‘Laughter in Pride and Prejudice takes different forms and

performs a variety of fucntions’

Amidst all the pride, prejudice, misery, naivety, restrained love and
unrequited love, Jane Austen uses occasional but engaging humour
to alleviate all this negative tension, making sure the reader doesn’t
become to involved in the negativity of it all.
Laughter can be drawn from many aspects of the play, the two
predominant aspects being embarrassment e.g. Elizabeth being
proposed to by Mr Collins, and subtle wit between characters, such
as Lizzie and her father, Mr Bennet, when they are ironically taking
Mr Collins seriously, subtly patronising him over dinner when he first
arrives

Elizabeth Bennet, our protagonist, bonds with us as the reader when

we share the humourous moments. Apart from Mr Darcy, Lizzie
rarely ever takes anything to seriously. For instance, in a key point
in the novel, Chapter 19, where Mr Collins is proposing to Elizabeth,
the feeling conveyed to the reader of the situation is tension,
urgency, and overall awkwardness. This awkwardness is broken,
when we see that Lizzie is making light of it;

‘The idea of Mr Collins, with all his solemn composure, being run
away with by his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing that she
could not use the short pause he allowed in any attempt to stop him
farther’

Here it would be reasonable to observe that Lizzie is taking the

situation with a pinch of salt. It is serious, but she is making light of
it, as taking it seriously would be entertaining Mr Collins advances,
and this isn’t what she wants to do.

Elizabeth is also seen to take criticism lightly, even criticism of the

most spiteful kind.
When Elizabeth is supposed to be being humiliated by Darcy when
insults her ‘discreetly’ at the ball-

‘She is tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me’

Elizabeth takes this insult liberally to say the least, telling the story
‘with Great Spirit among her friends; for she has a lively playful
disposition, which delighted in anything ridiculous’- This itself
introduces us to Elizabeth’s carefree, observational humour. She
carries on not taking Darcy seriously, even suggesting that she and
Mrs Bingley laugh at Darcy in one particular incident during the
period where Elizabeth was looking after Jane at Netherfield;

‘Teaze him-laugh at him’

Wit between Elizabeth and her father is a strong source of humour
in Pride and Prejudice, which further highlights Mr Bennets
favouritism towards Elizabeth. The 3 best examples of this
humourous observational bonding are

• When Mr Collins arrives

The reader is able to adopt Lizzie’s method of ‘delighting in anything

ridiculous' at a certain instant when Mary is playing the piano at the
Netherfield ball. Mary is a rather tragic character to start, the
socially awkward on of the sisters, and when she finally manages to
attract some tension Austen makes us laugh at her even more when
she attempts to provide the music at the party. She plays and sings
terribly, embarrassing her family, an instance later outlined in a
letter to Lizzie from Darcy.