Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary
devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Courtship
In a sense, Pride and Prejudice is the
story of two courtships—those between Darcy and Elizabeth and between
Bingley and Jane. Within this broad structure appear other, smaller
courtships: Mr. Collins’s aborted wooing of Elizabeth, followed
by his successful wooing of Charlotte Lucas; Miss Bingley’s unsuccessful
attempt to attract Darcy; Wickham’s pursuit first of Elizabeth,
then of the never-seen Miss King, and finally of Lydia. Courtship
therefore takes on a profound, if often unspoken, importance in
the novel. Marriage is the ultimate goal, courtship constitutes
the real working-out of love. Courtship becomes a sort of forge
of a person’s personality, and each courtship becomes a microcosm
for different sorts of love (or different ways to abuse love as
a means to social advancement).
Journeys
Nearly every scene in Pride and Prejudice takes
place indoors, and the action centers around the Bennet home in
the small village of Longbourn. Nevertheless, journeys—even short
ones—function repeatedly as catalysts for change in the novel. Elizabeth’s
first journey, by which she intends simply to visit Charlotte and
Mr. Collins, brings her into contact with Mr. Darcy, and leads to
his first proposal. Her second journey takes her to Derby and Pemberley,
where she fans the growing flame of her affection for Darcy. The
third journey, meanwhile, sends various people in pursuit of Wickham
and Lydia, and the journey ends with Darcy tracking them down and saving
the Bennet family honor, in the process demonstrating his continued
devotion to Elizabeth.
