Definitions

If you were in class on the first day and participated in the scavenger hunt, you should have some sense that I consider many issues up for debate: What is meant by "popular adaptation"? By "text"? By "image"?  It was interesting to see that "image" meant "what we think about Austen" to some students; when I wrote that I was thinking, more literally, of pictures we have of what she looks like! Both definitions, of course, are right. The key--as always--is in defining your meaning. Language is so flexible. There might be many ways to understand and use a single word depending on its context.

I was struck by a similarity between Elizabeth and Mr Bennet along these same lines. As Mr Bennet is slowly revealing that he has, indeed, met Mr. Bingley, he notes the "A fortnight's acquaintance is certainly very little. One cannot know what a man really is by the end of a fortnight" (4).* The joke, of course, is that he does know Mr. Bingely and the family also will have known him for a few weeks by the time of the assembly. But Mr. Bennet's likes to philosophically meditate on meanings. What does it really mean to meet someone? When we say we are acquainted, does that mean we know him? What is the difference between knowing and being acquainted? These are questions that the novel itself takes up in the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy, which begins as a somewhat strained acquaintanceship but develops into love.

After the assembly ball has taken place, as Elizabeth and Jane are discussing it, Elizabeth comments on Jane's inability to be critical of others. She calls this quality "candour" and carefully distinguishes Jane's candour from that of other people's: "Affectation of candour is common enough--one meets with it everywhere. But to be candid without ostentation or design--to take the good of everybody's character and make it still better and say nothing of the bad--belongs to you alone" (8). Elizabeth voices one of Austen's criticisms of the hypocrisy her society by noting that many people pretend to be candid; within the specific context here, she also reveals one of Jane's important character traits. This moment turns on a carefully situated definition.

What would happen to these two moments if Mr. Bennet or Elizabeth simply pulled out a dictionary and said "According to Johnson, the definition of acquaintance/ candour is . . . "? I argue that the moments would lose much of their power and interest. The definitions provided by Mr. Bennet and Elizabeth work within the context of the novel to lead us to some significant issues.

So what does all this have to do with writing? One of the important elements of writing an expository essay is defining your terms. Many students seem to take that as meaning opening the dictionary and copying the meaning. But, as I hope this tiny comparison of two moments in Pride and Prejudice suggests, working to define terms on your own--within the context of your own project--may have larger payoffs.


* Page numbers refer to the course-packet; The text of Pride and Prejudice being used is from Project Gutenberg.