MovieChat Forums > Pride & Prejudice (2005) Discussion > Opening scene analysis

Opening scene analysis

posted 5 years ago by conquerant29 (1)
1 reply | jump to latest

Hello everyone!

For an uni project I have to analyze the opening scene of P&P. I have to find an angle and make an essay. I obviously thought about working on family, about the way it is introduced. I know the movie well but maybe too well so I'm afraid to be unable to find a new way to look at it. Can you help me? Do you guys see what can be interesting to analyze about the introduction of the Bennets?

I wanted to talk about how Elizabeth is shown mostly alone (she is also hidden sometimes by white sheets for instance, what does it mean?), about how we only see Mary's back, about Jane's big sister role (she asks her sisters to stop running for instance, is there anything else?).

If you have new ideas, I'll take them!

Thanks !!

[–] Who (5146) 3 years ago

The opening scene shows a modest stately house, a family with a lot of young women rushing around, a few servants, farm hands, and a rural country farm setting. This tells you a lot about where this story will take place (country estates), the class of people (gentry not farm workers or high nobility), and that it will revolve around a household of young teen to adult aged daughters.

The house suggests the family has modest wealth, enough to support a few servants but not enough to put the family high up on the social ladder. Land estates defined classes of people back then. Contrast this with the later scenes introducing Rosings and Pemberley. This setting shows that the the Bennets are members of the upper class landed gentry, but are on the lower end of that social ladder. Their social circles will include other landed gentry and nobility (Lords, Ladies, Counts, Countesses), however they may not be seen as equals to those in the higher ranks of aristocracy. Before we even meet Elizabeth and her sisters we can deduce a lot from this scene about their predicament.

Hope you make your deadline 😆