Any reader of the novel Pride and Prejudice, whether novice or veteran, has certain expectations and apprehensions based on its incredible popularity and fame. The same can be said for the media, whose recent overuse of their famous opening phrase, "It is a truth universally acknowledged," can be found repeated at the beginning of many news, magazine, or newspaper articles. blog announcing an honorable or dubious link. to the characters or plot of Jane Austen. Interestingly, it has become the meme du jour passed around and reused by those who want to appear in the know, but are unfortunately missing the point. It is questionable whether the profound truths of Pride and Prejudice can be reduced to simple, universally recognized phrases. If the novel were that simple to understand, we wouldn't care, and after almost two hundred years it would have faded into obscurity! But what we can expect is much more; a gripping plot that makes you think and re-evaluate the characters every step of the way, witty, sharp and humorous dialogue that others wish to emulate but never quite achieve, and a love story that just might reign supreme for all eternity. With all these expectations ahead of us, who couldn't be a little intimidated? Said to be a romance, a novel that many romance readers feel called to read: _Pride and Prejudice_Other examples of Austen's use of irony abound in the novel. “Many pages of Pride and Prejudice can be read as pure witty poetry, like [Alexander] Pope without couplets,” writes Reuben A. Brower in “Light and Bright and Sparkling: Irony and Fiction in Pride and Prejudice ". “The triumph of the novel – whatever its limitations – lies in the combination of such poetry of the mind,” concludes the critic, “with the dramatic structure of fiction. »--------------- ---------------------------------- ---------------- ---------------------------------- -------“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. » - An extract from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen This is the opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice and is one of the famous lines in literature. The quote is significant in the context of the novel because Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters represent dependent young women who must marry well to remain respectable, or even progress up the social ladder. This sentence therefore also confirms Austen's belief that women in her society were very dependent on marriage and this progressed to such an extent that women came to view all wealthy bachelors as prey..