A Sense of Place in Austen's Pride and Prejudice Emily Wood

Place: The particular portion of space occupied by or allocated to a person or thing.

It is interesting to observe Dictionary.com's definition of the word "place" in relation to "person". Especially when it comes to Pride and Prejudice, where Austen has made great use of the objective correlative technique, in which many, if not all, of her settings considerably reflect the characteristics of their owners. She additionally employs several other techniques regarding the sense of place in her novel, which are important not only in the facilitation of numerous plot points, but also in establishing and understanding her characters and their relationships. So what are these techniques, and why are they so effective? To find the answers to such questions, we should look closely at Austen's methods of incorporating a sense of place into her novel.

The technique of objective correlative is often used in establishing the qualities of a character by having them reflected in that character's surroundings. These can be material objects, belongings, or in Austen's case, locations. If we take a look at the setting of Rosings, we see that it is described as ostentatious, overwhelming, and, in comparison to...