English A Language and Literature HL Written task 1 22.8.2017
Rationale:
This Part 4 written task 1 is an additional scene from the perspective of Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice. The 1813 classic novel’s main plot line is about Elizabeth Bennet who ends up falling for the cold and rude Mr Darcy after first disliking him.
The task is adapted from the third chapter of the first part – thus it’s named “Chapter Three” – in which Elizabeth sees Darcy for the first time at an assembly. Many features have remained the same, for example, the setting at Meryton, and Bingley’s infatuation towards Jane Bennet, but what has changed is the perspective: in the novel, the narrator mainly focalises through Elizabeth, but the purpose of this written task is to provide a possible insight into the feelings and thoughts of the other half of the couple upon their first meeting. The task uses some dialogue taken directly from the novel, like Bingley’s line: “I would not be so fastidious as you are for a kingdom!”, but they have been modified to suit Darcy’s personal perspective.
The language in the task resemblances the style in which Austen wrote the novel, by for example using old-sounding sentence structures, a formal register, and some diction, that Austen also featured, like “be obliged to” on line 13. Other examples of highly similar diction to the one used by Austen are, for example, referring to beautiful women as “agreeable” as for instance on line 15 –