Elizabeth for a “long” time, and Mr. Darcy should have “little difficulty in

overcoming it.” In her use of irony, Elizabeth is displaying her independence in

opposition to Mr. Darcy, affirming herself over him and his beliefs of how Elizabeth

should have reacted. She is defying social norms by rejecting him to injure his pride and

in turn to show her own pride, Elizabeth constructs both her true character and Mr.

Darcy’s flawed character through the intended illocution, emphasizing “you tell me” in

PER34.01. According to superiority theory, Elizabeth criticizes Mr. Darcy in her verbal

irony, affirming her own beliefs at the expense of Mr. Darcy’s pride. Her retort intends to

injure Mr. Darcy’s pride as he has managed to injure hers, for the second time (for their

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first time at the Meryton ball, see section 5.2.1.1). Her character portrayal of Mr. Darcy in

PER34.01 constructs him to be cold, and mockingly insinuates he should maintain

control over his feelings as he has done up until this point.

Mr. Darcy, angered by her unexpected refusal to his marriage proposal, ironically

demanded to know the cause of her lack of civility in rejecting him. Mr. Darcy believes

that the only reason she declined his proposal is that her pride had been injured by his

frankness, yet Elizabeth explains her reason is simple: she does not care for him, and

even if she did, she could never be expected to accept a marriage proposal from a man

who caused her sister Jane’s sorrow. She reacts further, mentioning Mr. Wickham, a

known source of tension for Mr. Darcy.

“Long before it had taken place my opinion of you was decided. Your character

was unfolded in the recital which I received many months ago from Mr.

Wickham.” (Elizabeth)

. . . .

“You take an eager interest in that gentleman's concerns,” said Mr. Darcy, in a

less tranquil tone, and with a heightened colour. (Mr. Darcy)

“Who that knows what his misfortunes have been, can help feeling an interest in

him?” (Elizabeth)

(PER34.02) “His misfortunes!" repeated Mr. Darcy contemptuously; "yes, his

misfortunes have been great indeed.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 187)

After Elizabeth’s defense of Mr. Wickham, Mr. Darcy is indignant. He proclaims

ironically in PER34.02 that Mr. Wickham’s misfortunes were “great indeed.” The

insincerity seethes through Mr. Darcy’s utterance, revealing the irony in his direct

quotation, “his misfortunes,” of Elizabeth’s allusion of Mr. Wickham’s misfortunes. Irony

is located through dualities in Mr. Darcy’s referencing his own misfortunes and his direct

echoing of Elizabeth claiming Mr. Wickham’s “misfortunes.” Mr. Darcy quotes Elizabeth

in his response to her twice to emphasize his conflicting opinion. According to the echoic

account, verbal irony can be found within this interjection, in this case a direct quotation

explicitly echoing Elizabeth’s original thought. The duality lies in Mr. Darcy’s cynical

attitude towards Elizabeth’s belief that Mr. Wickham was the unfortunate one, contrary to

the intended meaning, which is that Mr. Darcy’s family suffered misfortune from Mr.

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Wickham’s wrongdoings. Elizabeth has yet to learn of the true account of Mr. Wickham

from Mr. Darcy, therefore she is unaware that Mr. Wickham is the culprit who wronged

Mr. Darcy’s family. In PER34.02 Mr. Darcy’s echo alludes to the deception Mr. Wickham

has spread to Elizabeth, with an intended meaning that Mr. Wickham is not the victim of

Mr. Darcy’s wrongdoing, and any misfortunes he may have are the work of his own hand.

His intended meaning is to reveal the truth of Mr. Wickham’s account, constructing Mr.

Wickham as the perpetrator instead of the victim Elizabeth believes him to be. In

PER34.02 Mr. Darcy angrily ridicules Elizabeth’s belief of the matter between himself

and Mr. Wickham, claiming the superiority of his own knowledge over her misguided

beliefs based upon Mr. Wickham’s lack of divulging the entire account truthfully.

Elizabeth, unaware that Mr. Darcy has a justification for his behavior towards Mr.

Wickham, defends Mr. Wickham’s account to Mr. Darcy, accusing Mr. Darcy of

misconduct.

“You have withheld the advantages which you must know to have been

designed for him. You have deprived the best years of his life of that

independence which was no less his due than his desert. You have done all this!

[A]nd yet you can treat the mention of his misfortune with contempt and

ridicule.” (Elizabeth)

“And this,” cried Mr. Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, “is

your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me!” (Mr. Darcy)

(ASR34.04) “I thank you for explaining it so fully.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER34.03) “My faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed!” (Mr.

Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 187-188)

Incredulous, Mr. Darcy reacts to Elizabeth’s accusations with increased anger at her

revelation of her true feelings toward him. This is the breaking point at which Mr. Darcy

and Elizabeth create a division between themselves, coming full circle to total opposition

in their opinions regarding each other’s characters. PER34.03 rejects Elizabeth’s

“calculation” of his character through overt irony. Incongruity reveals the irony through

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his admission that his faults are great, however Mr. Darcy’s intention is to convey to

Elizabeth that her assessment of his character based on Mr. Wickham’s opinions is

severely incorrect, and that while he may have a flawed character he is not guilty of what

Elizabeth believes him to have done. By saying “according to this calculation” Mr. Darcy

emphasizes that the fault only exists in Elizabeth’s perception and is not the reality of the

situation involving him and Mr. Wickham. He shoots down Elizabeth’s accusation with

ridicule in an attempt to alert Elizabeth to his own opposing beliefs which reflect the facts

of the account.

Mr. Darcy releases his present incensed opinions, without holding back for the sake

of manner and civility. He tells Elizabeth that had he not injured her pride by his “honest

confession of the scruples that had long prevented [him from] forming any serious

design” she may have “overlooked these offences” she finds in his character. He defends

his honesty, and exclaims that he abhors “disguise of any kind” (Austen, 2003: 188).

Elizabeth denies that the way in which he expressed his feelings had anything to do with

her decision to reject the proposal.

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration

affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might

have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.”

(Elizabeth)

. . . .

(PER34.04) “You could not have made the offer of your hand in any possible

way that would have tempted me to accept it.” (Elizabeth)

. . . .

“From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my

acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of

your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others,

were such as to form the groundwork of disapprobation on which succeeding

events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month

before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be

prevailed on to marry.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 188)

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In PER34.04, Elizabeth’s irony echoes Mr. Darcy’s slight against her from their first

encounter at Meryton ball. Her use of the word “tempted” is a direct echo of Mr. Darcy’s

use of the word in the first dialogue of the disagreement dominant phase, conveying that

any attraction she may have had to him has been erased and she has gone back to

despising him once again. Elizabeth’s verbal irony emphasizes the figurative meaning

through the literal meaning, which is a hyperbole. By saying “any possible way” she

articulates to Mr. Darcy that he has no chance of obtaining her affection, and that there

was nothing he could have done to convince her to marry him. However, as the

agreement dominant phase will reveal, she retracts this proclamation that she would

never accept him by altering her perceptions. Elizabeth’s echoic allusion in PER34.04 is a

vital point in the dialogue which emphasizes the importance of verbal irony in her and

Mr. Darcy’s character constructions. The irony displays both Elizabeth’s and Mr. Darcy’s

perceptions of each other through their echoic allusions to past behavior or utterances

which they each feel is evidence that their character assessments have been accurately

made by each other.

The connection of this dialogue to the first dialogue (refer back to section 5.2.1.1 for

the Initial Meeting dialogue) in the analysis from the disagreement dominant phase

illustrates the regression of their relationship from the verbal irony. Verbal irony first

drove them apart in Chapter 3 of the novel and is yet again driving a wedge between

them. The 4 performative speech acts in this dialogue complete the final premise of the

neutral dominant phase of characterization, making the total number of ironical

performative speech acts present 24. The continued decrease in the number of

performative speech acts reflects the alteration in Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s

characterization. The ironical performative speech acts are fewer because Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth have fully expressed their views of each other, and have reached a purgative

point in constructing each other’s characters.

5.4 Agreement Dominant Phase: Inner Self (10 Total PERs)

The final section is designated the agreement dominant phase of characterization,

which contains two premises to explicate the underlying ideas of the thematic dialogues.

The agreement dominant phase, found from Chapter 46 through 61 of the novel, brings a

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new view of how Elizabeth has completely made an impact on Mr. Darcy’s character

throughout the novel. Finally, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy come to love each other in

contrary to their malevolent relationship in the disagreement dominant phase. Therefore,

the verbal irony she uses is more friendly and pleasant. Each premise has only one

dialogue, and the final phase of characterization is shorter relative to the other phases. In

the final chapters of the novel, the character development has culminated and both

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy finally reveal their love and inner selves to each other. We

designate this as agreement dominant phase because the few remaining ironical

utterances are not critical in nature but in fact playful and friendly. In the agreement

dominant phase, there are fewer ironies than in the previous two phases, and the lack of

irony signifies a point at which they solidify their shared community when the two

characters come to love each other. In this phase, there are 10 ironical performative

speech acts (found in Chapters 58 and 60 of the novel) Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s

characterization is finally complete as Mr. Darcy has become remorseful and benevolent

compared to his earlier characteristics, and Elizabeth has realized her own prejudice

prevented her from seeing Mr. Darcy become a noble man.

After the dispute at the end of the neutral dominant phase, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

part on most displeasing terms without promise of reconciliation. However, Mr. Darcy

immediately produces a letter which Elizabeth is obliged to read the next morning after

her refusal of his marriage proposal. His letter contains an attempt to redress his previous

behaviors in light of his own realization that his actions toward Elizabeth were

unacceptable, proof that Elizabeth’s determinations of him being exceedingly proud were

accurate, yet her perceptions were not a complete account of his character. Afterward,

through other characters’ accounts Elizabeth begins to see Mr. Darcy in a new manner,

becoming aware of the benevolence within his character. These events placate her

negativity to some degree. The tragedy of her sister Lydia eloping with Mr. Wickham

further confirms Mr. Darcy’s recount of Mr. Wickham’s decadent nature and leaves

Elizabeth open to the reintroduction of Mr. Darcy into the conversational venue featured

with Elizabeth’s earnest language and Mr. Darcy’s eagerness to assist.

The third phase of characterization presents the final scene of redemption between

Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, although at first, Elizabeth makes a point to avoid, therefore

observe, Mr. Darcy and consequently during a lull in their communication there are few

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instances of irony. In the final phase of analysis, verbal ironies between Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth come across as apologetic and are full of modesty and remorse, for example in

Chapter 58, where Mr. Darcy tries to staunch Elizabeth’s gratitude while modestly

affirming his own generosity when he says, “If you will thank me… let it be for yourself

alone” (Austen, 2003: 346). This is a significant transformation from the earlier chapters

in the disagreement dominant phase where the verbal ironies were used as weaponry to

provoke each other—contrasting irony offers a sense of solidarity and assuagement to the

Bennets’ painful family matters. By the close of the novel, Elizabeth has completely lost

her airs of prejudice against Mr. Darcy and her characterization is shown through her

ironical performative speech acts. However, she wryly alludes to characterizing her witty

nature in light of her final acceptance of Mr. Darcy, and acts as her peer Caroline had

done earlier in the novel, fawning over his talents. Dialogue between Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth ends on this note, and the chapter wraps up with letters announcing their

engagement.

5.4.1 Reconciliation: 1 PER

5.4.1.1 Gratitude

The first dialogue of the agreement dominant phase of characterization is set in

Chapter 58 of the novel, the first time Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy meet after Mr. Darcy has

rectified the situations with Lydia and Jane. There is one ironical performative speech act

in the conversation between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. This dialogue represents a key

point in Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterization because they are able to reconcile

their past differences and confess their love for each other. Lydia inadvertently alerted

Elizabeth to Mr. Darcy’s role in securing the marriage with Mr. Wickham, and Elizabeth’s

aunt confirmed his assistance to save the family’s disgrace, but Mr. Darcy did not wish

for anyone to find out he was behind it. Elizabeth tried to remain silent about the fact that

she knew Mr. Darcy was dedicated to salvaging Lydia’s predicament, out of respect for

Mr. Darcy’s wishes for no one to know. However, she was finally unable to hold back,

and expressed her thanks to Mr. Darcy for his “compassion.”

“Let me thank you again and again, in the name of all my family, for that

generous compassion which induced you to take so much trouble, and bear so

many mortifications, for the sake of discovering them.” (Elizabeth)

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(PER58.01) “If you will thank me, ” he replied, “let it be for yourself alone.”

(Mr. Darcy)

“That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other

inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe

me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you.” (Mr.

Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 346)

Elizabeth gave Mr. Darcy her sincere thanks on behalf of her family, acknowledging the

effort he made to help Lydia and her family avoid an infamous reputation. Mr. Darcy’s

reply is indicative of his reformed moral character, due to Elizabeth’s great impact on him

throughout their characterization. In PER58.01, Mr. Darcy proclaims through his ironical

performative speech act his desire for Elizabeth to thank him on her own account. With

his illocutionary act in PER58.01, he is constructing her character from his hope that she

returns the feelings which he still holds for her. The figurative meaning references his

wish for Elizabeth to set aside her pride and thank him for herself. In addition, PER58.01

constructs Mr. Darcy’s own character through his innate pride, indicating he will not be

satisfied until Elizabeth submits to humility before him. Mr. Darcy ironically hints his

own pride is now justified through his actions and this time Elizabeth cannot object. The

irony in PER58.01 is revealed through the duality, found within the perlocutionary act.

The perlocutionary act of PER58.01 is that Mr. Darcy wishes Elizabeth to display her

own feelings, and not thank him out of a sense of obligation. On the surface, he asks for

her own gratitude, not for the thankfulness of her family who is unaware of what Mr.

Darcy has done for them. Mr. Darcy’s intended meaning conveys to Elizabeth that he

wishes her to reveal her love for him, as he suspects she may have. In saying “let it be for

yourself alone,” Mr. Darcy is enticing Elizabeth to confess her love for the sake of her

own happiness.

In PER58.01, Mr. Darcy still assumes his superior stance but in a more noble

manner than the previous phases. His pride led him to attempt to show Elizabeth his true

nature through an act of valor which she could not ignore. Mr. Darcy urges Elizabeth to

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accept that her disapproval of his character had not been completely fair, because she was

also flawed in her judgmental nature regarding him. In PER58.01, Mr. Darcy’s irony is an

understatement, displaying humility in his literal meaning although he is constructing

himself as a person who deserves respect from Elizabeth. Therefore, his performative

speech act works to reveal his own identity, illustrating his pride for he believes he

deserves Elizabeth’s personal thanks for saving Lydia from a ruined reputation. The

difference in his pride in the agreement dominant phase and the disagreement dominant

phase is that in this dialogue, his pride is justified, and therefore appropriate, because of

his great generosity to Elizabeth and her family.

He confesses his love for her has not changed since his proposal to her, but if her

feelings remained the same that he would never touch upon the subject again. Mr.

Darcy’s confession illustrates his altered persona from the disagreement dominant phase.

In the past, Mr. Darcy’s pride would have never offered Elizabeth a second proposal for

marriage after she had harshly snubbed him during the first, supported by his confession

that he could not easily forgive those who have wronged him (Austen, 2003: 56-57).

Elizabeth consents, and “immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand,

that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he

alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure, his present assurances”

(Austen, 2003: 346). She was able to admit her own romantic feelings to Mr. Darcy only

after he had reassured her that his own love for her remained.

In this dialogue, it becomes clear to the reader that Mr. Darcy is an altered man in

Elizabeth’s eyes. Elizabeth has also changed her defensive exterior to reveal a genteel

side of her character which she had not exposed before Mr. Darcy, because her feelings

have completely altered in light of his generosity. The evidence is in Elizabeth’s lack of

verbal irony in her statements; she reveals her sincere gratitude to Mr. Darcy: “Mr. Darcy,

I am a very selfish creature; and, for the sake of giving relief to my own feelings, care not

how much I may be wounding yours. I can no longer help thanking you for your

unexampled kindness to my poor sister” (Austen, 2003: 345). Elizabeth’s sincerity with

Mr. Darcy reveals her own characterization occurring, as she displays earnest humility in

her gratitude. The fact that only one ironical performative speech act was identified in

this dialogue lends explanation to its relevance in the analysis. When their characters are

fully developed, verbal irony has been seen for friendly purposes in the agreement

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dominant phase, allowing Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to playfully convey their inner

thoughts and sentiments. This dialogue illustrates the transition out of neutrality into ease

with each other, connecting their minds and coming to terms with their emotions.

5.4.2 One Mind through Friendly Banter: 9 PERs

5.4.2.1 Reflections

In the last dialogue found in Chapter 60, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have finally

embraced their love for each other and Elizabeth has accepted Mr. Darcy’s second

marriage proposal. Their dialogue entails them ironically describing their feelings for

each other, teasing in the fashion they frequently use through banter within their

community that has brought their emotions together as one. Elizabeth, delighting in her

recent engagement, questions Mr. Darcy about the moment he knew he loved her. Mr.

Darcy replies that he cannot pinpoint the moment he fell in love with her, but that by the

time he realized he harbored any romantic feelings for her at all he was already smitten.

Elizabeth promptly teases him, referencing their first encounter at the Meryton ball.

“How could you begin?” said she. “I can comprehend your going on

charmingly, when you had once made a beginning; but what could set you off in

the first place?” (Elizabeth)

“I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words, which laid the

foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had

begun.” (Mr. Darcy)

(ASR60.01) “My beauty you had early withstood, and as for my manners—my

behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil, and I never spoke

to you without rather wishing to give you pain than not.” (Elizabeth)

(DIR60.01) “Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?”

(Elizabeth)

(PER60.01) “For the liveliness of your mind, I did.” (Mr. Darcy)

(Austen, 2003: 359)

In ASR60.01, Elizabeth employs ironic banter to ridicule Mr. Darcy for loving her,

sardonically claiming her faults when they first met; she describes herself as Mr. Darcy

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would have seen her, not as she perceived herself at the time, creating the duality within

the utterance due to the incongruities in her literal and intended meanings for Mr. Darcy.

The literal meaning of ASR60.01 describes Elizabeth as beautiful, yet improper and

vindictive. However, through derision she emphasizes these qualities in the figurative

meaning. Elizabeth displays her pride in claiming that she is beautiful to vindicate herself

from Mr. Darcy’s cruelness in the disagreement dominant phase, an echoic allusion to Mr.

Darcy’s description of her insufficient beauty during their first encounter at Meryton ball.

She further alludes to Mr. Darcy’s rudeness during the disagreement dominant phase by

describing herself as “uncivil” (Austen, 2003: 359), with a dual meaning that intends to

describe Mr. Darcy as lacking respect and wishing to bring her pain through his words.

Her verbal irony defends her pride, for she refutes Mr. Darcy’s immediate inspection of

her as not beautiful, in addition to showing off her vindictiveness in a playful manner.

In light of her lack of admirable qualities from his judgment of her upon their

acquaintance, Elizabeth deduces that he must have been enamored by her character flaws,

and therefore insists that it must have been her faults, namely her “impertinence” which

won him over. In DIR60.01 Elizabeth facetiously questions Mr. Darcy, instructing him to

reveal the reason for his romantic feelings. Based on her conduct toward him, evident in

her ironical utterances of the disagreement dominant phase when they were beginning to

get to know each other, she has no reason to believe otherwise, indicating that her literal

and figurative meanings are almost the same. Her ironical utterance DIR60.01 is ironic

banter, demonstrating their closeness. Her literal meaning is futile as the intended

meaning present in the irony is manifest. Elizabeth’s verbal irony is revealed through her

use of “impertinence” for it is not an admirable quality; therefore she teases Mr. Darcy

for the possible reasons he may have “admired” her. When irony is overtly displayed such

as in ASR60.01 and DIR60.01, the intended meaning behind the literal utterance is

completely transparent for the intended H.

Mr. Darcy responds with an ironical performative utterance, PER60.01 to construct

Elizabeth’s new identity from his perspective, for he has formed a new supposition in

agreement with her character alluding to the liveliness of her “mind.” The word “mind” is

clearly a direct echo and essentially a single-word direct quotation from Mr. Darcy when

he describes that an accomplished woman according to him must be focused on

cultivating “her mind" (Austen, 2003:39). Therefore, Mr. Darcy’s allusion to “mind”

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enhances the evidence of echoic irony.

In a larger picture, the echoic allusion found within his utterance is echoing his

views of Elizabeth upon their acquaintance by ironically stating that Elizabeth’s wittiness

was what interested him, and ridicules her by referring to her “impertinence” as a

character trait that has positive connotations, illustrating her unconventionality. Mr.

Darcy purposefully neglects to directly answer Elizabeth’s question, further revealing the

irony in the dual meaning of his compliment. First, Mr. Darcy agrees with Elizabeth that

she was impertinent, but remains silent on the matter while giving her one sincere reason

for his admiration. He claims, “I did” to emphasize his figurative meaning, that he did not

admire her for her impudence in the beginning, but rather admired the reason behind her

unpleasantness, i.e. the “liveliness of [her] mind.” Mr. Darcy purposefully specifies a

positive characteristic for Elizabeth to emphasize that he does not perceive her

“impertinence” to be a shade in character, likening it to an admirable quality in her

character. He gives “impertinence” a positive perspective to illustrate his views of

Elizabeth, offering her the highest praise, echoing his high standards for women’s

achievement. The incongruity in PER60.01 is revealed in Mr. Darcy’s countering

Elizabeth’s use of “impertinence” with “liveliness of your mind” because it illustrates her

profound impact upon his moral character. Through his confession, Mr. Darcy reveals

himself to be completely under Elizabeth’s feminist influence. The characterization for

Mr. Darcy to perceive Elizabeth’s exceptional character emphasizes the thematic premise

that the two characters share one mind. Elizabeth responds to his teasing with her own

ironical performative speech act to construct both her and Mr. Darcy’s characters.

(PER60.02) “You may as well call it impertinence at once.” (Elizabeth)

. . . .

“I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them. Had you not been

really amiable, you would have hated me for it; but in spite of the pains you

took to disguise yourself, your feelings were always noble and just; and in your

heart, you thoroughly despised the persons who so assiduously courted you.

There—I have saved you the trouble of accounting for it; and really, all things

considered, I begin to think it perfectly reasonable.” (Elizabeth)

(PER60.03) “To be sure, you knew no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of

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that when they fall in love .” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 359)

Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are engaged in ironic banter, stressing the changes in their

characterization. Elizabeth teasingly echoes Mr. Darcy’s perception of her in the

disagreement dominant phase, revealing that she has come to terms with the faults which

impeded her from constructing a positive view of Mr. Darcy in the beginning (Austen,

2003: 308-309). She retorts with her own ironical performative speech act PER60.02,

alerting Mr. Darcy of her uptake of his irony in PER60.01. Her figurative meaning which

reveals the irony, the perlocutionary act in PER60.02, is that she is aware Mr. Darcy

believed her impertinent and aware that he is being ironical by painting her character in a

positive light which contradicted his preliminary view of her in the beginning of their

relationship, for then Mr. Darcy would only look at her to “criticize;” Elizabeth is

echoing herself when she claimed “if I do not begin by being impertinent myself, I shall

soon grow afraid of him” (Austen, 2003: 25). The further incongruity for the

perlocutionary act to reveal the irony in PER60.02 is that Elizabeth regards her

“impertinence” as a positive character attribute, referencing her independent nature in

comparison to other women in Regency England.

In PER60.02, Elizabeth is constructing her own character through admitting her

impertinence to Mr. Darcy, being true to her unconventionality and boldness. She

emphasizes the fact that despite her unconventional character, Mr. Darcy has still grown

to love her, affirming her superior stance in character over his past prejudice against her.

His first observations of Elizabeth found her to have “more than one failure of perfect

symmetry in her form” and that “her manners were not those of the fashionable world”

(Austen, 2003: 24). Mr. Darcy disapproved of Elizabeth’s behavior, illustrated by his

reaction to her walking and arriving to Netherfield in an “untidy” state (Austen, 2003:

36). Elizabeth’s ironical overstatement is alluding to Mr. Darcy’s past views of her

character to illustrate the contrast between his initial perceptions of Elizabeth and his

realized love for her at present. Her irony, accentuating her feminist perspective and

willfulness which altered Mr. Darcy’s moral character, echoes Mr. Darcy’s

characterization and wisdom to accept her independent disposition, further emphasizing

her and Mr. Darcy’s present “one mind.”

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She proceeds to explain her understanding of what led him to fall in love with her,

assuring him that it was because he found her unconventionality inspiring, in order to

save him the trouble of explaining what engendered his love for Elizabeth. The banter is

present even without irony in her short explanation that Mr. Darcy was “roused, and

interested” by her because “[she] was so unlike them [e.g. Caroline]” (Austen, 2003:

359). She mocks Mr. Darcy for the fact that in spite of his desire to despise her for her

lower social standing and connections, he could not help but love her. She follows up

with another ironical performative speech act which teases Mr. Darcy for falling in love

with her. Elizabeth literally states in PER60.03 that Mr. Darcy saw no good in her,

conveying that he had no reasons to fall in love with her other than the reasons she

described: he was “disgusted with the women who were always speaking, and looking,

and thinking for [his] approbation alone” (Austen, 2003: 359).

Based on Elizabeth’s deduction, PER60.03 actively constructs Mr. Darcy’s character

from the new light in which she sees him, that he prefers a woman who is different from

the other traditional women in his social station, such as Caroline, who would attempt to

draw a man’s attention by acting agreeable to ingratiate him. Elizabeth alludes to his

appreciation of her nontraditional views and independent willfulness which separate her

from other women, also alluding to her reciprocal appreciation for his alternative outlook.

In PER60.03, Elizabeth is also facetiously echoing her mother’s views of marriage, from

a dialogue in the disagreement dominant phase in which Mrs. Bennet disregarded true

love as a prerequisite for marriage. She is mocking a traditional woman’s perspective of

love, ridiculing her mother, and other women she deems foolish when it comes to

marriage, such as Charlotte who married for economic stability instead of character

compatibility (Austen, 2003: 44, 123). In PER60.03, Elizabeth ironically compares

herself to the traditional women in her society in order to vindicate her own resolute mind

and unconventional personality. She is understating her independent character for she

believes Mr. Darcy is partially blinded by his love and is unable to realize all of her good

qualities. Elizabeth is displaying her pride by revealing to Mr. Darcy that his perceptions

of her good qualities and his view of her character are still limited despite their fulfilled

love and understanding.

Mr. Darcy counters Elizabeth’s claim that he knew nothing of the good in her by

referencing her devotion to Jane at Netherfield after Jane fell sick. His courteous attempt

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to show Elizabeth he saw some positive attributes in her is met with her witty modesty.

She responds with an ironical performative speech act PER60.04 which works to assign

characteristics to both Jane and Mr. Darcy.

(DIR60.02) “Was there no good in your affectionate behaviour to Jane while she

was ill at Netherfield?” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER60.04) “Dearest Jane! who could have done less for her? But make a virtue

of it by all means.” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 360)

Through her verbal irony Elizabeth idolizes Jane’s character utilizing a rhetorical

question made to tease herself in her utterance PER60.04, emphasizing the universal

likeability of Jane’s character. She is also conveying to Mr. Darcy that he is giving her

more credit than she deserves for this compliment, as anyone would have done the same

for Jane; thus, her actions could not be considered a kindness, but a reflexive inclination.

In PER60.04, Elizabeth tells Mr. Darcy that he may assign her a virtue that overestimates

her moral character, but the incongruity in her utterance unveils the irony, because she is

teasing Mr. Darcy for his view that her behavior had some merit. She could not have

“done less” for Jane because of Jane’s goodness, and therefore her compassion for Jane

did not qualify as a virtuous quality. Elizabeth’s ironic banter illustrates her reluctant

acceptance of Mr. Darcy’s compliment, deflecting his praise, overly exaggerating Jane’s

good character in contrast to her own. Elizabeth portrays her own modesty by

emphasizing Jane’s kindness. Her irony PER60.04 appears to mock Mr. Darcy’s praise of

her being a virtuous person; however the two are simply engaging in ironic banter to

express their feelings for each other.

They each tease the other for falling in love echoing their conflicting societal views.

Elizabeth grows to love Mr. Darcy while previously his pride greatly offended her, and

Mr. Darcy also accepts his love for Elizabeth although originally he was opposed to

marrying her due to the “inferiority of [her] connections” (Austen, 2003: 188). Mr. Darcy

and Elizabeth formed their exclusive community through verbal irony and thus verbal

irony has become the primary mode of characterization, for they have a deep

comprehension of each other. In the agreement dominant phase of characterization, the

two protagonists have attained a level of comfort with each other, exemplifying the

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concept from ironic banter that one teases those whom one is closest to, with whom one

feels a certain level of ease. The increased use of banter in this dialogue illustrates the

great mutual understanding between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth. They are not afraid of

offending the other and may use irony freely to express their affections through ridicule.

Elizabeth continues with her friendly irony to construct her own and Mr. Darcy’s

characters. She tells Mr. Darcy that he must emphasize her “good qualities” as often as he

can, while she on the other hand is in charge of finding opportunities to tease and quarrel

with him.

(PER60.05) “My good qualities are under your protection, and you are to

exaggerate them as much as possible;” (Elizabeth)

(PER60.06) “and, in return, it belongs to me to find occasions for teasing and

quarrelling with you as often as may be;” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 360)

In her utterance PER60.05 Elizabeth is using an ironical overstatement to allude that Mr.

Darcy is currently attempting to “exaggerate” any admirable qualities that he believes her

to have in order to deflect her own critique of herself, with which she knows Mr. Darcy

agrees. PER60.05 alludes to Mr. Darcy’s past misconduct towards her in the

disagreement dominant phase and neutral dominant phase, and teasingly instructs him to

now behave in an opposite manner. Elizabeth jestingly proclaims that she and Mr. Darcy

have an arrangement for future interactions, ironically alluding to their modes of

expressing their love for each other. She is making note that he has altered his behavior.

Instead of attacking all of the traits which he found reprehensible, in this dialogue Mr.

Darcy is describing Elizabeth’s character to be rose-colored, i.e. her displeasing character

attributes he now deems to be attractive qualities. Elizabeth is referencing Mr. Darcy’s

attempts earlier in the dialogue to comment on her virtuous character, and defend her

“good qualities” whether or not these virtues are immense, for example in the case of her

caring for Jane. PER60.05 is also an echoic allusion to both her and Mr. Darcy’s earlier

character development in the neutral dominant phase when Elizabeth mockingly

threatened to “retaliate” by telling Mr. Darcy’s family of his transgressions for his ability

to expose her “real character” to Colonel Fitzwilliam (Austen, 2003: 170). PER60.05

echoes previous attempts to expose the negative attributes in each other’s character,

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however the verbal irony is utilized for banter between the two protagonists, emphasizing

their closeness within their own community.

Elizabeth’s echo in PER60.06 is alluding to her conversation with Mr. Darcy in the

disagreement dominant phase, where Elizabeth ironically claimed that Mr. Darcy could

not be “laughed at” (Austen, 2003: 56). At that time, she used verbal irony to conceal the

figurative meaning which she is displaying literally in the present dialogue; the

motivation behind Elizabeth’s verbal irony has changed. In the earlier phases of

characterization, she sought to ridicule Mr. Darcy in order to point out his flaws to him

according to her own perceptions. In the agreement dominant phase, Elizabeth openly

teases Mr. Darcy with verbal irony as a form of endearment, to illustrate her sentiments

for him, communicating by way of their shared community. The incongruity of irony

hinges on the echoic allusion where the two characters reminisce their past. Elizabeth’s

incongruity in PER60.06 is found within her use of the word “quarrelling.” In fact,

Elizabeth does not mean she wishes to quarrel with him but her ironical overstatement

intends to tell Mr. Darcy that she will instigate banter between the two of them. Elizabeth

echoes her and Mr. Darcy’s past interactions in the disagreement dominant phase,

reflecting their current developed characters. In her present irony, she is also alluding to

Mr. Bingley’s perception of her and Mr. Darcy’s “arguments,” echoing that their use of

verbal irony would appear to be a “quarrel” to outsiders excluded from their community.

For Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, there is much enjoyment to be found in the exchanging of

wits, although third parties such as Mr. Bingley may perceive their ironical exchange as

an unfriendly “dispute” (Austen, 2003: 49-50).

Compelled by her curiosity, Elizabeth shifts to a more serious tone to inquire of Mr.

Darcy’s confusing behavior when he dined with her family. Given her recent realizations

of Mr. Darcy’s feelings of love, Elizabeth was confused by Mr. Darcy’s silence during the

dinner. She was inquisitive about the moment that they met again after their sudden

separation upon notice of Lydia’s elopement with Mr. Wickham. Verbal irony is Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth’s particular style of communication, and when they do not engage in

banter, the two characters become apprehensive and confused. Without verbal irony, the

two find it difficult to understand each other, as Elizabeth mistook Mr. Darcy’s silence for

lack of emotion, while Mr. Darcy assures her that his reason for remaining silent was

because of his strong feelings for her. In the agreement dominant phase, verbal irony

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allows them to understand each other’s emotions, because they began to express their

sentiments, echoing the entire course of their story. Verbal irony serves a different

purpose in the agreement dominant phase, opposed to the verbal irony in the

disagreement dominant and neutral dominant phases where the two characters used

verbal irony to articulate their opinions of society and judgments about each other’s

character. Although Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth previously had little trouble assessing the

other’s intentions in the disagreement dominant and neutral dominant phases, at the

dinner when they met again both remained silent for they were unsure of what the other

was thinking and feeling after their sudden separation due to Lydia’s elopement.

“What made you so shy of me, when you first called, and afterwards dined

here? Why, especially, when you called, did you look as if you did not care

about me?” (Elizabeth)

“Because you were grave and silent, and gave me no encouragement.” (Mr.

Darcy)

. . . .

“You might have talked to me more when you came to dinner.” (Elizabeth)

“A man who had felt less, might.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER60.07) “How unlucky that you should have a reasonable answer to give,

and that I should be so reasonable as to admit it!” (Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 360)

In PER60.07, Elizabeth incongruously replies to Mr. Darcy’s assurance by claiming it is

“unlucky” that he should offer her such a rational response, as such that she could not

refuse it. Her ironical performative utterance echoes her prior ironical admission that it

was unfortunate for her that Mr. Darcy could not “be laughed at” because he was above

ridicule (Austen, 2003: 56). However, she does not neglect to ridicule “what is wise and

good” following through with her ironical promise from that no one and nothing was

above her ridicule, because she “dearly love[s] a laugh” (Austen, 2003: 56). Her

intentional irony also alludes to their past exchanges, deeming it unreasonable in

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opposition from the utterance’s literal meaning. She ironically claims she is unlucky to

echo herself in the past, because at the moment Mr. Darcy is being reasonable and

therefore giving her a good reason to restrain her desire to laugh at him. PER60.07

contains multiple dualities in meaning, once in her use of “unlucky,” and again in her

admission of his “reasonable” reply, insinuating in the literal meaning that she may not

ridicule him for rationality while figuratively she conveys that she may still mock him

even though he is reasonable. The “unlucky” refers to his unluckiness for she will

continue to ridicule him, while simultaneously referring to her own luckiness in being

able to mock him regardless of whether his words are sensible.

Elizabeth’s use of “unlucky” is an echo and direct quotation of her past comment to

Mr. Darcy, that she was “unlucky in meeting with a person so well able to expose [her]

real character” (Austen, 2003: 170). PER60.07 is also an echo of Elizabeth herself in the

neutral dominant phase, claiming that it would be a “misfortune . . . to find a man

agreeable whom [she] is determined to hate” (Austen, 2003: 89). The echoes of the

neutral dominant phase show the progression of her characterization specifically

regarding her attitude towards Mr. Darcy. The private irony (see section 2.4 for an

explanation of private irony from Muecke) in PER60.07 mocks her own past interactions

with Mr. Darcy for her prior determination to “hate” him and her present love for him.

She echoes herself for her own amusement, stressing her changing views of both her own

and Mr. Darcy’s character portrayals. Elizabeth’s allusion to her unluckiness is the site of

incongruity in her utterance, for she does not consider herself unlucky to have fallen in

love with Mr. Darcy, revealing the irony. However, the dualities in her utterance also

allude to her perception that she is “unlucky” for not being able to find a retort to Mr.

Darcy. The ironies are therefore manifest in these detailed revelations, for PER 60.07 is

especially inspected as Elizabeth’s own character construction reinforcing her ironical

witty nature through her private irony.

The two characters continue their teasing remarks toward each other as a way to

express their love, and Elizabeth mockingly asks Mr. Darcy if he can muster up the

courage to disclose their engagement to his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh who

vehemently opposes a marriage between her nephew and Elizabeth (Austen, 2003: 338-

339). Mr. Darcy’s ironical retort refutes Elizabeth’s suggestion that he is apprehensive to

tell Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

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(DIR60.03) “Shall you ever have courage to announce to Lady Catherine what

is to befall her?” (Elizabeth)

(PER60.08) “I am more likely to want more time than courage, Elizabeth. But it

ought to be done, and if you will give me a sheet of paper, it shall be done

directly.” (Mr. Darcy)

(PER60.09) “And if I had not a letter to write myself, I might sit by you and

admire the evenness of your writing, as another young lady once did.”

(Elizabeth)

(Austen, 2003: 361)

In PER60.08, Mr. Darcy’s ironical statement contains an evident contradiction,

highlighting the duality in his meaning. He tells Elizabeth that he would rather want more

time than courage to tell Lady Catherine de Bourgh, and directly after says he will take

care of the matter of announcing the engagement immediately. The first part of PER60.08

is in clear opposition to the second part, revealing the incongruity in his desire for more

time to tell his aunt of the news of their engagement. By clearly revealing that time is not

an issue, he emphasizes his formidable courage to Elizabeth. Mr. Darcy’s superior nature

is seen in his ironic bantering where he challenges Elizabeth’s question of whether or not

he holds courage. Mr. Darcy constructs his own character with an altered self to

demonstrate his courage for Elizabeth, and prove to her that he is not afraid to confess the

engagement to his aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who does not approve of Elizabeth.

Mr. Darcy’s misgivings about marriage to Elizabeth have long since been overcome, and

he promptly decides to write to Lady Catherine de Bourgh of the news to defy Elizabeth’s

ironical overtone. In his ironical performative speech act, Mr. Darcy is alluding to his

altered character, his change of heart in regard to Elizabeth. Previously in the

disagreement dominant and early neutral dominant phases, Mr. Darcy withheld his

emotions and could not allow himself to succumb to his feelings for Elizabeth, as he

confessed during his first proposal that “in vain” he fought his desires for her (Austen,

2003: 185). He has managed to overcome his prejudice against her inferior social

standing and accepted his love for her in spite of what he first perceived as potential

impairment to his social standing.

Elizabeth must also write to her own aunt, Mrs. Gardiner, and tell her of the

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engagement. In PER60.09, Elizabeth echoes her previous promise to “tease [Mr. Darcy]

as often as may be” (Austen, 2003: 360). In her ironical reply to Mr. Darcy in PER60.09,

Elizabeth mocks Mr. Darcy, echoing Caroline’s past frequent fawning over him.

PER60.09 is an explicit echo of a quotation from Caroline in the disagreement dominant

phase, when she asks Mr. Darcy “How can you contrive to write so even?” (Austen,

2003: 47). Her ironical allusion intends to convey to Mr. Darcy the division between

Caroline and herself, echoing her earlier assessment that Mr. Darcy favored her for her

independence and dissimilar qualities to the traditional women in his life such as

Caroline. Elizabeth refers to her individuality, a playful reminder of the reason he fell in

love with her. Elizabeth, unlike Caroline, would not seek to impress Mr. Darcy by

showering him with praise with a subservient attitude in the hopes of attracting him.

Elizabeth constructs her own character in contrast to Caroline, who represents a typical

Regency-era England woman. Elizabeth’s allusion to the past illustrates the dynamic

changes which she and Mr. Darcy have undergone, and their personalities are

safeguarded through their mutual love for each other.

Elizabeth claims that she “had a letter to write” because she is eager to tell her aunt

of the engagement; three days have passed since their engagement was decided and she

knows her aunt will relish the good news (Austen, 203: 361). Both Elizabeth and Mr.

Darcy mention their aunts to whom they must write letters. The mentioning of the aunts

reveals a deep disparity in Mr. Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s social connections. The contrast in

Mrs. Gardiner and Lady Catherine de Bourgh reveals Austen’s witty rhetoric, for Mrs.

Gardiner is Elizabeth’s inferior connection who is humble and friendly, while Lady de

Bourgh is particularly wealthy and condescending. Lady de Bourgh has a superior,

snobbish way of speaking and thinking of others, while the Gardiners are kind, albeit

poor, especially illustrated in their role in helping resolve Lydia’s elopement with Mr.

Wickham. A further incongruity in PER60.09 is Elizabeth’s stating she must write her

aunt Mrs. Gardiner a letter because Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle were the reason that Mr.

Darcy claimed he could not conceive of marrying her during his first proposal (Austen,

2003: 51). In PER60.09 Elizabeth echoes her own thoughts from her visit to Pemberly

with the Gardiners, where she wonders at how she could have been mistress of the estate

but her aunt and uncle would not have been allowed to visit (Austen, 2003: 236).

Austen’s innovative rhetoric in her writing is shown through Elizabeth’s echo in

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PER60.09, because Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy and the readership are all aware of the

discrepancies between the two aunts and what they represent in the society regarding

wealth and status.

Evident in this final dialogue, the friendly banter between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth

continues to construct their exclusive community, as their emotions and thoughts have

become merged as a singular unit, reflective of their decision to marry. Maintaining the

pattern of the disagreement dominant and neutral dominant phases, the number of

ironical performative speech acts has again decreased by nearly half from 24 in the

neutral dominant phase to 10 in the agreement dominant phase, with this premise

specifically containing 9 ironical performative speech acts. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth have

taken a complete turn, seen through a contrast of the beginning in the disagreement

dominant phase to the current dialogue at the end of the agreement dominant phase. Their

use of verbal irony, previously for scorning and disparaging each other’s character is now

utilized to strengthen their bond to illustrate their closeness in mind and sentiments. The

verbal irony has become manifest in their earlier apprehensive banter, and has

transformed into friendly banter from the previous phases. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth now

share their thoughts and emotions, signifying the finalization of their mutual

characterization through verbal irony.

5.5 Summary & Discussion

Analysis Summary

The data analysis of the 81 ironical performative speech acts provides evidence to

prove our argument that echoic groupings show characterization by revealing the

characterization through the echoic grouping dominance phases. The echoic groupings

are based upon the echoic allusions found within each utterance, and the character

constructions of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth are specifically carried out through echoic

allusions of the ironical performative speech acts. Because the echoic allusions are the

basis for echoic groupings which form echoic grouping dominance phases, we can

conclude that the three phases concurrently depict the characterization of the Mr. Darcy

and Elizabeth.

The first phase is the disagreement dominant phase of characterization, which

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includes the majority of ironical performative speech acts, 47 in total. The

characterization develops rapidly as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are thrust together in

opposition, providing abundant opportunities for each to establish insights of the other

based on their social views. In the disagreement dominant phase, the thematic overture

focuses on the divergent worldviews of the characters, specifically between Mr. Darcy

and Elizabeth. The first phase is broken down into four major premises based on the plot:

Provocation, Opposition, Character Contrast, and Social Disparity. Each of these

premises rests upon the echoic allusions evident within the ironical utterances of the

conversations. The first part of the disagreement dominant phase highlights the beginning

of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s relationship, starting with their tumultuous acquaintance.

The ironical battle of moral characters was initiated by Mr. Darcy’s slight of Elizabeth,

and from this moment the preconceived notions were created as a foundation for the basis

of character development. The ironical performative speech acts between Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy are constructed primarily in the first phase where characterization of the two

protagonists occurs most frequently. The two characters represent oppositional fronts, and

their ironies reflect a great deal of tension and disagreement.

Through verbal irony they challenged each other’s worldviews and each tactically

provoked through ridicule in order to gain awareness into the other’s character. The

culmination of the first phase is the Ridicule conversational theme, containing the most

ironical performative speech acts (20 PERs). This theme of ridicule is essential to

understanding the disagreement dominant phase of character developments of Mr. Darcy

and Elizabeth. This characteristic is especially observed in the novel’s plot as Austen’s

extraordinary writing technique to ridicule her society carried out through her two

protagonists, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth for they constantly revert to their use of verbal

irony to ridicule the other in order to affirm their critical views showing their oppositions,

echoing social dictates. Elizabeth is specifically seen to demonstrate her independent

willfulness to defy social conventions, confronting a traditional higher social male figure,

Mr. Darcy.

The second phase is the neutral dominant phase of characterizations, with 24

ironical performative speech acts. The neutral dominant phase is half the length of the

disagreement dominant phase, as there are fewer interactions between Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth compared to the disagreement dominant phase. The neutral dominant phase has

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three premises on which Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterizations are based,

specifically focusing on a comparison of their characters, their ironic banter to display

individual views, and finally the cathartic release of emotion and opinion during Mr.

Darcy’s marriage proposal. By this point in Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s characterization,

Mr. Darcy has grown fond of Elizabeth but she still holds on to her preconceived

prejudice against him because of his original affront which offended her during their first

encounter. In this phase, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth convey their individual views to the

other, each vying for the opportunity to proclaim their divergent opinions. However,

through their attempt to highlight their uniqueness, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth inevitably

reveal their similarities in character

While the ironical performative speech acts continue to make these characters alive

in the agreement dominant phase, the speech acts given with greater empathy and ease

are earnest discussion of the couple’s new sentiments for each other. These ironical

speech acts allow us to see that Elizabeth no longer needs to oppose Mr. Darcy, and

consequently her criticism of his character comes to a conclusion; she also matures

through the realization at the close of the novel that her perceptions of Mr. Darcy were

misguided.

Discussion

The ironical performative speech acts specifically stress echoic allusions to the

other’s character, based on the S’s views and thoughts. Mr. Darcy constructed Elizabeth’s

character from his prejudiced views of her before and after the two were introduced based

on her social class as well as judgmental nature. Likewise, Elizabeth constructed Mr.

Darcy’s character through her own ironical performative utterances which alluded to her

opinions of their social class norms and his proud nature. Elizabeth’s feminist perspective

is included in the data analysis because Austen’s views were manifest through Elizabeth’s

by mocking Mr. Darcy and his ideals on social class, which encompass gender inequality.

Elizabeth is the novel’s heroine, and uses ironical utterances to convey feminist views

which alter Mr. Darcy’s opinion of traditional gender roles and social class norms of the

era.

The fundamental analytical framework of this paper is modified speech act theory

and echoic theory which explicate verbal irony through an emphasis on S intent and H

uptake, respectively. Superiority theory (including the banter principle) and incongruity

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theory further elucidate the verbal ironies in the analysis of characterization through

ironical performative speech acts. The primary focus of this paper is to provide an

analytical interpretation of the role of verbal irony in the characterization of Pride and

Prejudice’s Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. This framework of our study purports that identities

are evidently characterized through ironical performative speech acts. These fundamental

theories help illuminate the illocutionary and perlocutionary acts within each utterance

from the perspective of modified speech act theory to explicate the S intent and echoic

allusion to validate H uptake of the verbal ironies. In the view that an utterance is

considered to be a performative speech act, a S has the power to define her own and other

characters’ attributes. The goal of this study has been to delve into the ways in which

characterization is portrayed through the use of ironical performative utterances, which

bring about the existence of something simultaneously with the utterance.

A performative speech act constructs an entity but it is featured by not being finite or

resolute. This means that Elizabeth’s negative outlook upon Mr. Darcy as an exceedingly

proud man can be altered as an effect of Mr. Darcy’s actions or reinforced by the

utterances from other minor characters, such as Mr. Wickham, which may readjust or

reinforce her own preexisting assumptions. Verbal irony has been employed by Elizabeth

as a means to transfer her intentions through speech acts, but under a guise which only an

initiated H can construe an image of some being(s). We can see through the functions of

irony in many of the analyses of Elizabeth’s verbal ironies that she has a purpose of

hinting at and correcting the gender inequality of Regency England’s society (see section

2.5 for functions of verbal irony). In other words, Elizabeth (the S) uses echoic irony for

the H’s uptake so the H is able to properly interpret her dissociative attitude towards

specific thoughts and ideas. From the conversational analysis of Mr. Darcy and

Elizabeth’s ironical speech acts, one can conclude that verbal irony often permits

Elizabeth to conceal her intentions from all other characters except for her intended H,

Mr. Darcy. Her ironical remarks at times come forth as infelicitous, implying dualities

which show her improper station or the circumstance in which she says them to reveal

her alternative outlooks on society. Incongruity theory provides explanation for the

dualities in meaning within ironical utterances, explicating further the echoic allusions

present within each ironical utterance.

The various functions of verbal irony work to keep Elizabeth from pushing societal

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gender boundaries, a disposition which Regency England finds undesirable, thus allowing

her to express her views on gender inequality. By asserting her independence and

feminist perspective of social propriety, superiority theory is utilized to explain how

Elizabeth’s verbal irony is formed. Elizabeth believes her moral character to be higher

than Mr. Darcy’s, and reverts to ridicule to address his character flaws. Through ridicule,

she seeks to employ verbal irony in a socially corrective way, a concept supported by

superiority theory in its claim that ridicule serves as a catalyst for social correction, in

order to isolate a person’s views for mocking and point out the incorrect stance of that

person. Mr. Darcy’s verbal irony is also supported through superiority theory, as he often

contradicts Elizabeth’s views through ridicule and banter to affirm his higher social

stance. Superiority theory is useful for explicating many ironical utterances between Mr.

Darcy and Elizabeth because the neutral dominant and agreement dominant phases rely

on the banter principle for analysis of the civil and friendly verbal ironies found within

these two phases of characterization.

Ironists employ dual meanings, and contextual clues are laid out for the H to realize

that an ironical utterance has been executed. Elizabeth’s verbal irony is effective when

Mr. Darcy, initiated H intended by Elizabeth, understands her ironical evaluations and

often responds with an ironical retort. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth’s uptake of irony is

observed as we analyzed the ironical performative speech acts through phases of echoic

grouping dominance. The initialization of finding verbal irony arises when an assumption

on the part of the H occurs. Those suppositions are replaced by new interpretations from

the H’s uptake, or lack thereof, of the verbal irony when those interpretations become a

new measure for any subsequent assumptions to be compared with. The verbal ironies of

the novel expounded upon the initial event of Mr. Darcy’s production of a subjugated

female character with his first analysis of Elizabeth, which she then challenges

throughout the text. Mr. Darcy, as an observer, later detects Elizabeth’s unconventionality

regarding the views of gender in Regency-era England. Thus, he is keen to realize any

irony she puts forth to challenge his preconceptions of moral character and the two

engage in perpetuating the perlocutionary effect of this inference through continued use

of ironical dissociations.

The thorough analysis of these effects with regard to how utterances imply verbal

irony is seen through the use of pragmatic methods such as echoic theory. In these

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examinations, the study identifies the possible pathways to implicature for Elizabeth and

Mr. Darcy to ascertain that ironical evaluations are found within their discourse. The

perlocutionary act should be understood as the S’s intention of the speech act upon the H,

contrasted with the illocutionary act, which is the intention of the speech act from the S’s

perspective. Thus, the formation of a contextually relevant inference process and the H’s

appropriate uptake intended by the S, the perlocutionary act, proves that a linguistic

analysis can provide a corporeal form to understanding of verbal irony. The next chapter

concludes the study with a discussion of the implications this research has for future

linguistic studies. Finally, the limitations to this study and what should be done to address

those shortcomings are provided.

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