Rhetorical devices in Jane Austin#8217;s Pride and Prejudices had been studied in many ways.

Caterpiller once said ”Pride and Prejudice is famous for its use of irony. In irony, the intended or literal meaning of words is different from their actual meaning. The irony that begins with the novel's first sentence extends through the entire work as Elizabeth's prejudice against Darcy leads her to misread the world around her, seeing him as a blackguard and the wicked Wickham as wronged by Darcy.”(23) We can see the irony at the beginning of the novel and it is the most important rhetorical device in the whole novel. It is a wonderful analysis of the rhetorical devices in the novel.

Auerbach once mentioned in his book Searching for Jane Austin ”The use of verbal irony particularly expresses Austen's use of wit. Verbal irony is usually recognized as sarcasm. It is the moment someone, such as a character or narrator, says one thing, but means the complete opposite. One perfect example of verbal irony can be seen in the very opening line of the book, ”It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife#8217;. The irony in this line is that, while the women of an English village in Austen's time might "acknowledge" the truth above, the wealthy men the line is referring to actually might not; therefore, the above is not really a "truth universally acknowledged." Instead, this opening line is a perfect example of sarcasm, or verbal irony, and a perfect example of Austen's wit.”(28)

David H considered that ”Austen did not have any bitterness in using irony in her novel, to draw satirical portraits of whims and follies. Rather her irony can be termed as comic. It implies on her side, an acknowledgement of what is wrong with people and society. Austen used her irony to shake her major figures of their self-deception, and to expose the hypocrisy and pretentiousness, absurdity and insanity of some of her minor figures. It is definitely possible to deduce from her work, a scheme of moral vision. Andrew Wright rightly points out that irony in her hand is an instrument of a moral vision.”(55) We can see that irony in the novel present a comic style and we can feel the charm of the language of Jane Austin with unconscious.

Bell said that ”Aside from Austen's famous ironic narratorial voice, she employs situational irony to good effect. In the first chapter, where a skilled author develops literary effects that carry throughout the narrative, Mrs. Bennet ironically wishes one of her daughters to be ”happily settled at Netherfield#8217; thus leading the way for ”the others to be equally well married.#8217; This is ironic because of all the nearby mothers who were wishing the identical thing, Mrs. Bennet's wish came true.”(42) From the analysis of the author, the novel included many literature devices and that can give the audience the background of the novel so that they can get a better understanding of the language of Jane Austin and it helps others analyze the rhetorical device in the classic novel.

Betty Reveley thought that the novel had critical views and the author used an amount of repetition so that we can read the novel in a different way and give some critical thoughts.”Repetition, a sample structure on the first sight, actually is quite a complex. Being an effective means in rhetoric, it is widely applied in literary works. The conversations on Pride and Prejudice illustrate rich example of lexical repetition, which play important role in prominentzing character disposition, portraying the character image, displaying character#8217;s psychological activity and demonstrating relations between characters and the advancing plots, And then it refracts the society condition of the United Kingdom and reflects the author#8217;s ideology.”(27 )

In the words of Auerbach, ”Dramatic irony occurs when the reader is aware of something that the characters have no idea of. This scene is also a fine example of dramatic irony. The reader has already begun to get the impression that Darcy feels an attraction for Elizabeth, which the reader began to see when she was tending to her sister at Netherfield. Therefore, the reader knows that Darcy's sudden interest in dancing with Elizabeth is actually genuine while Elizabeth still believes that he dislikes her and is merely asking in an attempt to be well mannered. Again the situation is amusing due to both Elizabeth's and Darcy's reactions to the situation. ”(42 )

In the novel, Jane Austin showed us views of love and marriage in an acquisitive society, and we can feel the charm of her language by analyzing the rhetoric devices in it. These essays are not enough but it is impossible to find all the reference and the study here in this thesis is not enough in that there still are many aspects to be noticed and discussed