Introduction

Use this Real-Life Lens Plan to help students dive deep into Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and examine the novel’s themes, action, and characters through the lens of marriage. There are many examples of marriages in the novel, some long-lived, some arranged, some doomed, and others brand new. Students will explore the reasons that people choose partners, get married, and stay married (or don’t) with an eye on both the culture of Britain in the 1780s and their own.

Materials

  • Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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Introduce the Lens

To activate students’ thinking, choose one or two of the following Real-Life Links to use in an engagement activity. Have students read or listen to and discuss the content. Encourage students to jot down notes, or record class notes on the board for future reference.

Pose the following Big Idea Questions to the class:

Why do people marry, and how do we decide whom to marry?  

How do marriages affect families?

Engagement Activity

Have students write quick initial answers to the questions in 5–10 minutes. Then give students the opportunity to discuss their answers, either in pairs or in small groups. Following discussion, give students time to revise their initial responses. Finally, ask volunteers to share their ideas with the class. Build a class discussion around students’ ideas. Prompt them to reflect on what they know about marriage in other cultures, experiences they’ve had with marriage in their own families, and the multitude of reasons that someone might choose to get married—or not.

CCSS

Introduce the Driving Questions

Begin by having students write their own questions about the lesson topic. Encourage them to think about what they already know about marriage and what they’re interested in exploring further. 

Hand out the Driving Questions Worksheet. Review the questions as a class. Students should enter initial answers to the questions as they read each of the three volumes of Pride and Prejudice. They will revisit the questions and revise their answers following the lesson activities, classroom discussion, and the completion of the text. Remind students to support their responses with text evidence.

Integrate the Driving Questions into your classroom discussions. Use them to help guide students’ thinking about the Big Idea Questions.  

1. How do the various characters choose their confidants and spouses?  

2. Why does Elizabeth consider Mr. Darcy “the worst of men”?  

3. How does Charlotte’s marriage to Mr. Collins affect the Bennet family?  

4. What do the characters learn about trust, of both themselves and each other?  

5. How does Lydia’s behavior and marriage affect her family?  

6. How and why does Elizabeth change her opinions and previous judgments about other characters, including Darcy?  

7. Which marriages in the novel are, or will likely be, successful? Why?

CCSS

Introduce the "Through the Lens" Activity

Activity: Observing Marriages 

Ask students to write brief information about one or two marriages they have observed firsthand. (Note: If you believe students might not be comfortable writing about their own experiences, allow them to consider marriages they’ve seen portrayed on TV or in movies.) Have students describe who the people are, what their relationship is like, and why the two people may have chosen each other. Based on the details they identify, have them evaluate the marriage they think the people have. 

Pair students and have partners share their descriptions, comparing and contrasting the examples. Encourage pairs to return to the Big Idea Questions and consider how their experiences in viewing marriage informed their initial answers. 

Invite volunteers to share an example with the class. Prompt whole-class discussion with questions such as: How is this marriage one-of-a-kind? How is it similar to other marriages? Does this marriage represent a “kind” of marriage? If so, what kind? 

Before moving on, explain that students will explore Austen’s treatment of marriage and its place in the society of its time. They will use these details and ideas as a springboard to explore marriage in their culture and family today.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Begin by having students define marriage. Then, ask two or three volunteers to describe out loud to the class marriages they’ve seen. Then ask: Why is each marriage unique? What do marriages have in common?

Increase difficulty

Have students write follow-up descriptions of what they consider to be a good marriage. Give them the opportunity to share what they write with the whole class.

Introduce the Final Project

Before moving on, introduce the final projects to the class (see below for details). Have students choose the project they will complete and encourage them to keep their project in mind as they read the text. Facilitate the formation of project groups if necessary.

Assign the Midpoint Activities

Activity 1: Established Forms of Ceremony

Mr. Collins refers to “the established forms of ceremony” when he tells Elizabeth that he intends to introduce himself to Mr. Darcy, an introduction she tries to dissuade him from making because of its impropriety.  

Ask students to define and explore five intricate and formal rules that governed the novel’s society: entailment, elopement, introductions, proposals, and another example of their own choosing.  

Put students in pairs or small groups to complete this activity. First, have students find and describe examples of each “form of ceremony” from the novel. They should write a brief description and cite the page for each example.  Next, give pairs/groups time to discuss the examples they’ve located to answer the question, “What does this ceremony reveal about marriage in this time and place?” Remind groups to use text details to support their conclusions. Have each pair/group present their conclusions to the class for at least one ceremony.

CCSS

Activity 2: Character Web

Have students create a visual representation of the relationships among the myriad characters in Pride and Prejudice.   

Pass out the Character Web. Discuss the circles that are already completed. Point out to students that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Bennet is included on the line connecting their circles.  

Have students complete the remaining parts of the web individually. Then have them work in pairs to add more information to the web, adding circles and lines as needed. Students should consider parents, siblings, affections, marriages, infatuations, offspring, and even broken trusts. Encourage them to label relationships with phrases such as “attracted to,” “sibling of,” or “proposed to.”  

As students continue reading the novel, they can add to their webs and/or revise their responses.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Supply pairs with a list of characters to include in their extended webs.

Increase difficulty

Challenge students to imagine that “Characters in Pride and Prejudice” is a category in a game of Jeopardy. Have them use their character webs to write six answers in ascending order of difficulty. Then, have them pose their answers (i.e., “She married without love to secure a comfortable home.”) to partners who guess the correct questions (i.e., “Who is Charlotte Lucas?”). Invite volunteers to share the most challenging questions with the whole class.

Final Projects

Students will work on their final projects after they have finished reading the complete text of Pride and Prejudice. Project 1 can be completed by students working individually, while Project 2 calls for pairs of students to work together.

Final Project 1: An Epistolary Exercise 

Although we do not have the original manuscript, many believe that Austen’s first draft of Pride and Prejudice was titled First Impressions and was composed entirely of letters, a genre known as an “epistolary novel.” 

To complete this project, students will: 

  • Write a new three-page letter from one of the novel’s characters to another. 

  • Write in the style of the times to reveal emotions, conflict, encouragement, or judgment about marriage.  

  • Ensure they can defend how their letters draw on and support the text’s characters, plot, and themes. 


Have students choose the character from whose perspective they plan to write as well as the recipient of their letter. Give students time to outline the content of their letter, diving back into the novel for inspiration. You may wish to make a list of ideas for topics to include in letters together as a class, such as, daily activities, a current conflict, advice on a problem, observations about other characters, etc.  

Once letters have been written, allow students to workshop them with a small group and revise following peer feedback. Then have students present their letters to the class by reading them aloud. Following the reading, have them explain how information from the text prompted them to make decisions about their letter’s content.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Offer suggestions for writers, audiences, and intentions, such as: 

  • a letter from Mr. Bennet to Mrs. Bennet on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary. 

  • a letter from Lydia Bennet to George Wickham proclaiming her reasons for marrying him. 

  • a letter from Jane Bennet to Charles Bingley revealing her true feelings the morning after she meets him.

Increase difficulty

Have students exchange letters with partners and write epistolary responses from the letter’s recipient, responding to the questions, comments, or actions the original letter presented.

Final Project 2: A New Conversation

So much of Pride and Prejudice is about communication and conversation. That is true of marriage, too. 

For this project, pairs of students will imagine a new conversation between a pair of characters to write and act out. The conversation should be about marriage. Students will: 

  • Write a conversation that reveals an understanding of or poses a question about love and marriage as it applies to the plot and themes of the novel. 

  • Mirror the style, conventions, tone, and character descriptions from the novel. 

  • Ensure they can support their ideas with details from the text. 


Put students in pairs and have them choose the characters they are going to portray. Give students time to plan their conversation. Encourage them to consider each character’s point of view and the thoughts they would be likely to express. Suggest students look back through the novel for details they could include in the conversation.  

Once conversations are finished, have pairs perform them for the class. Following their performance, have each pair explain how information from the text prompted them to make decisions about their conversation’s content. Allow the rest of the class to challenge assumptions or offer their own observations.

CCSS

Differentiated Instruction

This activity can be modified to help all students access learning.
Decrease difficulty

Offer suggestions for a new conversation, such as between:

  • Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Fitzwilliam Darcy, in which they discuss what marriage ought to be. 

  • Jane Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy, in which they discuss Charles Bingley’s strengths and weaknesses. 

  • Kitty Bennet and Mary Bennet, in which they talk about the quirks of their parents and older sisters as they relate to marital relationships.

Increase difficulty

Have students add narrative description and commentary to their conversations using the style and tone of Jane Austen’s narrator.

Assess the Assignments

Use the Rubric for Student Assessment to evaluate student work on the lesson assignments. 

Distribute the Student Reflection Worksheet. Guide students through the self-assessment and reflection questions.

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